Grady and his band of felons have put me in a pretty bad situation here. I’m not about to let my life fall completely apart all because I wanted a burger for lunch. My life is in shambles enough already. The least I can do is to, for once, be proactive, and to do something about my situation.
“We’re sorry we didn’t tell you,” I say quickly. Grady's head spins around so fast I think the damn thing might fall off. The smile that spreads on my face is almost painful. He doesn’t like this, not at all, which makes it that much more fun. Cheyenne’s eyes grow large with surprise, and her mouth falls open just slightly.
“We are?” he asks with a raised brow and a look of scorn on his chiseled face. I roll my eyes at him and give Cheyenne a wink.
“It’s new. I’m sorry you had to find out this way. The truth is, your dad has been chasing me for a while. Then yesterday when I went to The 101 Club on your suggestion, we ran into each other. I just… couldn’t resist his charm any longer.” Not even halfway through my lie, my face is heating and I’m starting to sweat. I’m such an awful liar that I shouldn’t even be attempting to pull this off, but I’m not about to be the only honest one in the room.
Grady’s eyes slide from me to Cheyenne before returning to me. “And what did we do at The 101 Club?” he asks. From behind him, Cheyenne gives him a confused glance.
“Nothing. I got sick,” I say in a last-minute surprise of genius. Or stupidity. The jury is still out. “You brought me back here because you said you wanted to take care of me.”
“Dad wanted to take care of you? Oh man, he must be in love then,” Cheyenne says. Her stare becomes uncomfortable, and then she bursts into laughter. Rich, joyous guffaws emanate from her as her chest shakes and she scrunches her face up. Whatever I’ve said is apparently so funny that she’s nearly in tears with her laughter.
Grady turns back to me and gives me a hard stare. Feeling emboldened by his daughter’s presence, I stare into his eyes and smirk. “Baby, did you call my boss and Mindy to let them know I stayed over because I was sick?”
“No,” he says. “That’s not my shit to handle.” I take too long deciding how to react. Now that I’ve dug myself into this ridiculous lie, I have to stick with it, and part of that is pretending to expect him to have called my boss and family to let them know I’m safe. But I’m too late, and Cheyenne reacts for me.
“Dad, you really didn’t tell anyone she’s here? Can’t she, like, get in trouble for that or something?”
“I can,” I say sadly and look up at Grady. I’m not sure what’s changed with Cheyenne since the day she flipped out on me in the office, but something obviously has. First with the greeting me in passing, and then the lunch recommendation—no matter how poorly that turned out—and now concern over me losing my job. Regardless of what kind of a father she has, she seems like a good kid who’s just been going through something.
Grady’s jaw ticks, and he sucks in a deep breath. The more infuriated he becomes with me, the more it eggs me on to keep the lie going. I must have lost a lot of blood to be acting like such an insane person. I’m going to end up lying myself into “the alternative” if I’m not careful.
“Oh good, you’re up,” an older woman says as she pushes past Cheyenne. She shares Grady’s and Cheyenne’s dark hair and green eyes. She has lines around her eyes, and her natural-looking, sun-kissed skin is free of makeup. As she approaches the bed, I notice that she’s wearing dark-washed denim and a lavender button-up blouse that has spots of dirt smeared on the lower half.
Standing beside the bed now, the woman who I think might be Grady’s mother turns to Cheyenne and says, “You’re supposed to be in class. Now get your butt back to school.”
“Half day,” I say instinctively. “Last minute decision on behalf of the staff. Seniors have a half day so the staff can plan their graduation trip.” I give the woman a smile that she doesn’t quite return. She looks speculatively toward Grady and then to Cheyenne.
“Then go do homework or something,” she says to Cheyenne, who turns around and stomps out. The minute Cheyenne’s footsteps fade into nothingness, Grady turns and glares at me.
“You fucked up,” he says.
“No,” I counter. “I was saving my own butt since you were so eager to leave it out to hang. At least now I have a plausible excuse for disappearing for an entire day.”
“Get one thing straight—you don’t call shots around here,” he barks back. The woman looks between us before lifting her hands in front of her.
“Oh, Sterling, let’s not fight,” I say sarcastically. If it bothers him that I call him by his first name, after he’s told me not to, he doesn’t let on.
“Look, just pretend to be saying your goodbyes in here, give the girl her money, and let her go. We’ll tell Chey you were a jerk and she dumped you,” the woman says.
“Ma,” he says in a plea. “That is the stupidest shit I’ve ever heard.”
“Well, it’s no worse than that lie she made up,” his mother says. “I was listening from the hall.”