LOVE THY NEIGHBOR

chapter 3: at my door

JO

I had surprisingly made 9 car sales today and I was on cloud nine. At 8% per sale, plus my monthly pay of $4,000 If I sold more than my monthly quota, I was about to add about $15,000 to my secret account.

I know you're probably asking yourself right now, "What secret account?" Well, I have been planning a get-away from Charles for about 8 months now.

The thing is, Charles had told me that I needed to sell at least 5 cars per month. With this information, I decided that I would tell him that I sold one car on a day when I had made many sells. The reason for this, was because I needed to save up money in order for Lily and myself to leave Charles, while being financially stable at the same time.

One night after receiving a really bad beating from Charles, for something I can't remember why, I went to work the next day and opened a secret account at a local credit union while I was on my lunch break. I knew that we had to get out, but I needed money in order to do that.

So far, due to holding back on how many sells I truly had made within the past 8 months, I had a good $37,000 saved up.

I know that you're also asking why I haven't left yet if I had that much money, but the thing with that, is that timing is everything in my situation. Charles was a stay-at-home dad, so it wasn't like I could come home early one day and pack all of our shit and leave him. He needed to be out for at least a day, preferably two, so that getting everything for us in order was possible.

If he were to ever find my secret account, best bet was that I would be either severely injured by his hands, or dead, and I was not ready to take the chance on either one of those alternatives.

Consumed in my thoughts while driving in my car, it was about 7 pm when I was coming home from work. You know that feeling you get when you were in school when you got in trouble and the principle called your mom? More significantly, the feeling you get on the way home knowing that she was going to beat your ass for it? That was the feeling I had in that very moment.

As I pulled up to my house, I let out a breath that I was unaware I was holding in. Charles was not home today, which did not surprise me since my sister had taken Lily for the day to take her shopping.

I pulled into the driveway and turned the ignition off, ignoring the urge to close my eyes I laid my head back on the head of the seat, and rubbed my temples. My body was screaming for a soak in the bathtub from being on my feet all day. I wanted to get in my house and relax, just incase Charles chose to cut his outing short, although it was rare for him to do so when he was not watching Lily.

I opened my car door and grabbed my purse on the passenger seat and stepped out of the car to head towards the door-step. I was looking down the entire time, fiddling with the keys in order to find the one to open the front house-door.

"Salut!" I heard, and nearly jumped out of my skin!

"Oh shit!" I exclaimed in surprise, being startled by a tall man at my door. I grabbed at my chest in order to slow down my speeding heart rate that this stranger had just caused me.

Um, can I help you?!"

He placed his hand on his chest, "Je suis vraiment désolé de vous faire peur!"

"Huh?!" Clearly, I looked confused to him, because he then replied, "Pardon, I mean, I sorry. Sometime I forget I in Amérique. I say for you that I sorry to start you!"

"To start me?!", I asked, frowning my brows, confused once more.

"Ahhh" he said frustrated, tossing his head back, scrunching his face, and hitting his forehead.

"I not know the right way to say this for you. Comment dites-vous... Ummm," He quickly popped up, eyes almost bugged, while pointing at me, "Scar, yes?"

I covered my mouth and lowered my head towards the ground; uncomfortable with the fact that another man had just made me laugh. Although Charles was not present, I felt guilty, almost as if he would know this was happening, and immediately stopped.

I cleared my throat, trying hard to dismiss the smile that had spread across my face just a few seconds ago, holding my facial muscles hostage and would not go away.

"You mean scare, right?"

"Oui, Oui!" he said, frantically shaking his head.

"Oh!" I said with epiphany. "Then you were probably trying to say startle, not start."

He pointed his face towards the ground and shook his head, "Yes. Mon anglais, is not more good."

He looked up at me again, "Je'mapelle Laurent!" he shook his head, squeezing his eyes together then opened them again, taking a deep breath, then letting it out, "My name Laurent!"

I began laughing again. Not caring whether or not Charles would find out this time around. I was not on cloud nine today; I was definitely on cloud ten