She said no more as she held my hand and basically dragged me to her place. I know it is piggish, but at that point I was starting to see the wisdom in that phrase “go ugly early and get a good night’s sleep.” This girl was half my age, whether she knew that or not. I still had every belief she was shopping for a sugar daddy.
“It’s not much, but it’s home” she said as she lead me in.
“Appears to be in better shape than of few of the others we passed” I offered.
“This ain’t the high end of town, but, at least I’m not renting like most of my neighbors” Melony volunteered.
“Must have a decent job then, or someone who felt really guilty.” Probably shouldn’t have added that last part, but couldn’t help myself. Her response surprised me.
“Bit of both if I’m to be honest. I work as a CNA in a nursing home not far from here. Not a glamorous job, but the patients appreciate me. Well, at least the ones that can still have a conversation. I had a lot of practice changing diapers so the rest of the training was easy.”
I cocked an eyebrow at her and she sighed. Rummaging through a drawer she came out with an actual corkscrew and opened the bottle of Chardonnay she must have left the bar with. Naturally she had a supply of plastic drive up window cups to fill with ice. She finished pouring both glasses before she handed mine to me and continued.
“Not that it matters much and I don’t know why ‘man of mystery’ needs to know, but, the parents of the father of my first child saw fit to put a big down payment on this place when I got my job. They didn’t want me as a daughter in-law, but, they didn’t want their grandchild moving from one guys place to the next which is pretty much what would have happened after I graduated.”
She stared at me for a while then said “What?” in an exacerbated tone. “You don’t believe me?”
“I have no information to form an opinion one way or another. Most of the people in the local watering hole appeared to live paycheck to paycheck so it would be easy to believe they couldn’t long take care of a girlfriend and her child even though they would probably insist she have one of his as part of some arrangement. There is no judgment, I was just taking things in . . . and wondering when I will actually get to sleep.” The last part was said with a bit of a smirk.
“Oh, you have hours to go before you sleep” she replied taking the bait. “But, just so you know, that’s how child number 2 came along, so when I managed to get this job the grandparents of my first child helped out. They didn’t want me as a daughter in-law which was somewhat hurtful, but they really didn’t want him around their grandchild. I mean, I can understand their thinking, why should both my and their son’s lives be ruined when they could opt to ruin just mine. He went to college and is working in a bank or brokerage firm out east somewhere. From time to time a bit of money lands in a trust account for his daughter. A couple of times per year his parents try to meet me somewhere with her so they can spend a day. All in all it could have turned out worse.”
“I will assume you are about to get to the worse part” I spoke up.
“Nah. Daddy number two split town as soon as I got this place. I still think the grand parents had something to do with it. He had been slipping around on me anyway. Yes, he was a means of paying rent and buying groceries while I was trying to find something I could earn a living at. He wasn’t even good at paying rent. One of those guys who drank half his paycheck before coming home if you know what I mean.”
I sat there drinking my wine waiting for her to either pick up steam or run out of gas. She seemed to run out of gas. After a few more swallows she got up, held out her hand and said “Come on, time for you to pay your rent.”
continued . . .
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