I glanced at the time on my phone and shot Gran a look. “It’s only been six hours.”
She waved me off as I helped her sit on the bed. “The kids and I missed you at dinner. They’re fast asleep now, but they told me to tell you that you have to eat up all your food whenever you do eat. No leftovers.”
I smiled, not needing to be told that it was Jamal who’d said that. I’d said it to him a million times before, on days when he didn’t seem to have much of an appetite. “I’ll have it for lunch tomorrow.”
“Well, what took your appetite tonight?” Gran sent me a knowing look before I could open my mouth to deny that anything was wrong.
I sighed, not even knowing what to say. I felt awful for accusing Jasper of sleeping with another woman, and he was right. The least I could have done was give him the chance to explain things before I started jumping to conclusions and condemning him for something he didn’t do. I should have heard him out first. I knew that now.
But it wasn’t like my reaction was any different from what most people’s would be. I had every reason to believe it was Jasper who I saw on that couch! It wasJasper’soffice, and histattoo I saw! He hadn’t mentioned that Eddie had the same tattoo before, so how could I have known? He can’t blame me for being angry and jumping to my own conclusions.
But I guessed I could understand where he was coming from. Being in a relationship with someone who didn’t trust you wasn’t any fun.
“I messed things up with Jasper today.” I sighed. “I accused him of doing something he didn’t do and now he thinks we need time apart. Things are over between us.”
“Oh.” She smiled at me. “Is that all? Honey, I’ve seen you two together! That man loves you. You two will be just fine.” She patted my knee, and I felt my cheeks heating up as I quickly shook my head.
“I don’t know about that. He seemed really upset when he left.” I glanced toward the pillow that the papers and key that he’d given to me earlier had been stuffed under, and I contemplated telling Gran about the home that he’d gifted us with, but I doubted that it would help my case. She wouldn’t believe for a second that things were truly over between the two of us if I told her about this gift.
New house or not, he didn’t seem interested in hearing my apology before he left and he hasn’t responded to my text messages. He told Janiyah that he wouldn’t be coming around for a while. He wouldn’t have said that if there was a chance of us fixing things.
My eyes pooled as I contemplated the facts. I ruined everything.
“If you two were meant to be together, believe me, you will be.” She patted my knee once again before trying to stand up. I quickly grabbed her hand, ignoring her shooing as I helped her stand straight. “You stop all that worrying about nothing and come upstairs. I want you to eat that jambalaya now. You don’t want to go to sleep on an empty stomach.”
“But Gran–” I looked at the TV, still paused and about to go dark since I hadn’t interacted with it in a while.
“But Gran nothing. Upstairs. Come on.” I should have been helping her walk, but she was the one tugging me along with surprising strength. I stumbled after her, just barely managing to regain my balance as we got to the stairs.
It was a slow walk back up to the apartment–slower than Gran would have liked if her grumbling was anything to go by–but once we got back to the area where Jasper had broken my heart earlier, my eyes widened as I saw Marlon standing outside of the apartment door.
Gran let out a quiet huff, and I shushed her before she could say anything more. She was never his biggest fan.
“Hello,” Marlon greeted with a dazzling smile. “Nice to see you again, Mary Joy.”
“Mhm.” She eyed him as she opened the door. “You too, Marlon. Quinn, don’t be too long.”
The two of us watched as she disappeared inside, and I stifled my laughter as she closed the door before he could even say ‘bye’. Then my attention turned to Marlon, and I raised a brow as I eyed him. Despite the late hour, he was dressed in an expensive-looking suit, a gold watch on his wrist, and a gold chain around his neck. In his hands, a set of car keys. My eyes widened as I noticed the black and gold Lamborghini tag hanging from his key chain.
“Marlon, are those your keys?”
“They sure are.” He grinned proudly. “I just drove the car off the lot earlier today. It’s all mine.”
Confused didn’t even begin to describe my feelings. “What? Where did you get the money to afford a car like that?” Did unemployment pay that much? When I’d fired him months before, he’d begged me to keep him on until he got another job since he’d been looking since we broke up and hadn’t been able to find that paid the same. I’d gone ahead and fired him, but offered him a small severance package.
“Don’t you worry about that. It isn’t important, anyway.” He brushed me off. “What’s important is the fact that I can now afford to make all your dreams come true.” He winked, popping the collar of his shirt.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “What are you talking about, Marlon?”
“Baby.” He stepped closer, resting his hands on my arms. “You name it and I can afford it. I can expand the restaurant the way you talked about, and I can hire a nice nanny to take care of your niece and nephew, and a caregiver for your grandmother, too. That way, we can focus on our relationship!”
“We don’t even have a relationship–”
“That’s the thing.” Marlon rubbed my shoulders. “I want you back, Qwinny. I want things to go back to how they were before. Just you and me! What do you say?”
“I say you haven’t changed a bit.” I rolled my eyes. “Everything I say goes right in one ear and out the other. I told you when I broke up with you that I wasn’t about to just dump my niece and nephew off on some stranger to be taken care of, and my grandmother doesn’t need a caregiver. She has me.”And the help that Jasper hired.
“Quinn.” He let out a long sigh. “Can’t you see what I’m trying to do here? I’m trying to make things easier for you–”
