Chapter 25
chapter twenty-five
One month later
camilo
“I can only have one drink before I take off,” I regretfully told Ayako as we walked out of our dance class into the icy Midtown Manhattan sidewalk.
As per usual these days, I was rushing from one thing to the next.
I was supposed to go over to Tom’s place for the night after my class, but I hadn’t been able to catch up with Ayako in a while.
It was already February and the first few weeks of the year seemed to have flown by.
Ayako just waved a hand in my direction as we hurried to the warmth of the bar up the street. “Don’t worry. I’m glad you can stay for one, you’re always running lately.”
I gave her another guilty look. “I know. I can’t believe it’s already February and it’s the first dance class we’ve been able to do together since before Christmas.”
She frowned as she pushed the door for the bar. “Well you’ve been a busy bee, friend. Between kicking ass with the renovation and taking all that extra work to help your mom with the bills, you’ve been grinding pretty fucking hard.”
“And trying to spend time with Tom,” I offered as we hopped onto our stools.
She grinned at my mention of Tom. “Yeah but that one comes with lots of perks.”
I chuckled at her suggestive tone. “True that. I’m tired as fuck though.
” Exhausted was a better word, but I would not complain.
Not about this. “My mom has been doing so much better since she started her leave. She loves the support group she joined, and she’s going to Zumba classes.
” It was hard not to smile when I thought how much better my mom looked; it made the lack of sleep and perpetual exhaustion worth it.
Ayako looked genuinely pleased to hear about my mom which was why I loved her. “I’m so glad to hear that, babe.”
I sighed, thinking that I wished my mom could take even more time off.
“I think the stress from the hospital was making it worse for her depression and anxiety. I’m worried about her going back to work, but I can’t keep supporting her and me. I’m barely keeping up and it’s only been a few weeks.”
Ayako held up her finger when her phone started buzzing. “Shit, give me a sec. On-call week is so fun.” I nodded, feeling her pain, and went back to fretting about all the things I needed to do, which was my permanent state these days.
I’d started taking freelance translation work right after Christmas, which helped with my mom, but it was like another thirty hours of work a week, on top of my job.
I felt drained and barely had time for anything else.
I tried to see Tom as much as I could, but I’d cancelled on him a few times or had to bring work with me to his house.
I knew he was frustrated, because he had more than enough money to make this whole thing go away for me, and I refused to let him help me, even just a little bit.
Rationally, I knew I was letting things that happened long ago affect my present.
But I couldn’t get past the memories of how awful things got with my mom and Ramon once he started helping her with money.
The way he felt entitled to tell her what to do, or put her down, was something I never wanted to experience.
Even though I was sure Tom wouldn’t do that, I still wasn’t ready to ask.
Ayako ended the call she’d been on and looked at me. “Why so serious, friend? You still thinking about your mom?”
I stopped talking to order our drinks and then turned to fill her in. “I’m just fucking exhausted, and I’ve barely made a dent with my mom’s back rent. I miss having more time to hang out with Tom and Libe.”
She narrowed her eyes at me at the mention of my boyfriend and his daughter, and I knew she would get on my case about not letting Tom help.
“I know what you’re going to say, and I’m just not ready to ask Tom for money, Ayako.
” She opened her mouth, but I held up my hand.
“We’ve only been dating for a bit over four months and miraculously, the fact that he’s giving our agency literally millions of dollars has not become an issue.
I won’t add another thing that could potentially mess up our relationship to the mix.
” She nodded as she sipped her wine, but I could tell she was barely able to contain whatever she wanted to say.
When she finally spoke, it was pretty obvious from the way she was literally biting her tongue that she was trying hard to see things from my perspective, but not totally getting there.
“Okay that makes sense, especially because I know how stressed you’ve been, making sure the renovation goes without a hitch.
Just don’t torture yourself too much, when you know you have a man that loves you with money to burn.
Who is, not only able to, but is actually desperate to help you. ”
I nodded, conceding her point. “As I told Tom, I’m aware the offer is there and I will ask if I feel like I need to.”
“Are you doing that ‘oasis’ shit again?”
I once again regretted telling Ayako about my disaster years in college. But this was definitely not what was happening with Tom.
I scoffed at her raised eyebrow.
