Chapter 24
chapter twenty-four
tom
“I’ll get it! I’ll get it!”
I heard little feet running down the stairs and prayed Libe didn’t break her neck rushing to open the door for Camilo and his mom.
She’d been pacing in front of the Christmas tree downstairs like a crazed chipmunk for hours, waiting until we were all together and she could open the rest of her presents.
She’d gotten to open a couple right after she woke up, but a few others had been sitting under the tree for the past two hours, she was about to blow a gasket.
“Mi Milo is here, Daddy!” she yelled, as she saw me coming down the stairs. She’d started calling him “My Milo” a couple of weeks ago. If I hadn’t already been absolutely sure Camilo was the one, the way my kid looked at him whenever he was around would have sealed the deal.
I came down the stairs and saw Camilo and Dinorah walking in. He was wearing a burgundy sweater with his usual skinny jeans and ankle boots. He had his hair in a French braid and looked relaxed walking in with a shopping bag packed with gifts.
Dinorah took off her parka and I saw she was wearing a green sweater to match Camilo’s red one. He looked at her outfit and rolled his eyes. Like I couldn’t tell he thought she was adorable.
Libe was standing back, trying to figure out how to approach the new adult in her space, but Dinorah immediately knelt down and extended her hand. She held a little Chewbacca toy.
“Hi, Libertad. I’m so happy to meet you, I’m Milo’s mom.” She looked up at me and winked, as Libe took the small plush doll and squeezed it against her chest. “He told me all about you. He said you’re a big fan of Star Wars.” Libertad was nodding so hard I thought she was going to snap her neck.
“Yes! I love Star Wars. I was Yoda for Halloween this year and I have a purple lightsaber. You want to see it?” She ran over to me, started to show me the Chewbacca, then revised the plan and ran back to Dinorah.
“Do you want to come to my playroom? I have my toys there and I can show you.” Then she widened her eyes, ran back to me, and signaled for me to bend down, so she could tell me something.
“Daddy, we need to hurry up this presents time, because Dinorah said she needs to go and play with me right now.” She whispered the last two words with such urgency that none of us could keep a straight face.
I nodded as seriously as I could. “Well we don’t want to keep Dinorah from her playtime.” I signaled for them to follow us to the study and as we walked, I grabbed Camilo by the waist and bent down to kiss him. He beamed at me.
“Feliz Navidad, baby.”
I smiled right back, my heart so full I had to take a moment just to look at him. “Feliz Navidad, amor.”
As soon as we sat down, Libe started dragging the gifts out from under the tree.
“Okay I got your gift, Camilo,” she said, out of breath as she ran back for another box. “Daddy! Yours is littler because I ran out of the white stuff.” She gave me a thumbs-up at this. “But don’t worry, it’s really nice.”
Camilo and Dinorah could barely hold in their amusement. She got the last two presents from under the tree in one run then slumped next to where I was sitting and whispered, “Did we get something for Camilo’s mom?”
My answer was as stern as I could manage.
“Si, Libertad. Sientate.” She sat down in the center of the circle of gifts she’d made.
“Okay you can start opening yours and then we can each open ours.” That was all she needed to hear, and immediately she started ripping into those gifts like she was being timed.
We oohed and ahhed as she showed us her presents and then gave Camilo and I each some homemade thing that was supposed to be a coaster.
I gave Dinorah a gift certificate for a spa which she loved, and then Libe grabbed her by the hand and pulled her upstairs to the playroom.
They left the room with Libe chattering about what they would build with the magnetic blocks she’d gotten from Camilo.
As soon as they were out of earshot, I reached over to the table to grab my gift for Camilo, and he shyly pulled out his from the bag he’d brought.
He handed it to me and snapped, “You first, let’s get this over with, because I’m nervous and think you’re going to hate it.”
It was almost comical how unaware Camilo was of the fact that I was crazy about him.
“Why would I hate a gift from you?” I asked incredulously, but he did look nervous. I tried to tease him by opening it as slowly as I could and after a minute of me taking each piece of tape off individually, he ripped it from my hand and unwrapped it.
“Oh my god. Here!” I chuckled as I took it back from him.
