Fallen Woman(18)

With a meager wave from his side, he turned and walked away. I left the money and my shoes in the kitchen and went to Miss Pearl’s to get the kids. She refused me at the door and told me to go home and get some sleep, and she’d send them home in the morning. I made a tiny protest before I gave in and retreated to my own place.

The wad of money called out from the counter and curiosity finally got the best of me. I walked over to it, hesitant to pick it up—somehow, it seemed dirty. As I counted out the hundreds, I held my breath until I reached five.

Five hundred dollars.

Five one hundred-dollar bills.

I couldn’t breathe. This was too much.

~~~

I struggled to find the damn cell phone Jase had given me. I was in total shock and thought there had to have been a mistake. Drake couldn’t have meant to give me this kind of money. I thought he’d pay for the babysitter, and there might be a few bucks extra—this was just…unfathomable. Stuck between the couch cushions, still attached to the charger, I found the phone and lit the screen with my finger. I hunted Drake’s number, but it went straight to voicemail.

“Hey, Drake, this is Gianna LeBron.” God, I was such an idiot. What other Gianna would be calling him five minutes after he left. “Well, Gianna. You know who it is. Anyway, I think you gave me more than you should have. Please call me as soon as you can so I can get this back to you.” I hung up and stared at the wall in front of me.

Sitting in the dark, my mind wouldn’t stop racing. My finger hovered over Jase’s name when I glanced at the clock. It was almost one in the morning, but I chanced it anyway.

“Hello.” His voice seemed deeper than normal, and I hoped I hadn’t woken him.

“Jase?”

“Yeah, babe. What’s up?” Dang it. It was sleepiness I’d heard in his tone.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have woken you up. Can you call me tomorrow?”

“Gia. I wasn’t asleep. I’m just lying in bed reading. I was hoping you’d call.” I was thrown completely off kilter by the handful of cash lying on my kitchen counter, but Jase Lane telling me he had hoped I’d call sent me into utter stupidity. “Gia? Are you there?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m here.”

“What’s wrong? You sound upset. Did you not have a good night?” There was an edge of protectiveness to his tone that made me swoon.

“No, it’s not that. I had a lovely evening. Drake was a great date. But I tried to call him after he left. I think he made a mistake, and I don’t want him to think I stole from him or something crazy.”

He laughed heartily at me. “What are you talking about? Drake would never think you stole from him. Besides, what could you possibly steal?”

“It’s not funny, Jase. When he left, he handed me cash for tonight. I thought it was money to pay the babysitter and didn’t want to be rude counting it in front of him, so I waited. But after he left, and I went inside…” I paused, unsure of how Jase would react. These guys were so paranoid about women taking advantage of them I couldn’t stand the thought of Drake believing I took something that didn’t belong to me.

“What is it, Gia?”

“Jase, he gave me five hundred dollars.”

Silence.

Crap.

“Jase? Say something,” I pleaded with him.

“I’m waiting for you to tell me what has you in a tizzy.”

“Five hundred dollars, Jase. He made a mistake, and I need to get the money back to him.”

“It wasn’t a mistake.” His voice was matter-of-fact, and I was totally confused.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that’s the amount we agreed we’d give you per night. Is there a problem?”

Horrified, I screamed into the phone, “I can’t take five hundred dollars for hanging out with a man for a few hours on a Friday night, especially not one who bought me a dress for said evening!”

He couldn’t hear anything I was ranting about over the laughing on his end.

“This isn’t funny, Jase. That’s an obscene amount of money for a couple hours of my time.”

“It’s a drop in the bucket, and trust me, they all see it as an investment in their financial portfolio. Being seen with someone makes them more valuable in the public eye, and selfishly, it keeps more money in their pockets. Don’t worry about it. Take the money and do something nice for yourself.”

Dumbfounded. One hundred percent. Even when Ryan and I had been well off, I’d never had that kind of cash handed to me for doing nothing. Five hundred dollars was five hundred bucks no matter who it was from, and that was stupid cash to give someone for doing them a favor. “I can’t take the money. I’m not a charity case.”

“It’s not charity, babe. I promise you. They wanted to give you more, so be glad I talked them down from that ledge. If you’d let them, they’d take you out of your situation just because they like you and they can.”

I didn’t get it. “I don’t understand. They all worry continuously about women marrying them for money, but you’re telling me they want to throw it at me. And if I’d let myself be their charity case, they’d take me out of the projects and eliminate my financial worries?”

“They’re good guys, but they want to give on their terms. You don’t ask for anything, don’t expect anything, so yeah, they want to do stuff for you. They all loved hanging out with you that night at the Literacy event. They welcomed you into the fold because you didn’t ask to be in it.”