Absolutely Unforgivable(41)

“Billy was just trying to help me find something to wear.” I hated how she thought she could talk to me like that but I really didn’t have the time to deal with her drama today. I had to focus on getting ready to meet Jeromy’s mother.

Trista looked me up and down, “Yeah, well, I need this shit to stop. I don’t need you distracting Billy with your little clothing drama or whatever problem you may have. He needs to be downstairs with the band practicing, not up here with you.”

I really would have just apologized and let everything else she said go, but then she added, “We have enough bimbos in our life. We don’t need one more.”

I was livid. How dare she call me a bimbo! My hands started to shake. I took a deep breath and spoke my piece.

“I don’t know who in the hell you think you are speaking to me like that but that’s not going to cut it with me. First of all, you are in MY room. I don’t know what made you think it was okay to burst into my private part of this house but it’s not. And it better not happen again.”

I took another deep breath and continued. “Secondly, what I do with Billy is my business. Not yours, not the band’s. Mine! If I want to dance around for him buck naked then I will do just that and you don’t have a say in it at all. You don’t matter to me. You are nothing to me. I am not in the band and therefore you have no say in my life so take your rude little ass out of my room and go back downstairs and keep pretending like you matter to the rest of the boys.”

She stormed out of my bedroom, slamming the door behind her. I went back to my closet and pulled out a hot pink dress that hung loose off of my body and had a lot of flowing material.

I suddenly didn’t care what anyone thought of what I was wearing. If she didn’t like me it wouldn’t be because of the outfit I had chosen. I grabbed a pair of black strappy heels, and was putting them on as Jeromy walked in.

“What the hell did you do to Trista?”

I looked up at him and shrugged, finished putting on my shoes, and then jumped into his arms and wrapped my arms tightly around his neck. He spun me around. “Let me look at you,” he said eagerly. “You look amazing.”

I gave him a soft kiss and a smile. “You ready to go?”

“Yeah but what’s going on with Trista? She is pissed off. I walked in on her ranting about how you think you rule this house.”

I grabbed Jeromy’s hand and said, “Don’t care. Let’s go” and I dragged him down the stairs.

When we reached the bottom of the staircase where Trista was with Billy, I didn’t say a word to her. I kissed Billy on the cheek and thanked him for his help and then walked out the door.

I threw my keys over to Jeromy and we headed to my car. As we got in, I plugged my phone into the radio and started playing Bad Reputation. It was really by accident that the song came up; but I must admit it was perfectly fitting.

A few years ago Jeromy had bought up some land out near where his company was now working. This wasn't exactly big news to me because he bought up empty land all of the time. But this particular acreage, which he had been sitting on for a while, was what kept him away from me the night before. It was a deal he was working on. If the deal went through and they drilled on the land he would get a big pay day. I wanted to ask him how big. But growing up in the South we learned at a young age that money wasn’t an appropriate topic of conversation, so I resisted the urge.

Luckily for me, Jeromy had no qualms discussing such things, so when he told me, I must say I was completely shocked. If the deal worked out in the way that he hoped, he stood to make about $3 million over a period of about eighteen months.

But, he warned, it wasn’t a done deal yet. There were still a lot of little details to work out. But there was a good eighty percent chance that it was going to go through in the next three to six months.

I was really happy for Jeromy. If anyone deserved that kind of success, it was him. He was the most kind and wonderfully sweet person in the whole world and the reason he turned out the way that he did was now standing in front of me.

When we arrived at the restaurant, Debbie was out front waiting for us. I was so nervous to meet her that luckily Jeromy distracted me with talk of his work on the way over or I might have actually gotten sick I was so worked up about it.

Jeromy’s mother looked nothing like I had imagined she would. She was tall, and incredibly thin. She had long, brown hair and a natural sun-kissed skin color. I looked at her carefully. Being from Oklahoma I had known several Native Americans before and while I couldn’t be sure, I had to wonder if she had at least some Native American heritage. Before I could put my hand out to shake hers, Debbie reached up and grabbed me, pulling me in for a hug.