I flash sympathetic eyes in Kai’s direction. “Hey, Auntie,” I greet when the FaceTime call connects.

“Don’t think because you’re thirty-two that you’re too old to get knocked upside the head,” she glares.

“What did I do?”

“First of all, it’s been weeks since I heard from you and second, when I did speak to your ass not once did you mention you and Kai were back together.”

My eyes bulge at her words just as Kai steps over into the frame.

“Nephewwwww!” Patrice calls out, waving to him. “Oooh, y’all are shacking up too? See I knew y’all would find your way back to each other eventually.”

“Back up, Auntie. How did you know Kai and I are back together?”

“No, let’s back up a little further, Auntie. Why didn’t you tell me you were still in contact with Olivia?”

Her eyes narrow at his accusatory tone. “Because I’m grown and don’t have to tell you a damn thing.”

For a brief, blink-and-you-miss-it second the clear frustration on Kai’s face gives way to hurt. He covers it up so quickly that I assume Auntie missed it, but her next words prove she saw it. “You had a support system, sweetie. You had me, your mom and dad, your grandmom, and Kylie. Liv didn’t and she’s my baby girl. I needed to be there for her.”

Kai huffs but squeezes my shoulder in understanding.

Auntie explains to us that she saw the Instagram post about us and had to call me to get in my ass about keeping our status from her when she was the one rooting for us this entire time. I’m too baffled by her words to even defend myself. Not that I could anyway. She was right; I should’ve told her. My focus goes back to the Instagram post as her voice fades away to the background, hammering away at Kai for not telling her.

Who the fuck would care enough about Kai and me to post us on Instagram? I open the app on my computer, and sure enough there’s a post from early this morning on the Rumor Has It gossip blog page. There are two pictures. The first is of Kai and me walking out of the paint and sip place, his hand on the small of my back, me smiling up at him, with our paintings on prominent display in our hands. The second is a picture of us in that parking lot, his face in my hands as I reach up to kiss him. It’s a good thing I didn’t let him fuck me in that parking lot because it seems that something worse than being arrested for public indecency would’ve happened; the Internet would’ve seen my bare ass. The caption reads: