Chapter 10
A few days after Abel came into her office to ‘talk,’ she was starting to feel something like her old self again. Whether or not that was a good thing was up for debate.
She started to notice the imperfections of her staff again and busied herself with keeping up with everyone around her. By her estimation, they’d all been slacking off since she and Abel got together. In a way, Camilla was grateful to be back to whipping everyone back into shape.
In the back of her mind, she was thinking about Abel and how he’d so skillfully deceived her. In a way, it was a little embarrassing. She didn’t think she could be taken so easily after all these years. And this had been the worst possible scenario she ever could have conceived of.
What was worse was his brother. He really was no better in her mind. He did call the morning after attacking Abel and apologized for his behavior, but Camilla could not help but get the creeps about the way he’d gone about confessing himself to her. Brawling outside of a club was just barbaric. She didn’t know how he would ever think that she would respond to that in any favorable way.
Camilla, of course, had no intention of starting anything with Rafael despite his phone calls over the week and his popping up at the restaurant a little more than usual. While she enjoyed verbally stabbing Abel with the idea that she was interested in him now, she was trying to stay well away from him as well. A part of her felt a little bad for being that way. She imagined that he was just trying to repair their friendship after his big blow-up at the club. Still, her instincts told her to stay well enough away from him.
It was just as well. This was clearly a sign that she needed to stay single from now on. Coupling up was not for her. And who knows what might have happened if she’d carried on with Abel. What would her life be if she’d never thought to ask about what he’d gone to jail for?
As the week went on, Abel gave her a wide berth and that was fine by Camilla. She stayed away from him as well. The only time she even had to deal with him directly was when he told her that he was going in to see his probation officer the morning after their big argument in the office. At least he was still keeping up with staying straight.
The next week, Camilla started to remember why she’d fallen for him in the first place. Abel seemed to be working through whatever grief he was feeling and was starting to focus more on the job and the customers again. She caught him walking Ms. Margaret out again and talking to the customers as he hopped back and forth from the kitchen. She’d wanted to chastise him, but in the end, she thought better of it. Whether she liked it or not, the customers liked him and that’s all that mattered.
By the end of the following week, she found herself backed up with paperwork. She stayed working in her office until it was past closing. When she looked up and saw the clock, she went to leave, stopping in the kitchen to check to see if everything had been cleaned. Everything was spotless as it always had been, but Abel wasn’t there. Had he left? He was usually the last one out. Even with him being out of favor with her, he still hung around the restaurant until she left to make sure she was okay.
When she walked to the front desk, she found him standing in the dining area, looking outside the windows. “Abel?”
He jumped and turned to look. As soon as he saw her, his face relaxed. “Hey.”
He turned back around, looking out of the window. Camilla frowned. What was he doing?
“Hey,” she said. “Are you waiting for someone?” she asked.
“My brother,” he said without turning around. “He’s picking me up.”
She nodded. “I see. Well, I would better head out.” She walked out from behind the counter and passed him to go into the dining room. Suddenly, he grabbed her by the shoulder.
“Hey,” he said. “Listen, I…need a favor. It is a pretty big favor.”
Camilla turned all the way around and frowned a little at him. “A favor?”
“Yeah. Listen…I know things have been kind of tense between us, but I really need this from you. I would not even bother you to ask if it wasn’t important.”
“Okay.” Now she was a little bit intrigued. “What’s the big deal?”
“Do you think you could hang around in the kitchen for a few minutes? Just until my brother and I leave?”
“Why?”
He opened his mouth for a moment, then closed it in defeat. Camilla cocked her head at him. “What’s going on?”
“I can’t talk about it yet,” he said. “Just…do me a favor and stay in the kitchen. Please?”
Camilla started to drill him about it. In fact, she felt it would have been right to. The sincerity in his big puppy dog eyes stopped her, however. Also, her curiosity was getting the better of her. “Will you tell me what’s going on later?”
“Honestly, with any luck, I won’t have to.” She scrunched her nose for a minute, and he rolled his eyes. “Please, I’m not asking you for much. Just wait in the kitchen until we leave.”
She chuckled and started to walk away. Almost fell for it. “Camilla—”
“I don’t really have time for this,” she said. “I have things I have to do. Charlie needs picked up—”
“I’ll work overtime.”
She scoffed incredulously. “Abel…”
“I mean it. Look, whatever you want. Just stick around for a few minutes in the kitchen. That is all. Just a few minutes.”
She bit down on her bottom lip. She should not trust him. She just could not.
