Chapter 41
Brodie
“Hey, babe, which movie do you want?” I asked over the top of a glass of cold beer.
“I don’t care. Something we both haven’t seen before would be nice,” Gabrielle suggested, and I had to agree. The last few we’d watched were ones either she’d seen already and I hadn’t or vice versa.
I nodded as the doorbell rang. “I’ll get it,” I said, holding my hand up at her to stay put. I couldn’t imagine who would be knocking at eight o’clock in the evening on a week-night.
I opened the door to find a woman, well dressed in a tailored blue sheath dress and high heels with a huge black bag hanging from her arm. Looking past her at the curb, I saw a limousine—complete with chauffeur—standing by. “Can I help you?” I asked, completely baffled as to who she was.
“Yes, I’m looking for Gabrielle Demeres.”
Gabrielle must have heard her because she was at the door before I could even answer, shoving me aside. “Mom!” I gave Gabrielle a bemused glance then looked back at the woman. “What are you doing here?”
“Well, I’ve come to see where my daughter has run off to, leaving her much-needed education and future behind her. May I come in?”
“Yes. Absolutely, come in,” I said.
Gabrielle gave me a death stare that I thought just might be capable of actually killing me, and realized she hadn’t wanted to let her in, though relented and opened the door all the way, allowing her mother to enter.
Her mother stared at me and cleared her throat.
“Mom, this is Brodie, my… uh… the guy I rent from.”
The guy she rents from? That’s all I was? What the fuck?
“Nice to meet you, Brodie.”
“Yeah. Nice to meet you, too.” I gave Gabrielle an even greater discombobulated look.
Her mother came in, looked thoughtfully around, wrinkled her nose and coughed.
“Would you like to sit down?”
“Yes, thank you. Brodie, is it?”
“Yes, ma’am. Brodie Beaumont.” I gestured to one of the nicer chairs and she sat.
The room grew silent, and they both looked at me expectantly.
Priding myself on being no dummy, I said.
“Well, I’ll let you two chat. I’ll be back later.
” I grabbed my keys and walked out of my house, leaving my girlfriend, the love of my life, alone with her rich mother.
A mother that Gabrielle didn’t want to know about me, or at least about our relationship for some reason.
Why would she introduce me as the guy she rents from and not as her boyfriend?
What was I, an embarrassment? Anger boiled in my veins as I drove to the bar.
Okay, so her mom was wealthy. A little tidbit of information she’d neglected to mention.
I wasn’t the richest son-of-a-bitch to roam this God forsaken world, but I wasn’t the poorest either. What the fuck had just happened?