Esme and the Money Grab: (A Very Dark Romantic Comedy) Read Online Free Page A

paid me back.” I immediately regretted saying. The day was too hot, and my morning with Mr. Galloway too rough. “What do you mean you’re on the lam?”
      He had been a big fan of the film Goodfellas while we were growing up. I was hoping he was using the term “lam” as an homage in some way. He had definitely had legal troubles before, but nothing that required him to go on the “lam”.
      “I was with Derrick and Kyle. I didn’t do anything, it was them.”
      “What did they do?” I sat up in my bed and felt a wave of nausea pass through me.
      “Robbed a liquor store. But I didn’t have anything to do with it. I was just along for the ride, you know?”
      “No, I don’t know.”
      “I just need three hundred dollars.” He laughed again.
      “Jack… I quit my job, and my quarterly tuition is due next week. I’m sorry. You can come stay here for a few days. We can figure it out. Get you a good lawyer, you can turn yourself in—
      “You bitch,” He yelled into the phone, shocking me, “My whole life, all I ever did was listen to you complain. Wah, wah, wah, my parent’s are dead. Wah, wah, wah, I have to work so hard. Wah, wah, wah, school’s so hard.” He shouted, mimicking my lilt.
      “Jack—
      “I’ve never been anything but a good friend to you, and now you do this to me. FUCK YOU. Stay away from me, or I’ll fuck you up—
      I hung up and threw the phone across my bed as if it were radioactive. The phone rang immediately. I knew it was him, and I knew I had to get out of my apartment. Jack had gone over the edge he had been hanging onto for years now. I had been so blind.
      I dressed with lightning speed, grabbed a duffle bag from my closet, stuffed in a change of clothes and my mother’s quilted blanket and was out the door in under three minutes. My phone wouldn’t stop ringing. I set it on airplane mode.
      Out on the street, I didn’t know where to go. Numbness filled me as I aimlessly walked westward on Palms Blvd. Right before the heat of the day did me in, I found myself standing in front of an antiquated 50’s style motor lodge.
      I turned my phone back on to check my bank balance. I was terrified it would still be ringing. It wasn’t but Jack had called thirty-three times and left seven messages. There was no way I was going to listen to them.
      I flipped to the banking app. Subtracting my tuition which was due, I had 486.13. I knew I would have to go back to my job with Mr. Galloway. There wasn’t part-time job that I was qualified for that paid as well. I couldn’t put off my college anymore. Lending money to Jack had already cost me a year. I needed to graduate, have my real life begin.
      I checked into the motel. The room was only 75.00, and it showed. I didn’t mind. I sat down on the bed and cried. I don’t know what had upset me more, having to go back to the embittered old man, or finally facing the fact that I had lost my best friend.
     
     
     

Chapter Four
     
      I was at Mr. Galloway’s majestic front door at 10:00 A.M. on the dot. My outfit of jean cut-offs, t-shirt of an old ska band and white Converses was not something he was going like, but there was no way I was going back to my apartment to retrieve my nurse uniform. I was prepared to grovel to get my job back. I hoped that would be enough to satisfy the twisted humor of my boss.
      His home didn’t have a doorbell, only the massive silver gargoyle-like knocker. I did have a key, but I didn’t feel comfortable using it after our disagreement. I tentatively lifted it, and I mean tentatively. He would instantly know he had the upper hand in this situation and he was going to abuse it.
      Best case scenario, his amusement with me coming back to the job would pass in a few days, that were sure to be filled with taunting and meaner jokes than usual, and then we would go back to our previous relationship. Our old relationship would seem like heaven in