And yet…
“Okay, fine. But only for a few minutes,” she said. “I am serious. Then I have to go home.”
“Right. Of course.”
She walked away from him and in the other direction, towards the kitchen. Once there, she looked around the empty area and the memory of Abel’s first day came to mind. The way he’d taken to making pizza like he’d been doing it his entire life. How good he smelled when she was standing next to him, showing him the ropes. The way he seemed to enjoy being contrary to her just to get her goat. Standing at the stainless steel table in the middle of the room, Camilla realized that her time with Abel hadn’t been all bad. Before everything happened, it had actually been kind of nice. Even before she knew what she felt for him.
It didn’t erase what he was, of course, but it did make her stop and think. She’d taken him in without asking what he’d done for a reason. She wanted to do a good thing. Give a job to an ex-con. Most people would have turned him away at the door and she had not wanted to be that kind of person. Now she wondered if she was really any different than anyone else. What were the limits to one’s level of forgiveness? Did she really owe him anything?
Maybe, she thought. But not tonight. And probably not anytime too soon. She’d gone all these years without her father in her life because of a stupid bullet from a gun that Abel held. She just wasn’t ready to forgive and forget.
She heard the door jingle go off and she was pulled out of her thoughts. She glanced at her watch. He had said only until they left. How long was that going to be? She wondered. She assumed a few minutes, but was there something that she was supposed to be waiting for?
She walked up to the window between the kitchen and front desk and looked out. Abel was standing there as Rafael came walking through the door, stopping half in and half out, looking at him expectantly. “You ready to head out?”
“Just a second,” he said. “I am running out the clock. Boss got on me for leaving early the other day.”
Rafael nodded and came all the way into the dining area. “You alone?”
“Yeah,” said Abel. “Well, Camilla’s in her office, but she’s in a meeting, so it’s whatever.”
Rafael nodded again and they were both silent for a minute. Camilla was beginning to feel funny about eavesdropping. What had her mother always told her? It was a rude practice. Camilla felt her face flush and she started to move away from the window.
“Raf,” said Abel, “I need to know something.”
He sounded conflicted. Even a little tortured. As much as she wanted to keep walking away, her feet stayed frozen to the floor.
“Abel…” Rafael took a deep breath that sounded long and cumbersome. “I don’t want to go into this right now, okay? Let us just go—”
“Was it an accident?”
Rafael did not say anything. Camilla frowned, listening carefully.
“Was what an accident?” Rafael answered, his voice lowering.
“You know what. Camilla’s father.”
“Hey!” he hissed. “Keep your voice down, huh?”
Camilla heard Abel’s feet move. She wanted to peek out the window to see what was going on, but she dared not. She should not be eavesdropping…she really shouldn’t…
“I told you, we’re alone,” Abel said. “Just…just tell me you didn’t plan to shoot him. That it was just an accident.”
Rafael didn’t say anything, and Camilla’s stomach tightened. What was happening? Was this some kind of joke? Was Abel trying to make it look like Rafael was her father’s true killer? How sick was that? She started to get angry. It was taking everything in her not to run out there and give him what for. This whole thing had gone too far.
Curiously, though, Camilla did not move from her spot. She leaned against the wall, listening.
“I was thinking about it all,” Abel went on, “and I think I could understand you doing what you did if you had a good reason. I mean…things happen, right? People like us, we know that better than anybody. Things happen. Tempers get heated and accidents go down. It is nothing to be ashamed of, so…if the whole thing was an accident…”
He trailed off. The room filled with silence between them and Camilla thought that Rafael was going to turn around and walk away. Come on, ‘mano. Quit playing around. That is what he would say. He’d rebuff his brother and the two of them would leave and whatever stupid plan this was would backfire.
The silence felt like it was going to go on forever, but finally, Rafael said in a thick voice, “Why are you asking that all of a sudden? Does it matter?”
“Does to me,” said Abel. “I just want to know. Yes or no.”
Another heavy silence. Then, Rafael finally said, “No, ‘mano, it wasn’t an accident.”
Camilla did not understand what she was hearing. Her mind was twisting around the words, trying to make them make sense. What was Rafael saying?
