Page 96 of Embriagado

“Forget about it.”

He got up from the bed and moved on to sit on the floor before me, his palms pressed together.

“Please, Santi, I’m short a few bucks. I’ll do anything, I swear.”

The sight of him begging made me uneasy, and I huffed.

“What about your job?”

He looked down at the floor and muttered something under his breath.

“What was that?”

“I got fired!” he whined, looking up.

I sighed, rubbing the bridge of my nose.

“Nacio—”

“What happened to your knuckles?” he cut me off, eyes focused on my hand.

I quickly brought it down and got up.

“Nothing. Sparred a bit too hard.”

Still on the floor, Nacio’s eyes followed me around the room.

“Who did you spar with?”

I shrugged. “Just someone at the gym.”

His brows pulled together. “You went to the boxing gym? I thought you hated it there.”

Fuck. What was up with all of his questions?

“How about we talk about you losing your job instead? Sounds a bit more important to me.”

He huffed, then got up from the floor. “Well, in my defense, working there was a bitch. Besides, I can do better. Tess said she can hook me up with a job, too.”

Like hell she will.

“Ain’t no fucking way I’ll allow that.”

He held his hands up. “Well, if you refuse to give me money, I have no other choice⁠—”

“Fine,” I cut in. “I’ll give you some cash. Just promise you’ll find a decent job.”

Already chuckling and rubbing his palms together, I doubted he heard a word I’d just said.

“Nacio?”

“What?”

“Did you hear me?”

He nodded. “Yeah, yeah, find a job.”

“A decent job.”