Chapter 15 #2
By the time I came back from working the back with my mom, I found Milo holding court while Patrice, Juanpa, and Jude took a water break. “Yo, this isn’t the Camilo Briggs Variety Show, your brown ass is here to work.”
“Pssh, tranquilo, Nesto,” Milo said, utterly undisturbed. “Take it easy. We’re just taking a break before all the people get here.”
Patrice nodded in Jude’s direction. “Jude was telling us about his project with the library. It sounds great.” His usually serious face was open, and he genuinely sounded impressed by Jude’s book truck.
“He’s planning on having a social justice section, rotating books every month.
He’s starting with James Baldwin and W.E.B Du Bois.
” And with that, I knew Jude was in with P.
Juanpa nodded. “He’s got the YA hook-up, too.” Juanpa for all his papíto flow, was a total young adult novel fanboy. He actually went to readings and got books signed. He’d even dragged me to a few over the years. It was sort of cute that they had that in common.
I went over to Jude and hugged him from behind.
I knew I was doing too much with the PDA, but I couldn’t help myself.
If the way Jude leaned into me when I tightened my arms around him was any indication, he was okay with the change.
After what Camilo said this morning, I felt something shift in me.
He was right. Jude and I enjoyed each other.
Why couldn’t I let myself have this? Right then and there I decided that as soon as I got a chance, I’d talk to him about how I felt.
“Did you guys figure out if you like some of the same authors?”
Jude nodded and turned around smiling at me. “We did actually, we both loved The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. I might have to come down to the city and go to a signing with Juanpa when her next book comes out.”
“You better watch yourself J,” I teased with my arms still around Jude.
“Well well, Mr. OuNYe, I see you’ve been making friends with the locals.
” I let go of Jude after he stiffened at the comment, then turned around to see Easton walking toward us.
As always he looked like he was stepping straight out of a Polo ad.
Today he was rocking seersucker shorts with a white short-sleeve button-down shirt, and a pair of mirrored aviators.
Jude relaxed when he realized who it was. Easton was a regular at the truck now, and they’d run into each other a few times. We hadn’t exactly made our thing public, but I left my hand on Jude’s shoulder as I shook Easton’s.
“Hey, man, didn’t expect to see you here today.”
“My dad’s winery is sponsoring.” He said it like everyone’s family owned a vineyard. “I promised my mom I’d make an appearance.” I noticed once again that his smile didn’t exactly reach his eyes whenever he talked about his family.
He turned to Jude. “How are you? We missed you at the last potluck, now I know why.”
Jude smiled shyly. “There were more interesting things on my social calendar this month.”
“Nesto, you better watch it. Once the word gets out, there will be a lot of single men in town wanting to ask what your secret is.” Easton’s grin was pure mischief.
I lifted an eyebrow. “The single men in town can fuck off.”
Easton beamed while Jude blushed.
I turned to Milo, Juan Pablo, and Patrice who were giving Easton the kind of look only a person who’d grown up in the Bronx could give. It said, “Who is this loud dude, and do we have to kick his ass?”
I waved my hand between them and Easton. “Easton, these are my best friends Camilo, Juan Pablo, and Patrice. They came up from the city to help me with the truck this weekend.”
“Guys, this is Easton Archer one of the ADAs with the county, and also a big fan of the Mayimbe. The man loves his Dominican rice and beans.”
Easton laughed, extending his hand to Milo. “That I do, although lately the Manno has been making me change my order.” He said, flashing us with his million-dollar smile.
The guy kept up with his whitening strips applications that was for damn sure.
Milo shook his hand, and I could tell he was trying hard not to give Easton too much of a death stare. The social worker had a lot to say about mass incarceration and the legal system. Juanpa just ignored him and went back to doing something on his phone, because he had no fucking manners.
Patrice was eyeing Easton up and down, too.
P wasn’t exactly throwing parties for prosecutors, but the look he was giving Easton was confusing.
It was like he either wanted to punch the guy or fuck him…
or both. Easton straightened when he shook Patrice’s hand and did not hide in the slightest that he liked what he saw very much.
“Nice to meet you, Patrice.” They shook hands a bit longer than necessary, then eye-fucked each other for a few more seconds before letting go.
Before things got out of hand, I clapped my hands to break the tension. “Ooookay, fun times are over. You all know what to do and help out Jude if he needs a hand.”
I pointed in the direction of some of the other stands. “Easton, go distract the competition man. These guys are here to work, not socialize.”
He laughed, putting his hands up. “Fine, I’ll leave.” His face got serious and he looked around, then spoke softly, “I just came over to ask you if you’d had any more trouble with Misty. I noticed her son’s stand isn’t here, and I know she was expecting a vendor pass.”
He shook his head when he saw the way I reacted to the mention of Misty. “What did she do?”
I shrugged and noticed Jude had stayed behind to listen. “I’m not sure if it has to do with her, but sanitation randomly showed up at the truck yesterday saying they received a complaint that someone got sick from eating at the truck. They wouldn’t let me serve until they did an inspection.”
Easton’s eyebrows shot up. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she was behind that. Did they give you a hard time?”
“No, actually the inspector was great. She just couldn’t come until late afternoon, which meant the day was a total loss.
Not the end of the world, but a few more of those could really hurt me.
” I shifted and looked at Jude who was now standing next to us.
I could tell he was itching to say what went down with him and Misty.
“She did say she thought the whole thing was a little shady. Like shutting me down over a single complaint, when my last inspection had gone well, was a little over the top.” At this Easton turned to Jude, who looked ready to burst.
“You guys work together, right? Do you think she’d do something like that?”
“I don’t think, I’m one-hundred-percent sure she did.
I wish Nesto would let me talk to Martha.
” I was about to say “hell no” when Jude held his hand up at me.
“I know you don’t want me to talk to her, but I think Martha should know what she’s been up to.
Misty is a bigot and a bully. The library serves everyone in our community, and someone like that shouldn’t be associated with us. ”
By this point he had his hands on his hips and looked righteously pissed. “You know Martha, Easton. She wouldn’t let Misty get away with this, no matter who she’s married to. But this isn’t even about the library. It’s not okay for her to mess with Nesto’s business.”
I looked over at the counter and saw my mom and the guys all had stopped what they were doing and were watching Jude’s rant. I’d never let anyone get anywhere near my business or my life like I had with Jude, but they all looked like they were totally into what he was preaching.
Easton looked at me. “Why not, Nesto? They should know she’s been harassing you.”
I shook my head and then tried to give Jude a smile. “You don’t know what it means that you’re willing to narc her out because of me, but I’d rather deal with this myself.”
From behind I heard a yelp from my mother.
Without looking I held up my hand. “No, Mamí. A mí no me gusta eso. You know I don’t like people fixing my problems. This lady is coming for me,” I said, slapping a hand to my chest. “I will deal with her, and I don’t want anyone of mine getting into something with her. ”
I saw Jude’s eyes widen like he’d been surprised by something, and then I realized what I’d said: “anyone of mine.”
Right. I was going to sidestep that for a time when we didn’t have an audience.
I turned to Jude and tried not to read too much into the fact that he’d taken a step closer to me.
“This lady has the ability to mess with your project, and just from how nasty she’s gotten I’m sure she’ll try and fuck with you if you get her fired.
Please don’t say anything, and, Easton, thanks for asking, but for now, I’m going to keep my head down.
This woman is not the first and won’t be the last person who will see me coming up and want to put my brown ass back in its place.
” I exhaled loudly. “This is not a problem I’m going to solve going toe to toe with this lady.
If I go and blow up on her, the least she’ll do is say I’m hood trash trying to intimidate her, at worse she’ll call the cops on me. ”
At this I saw Easton’s face change like he was about to argue.
“Easton, I get you think that’s not how things go down around here, but this is not a game I can win by getting angry.” I sighed, already dead tired of talking about Misty. “I have to beat her the only way I can, by being so fucking excellent, nothing she does can touch me.”
Easton nodded, finally conceding my point, and Jude came up to me with what looked like realization in his face. He held my hand, those blue eyes blazing, “It’s not fair. This isn’t even really about you being competition. She just does it because she’s mean and bored.”
I sighed and squeezed his hand. “It isn’t fair, but I have a lot of good people in my corner.”