“What are you doing here?” I breathed.
He smiled. “I thought I’d surprise you. Take you to dinner.”
My dad looked him up and down. “Alexis, who is this?”
I swallowed. “I…”
Daniel put a hand out. “Daniel Grant.”
Dad didn’t shake his hand. He looked at it like it was dirty.
And then, in some weird alternate universe move, Neil stepped in. “Neil. Nice to meet you.”
He shook Daniel’s hand, and pure panic ripped through me.
“I’m sorry, who are you to her?” Mom asked, looking confused.
“Um,” I licked my lips. “He’s my—”
Daniel looked at me, his eyes telling me he was starting to read the room, and for a split second I seriously considered lying. Saying anything other than the truth. My trainer. My friend. An old acquaintance who just happened to show up with flowers to take me to dinner. And then I grasped for what answer would give him the most protection from this situation. I knew it wasn’t boyfriend, but his eyes had begun to search mine, and I realized that he wouldn’t understand. He wouldn’t forgive me for this again, like he had when I did it with Jessica and Gabby. So I said it. I had to.
“He’s my boyfriend.”
Nobody said a word. Then Dad began to laugh. It was the maniacal laugh of a Disney villain, and I felt the whole room closing in around me.
“Your boyfriend?” Dad said, looking back and forth between us, amused. He nodded at my ex. “Did she tell you she’s living with Neil?”
I watched Daniel blink in shock.
“Cecil, it’s really not like that—” Neil said in a tone that was surprisingly stoic.
Dad laughed. “You’ve been in couple’s counseling for the last three months, so I’d say it’s like that, wouldn’t you?”
Neil pressed his lips into a line, but to his credit he didn’t say anything else.
Dad shook his head, looking positively titillated. “First your brother marries Lola Simone, and now this?” He practically howled.
Daniel looked at me and gave me a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Call me when you get off.” He handed me the flowers, kissed me on the cheek, and left.
I was going to have a panic attack. I could feel my breathing becoming labored.
Everyone’s eyes were on me.
“Ali, you can’t be serious…” Jessica said.
Gabby was practically gyrating, smiling like she couldn’t wait to tell Philip. Mom had a hand over her mouth, probably realizing how bad the fallout would be for both of us once Dad let this sink in. But for the moment? Dad didn’t even look mad. He looked entertained.
It occurred to me that the idea of Daniel was so ridiculous to Dad, he wasn’t even a threat. This was a joke to him, like the whole thing was too absurd to even take it seriously.
“So has he asked you for money yet?” Dad asked, still chuckling.
“What?” I breathed.
“Money,” Dad said. “Has he asked for it?”
“No!”
“But let me guess. You’ve offered it, right? It felt like your idea?” Dad looked amused.
I was too out of breath to answer him. He took my silence for a yes. And it was a yes, but it wasn’t like that.
Mom looked whiplashed. “Alexis…”
Jessica was shaking her head. Gabby was texting into her phone a million words a minute, and Neil looked almost sorry for me for some reason. I couldn’t take it.
I dropped the flowers on the nurses’ station and ran after Daniel.
By the time I caught up with him, he was halfway into the parking lot. “Daniel!”
He kept walking.
I sprinted the last few feet and grabbed his arm. “Daniel, please!”
He turned to me, his eyes red. “You live with him? You’re in couple’s counseling? This whole fucking time?”
“It’s not like that,” I gasped. “He refuses to leave. He sleeps in the basement. We’re not in counseling, we lied about it—”
He shook his head. “You never told me. You let me get blindsided—”
I was riding the edge of hysteria. “I didn’t ask you to come! Why didn’t you call?”
“You had that vote today. I wanted to support you, to be there for you, like your boyfriend should. What did you think I meant when I said I wanted to try? This is me trying, you agreed to this—”
“You shouldn’t have shown up like that—”
“Why?” He threw his hands up. “You show up like that all the time. Everyone knows I’m with you, all my friends, all my family. You say you love me, but those people in there didn’t even know I exist.”