Chapter 9: The Engagement Lie

"Grandma," Geoffrey said, and he took the phone off speaker and held it to his ear. "Slow down. Tell me exactly what he said."

I could hear her voice, small and happy, going on and on.

Geoffrey's face was perfectly still.

"She's thinking about it," he said into the phone. "Yes. I'm sure she is. No, I'll talk to her. Don't call Brandon back yet, Grandma. Please."

He hung up and set the phone face down on the counter.

"He didn't ask me anything," I said. "He hasn't asked me for anything in weeks. He's lying."

"I know."

"She has a heart condition. He's using it."

"I know," Geoffrey said again, and this time his voice was rough.

He crossed the kitchen and put both his hands on my shoulders.

"I'll fix it with her tonight. Right now, you need to go and make him say it's a lie, in front of people, where he can't take it back."

"Where?"

"Where's the busiest place on campus at noon?"

I thought about it.

"The Commons," I said.

"Then that's where you go."

He kissed me, quick and hard, and handed me my jacket.

By noon the Commons was full.

It was a long glass hall at the middle of campus, with a coffee counter at one end and a hundred students stuck to their laptops.

Maddie walked in beside me, with her arms crossed.

"I'll film it," she said.

"Don't film it."

"I'll film it so you don't have to remember."

Brandon was at a corner table, with his boots up on a chair and Candice across from him.

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