“You might as well know it all, I guess,” he confessed, his voice taking on a hushed tone. “See, Mr. Santiago knew I had a thing for Camilla. I used to sometimes come over to the house after school and ask to see her, but he’d always say no. Always have some excuse. She’s at choir practice, or she’s with her mom. Just dumb stuff to keep me away, you know? But then, I’d see her at school, right? So I figured if I can catch her at school, then maybe…”
Camilla felt like she was going to be sick. Her stomach started to turn. “We did not have the same classes, so it was hard. And, let me you, ‘mano. She was a stone fox back in the day. All the guys were talking about her. You know what I mean?” There was silence. Abel was not responding. “Yeah, so I could never catch up with her. But I thought I had time, right? I had time. I was a senior, but I wasn’t going to graduate any time soon. I had time…”
Camilla had no memory of ever seeing or talking to Rafael. The idea of him lurking in the shadows, watching her as she talked to her friends or went to class, sent shivers up her spine.
“And then I did not see her at school anymore, and I got to wondering, right? So, I asked around. Asked if anybody had heard anything. That’s when I found out she went to live with her mom in Cali.” He scoffed bitterly. “Old Sorry Santiago loses again.” He paused, and it sounded like there was a little chuckle. A laugh at the expense of Camilla’s father.
“So…I got a game together,” he went on. “Made sure it got around the neighborhood but made extra sure he heard about it. Everybody knew he was going to lose his restaurant, so, like, I knew he was going to be desperate for money. I figured he had come to the poker game, and maybe I let him win a couple of hands, then I accuse him of cheating and…” He trailed off. Camilla listened with rapt horror, bile rising in her throat.
“It was the perfect crime until you walked in,” he said. “You weren’t supposed to see any of that and…and I’m sorry that you did. I should have had you stay somewhere else for the night or something. I am sorry for that.”
There was nothing for a while and Camilla had to put her hand over her mouth to keep from either screaming or vomiting. It was all coming together in her mind. Abel went to jail for his brother’s crime. He did ten years for his older brother. And his older brother had planned to kill her father.
She dared a look out of the window and saw Abel standing there, all the color drained out of his face. Rafael walked up to him to reassure him, but Abel backed away, putting his hands up to deflect his brother’s touch.
“Hey,” he said. “Hey, listen. It all worked out, though. Right? I mean, sure, I did not think you’d go down for so long, but you’re out now. And you were young then. You still have most of your life to live still.”
Abel just stared at him for a long time. Then, slowly, he put a hand to his ear. In a cracked voice full of sorrow, he said, “You got all that…? Good.”
Rafael’s face morphed from relaxed to anger in seconds. “What…what did you say?” He backed away from him, his hands shaking. “What did you do? Abel, what did you do?”
“Promise I’ll come to visit you, Raf.”
A second later, the door slammed open, and the restaurant was filled with police in plain clothes. They swarmed Rafael, grabbing him and slamming him against the wall. Rafael swore loudly in English and Spanish as they handcuffed him and dragged him out of the restaurant. The last thing Camilla saw was Rafael’s eyes wide and wild looking, glaring in disbelief that his own brother had set him up.
Camilla came out of the kitchen as a couple of the officers walked up to Abel, telling him what was next. She heard Abel ask, Is he going to jail? How long until the trial?
She just stood there. Stunned, her heart heavy with guilt. She had tortured him for a week for no reason. The things she had said to him!
Abel turned and saw her, a sheepish smile on his face. “Hey,” he said. “So…sorry about all this. I mean, I didn’t realize they’d track so much mud…”
She walked up to him and kissed him. Standing on her tiptoes and her body pressed against his. Surprised, he froze at first, then he settled into the kiss, taking her in his arms and reciprocating passionately. When their lips parted, he looked down into the sparkling gems that were her eyes.
“So…you’re not mad?”
“No,” she said, with a smile. “I am the one who should apologize. I should have believed in you.”
He chuckled. “Don’t sweat it. I’m not sure I would have believed me if I’d just told you the truth.”
They both looked out of the window of the restaurant at the flashing blue and red lights. The yellow lights of the restaurant cut through the police haze and cast itself on the police cars in the parking lot. Part of it caught Rafael’s face as he fussed and fought in the back of a squad car.
“You…didn’t know that everything he did was on purpose.” She had meant it as a question, but it did not come out that way. Abel looked at his brother mournfully, his brown eyes filled with sorrow.
“No,” he said. “Never had any idea.” He paused, biting his bottom lip. She did not envy the feeling he must have about his brother now. To know that his brother never helped him the way that Abel believed he had…
She roped her arm into his and squeezed. He smiled, and she rested her head on his shoulder, smiling as he kissed the top of her head.
“Nowhere to go but up, I guess,” he said.
“Yeah.”
They watched together as the police car with Rafael in it pulled away and drove into the night.