Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Alonzo
W hen Jason first moved here, our family had been caught in the periphery of the media storm around his and Tala’s relationship. Now that the news of their engagement had been leaked—by one of our titas, of all people—we weren’t just on the sidelines. We were right in the eye of the typhoon.
We’d ended up staying at their condo because our house had been swarmed by reporters. Jason and Tala released a statement, hoping it would prevent the speculation from spinning out of control.
In the midst of that mess, I needed to have an overdue talk with Dani. So on January second, I snuck out with one of the security team Jason hired and headed to Dani’s village.
Sitting on a bench in their park, Dani turned to face me. Her knee brushed against mine, the contact negligible compared to everything we’d done together. Yet I flinched, shifting my leg to create more space between us.
Hurt flashed across her face before she covered it up. “Thanks for calling me, Z. I was worried when you went missing. And now with the news—are you and your family okay? How are Tala and Jason?”
“Yeah, we didn’t expect those kinds of fireworks.
” I forced a chuckle. “We’re still figuring out how to handle the situation.
Of course, Tala and Jason are stressed, but they knew people would find out sooner or later.
They just didn’t expect it to be this soon, so they weren’t yet prepared to handle it. ”
“Is there any way I can help? My parents might know some?—”
“It’s okay.” I softened my tone, trying to erase the bite of my interruption. “Thank you for offering, but I think Jason has it covered. He has a couple of people he’s worked with before.”
“Right. Of course.” After a long beat, Dani asked, “Where did you go?”
“Juana.”
“Oh.” She blinked. “I should have guessed.”
I gripped the edge of the bench, wishing it was a surfboard and I could ride it away from this conversation. “I needed air.”
Her lips pressed together. “I understand. I’m sorry.”
“I spent the last couple of days thinking about what you told me,” I said. “It hurt, Dani. You said you had no feelings for Aaron.” Just saying his name made my gut lurch.
She reached for my hand, but I instinctively moved it away. Letting out a small gasp, she drew her hand back and clasped it with the other on her lap. “I don’t. I promise.”
I wanted to snap at her not to make promises when she’d already proven she couldn’t keep them. Instead, I took a moment to calm down before saying, “You don’t sleep with people you don’t have feelings for. That’s not how you are. At least not from what I know.”
“I know.” Her throat bobbed as she swallowed. “I wanted to try being someone else, and I went too far.”
“What do you mean?”
“Everyone expects me to be the good girl. To always follow the rules and do the right thing. Maybe…I don’t know.
We were in a new place and I had a few drinks, and I used that as a reason to do something bad.
” She raised a hand to her mouth like she was about to bite her fingers—a nervous tic her parents scolded her for.
Then she flattened her hand on her thigh.
“It was wrong. There’s no excuse for what I did, and I’m so sorry. ”
I tried to reconcile her reasons with the situation, but I had to ask the questions that had been eating away at me. “Did I do something wrong? Are you tired of me? Am I not good enough for you? Don’t sugarcoat it, Dani. I would rather hear the truth. All of it.”
“No, Z. I am tired, but not of you. It’s my family that’s making me feel trapped. It was never about you or our relationship.” Leaning forward, she pleaded, “I don’t want to lose you. Please believe me.”
“I don’t want to lose you either, but I can’t just forget what you did.”
“Just—give me another chance. We can work this out.”
I took a deep breath. “You need to know that I kissed someone else.”
She jerked back, her mouth parting. For a minute, she was silent. Then she whispered, “When?”
“When I went to Juana.”
“This time or?—”
I gaped at her. “ Of course this time. Shit, Dani.”
“Sorry.” She looked down at her hands. “I didn’t expect that.”
“Neither did I. I wasn’t looking for revenge. It just happened, and I’m torn between feeling guilty and reminding myself you did it first.” The truth poured out of my mouth before I could stop myself.
Dani looked off in the distance. Sighing, she murmured, “I guess I can’t blame you. But maybe this is our chance to start over.”
“I don’t think it works that way.”
She met my eyes resolutely. “It can if we want it to. It was one time. We’ve been together for four years. Don’t we deserve to give ourselves a second chance?”
“I wish it were that simple. But I can’t erase the image of you with Aaron from my head.
He’s not some random stranger you’ll never see again.
You work with him. Even if you didn’t, there will always be another family gathering where you’ll have to hang out with him.
” I shook my head. “After what happened, I’ll just get paranoid about who you’re with.
I don’t want to be that guy. We’ll end up hating each other. ”
Her chin quivered. “So, what? You’re breaking up with me?”
The confusion in her eyes, like she couldn’t comprehend a scenario where I wouldn’t fall in line with what she wanted, almost had me backtracking.
But I couldn’t stomach the thought of being with someone I couldn’t trust. Not when I’d seen what healthy relationships looked like.
“I think it would be best. That would give you the freedom to explore other options, and I can focus on school.”
“I don’t need to explore,” she cried out. “I already chose you.”
Something seemed to snap within me. “ You cheated on me, Dani. You can’t say you chose me when you also chose to sleep with Aaron.”
“You kissed another girl!”
Her words only sealed my decision. The trust we used to have in each other was gone, replaced by doubt. “This is exactly why we can’t be together.”
She stared at me.
“You said you wanted to try something new. To be someone else,” I said softly. “This is your chance to do everything you want without me holding you back. I could never keep up with you anyway.”
“You’re giving up on us, just like that?”
“I don’t know how to move past this.”
Her shoulders drew up, and her words came out sharper. “I’m not going to beg, Z. If you say it’s over, that’s it. There’s no going back.”
After what she did, there was never going to be a way back, even if I’d initially struggled to accept it.
“It’s over, Dani.”
Pursing her lips, she nodded. Then she stood and said, “You can take me home now.”
Cam
Of all the times I’d gotten inked, never had I ever attempted to do so while working on my job applications—until today.
I figured that having a needle poking the backs of my heels would distract me from the pain of sorting through listings.
Ironically, my tatts were simple enough that Hector finished both of them before I could submit a single application.
He was applying second skin over my fresh ink when my phone rang, stopping me in the middle of editing my cover letter.
“Cam!” Nikki screeched in my ear. “Do you remember that NBA player I told you about? The one who retired and moved here to be with his Filipina girlfriend?”
“How could I forget?” She and Eric had discussed it nonstop for at least a week since the guy had been part of their favorite basketball team.
“They just got engaged! It’s all over the news and?—”
I gawked at my laptop. “You called me for that ?”
“Will you let me finish? So, it turns out the girl’s tita was the one who leaked the news because the girl—Tala—announced their engagement at their Christmas party last week.”
I grunted, scanning my letter as I willed Nikki to hurry it up.
“So get this. Not only did the tita spill the news, she also shared photos of Tala and Jason with Tala’s family. Including…her brother.”
I found a typo in my document— I does . Why didn’t my autocorrect flag that? “Uh huh.”
“Cam! Can’t you guess who the brother is?”
“Why would I—” Realization barreled into me. I pressed the delete key too long, erasing half a paragraph. “Shit!”
“You okay?” Hector asked.
Thank God for the undo function. “Yep.”
“Is that Hector?” Nikki said.
I grunted. “If you called ten minutes earlier, you might have messed up my tatt.”
“Sorry. Hey, Hector,” she shouted.
“Hi, Nikki,” he replied before telling me, “All good.”
Nikki waited on the line while I paid Hector and gathered my things. As soon as I said goodbye to him, she blurted out, “Lonzo, aka your Manila guy, is going to be Jason Meyer’s brother-in-law.”
“He’s not my Manila guy.” Walking out the door, I muttered, “Not rich, my ass. I told you, city boys shouldn’t be trusted.”
“ Eric is a city boy.”
“Fine. There are some exceptions.” A handful of them, maybe. “Whatever. I’m never seeing him again, so it’s not an issue.”
“Uh huh.” The amusement in Nikki’s voice had me glaring at thin air. “I’ll send you the pic?—”
“No. Seriously, Nikki. I don’t want to see or talk about him again. Okay?”
“If you say so. What tatt did you get?”
“You’ll see.” I already regretted the designs I went for, but I comforted myself with the knowledge that I could tweak them in the future if I wanted to.
When I arrived home, I tried to get back in the zone to no avail. Nikki had derailed my productivity train, and all I wanted was to research the hell out of Alonzo.
My pride wouldn’t let me do it. Googling him was an admission that he’d gotten to me, and I refused to sink to that level.
It was bad enough I’d kept the note he left me. I told myself it was proof that he owed me a favor. Now, I felt like a fool for holding on to it.
Yanking my drawer open, I grabbed the plastic envelope and fished out the crumpled bus ticket. My eyes skimmed the familiar words and I grasped the paper’s center fold, ready to tear it to pieces.
Then I hesitated. This could be proof, alright—that I’d been a sucker one time too many. I’d hold on to it as a reminder that I needed to stick to my promise of avoiding city guys who talked too much and doled out their smiles too easily.
So I put the note back.
Normally, I would go straight to the water when something bothered me, but I couldn’t with my new tatts. Since I had energy to burn and thoughts I needed distracting from, I worked off the steam with my dumbbells instead.
All the while, I wondered how Alonzo felt about having his name—and his face—blasted in the news.
Then I punished myself with twice as many reps for thinking about him at all.