"It'soneof the reasons." I cleared my throat. "But, uh, mostly it was because he took my car."
"You have a car?" Jake said. "The way I heard it, you were taking the bus."
"I was. But Ihada car. You see, something happened where I needed some money fast—"
"What?" Jake said. "Why?"
"That's not important," I said. "The point is, Rango gave me this title-loan. And after we broke up, he wouldn't give me the title back." I winced. "Or the car."
"You serious?" Jake said. "What kind of asshole-boyfriend makes his girl sign over the damn car title?"
"It wasn't like that," I said. "When this first started, he wasn't my boyfriend."
"Is that right?"
"Yeah," I said. "But he was part-owner of this title-loan place near my old apartment. It was fine. More or less. But after the breakup, the whole loan thing went to crap. The car was gone, and the title wasn't mine anymore."
"I'm surprised you didn't sue him," Jake said.
"Why?" I said. "The lawyer would cost more than the car. And the car wasn't exactly new. The whole thing was a total mess."
"So you took that notebook?"
"Hell yeah, I took it," I said. "Rango was practically in love with the thing. He looked at it all the time. That's why I wouldn’t give it back, even after all those weird things started happening." My voice grew misty. "I loved that car. It was the first one I ever owned. And Rango wouldn't givethatback, so…" I swallowed. "Anyway, that's the story."
"Tomorrow," Jake said, "we'll get you anewcar."
I had to smile. "No," I said. "We won't. I'm done with that sort of thing."
"I wasn't talking about some title-loan," Jake said.
"Jake, seriously," I said, "you can't get me a car. You've done too much already."
"No such thing," he said.
"Thanks," I said, "but the answers still no." Maybe I didn't have a lot of things, but I still had my self-respect. And there were limits on what kind of help I'd be willing to accept, even from him.
Still, it was a sweet offer. I smiled against his chest. All things considered, it had been a good day. An amazing day, actually.
Looking back, I'm glad I enjoyed it, because less than twenty-four hours later, everything started going to crap.