He Wasn't Ready to Share a Space, So I Gave Him the Whole City novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Not a Misunderstanding

Dane waits outside her apartment at 1am, admits Sierra has been in his house since March, and says her $18,000 loan went into a down payment with Sierra on the deed. She records every word; his last line is that she will never see the money.

I got home a little after one in the morning.

Dane's car was already in the lot behind my building, parked across two spaces with the engine ticking.

He stood by my door with a bunch of grocery store roses held in front of him.

"Bethany. Please. Five minutes."

I walked past him and unlocked my door.

I didn't ask him in, and I didn't close it. I stood in the doorway with my phone in my hand.

I pressed record and put the phone in my scrub pocket with the screen against my hip.

"You embarrassed me in front of my mother," Dane said.

"You told her I was a nurse from the hospital. She asked if somebody was hurt."

"That's not what I said."

"It's what she said. You didn't correct her."

He sighed, and his shoulders dropped, and he gave me the smile that he used on clients.

"Okay. Listen. Sierra was nothing. It started as a favor, she was lonely, and then it got complicated. You know how I am about conflict."

"She's been in your house since March."

"She stayed over a few times."

"Dane. Her toothbrush is in your bathroom, and her name is on your mother's guest list. Your mother thinks she's your girlfriend."

He rubbed his eyebrow, where the little scar is.

"Fine," he said. "Yes. Since March. Is that what you want to hear?"

"I want to know why."

He looked at me for a long moment, and I watched him decide not to lie anymore.

"Because you never asked me for anything," he said. "Sierra wants dinners and trips and a ring. You come over after a double and fall asleep in your scrubs. You made it easy."

"I made it easy."

"You never made me choose. Do you know how rare that is?"

"I covered her shifts so she could be with you."

"Nobody asked you to do that."

"She asked me every time."

He shrugged.

My hand was cold on the door frame.

"Where's my money, Dane?"

His smile went flat.

"Not tonight."

"In April I lent you eighteen thousand dollars. You said you needed a bridge loan until a client paid. You said September. It's September."

"It's a few weeks into September."

"Where is it?"

"It's in the house."

I waited.

"The down payment," he said. "The landlord wanted to sell, and I couldn't buy the place on my commission. It made sense, Bethany, you weren't using it."

"You told me you were renting that house."

"I was. Then I wasn't."

"Whose name is on the deed?"

He didn't answer.

"Dane."

"Mine and Sierra's. The bank wanted two incomes."

I thought about the girl who had hugged me at the lockers that morning and said she owed me forever.

She had been asked to put her name on a house bought with my savings, and she had said yes without ever asking where the money came from.

Or she had asked, and he had told her it was a gift.

I couldn't tell which one was worse.

"I want it back by the end of the month," I said.

"I don't have it."

"Then sell the house."

"I'm not selling my house over a misunderstanding."

"Eighteen thousand dollars is not a misunderstanding."

He stepped forward and took my wrist.

It wasn't hard. It was just enough that I couldn't pull away without a scene.

"Let's go inside and talk like adults."

"Let go of me."

"Bethany."

"Let go."

I said it loud enough for the lights to come on above us.

A man in a bathrobe stepped out onto the second-floor balcony and looked down.

Dane let go.

"Everything okay down there?" the man called.

"No," I said. "Stay there, please."

He stayed, and he crossed his arms on the railing and kept watching.

Dane held up both hands and gave the neighbor a small, sorry laugh.

"We're fine, sir. Long day."

Then he turned back to me, and his voice dropped so only I could hear it.

"You're not going to see that money. You know that, right? You'll cry, you'll make a list of what I owe you, and then you'll go back to work."

"Dane."

"You let everything go, Bethany. That's who you are. It's why this worked."

He put the roses on my welcome mat and walked back to his car.

I took the phone out of my pocket.

The screen said the recording was still running, and it had every word.

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