“I won’t ever tell you another one of my deep dark secrets Ayako Russell. Also how does that even make sense? I’m being the opposite of the oasis, since I won’t take his money and he’s dying to be my sugar daddy. Which, oh my God. Saying that just made my skin crawl.” I legit shuddered.
She just closed her eyes and drank deeply from her glass. “You’re doing too much, Camilo.”
“Tom and I are fine, babe. I promise. I’m one hundred percent real with Tom at all times. It’s incredible really, because he’s totally into it,” I said unable to hide my genuine bafflement.
“Fuck, you’re straight up disgustingly in love.” She stuck her tongue out me.
I waved her off and tried to redirect towards something less mushy. “Okay, now let’s talk about how amazing the class was and what you’re doing for Valentine’s.”
She cut her eyes at my change of topic suggestions but conceded. “I assume this year I’m on my own in our traditional boycott of Hallmark holidays?”
“Yes, but not for the reason you think! I told Tom I refused to engage in any sort of romantic bullshit on a made-up holiday.”
I got a chuckle for that. “Of course, you did.”
“But Libe asked me to come over and help her prepare Valentine’s gifts for her classmates. They can bring a little gift for each kid and she wants to make them homemade cards. I’ve been recruited to help select and apply stickers.”
“Okay that’s completely adorable and you’re clearly gunning for boyfriend/future stepdad of the year award.” She smiled wide then and squeezed my knee. “Have I told you how fucking happy I am for you, babe?”
“Yes.” I didn’t even have to try hard at sounding exasperated.
Because there wasn’t a single person in my life who wasn’t stanning Tom to an unhealthy degree.
“My love life is the stuff of legend and fairytale. I love Tom and his kid so much it scares me, and I continue to be deeply obsessed with his enormous dick.”
That got us a few looks from the other bar patrons which I ignored, then tried to steer the convo away from me for a bit. “Let’s talk about you. What’s the word on you and Henock?”
Her eyes got shifty as fuck and she took a big gulp of wine before answering.
“Nada. I told you we’re friends. There’s nothing there.
He’s really cool and we have a lot of things in common, but that’s all.
” I gave her some side-eye, because I wasn’t buying it, but I let her get away with her bullshit story for now.
I looked down at my phone and saw I had a text from Tom, which of course had me cheesing, because I was that person now.
Ayako looked at me like I was a lost cause.
Tom: Hey, amor. I just got home from my meeting. Are we still on for tonight? Are you done with your mysterious dance class?
I fired back a text right away.
Camilo: Yes and yes. I’m having a quick drink and catch up with Ayako and after, I’ll head up to yours. Also my classes are not mysterious, Thomas. I’ve told you about them a million times.
Tom: But I’ve never SEEN them. I’ve got to sneak into one of them sometime, so I can see what you two get up to over there.
He was ridiculous.
Camilo: You can come anytime. *eyeroll emoji* These classes are at the New York City Bodies studio, not at the shelter. None of the clients come to this one, so there are no confidentiality issues. Anyone can come, and that includes nosy ass boyfriends!
He responded with a gif of a dude leering.
I laughed and showed the phone to Ayako.
She grinned when she read his texts and then perked up.
“Send him the video! We signed waivers for this one, so they’re probably putting the clips up on YouTube.
They usually upload them right away. Here, let me look.
” She grabbed my phone and pulled up the studio’s YouTube account.
“Oh man he’s going to flip when he sees it. Tonight’s class was lit.”
I was one hundred percent into this idea. We’d danced to “Dangerous Woman” for the class and the choreography was super sexy. Ayako and I had taken it a few times because we loved it so much. I knew the video of the group doing it together would be fire.
I nodded enthusiastically as she tapped on my phone screen like she was on a mission.
“Okay that’s a fantastic idea. I’m running the risk of getting mauled in the hallway of Tom’s house, but I can live with the consequences of that.”
Ayako smacked my arm, her eyes still focused on what she was doing. “Don’t brag about the hot sex you’re going to get while I go home to watch Netflix with my cat.”
I laughed at her grumbling. “It’s not a guarantee it’ll be hot.”
“Nobody likes a show off, Camilo.” She protested as she opened the link and we watched it in silence. The video was basically a full minute and a half of the entire class writhing, gyrating, straddling chairs, hair whipping, and eye-fucking the camera with complete abandon.