Page 18 of Sassy Pants

“Right.”

“It was nice of you to stop by, Gia. Don’t come back. You always were meant for better people. A better life than this.” His words punch me straight in the gut. They shouldn’t hurt me,but they do. I don’t let my tears fall till my feet hit the last step.

“Gia?” My head snaps up at the sound of my name, and I quickly wipe around my eyes. “Thought that was you.”

“Jesse. Hey. Funny running into you again.”

“I’m next door at my grandma’s place. Well its mine now. Inherited the trailer when she passed away.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“Eh, she was a hateful old bitch.” He chuckles, and I grimace because he’s not wrong. “How’s he doing today? I check in on him when he isn’t being a stubborn old bastard.”

“You do?”

His blue eyes darken. “Well yeah. Never stopped thinking about you. If I could go back, I’d change it all but the way I felt about you.”

“That’s sweet, but that was a long time ago. I’m not the girl you knew.”

Jesse takes a step closer and wraps a lock of my hair around his finger. “I know that, but I want to get to know the new you.”

“Aren’t you with Donna?”

“Nah. That was business. She wants me to do a remodel on her bathroom. She’s married to Vic. He took over his old man’s used car lot. Girl like her was always attracted to money.”

“I need to get to work.”

“Just think about it. We were good together.”

“Yeah we were until we weren’t. How old is your daughter now?”

“I don’t have a kid.” He shakes his head, and his nostrils flare out wide. “Always believing the worst of me. Only ever loved you. Nevercheated. I was faithful, but the moment they locked me up you cut me off.”

“That’s not true and you know it. I was sixteen.”

He grabs my upper left arm and squeezes. “You lost faith in me. I know I fucked up, but I’m here now and you’re back. Doesn’t that mean something to you?”

“Let go of my arm.”

Jesse has this wild look in his eyes that screams danger. “We aren’t over, Gia. Not by a long shot.”

My father opens the door to his trailer. “You okay, Gianna?”

“I’m fine, Dad. Jesse here was simply welcoming me home.” I jerk my arm out of his hold and get in the car without another word.

I turn the key, and nothing happens. “Are you kidding me.” I try it again and nothing. It’s like the battery has completely died.

Jesse taps on the driver’s side window. “Need a ride?”

I glance at the time on my cell phone. I need to be at work in fifteen minutes. Antonio wouldn’t fire me if I was late, but I don’t have time to sit around figuring out what’s wrong with Jelissa’s car either.

**

“Thanks for the lift,” I tell Jesse as I exit the passenger side of his car.

“Anytime. You need a ride home?”

“I got her covered,” Stud announces seeming to have appeared out of thin air. Before Jesse or I for that matter can respond, Stud is yanking me away and closing the passenger door.

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