16. Second First Dates #2
She nods. “I crossed paths with him at the front desk on my way out. It was our first time seeing each other since the Christmas before last. Like me, he couldn’t muster up the courage to go upstairs.
I didn’t understand why. All he said was that your relationship was in a weird place and had been ever since you moved back home.
I didn’t ask and he didn’t elaborate. We talked for a while. Mostly about you.”
“About me?”
“We were worried about you,” she says. “Is that so hard to believe?”
I don’t respond and she continues.
“Neither of us knew how to face you but we also didn’t want to be alone.
Diego had a suite in a hotel downtown and we went there.
We talked for hours. About the summer we all met in Barcelona, the time I visited you for your birthday, and the Christmas we spent together in New York.
We talked about our families and life and all the things we couldn’t share with other people.
I told him about how my parents got back together but are somehow unhappier now than when everything first happened.
He told me how sometimes he misses his mother but doesn’t tell Alejandro.
“It just happened. And for obvious reasons, neither one of us was prepared and now…” She rakes her hands through her hair and sits back.
Time passes before she speaks again. “My IUD expired in December and I had it removed because I didn’t think I needed it anymore.
It made my periods heavier and more painful but then I changed my mind.
Thought it’d be safer to have it just in case.
I was on the phone with my doctor’s office literally making the appointment to get a new one when I took one look at my planner and realized. I was late. Very late.”
“Can I ask you something?” I turn on the bench to face her completely. “But you have to be honest.”
“Why would I lie to you?”
“Honest with yourself.”
Her lashes lower and she tilts her head.
“Are you in love with him?”
“I’m in no position to be in love with anyone right now. I’m still married, remember?”
I consider this a moment. “Are you the reason Diego’s been in New York all this time and hasn’t said anything?”
Her tone turns evasive. “I don’t know why he’d keep it a secret from his brother. And I don’t know why he never went to see you either.”
“Have you guys seen each other since that night?”
“No. Can we go now? Please?” She gets up from the bench. “I’m uncomfortable and hungry and now I’m eating for two.”
She doesn’t wait for me to follow and beelines straight toward the nearest park exit. We walk the rest of the way home in silence together and as I unlock the front door, it occurs to me that Karina doesn’t have a key. Once we’re inside I turn around and hand her mine.
“I have a spare upstairs.”
She shakes her head. “But—”
I take her hand in mine and close her fingers around the key I placed there. “Stop. Pushing. Me. Away. We have to stop pushing each other away.”
She blinks and her eyes immediately gloss over.
“I’m not going to let you do this alone. Not the divorce, the baby, any of it. You are going to move in here and I’m going to help you. So stop fighting it.”
She doesn’t say anything at first. I half expect her to refuse me a second time but she catches me off guard when she pulls me in for an embrace.
I trip and lose my balance but Karina holds me so tightly that it keeps me steady.
My chest fills with led and my throat burns and I find myself hugging her back for longer than I thought I would.
She pulls away and scurries up the stairs without looking back. I’m grateful she doesn’t.
I’d hate for her to see me cry.
* * *
Alejandro splits his time between the townhouse and his hotel room.
With everything that’s been going on lately, we haven’t had time to address his current living situation and I don’t think we will anytime soon.
Especially since Karina will be living here now and Diego has been occupying the second bedroom in Alejandro’s penthouse suite at The North Star.
I suspect he wants to keep a close eye on his brother but at this point, it feels silly.
Karina and Diego certainly don’t need a chaperone.
What’s the worst that could happen? Does he think she’ll get knocked up a second time?
Diego has only been here twice in the last week and each interaction has been more awkward than the last. He won’t speak to me, won’t even look me in the eye.
I can’t tell if he’s angry with me or embarrassed.
Sure, we haven’t been the closest the past year and have gotten into our fair share of tiffs on the phone over his brother.
But nothing to justify the way he’s iced me out.
I can’t make sense of his behavior and that doesn’t even cover the arguments he gets into with his brother.
Alejandro and Diego have been at each other’s necks for days, which once more calls into question Alejandro’s desire to share a hotel suite with him.
Personally, it doesn’t make any sense. If they’re so upset with each other then they should just stay in separate suites instead of sharing one, no matter how many bedrooms it has.
Must be some sort of sibling thing I don’t understand.
They probably thrive on tormenting each other at their own expense so long as the other one is peeved.
I hear his voice the second I reach upstairs.
Study door slightly ajar, I poke my head inside and see Alejandro hovering near the fireplace.
One hand perched on his hip and the other holding his phone against his ear, I get there just in time to watch his eyes roll so far to the back of his head I fear they’ll get stuck.
He releases a sigh and stares at the ceiling, mouthing something in Spanish to himself, but he turns on his heels and starts pacing again.
“Abuelo, no te estoy ordenando. Pero si el médico le dijo que tomara su medicamento dos veces al día, entonces—”
I close the door behind me. The sound must startle him because he spins around and does a double take. As soon as he sees me, he trips over the rug and momentarily saves himself by grabbing the back of the sofa. Just the sight of him momentarily flustered makes me feel giddy inside.
I love that.
“Uh,” He loses his train of thought. “Abuelo, luego te llamo.”
He hangs up and I do a full spin as I walk over.
“Fighting with Abuelo again?”
He crosses the room to me.
“Sounded like you guys were in the middle of a heated conversation.”
“Really?” He says. “I can’t remember.”
“Oh?” I respond coyly.
“I forgot the second you walked through the door.” He takes my hand and steps back. “Déjame ver. Date una vuelta, por favor.”
I close my eyes and do a perfect princess twirl near the window, allowing every ounce of light to catch the red in my hair. Six hours feels like nothing now. The look on his face is worth a hundred hours in that chair.
Deep red from root to tip and not a single strand of hair left behind. It glistens and shines in the light and I’ve never felt more beautiful than I do right now.
And when he smiles at me, it feels like falling in love for the first time.
“Ahora sí.” He runs his fingers through the waves framing my face. “There she is.”
I can’t seem to catch my breath. “I take it you like it?”
He wraps a strand around his fingertip before tucking it behind my ear.
A swarm of butterflies takes flight in the pit of my stomach.
I conceal the tremor in my hands by rubbing them up and down my thighs, smoothing out invisible wrinkles on the sides of my dress.
Heat blossoms across my chest and extends to the tips of my ears.
I must be as red as my freshly dyed hair.
As if remembering something, he lifts a finger, signaling for me to stay where I am.
He approaches the desk and reaches for a long, black, rectangular box on the chair behind it that I hadn’t noticed before.
He leans against the desk’s edge and extends it to me.
When I take it, he places his hands on my hips and pulls me against him.
The box is held together by a black velvet ribbon.
I pull on the end until it comes undone and remove the top.
Arranged on a bed of delicate tissue paper is a bouquet of red and purple dahlias broken up by lighter pink peonies, Queen Anne’s lace, strawflowers, and anemones.
A smile tugs at the corners of my lips until both cheeks ache.
“Where did you get these? They’re not in season yet.”
He leans in and whispers, “I know you aren’t going to believe me when I tell you this. But I’m very, very rich.”
I can’t help myself; I laugh.