Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Alonzo
T he day after Christmas, I borrowed my parents’ car to pick up Dani for our date.
I’d made a reservation at this fancy restaurant she kept mentioning—the type that served multiple dishes coined as a tasting menu because each serving was only big enough to be tasted.
It meant I’d be hitting the drive-thru later since there was no way I’d be full.
But if Dani was happy, no way would I complain.
She’d texted me to meet her inside her house, so I parked by the back gate and waited for Mang Berto to let me in. Her dad’s favorite Benz was missing from their garage, a sign that her parents were probably out.
When Dani opened the door, I grinned at her. “Merry Christmas, Dani.”
She smiled, but it seemed subdued. “Hey. Merry Christmas.”
I pulled her in for a hug and felt her stiffening in my arms. “Is everything okay?” I studied her face, noting she wasn’t meeting my eyes.
“Let’s talk about it in my room.”
My heart pounded as she led me up the stairs. That she was bringing me to her room told me something major was up, since her parents forbade her from having me on the second floor of their house.
“Are you sure your dad doesn’t have a CCTV here or something?” I tried to joke as she opened her bedroom door and let me in.
“Huh?” She blinked at me, looking like she’d been lost in her thoughts. “We just need to talk.”
Realization hit me. “Are you pregnant?”
Her eyes widened. “What? No, of course not.” She closed the door. “Why would you think that?”
“You’re acting weird, and it was the first thing that came to mind.”
“I’m not pregnant. Thank God.” She paced in front of her door.
“Yeah.” I wouldn’t mind being a parent, although I knew my life would look completely different if we had an unplanned pregnancy.
Coming to an abrupt stop, Dani blurted out, “Isleptwithsomeone.”
I stared at her. My ears heard the words, but my brain refused to process them. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. When I tried again, my voice was barely a whisper. “What did you say?”
She swallowed, her eyes darting away from me.
For a minute, I let myself believe I’d imagined those words. They were just a random glitch of my brain. A prank, maybe. Nothing to worry?—
“I slept with someone.”
The confession seemed to come at me from the far end of a tunnel, distant then bellowing in my ears.
Dani put her hands over her mouth and hung her head.
The truth barreled into me with the force of a freight truck.
“You…slept with someone.” My stomach roiled as images of a guy’s hands on her inundated my mind. Various scenarios flashed, each worse than the last, and I shook my head reflexively, willing it not to be true. “Like a slumber party in a king-size bed with pajamas and face masks?”
I implored her to laugh and say yes, to look me in the eyes and admit she was kidding. But she continued to stare at the floor like she was searching for the meaning of life in the carpet. “No.”
“Then spell it out for me, Dani.”
Finally, she looked up. “I had sex with another guy.”
I grasped for words, but my throat was dry and my brain could not reconcile the idea that my girlfriend—the girl I loved, who I continually strived to be worthy of and had been building a future with…
That she would fuck someone else?—
“Who was it?”
She looked away, and that was enough to tell me it was someone I knew. She didn’t go to clubs, and most of her close friends were girls. Miggy was the exception, though he was more my friend than hers, and I couldn’t believe that he would betray me like that.
Which left one person.
“Was it Aaron?” I asked between gritted teeth.
She grew so still it was as if she wasn’t breathing. After a long moment, she turned her head and met my eyes. She nodded once, tears swimming in her eyes.
The confirmation knocked me back a step.
And another.
Shutting my eyes, I shook my head. Of all the men she could choose, it just had to be him. The guy I always felt was the perfect match for her—the one her parents definitely wished she’d gone for instead of me.
I opened my eyes, needing to see her reaction to my question. “Why?”
Her mouth opened and closed without releasing a sound.
“Why, Dani?“ I forced myself to get the words out. “Do you have feelings for him?”
She swung her head back and forth frantically. “No.”
“Were you drunk?”
“No.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “It was stupid and wrong and—” Shaking her head again, she sighed. “We were in Tokyo?—”
I reared back as the pieces fell into place. We were supposed to travel back to Juana last October, but her parents planned a trip to Japan with Aaron’s family. Of course, she hadn’t been able to say no to them.
“—I just wanted to try something new?—”
My stomach dropped further with every word she said. “You wanted to try something new? What, you were bored with me so you tried a different dick?”
She gasped. “No! I wanted to let loose. To shut my brain off for once. I didn’t plan on sleeping with anyone.”
“So you fell into his bed? You had sex with the guy you promised me you only saw as a brother?”
“If you’d gone with us…”
It was like adding fuel to the fire, only instead of heat, I felt like I’d been doused in water so cold it stung every cell in my body.
“You’re putting this on me? Because I wasn’t there, you went ahead and fucked the guy who was?
” I bit out. “Even if I worked a thousand hours, I could never afford to travel with your family.”
“I told you I’d pay for it!”
“ Seriously ?” She flinched at my raised voice, but I couldn’t help it. “They already think I’m leeching off you. I wasn’t about to join your trip and not pay my way.”
“They covered for A’s family too,” she cried out.
“Because they’re practically part of your family,” I almost shouted. My hands shook as anger and hurt coursed through me. “They’ve made it abundantly clear that I’m not.”
She sobbed. “I’m so sorry. It was a mistake, and I‘ve regretted it ever since. I hate myself for letting it happen. I love you, Z.”
The nickname that used to sound cute now felt like a sledgehammer striking the back of my neck. How could she say she loved me but sleep with someone else? And with the guy she called A?
That letter had always been his. Maybe so had she.
I stared blindly at the ceiling and fought to keep my emotions in check.
“I’m sorry,” she repeated. “It didn’t mean anything.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me right away? That was more than a month ago, Dani.” Even though we didn’t see each other often, we’d been together a handful of times since then. And again, we had phones , for shit’s sake. All it would have taken was one text from her. I would have dropped everything.
“I didn’t want to ruin what we have over a stupid mistake. You’re the only one I want.”
I looked her in the eyes. “Apparently not.”
Tears spilled down her cheeks. “It was a mistake. I promise you it meant nothing.”
I clenched my jaw, biting back the slew of angry words that threatened to shoot out of me.
“Z. Say something. Please,” she sobbed. “We can work through this.”
Shaking my head, I said, “I can’t. I need to go.”
And I left.