Page 10 of Dirty Money
She’d pulled her hair back, neatly braiding it down her back in a perfect fishtail. Around her neck, she wore a wire-wrapped amethyst on a thick black leather cord she had made in her jewelry class at school, and a pair of silver hoops adorned her ears. Aullie was excited for him to see more of her true style, and she was also eager to share her art and things she had made with him.
Hurrying out to the curb after a text from Weston, she scanned the empty street for the beaten down bug. It was nowhere to be seen, the only car that stood out was a shiny silver Aston Martin that looked wildly out of place on her weedy, crumbling, low-income block.
‘Spoiled asshole’, she snipped in her mind. Even just seeing the car called up memories of her snake of a father, his equally snaky friends and their awful fake wives.
The selfishness, the obsession with image, the toxicity that came with wealth, they were all represented in this gaudy, environmentally-unfriendly car.It was disgusting!
Suddenly, the window of the shiny car rolled down. Aullie’s stomach twisted uncomfortably when she saw Weston in the driver’s seat. As she closed the distance to the car, she did her best to justify the car.
Her mind spun a yarn to cover for the man, she thought she knew.Maybe it’s not his. Maybe he borrowed it from a friend or relative. He’s probably just trying to impress me, he doesn’t know about my family or my money issues. It’s all fine.
As before, he reached across the car, though this car was definitely wider, and popped the door open from the inside. His smile was wide and excited, he was formally dressed again in a silvery gray button down and a dark pair of trousers. Aullie tentatively sat down in the seat; the car reeked of expensive leather and premium carpeting. The smell was almost nauseating to her, reminding her of her father.
“Hey!” Weston sounded very excited. “Sorry about all the flash, I had to spend a few hours in the office today.”
Aullie’s brow furrowed. “Where do you work, exactly?”
“Ever heard of the Calloway building?”
Boy, had she. It was a massive skyscraper in the heart of downtown. One of the biggest trade and marketing companies in the nation. “You work there? I thought you worked for your dad.”
Another sly smile. “I do, my dad is James Calloway.”
Aullie’s stomach dropped into a free fall. His dad was worth a few billion dollars the last she had heard. If Weston was his son, he probably wasn’t worth much less. She suddenly felt suffocated in the fancy car, desperate to get out.
At her lack of a response, or maybe trying to remedy the panic in her face, he asked, “So, what do you wanna do tonight? I booked us a table at a formal restaurant downtown. Based on your dress on Friday, I figured you’d be dressed a little more formally. It’s not really a jeans type of place. Maybe we could go bowling?”
The mention of her jeans was the last straw. Aullie felt silly, like a child, sitting there in her informal clothes. “No,” she said firmly. “No, thanks. In fact, I’m not feeling well. I think I have to go.” She opened the door and made a move to step out, but Weston lightly grabbed her arm to stop her.
“No, wait,” he begged. “What happened? What's wrong? Let me fix it.”
“Maybe I’m just coming down with a lack of class,” she said, snidely. Pulling away from him, Aullie marched away from his desperate cries for her to wait.
Rich men were cheaters and liars, she wasn’t about to waste her time!
