Belle of the Ball

Chapter Twenty Two - Weird Right?

3 Weeks Later

"Whew! Paying bills by myself is a lot harder then I remembered." Nancy said, bouncing into the room after an apparent long day at work.

I sighed.

"Nancy, I told you I'm working on it."

Which I was currently doing right now actually, with tons of spreadsheets all laid out around me on the bed; all seeming to stress me out for a different reason.

Opening a restaurant was a lot harder then I thought it'd be. For example there was so many different licenses I needed—not to mention I have to make sure the building is still up to code, and I have pay attention to so many small details count too. Like, the menu and the different furnishings, that I'm going to put into the building.

"I know you're working on it." She replied, plopping next to me, crumpling some of my papers under her.

"Damnit Nancy, I think those were the proposal sheets."

She quickly lifted whatever papers she sat on, then smoothed them out on her leg. "See, good as new. And proposal sheet? Come on—you're not going to a different bank again? Are you? Because you've been to at least eight the last few weeks, and all of them have rejected your loan offer."

"I know." I huffed in frustration. "Screw my bad credit."

Nancy laughed loudly, like she was amused by my current crisis. "I don't know why you're stressing so much. Just talk to Ryder, you know he'll give you whatever money you need.

I glared at her. "You know I'm not going to do that. Especially not with his ex girlfriend living in his house."

Nancy chewed her lip, lost in deep thought. She was probably trying to convince me of a way to talk to Ryder, like she had been the past couple of weeks, but honestly the whole ordeal left a bad taste in my mouth. I just needed some tone to forget about it—which was something she couldn't understand.

"I think it'd be good for both of you. Maybe Ryder will stop calling then."

I glanced down at my phone, hoping to not receive another one of Ryders many desperate phone calls. He had called everyday, at least three times a day, for the past two weeks—and I was growing tired of it. Couldn't he see that I didn't want to talk?

"Well, I think I'm done talking about no good Ryder."

"Oh come on, he took his ex off of the street. How does that make him no good?"

When she said it like that, it made him sound humble and noble. But, when you have a girlfriend it wouldn't hurt to at least talk to them about it first—especially if said girlfriend isn't even living with the boyfriend to keep an eye on him.

It's a disaster waiting to happen.

Besides, how could a girl keep her paws off of a guy as good looking as Ryder? It was practically impossible, and I knew that from firsthand experience.

"Can we drop it? I'll get you your money soon...don't worry."

Nancy rolled her eyes. "Do you honestly think this is about money—or how late you are on the water bill? I just want you to be happy, and when you were with Ryder, you were so happy. He made you glow, and sparkle like a diamond."