It was nearly seven o’clock the next morning when Liza woke up. The sun reflected off the decorated windows of her room. Her mother coughed, and Liza’s eyes flew open. Granny, Bev, Janae, Maurice, and LeDeya sat in patient repose at the foot of her bed.

Liza blinked in confusion. “What is everyone doing here?”

“When were you gonna tell us?” Janae asked.

“What?”

“I thought Dorsey wasn’t your type.” LeDeya folded her arms in accusation.

“Don’t be silly. Money is everyone’s type,” Bev asserted.

“I knew the whole time,” Maurice boasted, and everyone booed him. Even Janae threw a pillow at him.

“The hell you did.” Bev laughed.

“I did! Dorsey came by all the time, y’all. We hung out,” Maurice said. This elicited a laugh from everyone in the room.

“Okay, what purpose does it serve to lie, Reece?” Deya laughed. “Like you and Dorsey are cool.”

“I don’t need you half-wits to believe me. I knew. But my question is, when did it start? I can’t think of a time when you two were hanging out,” Maurice wondered.

“The snowstorm,” Janae said. “Something happened in that nap pod. Y’all didn’t come out till noon.”

“Nah, it was the gala,” Maurice argued. “The entire world could see it at the gala.”

“That Instagram post of you making food with his BFF,” LeDeya guessed, as she scrolled back through her phone. “You got an insane amount of likes and look! @DFitz commented the same night with a Heart plus Rice Bowl and Smiley-Face-Tongue-Out! Oh my god.” Deya looked like she was melting onto the bed. “Y’all were stuntin’ on us for months!”

“When he brought you that tree?” Granny suggested. “Don’t look at me like that, girl. I know how babies are made. He was on you like white on rice.”

“Granny!” Liza and Janae said in unison.

“David told me Dorsey was mooning over some mezcal mystery girl. Was that you?” Janae looked astonished.

Bev shook her head. “All of y’all are wrong. It was last year, the night of the meme. I’ve never seen Liza so out of sorts about a man turning her down. That’s why Colin didn’t do it for you. You don’t like a man running after you.”

Liza laughed. “All of you are wrong and right. It was death by a thousand little cuts. I was bleeding before I realized I was injured.” Liza smiled weakly. “But he has a lot on his plate and—”

“Do you love him?” Granny asked bluntly. “Not do you like his money—do you love him?”

“Granny, I am completely in love with him.” Liza did not hide the catch in her voice.

“He let you ride in the jet?” Bev asked.

“Ma, we all rode,” Maurice told her.