It was Nathan. Aria frowned and let him go. “Why are you following me?”


    “I…” Nathan rubbed his shoulder and looked down. His voice got quieter. “Did you get the gift?”


    “I did,” Aria replied.


    When she did not say anything else, Nathan waited. Finally, he slowly lifted his head and saw that she kept a straight face.


    “I said sorry because I messed up,” Nathan mumbled, voice trailing off. “I wasn’t asking you to forgive me.”


    Aria said calmly, “I get it. We barely knew each other. It was only a month. There wasn’t even time to build a real connection. Forgiveness doesn’t really matter.”


    Nathan clenched his fists. “Are you heading to ss?”


    “Yeah,” Aria nodded. “If that’s all, I’ll get going.” She turned and walked away.


    Nathan stood there, watching her leave, looking pretty down. Then a handnded on his shoulder. “Dude…” all three of his roommates let out a dramatic sigh at the same time.


    Back when the semester started, they’d noticed Nathan always staring at his phone, looking all mopey. They thought he had a crush on some girl he never confessed to and had been low-key heartbroken for months.


    Turned out it was about his sister. Nathan had told them the whole backstory. From Aria’s perspective, it totally made sense why she didn’t forgive him.


    Trying to earn her trust again was harder than winning over a girlfriend. “Bro,” said the guy with the buzz cut, “you should take a page out of Derek’s book.


    “Just be shameless and keep apologizing. If once doesn’t work, try twice. Try ten times. Hell, try a hundred. She’ll forgive you eventually.”


    Nathan muttered, “She sees me like I’m a stranger. She doesn’t even hate me. How’s she supposed to forgive me?”


    That shut everyone up for a second. Another guy piped up, “Okay, so bug her every day. Get under her skin until she flips out. Then ask for forgiveness.”


    Buzz cut guy rolled his eyes. “Seriously? That’s the dumbest idea. Nathan’s not the type to be annoying on purpose.”


    Then the curly-haired kid, who had been quiet the whole time, suddenly said, “What if I date your sister? Once I’m your bro-inw, I’ll drop to my knees and beg her for you.”


    Nathan gave him a look that could kill. The curly-haired kid threw his hands up. “Just kidding.”


    “She’s noting?” Lexie let out a sigh when Derek told her. “That’s a shame. I really liked that girl.”


    Derek replied, “You know howplicated things are with her, Grandma.”


    But Lexie didn’t think Aria was avoiding the Saxons out of spite. She figured the girl just wasn’t interested in making the effort. And honestly, she didn’t owe the Fletcher family anything either.


    Still, her oldest grandson clearly liked Aria. And since he wasn’t doing a thing about it, Lexie figured it was time for her to


    step in and y Cupid.


    She nned to use the birthday party as a little test to see if there was any hope between the two of them. If not, she’d let it go. After hanging up with Derek, she called her eldest grandson.


    A few secondster, he answered. “Hey Grandma, what’s up?”


    Lexie got straight to the point. “My birthday party’s this Saturday. You remember, right?”


    “Yeah, I remember,” Fryderyk said.


    “Then bring a date,” Lexie said bluntly.


    Fryderyk paused. “It’s your birthday. Why would I need a date?”


    “I don’t care,” she said. “You’re bringing one. And it needs to be Aria.”


    Fryderyk let out a deep sigh. “Grandma, I already exined. I said I liked Aria only to dodge a setup. I already feel bad enough dragging her into that lie. Now you want me to invite her as my date? That’s too much.”


    Lexie gave a sweet smile. “Fine. Don’t call her your date. But if you get her to show up, I’ll stop setting you up. No more blind dates. You can get married whenever you want. I won’t say another word about it.”


    “Seriously?” he asked.


    “As real as it gets,” she promised.


    “I’ll try,” Fryderyk said, though he wasn’t very hopeful.


    Right after he ended the call, Allen walked in and teased, “Your grandma pushing the marriage agenda again?”


    Fryderyk didn’t even respond. Allen chuckled. “Come on, man. You’re not getting any younger. Time to start thinking about settling down.”


    Fryderyk changed the subject. “What do you need, Allen?”


    Allen got serious. “Actually, I do have something. We just caught someone that Arressto Investigation Agency’s been chasing.”