It was a picture frame with the selfie of Libe, him, and I we’d taken at the zoo. The three of us were smiling wide at the camera, with the blue sky behind us. My arm was around his shoulder and Libe’s little hand was on the side of his face.
We looked happy, like we belonged together.
“Camilo.” Suddenly everything I felt for him felt too big to keep it inside me. “This is amazing.” I leaned in to kiss him and when I touched his lips with mine, I finally had to say it. “Te amo.”
He pulled back then and his face was a mixture of surprise and genuine happiness. After a moment his lips turned up and he said it back. “And I love you.”
He said it so naturally, like it made all the sense in the world. It felt like that, too.
I went in for another kiss to seal it. To keep those words between us for a bit. When we pulled back, he looked impish, and the anticipation I felt for whatever utterly Camilo thing he would say made me giddy.
“Of course, I reserve the right to take it back if your gift sucks.”
“I wouldn’t expect any less,” I said very solemnly.
I handed him the present, and he opened it in the same fashion as Libe had attacked hers. I held my breath because I’d taken a chance on this one, and hoped my suspicion was right.
He looked at the cover and gasped. “How did you even get this? I’ve never been able to find any of his work in print.”
It was an anthology by José ángel Buesa, a Cuban poet who he’d mentioned a few times. I’d had my mom do a little digging in the DR since he’d lived there before he died. She came through with this copy and mailed it.
“There’s no way you stayed within the budget.”
I might have felt just slightly smug then. “Actually I did, the book wasn’t too much at all. My mom got it in the DR, the shipping cost more than the book.”
He leafed through it with a big smile on his face.
“This is amazing. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
We sat there for a bit, while he read and I admired the photo. After a while, I pulled him closer. “How was the night with your mom?”
He sighed and looked up to where they’d gone, but I could hear Libe talking a mile a minute.
“Well my mom decided she needs to take some time off work, which is amazing. She says she’s been really struggling with her depression and she wants to work on her mental health.
The leave is unpaid, and I just discovered yesterday her rent was increased.
” He grimaced at that, glancing upstairs again.
“She needs to take care of the balance soon. I still encouraged her to take the time, because she needs it.” He sounded so relieved, even though it seemed like things were not exactly resolved.
“I’m glad she’s giving herself a break.” I wanted to be supportive, but I wondered what it meant for her to take time off work. Would that put a financial burden on Camilo?
“She’s upset my dad’s sixty-fifth birthday is in March and she hasn’t been to see his grave since we left Miami.
So she wants to go while she’s on leave.
I wish I could take her, but she doesn’t fly,” he said, voice weighed down by the obvious strain all this was putting on him.
“It would involve driving there and I can’t take time off until I’m done with the renovation.
And honestly I don’t know if I’m ready to go back to Miami.
” He looked at me with a tired smile. “But I also don’t want her to go alone. ”
I knew I was going into some dangerous territory, but I had to ask. “I know you probably will say no, but can I help with some of the expenses I—”
As I anticipated, he stopped me before I could finish.
“No. Thank you for offering. But we can take care of it. Really, babe. It would make me uncomfortable.”
I withheld my frustrated sigh, because pushing Camilo on this was not the right course of action. “Okay, but please, Camilo. If you do feel like you need my help. Nothing would make me happier.”
He gave me a terse nod and said, “I know.” He didn’t have to say he was going to do anything and everything he could to make sure his mom got her time off, even if he had to run himself into the ground doing it. I already knew that.
It was unchartered territory to be the “emotional support.” I was usually the one expected to take care of things, but Camilo not only didn’t expect me to take care of him, he was decidedly not interested.
“It’s hard to sit here knowing how much you’re about to take on and not be able to make it easier for you,” I said as I tightened my arms around him.
He clicked his tongue and kissed my cheek. “You being here makes it better. I don’t need you to fix anything for me, Tom. You loving me is more than enough.”
The urge to try and convince him that there was nothing I wanted more than to help was hard to restrain, but I managed. I hoped that if things got hard enough, Camilo would let me help, because I didn’t know if I could just sit idly by watching him struggle.