It was eight o'clock when I pulled up to Savannah's place.
I'd stopped for In-N-Out on the way double-double and fries, Seven's usual because Seven had a talent for being exactly where you didn't want her to be and the food was easier than whatever the alternative was. I knocked and Seven opened the door. She looked at me, looked at the bag, and said, "Hey." Nicer than before. Progress.
I handed her the food. She took it, said thank you, and was gone up the stairs before I had my hand back.
Savannah was on the couch.
She was in her thirties and she wore it like it was nothing like she'd made peace with every year of it and come out the other side comfortable. There was something about that. Something that a girl my age didn't have yet and probably couldn't fake. I'd thought about that more than once and never landed anywhere useful, so I'd stopped thinking about it.
I said, "Hey, sexy."
She said, "Hey, baby."
Still did something to me. Every time.
"I have something for you."
She sat up. "A surprise?"
I went back to the car and came back with the LV bag. I'd had it in the trunk under a blanket for three days because I kept waiting for the right moment and eventually decided there was no right moment, just do it.
She screamed.
"Sav." I looked at the ceiling. "Seven is literally upstairs."
She wasn't processing any of that. She crossed the room and had her arms around me before I could say anything else, kissing me, and I put my hands on her and let it happen.
"I love it," she said between the kissing. "I love it, I love it."
"You haven't even opened it."
"I don't care, I love it."
* * *
We settled eventually. She had the bag in her lap, turning it over, running her thumb along the stitching. I sat next to her with my arm behind her and watched her be happy about it.
I'd come over because of the text. I'd been thinking about it since she sent it.
"The text," I said. "About the girlfriend thing. What did you mean?"
She set the bag down and looked at me. Her face went very clear, not cold, just direct. Like she'd already had this conversation in her head a few times and knew exactly where it was going.
"I'm not stupid," she said. "You're young. We can't do this publicly, and even if we could, you should be with someone your own age eventually. Someone who makes sense on paper."
I started to say something. She kept going.
"So here's what I think. You date a girl your age when the time comes. And whatever this is stays what it is. I'll be here. Maybe with somebody, maybe not. And if she ever gets curious about me, I've got something ready."
"What lie?" I said.
She almost smiled. "I'm going to tell her I'm your mentor. That I run a music production program through the city and you were one of my students a couple years back. She asks why we still talk, I say I stay connected with kids who've got real talent because that's just how I do things. Make it sound boring and official and like there's nothing to look at."
I thought about that. "That's actually good."
"I know."
"Seven won't contradict it?"
"Seven doesn't know enough to contradict anything. All she knows is you come around sometimes and you bring her food." She picked the bag back up. "Which, by the way, is a very smart play."
"I'm a strategic person."
"You are," she said. Not teasing. Like she meant it and had thought about it before.
I looked at her for a second, this woman who had Seven at sixteen and raised her alone and built something that looked like a life and still sat here on a Saturday night looking like that, talking like that, making plans that protected both of us without being asked.
"You don't have a problem with this setup," I said.
"I didn't say that." She ran her thumb along the bag's handle. "I said it made sense. Those aren't the same thing."
I didn't have anything for that. She wasn't asking for anything.
Upstairs, Seven's TV came on. Some cartoon, muffled through the ceiling.
Savannah leaned back into me and I put my arm around her properly and we stayed like that — the bag in her lap, the cartoon going faintly overhead, the room quiet and close.
I didn't say anything else about it. Neither did she.
Some things you just let be what they are.