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The Ultimatum Chapter 5

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“I really fucked up,” Billy said, sitting on his motel room bed while James warmed up some ramen noodles in the microwave.

“Yeah, you kind of did,” James agreed.

Billy didn’t even bother to take exception to that. He knew it was true. Josefita had probably broken up with him back there. He’d just pissed away one of the best things in his world. How had things gone from so good to so very, very bad in two days?

“You know what you need to do,” James said, pressing buttons on the microwave.

“When did you become my mother?” Billy demanded. He wished his mother was there now. He needed to talk to her, to feel her hold him, to hear her tell him in her Irish brogue that everything would be okay. But she’d been dead for six years now, and he’d never told her what happened to him.

The phone rang. Holding his breath, Billy answered it. Josefita. “Hey,” she said. “It’s me. Josefita.”

Like he didn’t know her voice. “Hey.” His heart pounded so loud he was sure she could hear it. Was she going to cuss him out again?

Josefita sighed. “I overreacted.”

“No,” Billy said, tensing up. “You were right. I screwed up.”

“James called me earlier.”

Billy gulped. His eyes darted to James, who suddenly became very interested in his ramen. “What’d he say?”

“That I needed to talk to you. That there was a lot more going on than I know.” She paused. “He said you love me a whole lot.”

Billy’s throat closed up. “I do.”

“I love you, too. I want to work this out.”

“Me, too.”

“So…?”

“Not now,” Billy said. That wasn’t the sort of conversation one had over the phone.

Josefita punched something. “Dammit, William!”

“Tell you what, Josefita,” Billy said. “I’ll come over to your place at nine and we’ll meet in the courtyard and I’ll tell you everything, okay?”

“Eight. On the dot.”

Fair enough. He’d screwed up, so he should play by her rules. “I’ll be there,” Billy promised. “Bye.”

“Bye,” Josefita said before hanging up.

“You’re doing the right thing,” James assured him.

“It don’t feel right.” Billy looked up at the microwave clock. 7:35. That old Johnny Cash song popped into his head. Well, they’re building a gallows outside my cell, I’ve got twenty-five minutes to go. Billy felt like he really was about to get hanged. But it had to be done.
That song was written by Shel Silverstein, but once Johnny Cash covers something, it's his.
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