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CHAPTER EIGHT: BETWEEN THE LINES - PART TWO
Well, that had been a disaster. Azel shut his apartment door and sunk back against the wood. What had made him think it would go well? He wasn’t exactly the kind of partner a person — especially an accomplished and amazing one like Harri — would introduce to their family. He sighed and tugged at his horns in frustration. He was a poor, jobless demon with nothing but a mountain of debt and a pretty face; yeah, what mother wouldn’t want that for her daughter?
He rolled his eyes as his phone buzzed. What now? He checked his text messages, seeing one from Xara.
XARA: Hey, Az, wanted to give you a heads up. The credit check we ran for your employment background showed several IRS audits and a lot of debt payments that haven’t been dealt with yet. I mean, I know you, so you’re hired regardless, but you should definitely look into that.
Azel groaned and shut off his phone. Perfect. Maybe he should just swallow his pride and take Harri up on her offer to give him an advance. It wasn’t like he could afford to not finish out the contract, no matter what Xara had told him. He needed the money too much.
And, especially after seeing her with her mom, Azel didn’t think he could walk out on Harri, even if he didn’t need the money. He didn’t want to just be one more person in her life who let her down. One more person who only stood by her when it was easy. No, he’d see this through to the end. He’d make sure she came out okay.
Though how he was going to do that… he had no fucking clue.
He sat down on his couch and stared at all the bills and statements haphazardly spread out on his coffee table. Maybe he should start by figuring out his own shit. Get his own life sorted out. He was never going to convince anyone that he was good enough for someone like Harri like this. He needed to be better.
So he gathered all his papers together and started to sort. It took him all night, all morning, and well into the afternoon to organize it all into bills that had been paid, bills he needed to pay, and bills that were past due. It was still staggering, seeing it all organized in front of him. But it felt… strangely better knowing the numbers.
He’d always been a little afraid that tallying up the total would make it all feel too real and that, by avoiding it, he was somehow staying one step ahead and out of its reach.
He was beginning to think it was more like being a man who didn’t notice he was drowning. And the longer he took to save himself, the worse he was making it on himself. Now he knew how far he had to swim. He just had to do it. And, while it still felt daunting as hell, it no longer felt insurmountable.
And that was something.
By the time Xara texted him about his first shift at the shop, he’d done some online digging on the IRS website as well as figuring out what kind of payment plans were available for some of his default-ier dues.
XARA: Az, you good with starting Monday? I can get you on schedule for the 10a-6p shift, if that works for you
Azel texted her back that it worked perfectly for him and thanked her again. He was about to start a real job. He had at least the beginnings of a real plan. It finally felt, for the first time in a long time, like things were looking up.
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