Can't Save Me

Madeline

"Well, my goodness someone is positively glowing this evening," Diamond greeted with a knowing grin as I walked into the locker room.

I laughed and gave my head a wave as I tossed down my duffle and sank down at my makeup station. She wasn't wrong. I probably was glowing. In fact, I don't think I had stopped smiling for more than ten minutes at a time in the month and some change that Grant and I had now been dating. Things were... well, they were fantastic. There was really no other way to put it. My only complaint at the given moment was that we were struggling to find time to be together.

Between the restaurant where I was working three to four days a week, and the club where I'd been pulling six days since I returned from my Cop imposed 'vacation,' I was beyond exhausted. But Grant being Grant was as steadfast and dependable as always. The man was even helping take care of my mother on days I was pulling double duty. Though, if you asked my mom, they were just friends hanging out. He wasn't some sort of mammoth guardian angel checking in on her or bringing her dinner while I bounced from one shift to the next. She'd even taught him how to play Bridge over the last two weeks, and he just grinned and bared it. Every second of it.

"I had a good morning," I responded with a laugh as I leaned back in my chair.

"I take it things are going well with your hunky Marine?" Diamond smirked.

I rolled my eyes a bit, but the grin on my face didn't fade. "He's... incredible and that's probably the understatement of the century." I started fiddling with a lip gloss, rolling it back and forth across my vanity. "I'm literally obsessed with him, Diamond. It's... intense."

"And that's a bad thing?" Diamond asked.

"No. I don't know." I heaved a sigh. "I feel like I'm getting distracted from what I should be doing."

"Which is what?" Diamond questioned with a chuckle. "Working in this shithole for the rest of your life?"

"Not exactly."

"Honey, listen to me," Diamond commanded, turning in her chair, and placing her hand on mine. "There's more to life than working every day until you drop dead off the pole, okay? If the man makes you happy, there ain't a damn thing wrong with it."

"I feel like I'm asking too much," I softly replied. "He hates that I had to come back here. Like... HATES it and honestly, I'm starting to hate it too. I hate being here. I hate that it's taking time I want to spend with him. I hate that he's had to step in and help with my mom..."

"Honey, that man did that to help you. He volunteered."

"I know, but that doesn't mean I like it," I stated. "I feel like I just pulled him into my shitty life and... what does he get in return?"

"Umm... a hot as hell girlfriend that makes all his fantasies come to life?"

I laughed out loud. "I'm sure he could find another, more stable option in a heartbeat."

"But he doesn't want a more stable option, Maddie. He wants YOU." Diamond stood up and smoothed out the hot pink fishnet dress she donned for the evening. "And something tells me, he ain't a man to let someone else change his mind."

"No. He's stubborn as fuck."

"Huh. Imagine that." Diamond looked at me and fluttered her fake, dramatic eyelashes. "Taste of your own medicine there?"

"Y'all need to leave me alone," I stated, feigning annoyance, and digging into my makeup bag like she hadn't just hit the nail on the damn head. Grant was the only person in the world I'd met whose stubbornness rivaled my own, but that didn't mean I had to admit to a damn thing. "Aren't you supposed to be onstage?"