A deep voice floated faintly from somewhere inside the apartment, sounding completely amused.Heat rushed to my face so fast it was almost impressive.
“Oh my God,” I breathed, taking a step back.My grandma was…oh, kill me now.The universe should’ve just opened up a black hole and sucked me in.“I can go.I shoulddefinitelygo—”
“Nonsense,” she cut in immediately, reaching for my arm and pulling me inside before I could protest further.“You are not runnin’ out into this rain.”
I let myself be dragged in, still slightly horrified because there was only one thought looping through my head now—somehow, my Friday evening turned into me just interrupting my grandma fromgetting some.
I physically shuddered.
“Savannah.”She beamed, entirely too calm as she dragged me to the living room.“This is Darrell.”
A middle-aged man appeared from the direction of the kitchen, offering me an easy, unbothered smile like this was the most normal thing in the world.His deep, cocoa brown complexion was etched with smile lines, and his head was shaved close, showing off a salt-and-pepper dusting that matches his neatly-trimmed goatee.
“Pleasure,” he said.
I blinked.“Hi.”
“Viv, how ‘bout I start some dinner?Three plates?”
“Be careful now.Keep reading my mind like that and you'll start somethin’.”
Darrell chuckled and disappeared into the kitchen, and my grandma pulled me onto the sofa.
“Now that,” she said, lowering her voice slightly as she leaned toward me, “is a man who knows his way around a kitchen, let me tell you.Finest beef stew I've ever had.”
“I didn’t know you had… company,” I managed, still trying to recalibrate.“I’m sorry, really.I didn’t mean to intrude.”
She waved a dismissive hand, already guiding me toward the living room.
“Please.I am always here when my grandbaby needs me,” she said firmly.Then, softer, more knowing, “And it looks like you need me.”
And just like that… everything I’d wanted to say, to explain, spewed out of me with no remorse.
“—then she just demands that I break things off with him or else she'll release the photos!As if she hasn't already taken everything from me once.I mean, howselfishcan she be?If she thinks I'm going to fold just because she has some screenshots, then she doesn't know me as well as she thinks she does.But ugh—” I groaned, running my fingers through my hair as I paced.“Why is she doing this?Isn't Chase enough?”
“You mean to tell me that you and that tall glass of champagne started a…fakerelationship?”
“His name is Jaxon, Grandma.”
“He's still tall champagne in my eyes, baby.”
I shook my head, trying—and failing—not to smile.
“All this foolin’ around and you think I'm gonna believe it was fake?Oh, I don't think so.”
“I'm sorry we lied to you—”
“Child,” she waved a dismissive hand, “you lie to yourself.”
My brows furrowed at her.“What does that even mean?”
Mama V didn’t answer right away.She just looked at me the way she always did when she was about to say something I wasn’t going to like.
“Come here,” she said, nodding toward the couch.
I hesitated for half a second before dropping down, lips twisted in a frown.She turned to face me, tying the robe and smoothing it over her knees.
“You can dress it up however you want.Call it fake, call it an arrangement, call it whatever makes you feel safe.”My lips pressed into a thin line.“But don’t sit there and tell me there’s nothin’ real in it,” she added, her tone sharpening just enough.
