“Your card, it didn’t go through.” She shook her head, looking down at her computer screen.
“Can you try it again?” I gave it back to her, my chest growing tight. “I know there’s money in there.”
“Sure.” She took the card back and Lucy started to howl, sick of being strapped in the cart.
“Shh, shh.” I tried to calm her while still staring at the cashier. I looked at the line of people standing behind me. An older woman with gray hair looked down at the girls and back at me, smiling sympathetically.
The cashier swiped the card and stared at the screen again, eventually shaking her head. “I’m sorry, it’s not going through. Do you have another form of payment?”
“No,” I said quietly. An empty feeling grew in the pit of my stomach as I felt my face redden.
She asked me a question, but I didn’t hear her over the girls’ crying. They were battling each other for the loudest screamer as I was having the most embarrassing moment of my life.
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled as I walked off with the empty cart that carried nothing but my two hysterical four-month-olds.
I hurried to my car as quickly as I could, not wanting to see the people who were in line behind me again. As soon as the girls were buckled, I hurried out of the parking lot and drove home as fast as I could.
“Hey! Wake up!” I sat down on the bed next to Zach.
He groaned and rolled away from me.
“Zach?”
Lifting his head slightly, he squinted at me. “What?”
“Uh, I just tried to go to the grocery store and the debit card was declined. You need to call the bank.”
“Why?”
“So they can see what happened. Both of our checks went in yesterday. There should be more than enough money.”
“I don’t need to call. I know where it is.” He lay back down and covered his head with the pillow.
I pulled the pillow off of him. “Zach! Where is it? I need to go to the grocery store. I just wasted two hours!”
“It’s gone!” He snatched the pillow back.
“Gone? What do you mean gone? Where is it?”
“I spent it.”
“What?”
“Me and the guys, we went gambling after work last night. I lost.”
I shot off the bed and glared down at him. “You gambled away both of our paychecks?”
“Yeah. Sorry.”
“You are such an immature ass!” I turned and stormed out of the bedroom. The last thing I wanted to do was dip into the girls’ Christmas money, but at this point, I had no choice. I could forget about the turkey and all the sides, but I needed to cover basic groceries for the week. I lifted onto my tippy-toes, grabbed the coffee can from the cabinet, and opened it.
Empty.
What the hell?
I sprinted down the hall and threw the can at Zach, happy when it connected with his head.
“Ow! What the hell, Kacie?” He sat up and rubbed the side of his head.
“You bastard! Where is the girls’ Christmas money?”
“Oh. That.” He looked down at the bed, avoiding my glare. “I took that too.”
“Zach! What the hell! How could you do this?” My throat burned and my voice cracked even though I was trying to stay strong. “It’s their first Christmas and now they won’t have any presents. Nor will we have food for the week. What are we supposed to do?”
“Calm down about Christmas. They don’t know what the hell is going on anyway. And there’s probably enough food here for the week. We’ll be fine.” He yawned like he didn’t have a care in the world. “Anyway, you should be thanking me. I tried to double it. How much would you have loved me then? Damn blackjack table.”
My pulse raced, my heart pounded. I wanted to hit him. I wanted to hit him so bad. How could I be with a person who literally gambles away their kids’ food?
I ran to the bedroom and packed two duffel bags. One for me and one for the girls. I had no idea where I was going or how long I would be gone, but it didn’t matter at that moment. I just needed to get away.
Zach didn’t try to stop me as I left. In fact, I think he went back to sleep.
My mother couldn’t know what Zach had done, she’d never let me hear the end of it. I only had one option: Alexa’s.
She opened the front door to her house and shook her head.
“Don’t say a word,” I begged as I walked past her into her house and set the girls in Derek’s lap. “Congratulations. It’s a girl. Actually, two of them.”
He laughed and picked Lucy up, tossing her in the air.
“Dude. He is such an ass,” Alexa snarled after I grabbed the bags from the car.
“I know.” I sighed. “That’s it, Alexa. I mean it. If he doesn’t even care about groceries for the girls, there’s no hope for the two of us.”
“I hope you really mean that this time,” she accused, raising an eyebrow at me. “Don’t fall for any of his bullshit excuses. You deserve better.”