Chapter 5: Milkshakes and Mixed Signals

At noon, I went to the cafeteria with my roommates and sent Grandma a picture of my barbecue chicken.

The cafeteria’s BBQ chicken is legendary. I snapped a pic—crispy skin, spicy sauce—and added, “So delicious.”

“A vanilla milkshake after this would be perfect.”

Grandma didn’t reply.

Could she be mad? After all, my favorite dish at home was her homemade chicken casserole.

Or maybe she’s mad because she thinks milkshakes aren’t healthy?

My three roommates and I were eating in silence when a cup from Shake Shack suddenly appeared in front of me.

I looked up along the straw.

Natalie, in a fitted black dress, stood there, ears still red.

“For you.”

She dropped the words and left. Her perfume lingered in the air, sharp and sweet, and for a second, I forgot how to breathe.

The four of us were all stunned.

Derek said, “She must feel bad for being too harsh before. After you deleted her, she probably felt guilty.”

I tore open the bag, stabbed the straw in, and took a huge sip of milkshake.

Even if she bought me the exact milkshake I wanted as an apology, I wasn’t going to forgive her that easily.

I messaged Grandma: “If a girl who used to talk harshly to me now apologizes, should I forgive her?”

I added: “She’s really pretty, and I used to have a crush on her.”

Grandma replied instantly: “Of course not! Besides, if you have a crush, how do you still have time to chat with me?”

How are those things even related?

I told her before that I had a crush on Natalie, and she even encouraged me to go for it.

Grandma’s acting weirder and weirder. Maybe she’d picked up some new internet slang from TikTok. Or maybe I was just reading too much into everything.

I wondered if maybe she was trying to teach me a lesson about loyalty. Or maybe she just wanted more FaceTime calls.