Page 76 of The One Timer

“The only way we can keep a two bedroom is if your cousin helps us out a little, just for a while, until⁠—”

“Until when, Aunt Bea? Forever?” I take in a long breath, willing myself not to cry. What was I thinking? I truly thought my Aunt and cousins would be happy for me. But I glance at Aunt Bea and I know who she is and how she is. And then I see it.

She is happy for me—in her own way. And she’s sad.

“Don’t worry. I won’t let you starve, Aunt Bea.” I shock her when I give her a hug, but after a beat she softens and hug me back. “I’ll give you money.”

Backing up from her, I smirk at Petra. She’s not disagreeable, she’s a survivor. She smirks back at me.

I say, “I don’t want to be responsible for forcing Petra to sleep on a couch like I’ve had to all these years. After all, this is her home.” And it’s been my home, too. And they are my family and I will miss them no matter how much I’ve felt left out. Shit. Emotions tighten my chest and my heart beats fast, and not in a good way.

Maybe it was me who kept them at arm’s length all this time. Maybe it wasn’t their fault I felt I didn’t belong. It was all my doing.

I feel like I’ve just looked in the mirror and seen a totally different person.

Sweeping up my bag—a large duffel where I keep most of my clothes—from the corner of the room, I head for the door.

“Where are you going?” Aunt B’s voice holds some panic. I turn to face her because I need to see her for who she really is, a struggling woman doing the best she can, taking in her sister’s daughter when she had no spare room and no spare money.

“I’m going to stay with my friend Merry for a little while.”

She nods.

I walk out the door and keep walking until I get to the bus stop, not caring that I’m crying. But as soon as I stop and lean against the bus stop sign as if I need it to keep me standing, I swipe at the self-pitying tears, wiping them away.

“I hate people who pity themselves.” Especially when I’ve just accomplished my goal—almost. I got the job offer and now all I need to do is finish the semester. How could I let Aunt B—or anyone else—ruin that sense of accomplishment?

I can’t. I won’t. As soon as I get on the bus, I call Merry.

“Do you have any plans tonight?”

“Not yet. What do you have in mind?”

Stays there and Merry says she can stay as long as she wants. Not long. Until I can go back to Aunt B’s with a straight spine.

“Don’t give her any extra money. The witch doesn’t deserve it.”

“She doesn’t deserve a lot of things that have happened to her, starting with losing her husband and then getting in a car accident that left her with that hip injury making it painful for her to work.”

“She could get a different job.” Merry’s tone is less vengeful.

I smile at her. “One of the other things that happened to her that’s not her fault is that she wasn’t born with the gift of great intelligence.”

“Wow, that has to be the classiest way I ever heard someone call a person stupid in my life.” She grins and gives me a pat on the back in congratulations.

Chase calls and my gut twists.

“Aren’t you going to answer that?”

“No.”

“It’s Chase?”

I nod and shut off my phone.

“Want to tell me about it?”

“Nothing to tell except the same old story. We don’t belong together—except in bed.”