My All

Part 12

The next day, Deborah waited for Shawn to show up. After fifteen minutes, his car stopped next to her. "Get in. Sorry I am late." He said as she climbed in.

"It's okay. I got here early." She said buckling the seatbelt.

Shawn drove for like five minutes. "If you cross through the park, it's actually faster. Here we are." He said stopping at a two story building. It was cute, with flower beds on all the windows. An older lady walked out and greeted them as they got out of the car. "Hi, Belinda." Shawn said, hugging the old lady. "This is Desiree. We are here about the apartment listing in the newspaper."

"Of course. Go ahead and go up the stairs, it's going to be the first one to the right, I'm going to go get the keys." Belinda said.

They climbed the stairs and waited for Belinda. "Thank you for the help. I really appreciate it." Deborah said, nudging him with her shoulder.

"It's no problem. That's what friends are for." He said as Belinda reached them.

"Okay, right through here." She opened the door and let them in. "If you need furniture, I always have some extra stuff in the garage that previous tenants leave."

"I love it." Deborah said. "I'll take it."

"So fast?" Shawn asked, still looking around the apartment. "Wouldn't you like something bigger?"

"No, this is all I need. I'll take it." She told Belinda.

"Well, you brought your proof of income with you in person, so I don't need that." Belinda said, chuckling. "All I'm going to need is first and last month's rent, and your ID."

"Oh." Deborah said nervously, grabbing her purse.

"You guys can keep looking around. I'll be downstairs when you're ready." Belinda said leaving them alone in the apartment.

Shawn was looking through the cabinets when he looked at Deborah just standing by the door holding her purse tight. "What's wrong? Don't you have enough for the first and last month's rent? I can lend it to you. That's no problem. I now know where you live." He said laughing.

She had not thought about this. The old lady will find out her real identity and everyone will know. Shawn will know and would be mad because she lied to him. She had to come clean. "Shawn, there's something you should know." She said.

"What is it? You sound serious." He said walking towards her and grabbing her hands.

"I lied to you."

"About what?" He said backing away from her.

"I did run away from home. That I didn't lie about,and that I ran away because of my ex. He did something horrible and I had to get out of there. So, when I came here and went into the diner, I decided to start a new life. I didn't think at the moment that to change your identity you actually need to change all your documents." She started looking through her purse. "And it went completely over my head that they would need my ID for verification purposes so I could rent a place."

"Desiree, you're rambling. What are you trying to say?"

"Here." She took out her ID and handed it to him.

He cautiously grabbed it and looked at it. His lips moved as he read it over and over again. "Deborah Thompson." He finally said putting the ID on the counter without looking at her. His eyes on her picture.

"Please, say something. I'm so sorry I lied to you."

"When I hired you, I told you I didn't want any problems. This is a problem. What am I going to do with this now? Everyone knows you as Desiree, not this Deborah. If you think my mother was mad at you, she's going to be furious." He started to walk out of the apartment.

"Shawn, please. You have to understand." She said with tears in her eyes grabbing him by his arm.

"What did you run away from, Deborah?" He said, dragging her name. "You know what? Don't bother telling me. It's probably going to be another lie. Do whatever you want. I'm out." He said pulling his arm lose and walking away.