Stephanie had just gotten home with Leona and Madison when the phone rang, "hello?"
"Stephanie?" Paul's asked, his voice sounding scared and people were yelling in the background, "you won't believe where I am right now. I need your help really bad. I made a mistake, okay?"
She bit her lip, "okay, Paul, what's going on?" She sat on his bed holding the phone to her ear, "where are you? Who's yelling?"
He sighed and went quiet for a second, "Stephanie, I'm in jail." He exhaled again, "let me explain it later, I need you to get me out of here. Go to my room, in my closet, in the top drawer, where I pulled the keys out of this morning, there's a wad of cash in there, I need you to bring me six hundred out of there."
"What do you mean you're in jail?" She wanted to scream, "Paul, what the hell? I'm gonna go rushing out of here and pass your mom, what's she going to think?"
"Don't worry about her, just get the money out of the drawer and come get me. The money is to get the truck out of impound."
"Why did you get arrested?" She wanted immediate answers, "Paul?"
"Stephanie, I promise I'll explain everything when you pick me up. I don't have time to tell you everything right now. Just come get me." He hung up, leaving her angry and confused on the other line.
"Oh God," she put her shoes back on and opened his closet door, and just like he said, there was a wad of cash in the top drawer, with the second set of truck keys, she wanted to dig deeper in the drawer to see what else was in there, but there wasn't any time, she pulled six hundred dollar bills from the wad and closed the drawer. She grabbed her purse and went towards the living room, "so, um, Paul called me and needs something, I hate to ask but can you watch Madison just really fast?" She smiled and went out the garage door, waiting until she got in the car to curse Paul out to herself.
When she got to the police station, Paul was sitting in the waiting room, "hey, Stephanie, I'm sorry." He stood up and hugged her, "let me talk to them and get the truck out of impound, then, I'll tell you what happened."
"Okay," she gave him a fake smile and gave him the money, then walked back outside to the Mercedes, where she waited for ten minutes. When he came back out, he could feel her burning a hole in his head, "what the hell happened Paul."
He closed his eyes and grabbed her hand, "you can't even be mad at me though, I was just driving home from eating dinner and the cops pulled me over because one of my license plate lights went out. Its bullshit."
"You don't get arrested because of a license plate light is out. That's why they pulled you over, why did they arrest you?" She watched him, noticing he was trying to keep it from her, "stop trying to think of a lie and just tell me, you said you were gonna explain everything."
"Fine," he bit his lip and looked away, "they found marijuana in my truck." He rolled his eyes, "not very much, but a little, so that's why I got arrested, and they let me go because I admitted it."
"Are you serious? Why did you have marijuana in your truck?" She wanted to laugh, but stayed serious for him.
"Because, I don't smoke cigarettes," he stared at her, "and I wasn't high when they pulled me over, I just had it in the center console. It's how I put up with your shit for so long at work."
She wanted to take that as an insult, "wait, so if you don't smoke cigarettes, what is in the cigarette boxes in the Mercedes?"
"Well nothing now, I took the boxes out because you've been driving it and I didn't want anything to happen to you if you got pulled over or something."
"Wait a second, are you admitting to me that you smoke marijuana?" She looked him over, "since when?"
"Since like, forever, before I even knew you. Shawn does too, but I don't do it as much, a couple times a month maybe, he does like, every week. And there's some other stuff going on with him, and frankly, I'm just done with him." He turned away from her, but she grabbed his shoulder, "what?"
"Have you ever gotten arrested before?" She noticed her ring sparkle, "Paul, why'd you buy me a diamond ring?" She completely changed the subject, somehow she just couldn't be mad at him, "Rebecca told me is was real."
He gave her a puzzled look, "yeah, its real, but, that's because we went to the mall, and it was on sale, if we went to Walmart…"
"It's my favorite cut, and you got me my favorite flowers. Its all really coincidental Paul." She looked up at him, "when she told me it was real, I didn't know what to think."
"What's going on here?" He couldn't help to notice things were getting awkward, "I actually thought you were gonna be kinda mad at me about this whole marijuana thing."
"I don't care," she looked up into his eyes, "why are you done with Shawn?" She glanced away, "what did he do?"
"You know that waitress at the cupcake place? I asked her out that night, and Shawn met up with me tonight, I was with her, then, he was with her."
"He's cheating on Rebecca isn't he?" She shook her head, "I knew it, I knew it when I went over there today, Rebecca told me that he's been working all the time lately, and even Cheyanne told me he's always at work. I didn't say anything, but I'm just like, its October, he shouldn't need to be working that much."
"Yeah, he is, and I'm pretty upset with him for that. That's why I'm done." He sighed, "he slept with the waitress earlier."
"You asked her out?" She frowned, speechless, "with all the stuff you've done for me, I would have thought something else."
"What do you mean?" He caught himself staring back into her eyes, "I asked her out, but while we were eating, I was thinking about how awkward our situation is, and I couldn't just explain that to her, I wouldn't know how to just tell someone I'm married for Immigration purposes, but that's it."
She nodded, wanting the taste of his lips on hers again, but not wanting to deal with how he reacted the last time, "tell me why you freaked out the last time I kissed you, was it really because you didn't want our friendship to be awkward? Or is it something else?"
"Stephanie, I don't know…" before he could come up with a reason for why he acted the way he did the other night, she pulled him close and wrapped her arms around his neck, "what are you doing?"
She answered him with another kiss, "Paul, I know its awkward but, I don't want it to be eventually, the more stuff you've done for me, makes me like you a little more each day. I just want you to know that." She pushed him away and turned to get in the car, hoping he would stop her, but instead, he stood there, silently, not even looking at her.
He walked back to the police impound yard with his receipt in hand, "how could I be so stupid, I asked that girl out right in front of her, no wonder she got upset." He kicked a rock and watched as she drove past him in his car, knowing she was probably crying in it. He just kept walking until he got to his truck, "she hates me, I know she hates me, she has to."