His Proposal

His Proposal - 102

After Jai's football game he walks over to me and wraps his arms around me. I scrunch up my nose as I smell the body odour roll off him. I push him away. "You can hug me after you've showered."

He laughs. "I will when we're having one together. Tonight I want to take you on a date to a fancy restaurant. What do you say?"

I smile. "I would love to go out with you."

Jai picks up his bag and water bottle. We walk over to his car and I see the woman that was sitting on the bleachers with her son in the parking lot. He looks over at her and he curses. "I'll be right back." He walks over to the girl and they start arguing.

What's going on between them? Why hasn't Jai mentioned her to me before?

The girl touches his arm. "Jai, you promised to help me out. I'm desperate, now. Please help me."

Jai shakes her arm off. "No, I'm not going to help you out now. How many times do I have to tell you to leave me alone?" He walks over to me.

The woman yells. "This isn't over Jai."

Jai opens his car door. "I'll see you at home." He pulls away.

I climb into the car and look out the window.

There's a knock on the window and I turn in the direction of the noise. I see one of the guys that were playing football with Jai. "Are you alright?" He asks with concern.

I shake my head. "Not, really." I look towards the woman with her son. "Do you who that is?"

He looks in the direction. "Yeah, she used to be married to Jai's best friend."

Jai hasn't mentioned anything to me.

"A couple of years ago Jai's best friend Caleb was driving home after work when someone ran him off the road. The car went over a mountain and burst into flames. Jai and a few friends went to recover the body there wasn't one." He looks back at the woman. "She's been in and out of rehab ever since."

I have a feeling that today won't be the last we see of her. She seems desperate to get something from Jai.

***

At home, I pull the car into the garage. I gather my stuff before I walk into the house. I find Jai on the lounge with his head buried in his hands. "Jai?" He doesn't answer me. I move his hand away from his face. "I'm not going to ask you if you're alright when I can clearly tell you are not. Are you going to tell me what's wrong?"

Jai pulls me into his lap and he wraps his arms around me. "The woman in the parking lot was the wife of a friend of mine. He gave me access to his money after he died, but there was one condition that came with it. I had to give a small amount of money to her, every couple of months. If she wasted the money I couldn't give her anything until the time was up. She's three weeks early."

"Do you think she used it on drugs?"

"Yes," he didn't even hesitate when he answered. "I'm worried about Dylan though. If she doesn't have any money left that means Dylan won't have anything to eat and I can't let that happen to the kid."

"You could go shopping for them and bring food to their place. That way you know Dylan will be taken care of until you give her money in three weeks."

He sighs. "I supposed I could." Jai rises and I wrap my legs around him. He carries me up the stairs to the bathroom.

***