“I know you got your hopes up, and maybe you came a long way. Clearly she’s hot. I mean, she’s my girlfriend.” That didn’t seem to scare Derek off, so I repeated myself. “Mine.”
A bead of sweat appeared on his forehead. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
So he wasn’t just trying to get with my woman, he was a liar too. “Open up your Craigslist profile so I can tell the girl who sent you here exactly where to shove her little revenge fantasies.”
After blinking a few times, Derek paused and scratched his head. “Do you mind explaining what you’re talking about?” He tipped his head as if trying to make sense of me from a new angle. “What exactly do you think I’m doing here?”
“I don’t know what the hell you think you’re doing here, seeing as I’m not even the girl you were supposed to be meeting. What, you think I’m going to bring you in and introduce you to her? Got your hopes up for some kind of threeway porno orgy?”
“Look, I’m pretty sure we’ve had some kind of miscommunication. Slow down and tell me what’s going on from the start.”
I glared at him. Derek. What kind of douchebag name even was that? “You spoke to someone on Craigslist. A website where people can meet anonymously, since you insist on pretending not to know anything.”
Derek’s eyes widened. “No. You’re already wrong.”
Given his white-collar all-American looks, I wasn’t surprised he’d deny being on the app. “Sure, buddy. How did I get this wrong? Let me guess, you’re not on Craigslist. You’re not here for sex at all. Is that it?” I rolled my eyes. “I can keep a secret. Wouldn’t want your wife to find out.”
Now Derek sighed, sounding like he was exasperated with this whole conversation. “No, actually. You have me all wrong.”
I sneered. “And how’s that?”
“I’m not here about any… hook-up… with your woman.” He stood straighter. “I came here to get my daughter. Gretchen.”
18
Faye
I shuffled Gretchen in my arms, weighed down by the bag I’d slung over my right shoulder. This kid had so much stuff we had to drag with us everywhere, and the amount only seemed to grow. Exponentially, at that.
“You want to talk again?” I asked her. “Maybe apologize for turning a grown adult woman into your packhorse?”
She gurgled and smiled.
The voices from upstairs were indistinct, just loud enough for me to figure out they weren’t happy. I wondered why Jaz was so sure she could take care of this when I’d been unable to stop it. Of course, I’d been unwilling to get the police involved.
I was fairly sure Brenda was breaking one law or another by doing this. Some last clinging remnant of affection had stopped me from taking legal action. Now that Jaz was in the picture, Brenda’s bad behavior seemed more serious than it had before. Not to mention that while women were unlikely to get violent, her sending men could put me in actual danger. It was probably time to put this to a stop once and for all.
“If Jaz doesn’t get through to Brenda today, I’ll take this to the cops,” I told Gretchen.
Slow footsteps on the stairs made me turn. I took in Jaz’s face, about three shades paler than it’d been a minute before.
“You… you’ll want to talk to this guy.”
“Why? What is it?” I moved to go up the stairs, but Jaz stood there frozen. I touched her arm. “What’s wrong? Is he not taking no for an answer?”
“He’s not from Craigslist. He’s…” Jaz shook her head and came into motion, taking the steps two at a time as if she was in a race.
I followed her as fast as I could, weighed down by the baby and the bag. My second look at the man told me nothing I hadn’t seen before. I didn’t know the guy, didn’t see why Jaz was acting all weird about this. I turned to her in confusion.
“He’s Gretchen’s father,” she said.
“Derek.” The man extended a hand.
My arms wrapped instinctively around Gretchen, and I took a step back. An inch further and I would’ve fallen down the damn stairs, but at the moment, I wasn’t overly concerned with minor things like making sure my feet were on solid ground.
“Gretchen’s father?” I squeaked.
“Yeah.” Derek stood taller, glaring at me now. “I assume you’re Amanda’s sister, Faye. And this must be your… lesbian… lover.”