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“Excuse me.”

She smiled politely. “Yes, ma’am?”

“Can I see the guest list?”

“Of course.”

She handed it over, and I flipped through until I reached the C’s.

Then I stopped.

Chalis.

His name was right there, so were the names of the two men who had come with him.

“What the fuck?”

I checked again even though the names weren’t magically going to rearrange themselves.

Willow and I had reviewed every person before the list was finalized, and we had specifically made sure Chalis and his friends weren’t invited. Nobody should have been able to add them that evening either. The list had already been typed, printed, and distributed to the staff before the first guest arrived.

So how the hell were all four names suddenly sitting there in black ink?

“Everything okay, ma’am?” the greeter asked.

I forced myself to hand the clipboard back. “Yeah. Thank you.”

When I turned around, Chalis was standing directly behind me.

I flinched. “Jesus Christ!”

He laughed. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”

I cut him an annoyed expression.

He nodded toward the clipboard. “So… can I stay?”

“Hell fucking no.”

His grin disappeared. “For real?”

“You heard me.”

“But my name is on the list.”

“And I don’t give a fuck.”

“Come on, now, Lakelyn. Why you acting like that? It’s a party.”

“At my house!”

“No disrespect. We just came to have a good time.”

“Then go have a good time somewhere else!” I snapped.

He sighed my name like I was the one being unreasonable. “Lakelyn.”

“No. You listen to me.” I stepped closer. “You already came to my house uninvited once, and I made it very fucking clear that I didn’t want you here. Now you show up at a party in my home with three other niggas, and you think because somebody mysteriously put your name on a list, I’m supposed to let you stay?”