I turned around when the door to the balcony opened. Morgan gestured upward with his head to me.
“Dinner is on the way up,” Morgan said.
“Who is that?” Chase quickly asked. “Is that Morg?” Chase suddenly sounded annoyed and irritated.
“Um, yeah. He’s here with Grandma and Grandpa. They came to the fight, and we’re going to have dinner,” I explained.
“Cool. Have fun. Later,” Chase said sharply just before the line went dead.
“Fuck,” I said under my breath. I stood and looked at Morgan.
“Rough chat with Chase?” he asked.
“Yeah. He’s kind of all over the place.”
I left it at that and stepped inside the suite with him. I set the phone down and then went over to hug my grandparents.
“Thank you, guys, for making the trip,” I said. “I’m sorry it didn’t have a better outcome.”
“Stop apologizing,” Patrick said over his shoulder as he went to the door to let the servers in.
“Yes, Hollis, you listen to Patrick. No more apologizing,” Grandma said as she swatted my bicep.
We continued the small talk until the servers had set all the food out in a buffet style and then left us alone.
“I hope you guys didn’t mind having dinner up here tonight,” I said.
“Absolutely not, Hollis. I can’t even imagine how tired you are,” Grandma said. She stood on her tiptoes to reach up and try to comb her fingers through my hair that was still damp.
I motioned for everyone to go ahead of me and take their seats around the table. Grandpa broke the silence as we all piled some food onto our plates.
“Are you going to take the rest of the year off?” he asked.
“There’s not much left of the year. Just a few more weeks,” I replied.
“And it would be a good few weeks for you to take off. Rest some. Spend time with your friends and family,” he suggested.
“Yeah, maybe we can catch a Lakers game,” Morgan suggested.
“Go to an amusement park,” Patrick said.
“Spend some of that money you’ve earned,” Grandpa said.
“I spend,” I replied. Morgan and Patrick both laughed.
“Find a nice girl, and take her out to dinner,” Grandma suggested.
“Buy her flowers,” Grandpa said.
“Oh! A nice young lady would love flowers and dinner with you. You’re so handsome, Hollis,” Grandma said.
“He’s lucky his face hasn’t been broken and mangled,” Morgan said.
“Oh, now you stop that, Morgan.” Grandma playfully slapped Morgan’s arm. “Hollis will be quite the catch for some young lady. Don’t you think?” she asked him.
“Meh, I suppose he’d be a good catch for whoever he’s into. It doesn’t have to be some Hollywood damsel,” Morgan teased and then took a sip from his glass. He pointed a finger at me from the hand that was wrapped around his glass. “You’ve got to watch out for those Hollywood damsels, Hollis.”
“Yes, women could bleed you dry, Hollis,” Grandpa added.
