Page 55 of The Stranger

“Almost a grand.”

“I’d happily give you the thousand dollars, but I already know you’d never accept it.”

“And you’d be right, but while we’re discussing money, would it be possible to pause my reimbursements for the clothes for a couple of weeks? Today wiped out all of my savings.”

“Why don’t you forget the payment plan altogether? I never asked or expected you to repay me for those clothes.”

“I can’t do that,” she says. “I always pay my debts.”

“It doesn’t constitute a debt if it was gifted to you.”

“Please, Spencer, this is important to me. Kayne mooched off me the entire time we were together. I don’t want to be anything like that man.”

“How?”

“He never had money, so it was always up to me topay for everything. Not the prostitutes obviously—well, I hope that wasn’t the case because I gave him money from time to time—but dates, food, petrol, his Netflix account, our honeymoon, and all the other things that our parents didn’t cover for the wedding. I had a nice little nest egg saved until …”

As if I didn’t already hate that fucker enough. “You paid for the honeymoon that he took another woman on?”

“Yep.”

“That guy is the lowest of low. You may not think this right now, but you are better off without that man.”

“I don’t know what I ever saw in him if I’m being honest. The man I thought I loved was just an illusion.”

Hearing her confess to loving another man makes my stomach lurch.

“Eat,” I say, nodding down at the food.

“I—”

“Please, Delilah.”

Her eyes meet mine as a genuine smile curves her lips. It’s the first real one I’ve seen in days. “Okay, I’ll do it for you.”

Why do her words have my heart skipping a beat?

By five o’clock, I’ve logged off and packed up for the day. I’m ready to leave. I exit my office, and when I come to a stop beside Delilah’s desk, she glances up at me and frowns.

“Are you going somewhere?” she asks.

“Yes, to dinner with my mother.”

“Oh.”

I extend my arm, offering her my hand. “Come.”

“Do you want me to go with you?”

“That’s the plan. I’m liable to face a lecture if I arrive without you.”

“I don’t want to impede on your family dinner, Spencer.”

“According to my mother, you are part of this family now.”

“She said that?” Delilah asks with a little too much excitement.

“Her exact words were,‘Make sure to bring my future daughter-in-law’.”