Page 73 of Push & Pull
“I’m not an escort if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“I don’t knowwhatto think,Charlene.” Simone flopped onto the end of the bed, both legs sprawled wide as her arms shot down between them. “For fuck’s sake! You were literally throwing yourself at a man who looked like my father!”
Really? Oof.Personally, Petra didn’t see the resemblance, but she also had a feeling that “looked like my father” meant Earl was old and dressed like a man his age. “You’re not listening to me. Honestly, I don’t know what you want me to do. If I tell you the truth, you’ll simply remain angry and keep blaming me for everything. If I lie, you won’t believe me!”
“Sounds like the truth is pretty bleak, then.”
Petra pulled her bag across her stomach and opened the top flap. Beside the credit card skimmer was the meager pile of bills she had procured from Earl’s wallet. “I didn’t have sex with him if that’s what you’re so disgusted about.” She grabbed the money and shook it in Simone’s face. “This is what I was after! For my uncle! Because that’s what I do for him. Men like Earl owe my uncle money. Alotof money. Thousands of dollars, if not more. When they refuse to pay up…” Petra shoved the money back into her bag. “He sends me in. To get the money any way I can, short of killing the sons of bitches.” She always had a feeling that’s what men like Samson and Georgio were for if things got that extreme.
“You stole from him?”
Simone’s deadpan delivery hit Petra in the gut. For a woman who had come in prepared to talk Simone off the ledge, Petra was in no way ever prepared for… that. The despondent look in Simone’s eyes – and the saddened mien that suggested she had let herself get too close to someone who was always destined to upset her.
“Yeah. I stole from him.” Petra leaned against the wall behind her, all breath easing from her tired body. “That’s what I do. Has been since the day my uncle took custody of me.”
“And you throwing yourself at those men?”
Perhaps Simone was more hung up on that, after all. “I didn’t sleep with Earl. It wasn’t gonna get that far.”
“You make it sound like it has before.”
“I…” The few people who knew what Petra did never made her feel ashamed about it. Shit, most of themencouragedit.Hailey knows I run jobs for my uncle, but not the extent of what those jobs are.Petra doubted they would still be friends if Hailey knew about the pickpocketing and identity uproar.
Yet Simone was, tearing a hole through Petra’s defenses with one sentence.
“Never mind.” Simone was up on her feet again.She makes me feel so small sometimes.That was Simone with slumped shoulders and faltering posture. How small would she make Petra feel if she straightened her back and went for it? “I know what you are. Everything makes a lot of sense now.”
Whatever pride remained in Petra’s soul was now on display. “What am I?”
“You’re a grifter. A thief. A conwoman.” Simone turned away, hands on hips and head pointed down. “I should have known. There’s no such thing as a whirlwind romance with a stranger. Not unless they want something from you.”
Petra gathered her strength to push off the wall and take a tentative step toward Simone. “What are you talking about?” The first part of Simone’s comment brushed right off Petra’s body. Yet that second part? About a whirlwind romance? “I never wanted anything more from you than, I don’t know… paying for gas. If we had some fun along the way? Come on. It’s not that serious.”
“Maybe not to you.”
Shit.Everything was coming out wrong. All Petra succeeded at was further offending the woman who looked at her as if life finally held some meaning again.We’ve been falling in love this whole time. Like a couple of idiots.
It was easy for Petra to reframe it as something Simone fell into as well. If she projected herself into the situation?It hurts.Too much to consider.
“What was the end game with me?” Simone was ten years older when she finally faced Petra again. “Were you going to steal from me, too?Haveyou been stealing from me? Is that what this was about?”
“No!”
“How am I supposed to trust you? Petra…” Simone gestured to the woman they both hardly recognized right now. “Two nights ago, Cady called to say that all three of them had been stolen from at brunch. Now I’m thinking that I might know who did it.”
Petra flinched enough for Simone to scoff in disgust. “Like I said. I haven’t stolen from you.”
“You stole from my friends!”
“They’re not your friends!” Petra shook a finger in Simone’s direction as she attempted to make herself bigger than her petite height and demeanor ever allowed. “They barely know who you are! So fucking what if you were in the same stupid sorority together? It soundedmiserable.Those women weremiserable.They wanted to drag you down with them so you were as perpetually miserable as them. Is that what you want? To be with people who don’t see you as human?”
“You don’t knowanythingabout them!”
“I know a thing or two about rich people, okay? I spent most of middle school in Forest Glen, hanging out with chicks like Hailey and all of her sassy bitches! They treated me like a novelty. Hailey was the only one who treated me like aperson.You think I don’t know the difference? Money makes people stupid. It’s made men like my uncle an absolute nightmare to deal with. The richer he gets, the more he hoards it away. The more he hoards?” Petra tossed her hands into the air, both of them landing hard against her thighs. “The more paranoid, the more vicious he gets. While I’d give anything to change the past and stay with my foster family, I still don’t miss it that much. My asshole uncle may have taught me to lie, cheat, and steal, but he also tried pimping me out to his sick friends and told me the easiest way to get money out of someone was by getting them into bed.” Petra scoffed in derision for what Simone made her face. “So Ihaven’tstolen a damn thing from you, Simone! Not only would that have been stupid of me, but you would have figured it out by now.”
“You stole from my friends. You kept all of this from me.”
“Of course I kept it from you! What, when we were first in my car, was I supposed to introduce myself like that? Sure. Would have gone overreallywell.”
