“I notice you said twelve, not eleven?” I whisper, tilting my head to the side and Jada smiles.
“Hella is Garret’s father. Not by blood, but by choice. He stepped up since day one to take on that roll.”
Picking up a handful of chips, I tilt my head. “So he’s not his dad?”
“No, he is not.” She smiles, taking a sip of her drink. “But he’s the closest thing that Garret has to a dad. He loves him like a son and Garret loves him like a dad. They adore each other, so Hella is very much active in Garret’s life. He even has him on every second weekend.”
Smiling, I drink the rest of my glass before placing it back down and refilling. “That’s really sweet.”
Jada smiles and nods her head. I guess there’s a lot more that went on there, but it’s not my place to pry. Melissa refills her glass quickly and Jada looks to her. “I feel really sorry for you,” she says to Melissa and Melissa pauses with the glass short of her mouth.
“Me? Why?” she scoffs, placing the glass back on the table.
“Because Hella wants you.”
Melissa shakes her head and laughs. “That’s not true. Even if that were, why would you feel sorry for me?”
“Because he’s ruthless when it comes to something he wants. He won’t give up. And what he wants? Is you.”
“We will kill each other before we fuck each other again,” Melissa mumbles.
Jada laughs. “Yeah, I’m sure that would excite him, too.”
We all burst out laughing until Garret walks in, running his hands over his long hair that falls over his forehead. He’s adorable, looks a lot like Jada, only his hair is blond and he has more European features than Jada’s exotic ones.
“Hey, kid. Come say hello to the girls,” Jada says, waving him over.
“Hey,” he answers with a clipped tone. “Can I eat now?” he mumbles, taking a plate and piling it up with food.
“Garret, that’s Meadow,” she gestures to me. “She’s uncle B’s Old Lady.”
Garret pauses his food piling and looks to me. He tilts his head and I smile.
“Uncle B doesn’t want an Old Lady,” he answers, narrowing his eyes at me suspiciously.
I laugh. “You might need to take that up with him. Nice to meet you, Garret.”
He grunts. “Nice to meet you too.” I laugh again, the kid actually grunted. If that’s not a dead giveaway that he spends far too much time with bikers, I don’t know what is.
Melissa stands from the table. “Can I show you something?” she says to Garret and he nods his head. Melissa picks up the packet of TimTams that are sitting on the table and I narrow my eyes at her, knowing what she’s about to do. She hands him a TimTam and points to his hot cocoa. “Bite each end of the TimTam, and then suck your hot cocoa through the cookie before eating it. It’s heaven in your mouth.”
He narrows his eyes at her again. “Are you sure?”
“Trust me. I’m like, the cookie queen.”
He laughs, following her orders. When he takes a bite from the TimTam, his eyes pop open and roll back behind his head. “Oh my God,” he moans. “You’re shitt’n me. Where’d you learn to do that?”
“Garret!” Jada snaps and he apologizes to his mom quickly.
“I’m the cookie queen.” She winks, taking a seat back down. Garret picks up the packet of cookies and quickly runs upstairs. Jada stands from the table and huffs out, waving her arms up.
“Fuck it. The kid will just have to get diabetes,” she says slumping back into her seat and I giggle.
“He’s a sweet kid.”
“Sweet enough to make your teeth rot,” she scoffs, tipping her drink back.
We all laugh again and Jada turns to Melissa. “Where’d you learn to do that?”
“Our friend, Alaina, she’s from New Zealand. She gets her parents to ship all this food from New Zealand. TimTams is one of them.”
“TimTams are Australian?” Jada asks before adding, “They’re basically the same countries, so I guess that’s why.”
I laugh, not wanting to correct her. Melissa nods her head. “Yeah, basically. Where’d you get them from?”
Jada smiles. “His dad is from our Australian chapter. They’re Garret’s favorite, so he sends them in his parcels once a month. Too bad he can’t send time,” she whispers sadly, taking a drink of her drink.
Our night rolls by smoothly, we laugh and all relax into each other’s company. It’s a little over midnight when I look around for Melissa. “Where is she?” I say over the music that’s playing.