Chapter 21 #2
“Worked, actually. Eve gave me some cookies from the bakery—hojarascas,” I say, finding my voice and trying to make sure it’s clear that we aren’t total stalkers, even though we kind of are.
“I was so in love—with the cookies, I mean—I really wanted to get some for my mom while we were in town.” The fib comes easier this time around, now that I’ve blurted it out once already.
“And how long are you in town?” Tía asks.
“Just today,” I say. “Or at least it was supposed to be just today, but it looks like we’re Brooklyn-bound overnight.”
“You are?” Eve asks, and right—forgot to tell her that part. In part because I forgot that part in all the hullabaloo.
“Are you staying in Audra’s? Where was that again?” Carlos asks. Hm. He’s awfully interested in her neighborhood.
“Actually, no,” Audra says. “Which is a bummer, because if I had room at my place, we’d be having a big blizzard slumber party!”
“On that note, we’d better start looking at our options,” Diya says, putting down her napkin. We’ve all basically been ignoring the fact that we have no idea what we’re going to do next, but she obviously hasn’t forgotten.
“Wait, so then you don’t have a place to stay tonight?” Carlos asks.
He looks around at the snow, and then at his watch. We all glance at one another. I’m not loving admitting that we don’t have a plan.
Tía looks at us with a face that says she thinks we’re either stupid or crazy. “Okay, you’ll stay with us.” This is not even a little bit of a question.
My stomach tightens like the little drummer boy’s snare.
I’m terrified to look directly at Eve. I don’t want to seem too eager to see what she’s thinking about this idea, but I’m also desperate to know what she’s thinking about this idea.
It’s one thing to invite us for dinner. It’s something else entirely to have a sleepover.
“No, no, we couldn’t!” Izaac says.
“Nonsense,” she says. “We have plenty of floor and couch space.”
“But we have no way to repay you,” he argues.
“And we’re already forever indebted for the tamales,” Cash says.
“Truly,” Diya agrees.
I say nothing.
“Hmm.” Carlos rubs his chin. We all wait for him to speak, and after a moment, he snaps his fingers. “How are you all at trivia?”
Cooper hosted a trivia night once as part of a new hire training session. It was fun, but I have no idea whether we’d be any good at it when the questions aren’t related to crops and customer service.
“No,” Eve says. “Carlos, no freaking way.”
Now I can’t help looking right at her, because just a minute ago, we were literally giving a flirting workshop! What’s her objection to this trivia thing? Is it us? Is it me?
“We have our honor— your honor—to defend. It’s the championship!” Carlos says, and now the two of them are having their own battle across the table.
“We already withdrew, ’Los. It’s a no,” she says. “Give it up.”
“Please! Wade would put us back in the running in a heartbeat. Think about our fans!”
“You’ve lost it,” Eve says, and rolls her eyes.
We all look on, confused.
“Okay, here’s the deal,” Carlos says, finally ready to fill the rest of us in.
“We compete in our neighborhood holiday trivia night every year. We’ve won the last two years, but our regular teammates all decided to go out last night and have a little too much fun at their company Christmas party.
We didn’t have enough players with just me and Eve to make a team, so we had to drop out.
But , with you all, we could get back in. ”
Diya and I look at each other.
“I’d consider it a huge solid if you all would come and play. You help us win trivia in exchange for food and lodging.”
“Hugo, can you run and grab a few napkins?” Eve asks, and Hugo obliges, though he doesn’t look excited to leave his second tamale. Tía stands and follows him, muttering something about hot sauce refills since Cash has just finished off the bottle (and is reaching frantically for his water).
“Carlos, we already gave Tía the night off Hugo duty,” Eve says, lowering her voice.
“He can come!” Carlos argues. “Wade loves Hugo. And Hugo loves Wade’s! It’ll be good for the kid to get out, Eve. And I’ve been promising him a little holiday hang session. So since six is the max for team size, you guys can play and Hugo and I will be cheerleaders.”
“What? No,” Eve says. “He’s my brother and my responsibility. I do not need to play.”
“Of course you do,” Carlos says, then he turns to the rest of us. “See, what Eve doesn’t want to say is that she’s got a nemesis on one of the other teams—the Blitzin’ Vixens. So we gotta be sure she takes the crown.”
“I love a crown,” Cash says, while I wonder about this nemesis.
“This one is something special,” Carlos says, grinning. “And it’s all for charity, so either way, win-win.”
“Well, those are good odds,” Diya admits.
“So?” Carlos asks.
“All right.” Eve throws her hands up. “You know I can’t argue with charity.”
At least it seems like her objections had more to do with Hugo, or making sure she was being responsible, than us.
“So,” Carlos says, looking around at the rest of us. “Whaddya say?”
I look at Eve and my friends and can’t help feeling like I’ve already hit the jackpot. I don’t want anything about this moment to change, so I choose to trust the feelings that led us all here.
Once I see my friends’ faces, all looking like they feel the same, I nod on behalf of all of us.
“Count us in.”