One More Chance

For Real This Time

Giana

"Is everything okay, dear?"

I look up from my laptop to see Grandma smiling from across the table. She just finished her physical therapy and is enjoying a cup of tea I'd prepared for her.

"Yup, everything's fine."

It's a lie but I need to keep things simple with Grandma or she'll be agitated if I give her too many details, like the fact that it's been two weeks since I asked one of Aunt Marlene's drivers at the reunion to drop me off at one of the hotels in town where Io picked me up the following morning. Two weeks since I left a message with Bryce telling him I was done with our charade and promptly drafted my notice at the firm, effective immediately. We lost the Camden project anyway. Henry pulled it the very next day.

Sure, I could have completed the final week of my arrangement with Bryce but I just couldn't. I was done with him and his family.

What's that saying? The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Bryce would have fallen in line with everyone else. In time, he'd have put me down like his relatives did at the reunion and it's just not worth it.

If I have to make payment arrangements with the hospital, then so be it. Sure, things would have been tight but Grandma and I would have been fine either way. She's in a decent place, as it is and I have to stop dreaming of moving her into a better place for now. It means I'll have to live on a tighter budget and find a new job. Except for that last part, that had been the plan anyway.

But I had to choose the easy way, accepting Bryce's offer while secretly hoping it would work out for real. Even the likes of his aunt and uncle weren't fooled.

"Where's that handsome boss of yours?" Grandma sets down her cup of tea.

"He's somewhere." Bryce has been calling and texting every day but I've refused to pick up his calls or read his messages. It's not easy but I need to move on. It was a mistake. The whole arrangement was a big mistake.

I received a job offer from a small firm in Sacramento and I start in a week. It'll mean driving an hour and a half each way until I find a place but it will have to do for now. I don't want to live too far from my grandmother, not with her Alzheimers getting worse each day and the staff needing me to come over the days when she refuses to listen anyone else but me. It's only happened once in the last two weeks and thankfully, today is one of her good days.

Grandma takes a bite of her scone, dusting the crumbs off her fingers. "He likes you, you know."

I close my laptop and retrieve the stack of mail I'd brought along with me from the apartment. "Men like him like a lot of women, Grandma. The trick is not to fall for them." Or their ploys to get you into bed.

"But not all men ask a woman's grandmother for their granddaughter's hand in marriage."

I stare at her as her gaze drifts out the window. "What did you say?"

She turns to face me, frowning. "What, dear?"

"You said something about marriage."

"I did?" She thinks for a moment, then shrugs. "It must be a show I saw on TV this week. Gunsmoke."

I tear open the envelopes, pulling out their contents and stacking them in a pile in front of me. I've been waiting for the last of the medical bills to arrive so I can see what insurance paid for and what we'll end up owing the hospital for Grandma's surgery. Sure, her insurance paid for part of it but the balance is still substantial.

My phone buzzes as an incoming message from Bryce flashes on the display. I turn it over and return my attention to the bills again... or try to. To say it's been a tough two weeks is an understatement but we do what we have to do. Even Io understood even if she will never know that what Bryce and I had wasn't real.