Chapter Seven — Unspoken Things
It started with a visit.
Michael Delanie showed up at the Jamesons' front door one Sunday afternoon with a small bag of chin chin and that signature grin that made Suwanee's knees weak.
"I was around the area," he said casually. "Thought I'd check in on my favorite artist."
Suwanee rolled her eyes, but she couldn't stop the smile that crept onto her face. "You? Around here? Since when?"
Michael shrugged. "Since today."
From that day, it became a pattern. He'd show up on weekends after church, or midweek when school let out early. Sometimes he brought snacks. Sometimes he just came to sit in their tiny sitting room, teasing Suwanee while she sketched or gisting with her mum in the kitchen.
Yes — her mum.
Mama Jameson warmed up to Michael faster than Suwanee expected. She still gave Suwanee occasional side-eyes when the two of them laughed too much, but she never stopped Michael from visiting.
"He's respectful," she once whispered to Suwanee. "But don't forget what I told you."
Suwanee nodded, but in truth, she'd already pushed her mum's warning to the back of her mind. Because with every visit, Michael became harder to resist. He made her laugh. He called her "trouble" in a way that made her heart flutter. He noticed her sketches and actually cared about them.
But still…
He didn't say it.
Not I like you.
Not I want you to be mine.
Not Will you be my girlfriend?
And the more he stayed close without defining what they were, the more it messed with her.
Her three best friends — Titi, Ada, and Ruth — were NOT having it.
"You're smiling too much lately," Titi said one day at lunch. "You better not be falling for a church boy without a title."
Ada snatched Suwanee's phone. "Let me check — how many 'good mornings' before he asks you out? Because I'm counting o."
Ruth, the calmest of the group, just looked at Suwanee and asked, "Do you know what you are to him?"
Suwanee laughed it off. "Can't a girl just vibe in peace?"
But later that night, alone in her room, the question stuck like glue in her brain.
She liked him. A lot. She didn't care that he hadn't made it official — yet. Being around him felt right. Real. Like the beginning of something worth waiting for.
But deep down, part of her wondered…
What if he was just vibing?
What if he liked the attention, the warmth, the closeness — but not her, not in that way?
Still, she didn't bring it up. She didn't want to ruin the moment, whatever it was. So she kept laughing at his jokes, sharing her art, letting him come around.
And she ignored her mum's voice in her head — the one that said, "Don't start seeing yourself through his eyes."
Because Suwanee had already started to.
And that was the problem.