"You gotta look at it from her point of view though." I explained while sitting cross-legged on the bed, "She was just trying to be the girl's friend and she was being rude for no reason."

"So you kill someone because they don't want to be friends with you?" Jaxon asked.

"Clearly."

To my surprise, he'd never watched a Lifetime movie. Ever.

Myself, a gracious friend, volunteered to show him the best one, A Friend to Die For.

"I feel as if you're showing the red flags people tell you to look for in an abusive relationship."

"Good thing we're not in a relationship then, huh?" I asked as I poured skittles into my mouth.

This was the part where he goes, "But we can be."

Instead he said, "Hmm."

I'm crawling under the bed.

To me, Jaxon gave off 'I don't want to be with one woman vibes'. Like he knew he didn't want to be monogamous. But then he also gave off 'great husband' vibes.

I rested my chin on my hand, thinking about the possibility of us being together. He was nice, uptight, but I felt like I could help him change that.

I didn't necessarily care for kids so it'd be fine if he didn't want any. Sex was great, financially stable.

I'm making all these plans and all he said was 'hmm'.

"Do you have a passport?" He asked suddenly.

"Yes."

"Do you have plans for the holidays?"

I didn't have any, planning to just watch shitty Christmas movies with my grandma like I always did, and go out with Nasir for New Year's.

"No."

"Would you," He paused briefly, "Would you like to take a trip with me?"

I turned to look at him, "A trip?"

"Yes, a trip."

I was waiting on him to expand on his question, give me details or a location, but he simply stared at me waiting for an answer.

"A trip where?"

"It'd be a surprise."

Of course it would.

"If it's a surprise, how will I know what to pack?"

There was a sparkle in his eye, "The climate's warm."

So somewhere tropical.

"When would we leave?"

"Tomorrow afternoon."

"Do you do this on purpose?" I asked, "Ask me things when they're super close so I don't have time to think about it?"

He laughed, "I take the trip every year but I usually go alone. I'm simply asking you to join me this time around."

So what had changed in the days leading up to today that he didn't ask until the last second? It would be nice to take a trip to wherever, spend alone time, just the two of us.

Maybe he'd be my boyfriend by the time we left. I laughed under my breath at how childish it sounded.

"Sure."

He sat up and reached for his phone, "I'll need your passport number."

Not knowing it by heart, I needed to call my grandma and ask her to get it out of my night stand.

"Well hello stranger." She said after she'd answered. "I forgot you lived here."

"Hello Mrs. Extra." I replied with a laugh, "You'd think it's been a week."

"I've missed your face. Are you coming home tonight?"

"I'm not actually. I was calling to ask you to go into my room and get my passport."

I winced in anticipation of her asking me a thousand questions.

"You're going somewhere?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

"It's a surprise."

The line went quiet and I waited for the second barrage of interrogation.

"No."

Whut?

"Why not?" I asked, knowing she was about to give me a crazy reason.

"Because I've never met him and you're leaving the state? I don't think so."

Well I was leaving the country, but I didn't wanna add to her paranoia.

"Grandma, who even said it was a him?"

"Ain't no woman taking you on a surprise trip. You must think I'm a fool."

The entire time Jaxon was sitting there quietly. I know he heard her because my grandma couldn't speak in a low tone to save her life.

"So you can either bring him by the house." She continued, "Or the news will be running a piece about the mystery man and my missing grand-daughter."

He laughed silently as his finger typed something on his phone, and handed it to me,

I can meet her if you'd like?

I rolled my eyes in annoyance and responded to her, "Fine."

• • •

Jaxon's car was out of place and I hoped we wouldn't return to it sitting on bricks with missing tires.

I was more nervous than he was since he was whistling like he didn't have a care in the world.

When I walked in, I expected to see my grandma sitting in her chair with two pistols. Instead she was sitting in her chair watching Jr play with paint.

"Grandma this is Jaxon, Jaxon that's my grandma."

He stepped from behind me to walk closer, leaning down to give her a hug instead of a handshake.

"I have a name, Pam," She said when he stepped back, "I don't know where Ky gets her manners from."

He laughed, "It's fine."

I was waiting for her to skip all of this shit and get to the purpose of this visit.

Her eyes came to me, "I thought you had something to do?"

"I do."

"Well go do it."

She just wanted to talk to him without me being there.

As if I wouldn't listen from the hallway.

I walked to my room, opening the door so she'd think I was in there before tiptoeing back towards the front.

It was disappointing when I found I couldn't hear them from where I was, and if I moved closer, she'd probably see me.

So maybe she could talk in a low voice when she didn't want me to hear what was being said.

Giving up on that, I went back into the room and started packing, rummaging through swimsuits and dresses.

I was zipping the suitcase when I heard the slight whine of the door opening.

Who the fuck else?

"We barely have any food left and I wanted to get something real quick" I heard her say as I got closer.

"I thought you bought food with the money from returning the school clothes?" My grandma replied.

Wait, what?

"You took his clothes back?" I demanded, forgetting Jaxon was sitting there, "What type of trifling mess is that?"

She waved me off, "We had to eat."

I took the receipt out of the bag to prevent this but she likely just took it back and got a gift card, selling it someone else for money.

Who would've thought I needed to take the tags off to prevent her from returning her son's school clothes.

I looked to my grandma, "And you knew?"

"Kyser it's winter break. I'll replace them before school starts again."

"You shouldn't have to though. I literally spent four hundred and something dollars buying him winter and summer school clothes, shoes, socks, underwear, all of that just for her to take it back."

She looked at Paisley, "You said it was a few shirts and 2 pairs of pants."

"Well I didn't ask her to do that!" She yelled, "Why would she do it if she was just gone throw it in my face?!"

This can't be my life. I try to help her son, then when I'm mad that she returned something, I'm the bad one.

"I'm not dealing with this today." I said.

"Tell grandma where you got your four hundred dollars from anyway." Paisley taunted.

I froze.

I would never tell Paisley shit, so I didn't know how she knew.

"What you call them? Clients?"

So on one of her many attempts at finding money in my room, she'd found the small notebook I used to write down clients' information, like preferences and such.

"Is this a client? I saw his car outside sis, how much is he paying you?"

My grandma stared at me with a blank face, waiting for me to confirm or deny what Paisley was saying.

Jaxon had his eyes on the floor, looking the most

uncomfortable and out of place I'd ever seen.

Seeing that she had me stuck, Paisley continued, "Whenever I'm feeling bad about my life I can always think of you and tell myself, "Well at least I'm not a prostitute.""

"Kyser lets go." Jaxon said as he stood up.

"Listen to your employer."

In my 20 years of life, I'd had many embarrassing moments.

The most embarrassing one was when my grandma, the woman who'd raised me, turned her head to avoid looking at me.

______

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