Page 71 of The Waiting Game

“Like …” Jonah groped for the first thing that came to mind. “Like the fact you’d be lying to Grandma about us.”

Felix winced. “Okay, I don’t love that. But it’s for a good cause.”

“So when you told her you were committed to your sobriety, was that lying for a good cause too?” Jonah snapped.

A hurt expression crossed Felix’s face. “Of course not.”

“Because …”

“No, listen to me.” Felix stepped closer. “I—I meant every word of that. I wouldn’t lie to you or her about any of that.”

“But you would lie to her and pretend we were a couple?”

Felix took a deep breath. “Only for a little while. To get her through this health scare. And then once they decide on a treatment and she’s recovered and feeling one hundred percent, we’ll fess up.”

“And you don’t think she’d kill us both?” Jonah said disbelievingly. “Well, me more than you, because she loves you most but—”

Felix laughed. “You really think she loves me more than you?”

“Sometimes,” Jonah muttered.

“Yeah, right.” Felix shook his head. “But that doesn’t matter. Okay, so we’d get a lecture from her. But we’ve gotten those before. We can handle it.”

“Can we?” Jonah asked doubtfully because he wasn’t really sure of that.

“I’m just saying, she always forgives us when we fuck up,” Felix said. “You remember that time we, uh, stole her car?”

Jonah managed a chuckle.

When Jonah was sixteen, they had “borrowed” her car to go pick up their friend Emmy from an end-of-school party. Emmy had snuck out of her house to come to the party with a guy a few years older than her. He’d started pressuring her to drink and have sex and she’d snuck out through the bathroom window and called Jonah, crying, to come get her.

It had been Felix’s idea to use Grandma Ji-min’s car.

In retrospect, they should have told her. She would have gladly driven them and helped out Emmy.

But Felix had been crushing on Emmy. He’d wanted to swoop in and rescue her, show her he was the kind of guy she should be with instead of the jerk she’d gone on a date with.

Felix had lobbied hard. Jonah had his learner’s permit. He knew how to drive. And the party wasn’t far, just in the next neighborhood over.

Grandma Ji-min had a few friends over and they were out on the patio drinking mojitos. She’d never notice them being gone for twenty minutes.

Besides, what if Grandma ratted Emmy out and got her in trouble with her parents? Then she’d never go out with Felix.

Half in love with Felix and wanting to impress him, Jonah had agreed.

So they’d stolen the car and rescued Emmy. That part had gone off without a hitch. What they hadn’t bargained on was his grandmother needing to fetch something from the garage and realizing her car was missing.

And so were her boys.

A very unhappy Grandma Ji-min had been waiting for them when they returned. She’d given them a blistering scolding for scaring her so much and for lying and sneaking around, then hugged them both tightly.

They’d both been in big trouble, though, oddly enough, she’d never ratted Felix out to his parents. Her disappointment in their behavior had been more than enough. Not to mention the fact that they’d had to clean and detail the grungy van she used for her landscaping work from top to bottom every two weeks for a whole summer.

But Felix did have a point. Grandma Ji-min loved them unconditionally.

If they lied to her about being engaged, she’d give them another blistering scolding but she would forgive them. Eventually.

She might make them thoroughly regret the lie, but Jonah honestly didn’t think there was anything either of them could do that she wouldn’t forgive, except maybe deliberately hurt each other.

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