Bad to Be Worthy (Bad to Be Good #2) - Andrew Grey Page 0,13
“I’m not a jerk, you know, and you don’t need to treat me like one. I was good to you, but I’m not looking for anything from you. So being defensive isn’t necessary.”
“Oh yeah?” Tucker raised his eyebrows, but his posture relaxed a little. “When you haven’t had anything to live in other than a tent, people tend to think they can take advantage or abuse you. The cops raided what had been our home yesterday, and only because we don’t have any other place to go. Did it look like we were making a mess? That camp area was clean.”
Gerome didn’t argue. “So what do you want me to do? Act like an ass so your expectations will be fulfilled?”
Cheryl shuffled into the room. “Tucker,” she said softly. She looked pale and drawn, more so than she had the night before.
“Do you want something to eat?” Gerome asked, but she shook her head. “I have some juice over at my place. I’ll bring it over for you.” Cheryl smiled and went back in the bedroom. “Let me get the juice. You’ll need to watch over her if she’s sick.”
“I make Mommy better,” Joshie said and hurried back to the bedroom.
“Keep him away from her as much as possible in case it’s the flu or something. I’ll stop by the drugstore on my way home from work for medicine and stuff.”
Gerome went back to his place, grabbed the orange juice, and took it to Tucker, along with a loaf of bread, some lunch meat, and mayonnaise. All three of them were so thin that he wanted to make sure that they ate. “Stay inside if you can in case the guy from yesterday is looking for you, and I’ll be back once I’m done with work.”
Gerome left and closed the door behind him. Then he headed to work, wondering why he kept seeing Tucker’s confused disbelief flashing in his mind the entire time.
“YES, OF course I can wrap that for you,” Gerome said and pulled open the drawer of tissue to wrap up a four-dollar purchase as though it came from Tiffany’s. He was never going to get used to the entitlement. “There you are.” He gave the woman a bag and smiled again as the lady left.
The store had had a surprisingly busy day. Gerome had anticipated that business would fall off to nothing after Christmas, but it seemed that enough people came here to escape the winters up north that business was holding pretty steady.
“Are you closed?” a man in his forties asked as he hurried inside. “I need a present for my wife’s birthday, and I have half an hour. Any ideas?” He seemed frantic.
Gerome took pity on him, showing him some nice handmade handbags, a few printed silk scarves, and a pair of amethyst earrings from the case. The guy must have been desperate, because he bought one of the bags, two scarves, and the earrings, handing Gerome the credit card. Gerome rang everything up, wrapped each item separately with different color ribbon so the customer was happy, and sent him on his hurried way. Then he closed the store, prepared the deposit, and walked to the bank to drop the bag in the night drop before heading for home.
He always felt better once the money was out of his hands. Gerome never felt the need to steal from the store. That wasn’t his style. In Detroit, he and the others had skimmed a good deal of money out of the clubs they ran and transferred it offshore into numbered accounts for each of them. He had always viewed it as their retirement funds. But that was totally different. The money flowing into the clubs wasn’t legitimate in the first place… at least most of it wasn’t. This little business was, and besides, petty larceny was way beneath him.
“The store is closed, and I dropped the deposit at the bank,” he told Betty on the phone as he walked to his car. “It was a good day.”
“That’s wonderful,” she said. “The customers just love you.”
Gerome smiled. “I sold another of those handmade purses.” Betty made them herself, and Gerome knew it made her happy whenever one sold. “Bring in a few more when you get a chance.”
“Oh, I will,” she said happily. “I’ll see you tomorrow with them when I stop by.” She hung up, and Gerome put his phone away. He stopped in at the drugstore before going the rest of the way home.