Valeria couldn't adequately put into words what having transferred to Adelita High School meant to her. After so many years of being at Marshall, she had felt an enormous pull to go to Adelita. Actually, she had always felt that pull but had ignored it until she couldn't sweep the feeling aside any longer. “I love the new school. I love the students. They’re very friendly.”
“They are?” he asked with fake surprise.
Valeria smiled. “Yes.”
“They didn’t give you any apples with worms in them?” he teased.
“Not today. Maybe tomorrow.”
“Do you need anything else?” asked the waitress, having gone up to them.
“No, but thank you for taking care of us so well,” he declared.
She smiled shyly before she left. The new waitress was charmed by Leonel as most people were. Valeria was accustomed to the way people reacted to his pleasant ways and easy nature. Everyone, that is to say, except her parents who couldn't seem to warm up to him no matter how much he tried. Her mother was always making snide remarks about him, comparing him to vain peacocks, slick pigs, or strutting roosters. Valeria just couldn't understand why her parents couldn't see the great guy he was.
“So your new students are friendly,” he told her with a serious tone underneath his words. “Especially the boys, I’m sure.”
“Leonel,” Valeria chided, “the boys and girls were equally as friendly.”
He was the jealous sort—not horribly so but enough to be irritating to her at times. She would’ve never put up with a domineering, possessive person. Still, he had his moments when he worried that she’d leave him for another man. He had confessed to her that no other woman in his entire life had ever brought out those feelings of insecurity in him.
“I’m just saying that boys will be boys, and you’re the most beautiful woman at that school,” he announced, taking her hand from across the table and planting a kiss on her palm.
Valeria rolled her eyes and chuckled. “How do you know that? You’ve never been at the school and haven’t seen the other women there.”
“I don’t have to go there to know that no other woman can compare to you.”
“Thank you, Leo,” she said, touched by the sincerity in his eyes.
Relieved when he started talking about his job as a stockbroker, Valeria didn’t want to talk about school anymore. She didn't want to look into his eyes and tell him everything that had happened that day. Luckily, he had much to say about his work.
“It was a rough day, and the week just started,” he declared, groaning.
Leonel went on to tell about the challenges and rigors of the stock market. Valeria listened patiently as she always did when he was explaining the difficulties of his job. Grateful that she didn’t have to say more about her first day at her new school, she sighed quietly. For the most part, her first day had been great. There had been no major setbacks nor any regrets of having left Marshall High School. But there had been one tiny, itsy bitsy matter that had bothered her.
Lorenzo Montes.
Her strange and completely unexpected reaction to meeting him was so unexplainable and illogical that she couldn’t help but keep thinking about it. Lorenzo Montes was stuck in her head for some reason. And to top it off, he completely disliked her, couldn’t stand the sight of her. He could barely get himself to look her way at any given time. What's up with that guy? She’d just have to learn to ignore him even if he was in the room across from her.
“Val,” she heard her name from what seemed far away. “Val,” Leonel repeated. “Are you listening?”
“Yes,” Valeria assured, coming back from her thoughts.
“I’m sorry,” he expressed. “I must be boring you with all this talk about work.”
She laid her hand on his, trying to pull all the warmth she could from it. “It’s not that, Leonel,” she said, smiling to reassure him. “I was thinking about school.” At least it isn’t a total lie, she thought. It is the truth—kind of.
“Soon, the year would’ve flown by and you won’t feel the awkwardness of being in a new school,” Leonel stated.
“Yes, I hope so. Time does fly by fast.”
“Yes, it does. Fast,” Leonel stated, his demeanor turning pensive. “Very fast. Val, I hate bringing this up, but I feel we have to talk about it.”
“Yes?” she said, bracing herself. She already knew what he was going to say.
“Have you been thinking about a date for our wedding?”
“I’ve been so preoccupied starting at a new school and coming up with a good curriculum that I haven’t thought about it,” Valeria expressed apologetically.
“We’ve got to set a date,” he declared, a certain frustration in his undertone.
“I know, Leo. Just give me a little bit more time so that I get used to my new job. You wouldn’t want to overwhelm me, would you?”
He shook his head. “Of course not, Val. But we’ve got to set a date soon, okay?”
“Okay.”
Chapter 8
Lorenzo sat next to Kate on the sofa as they watched an action film. She snuggled close to him as he tried to overcome feelings of having his space invaded.
“This is boring,” stated Kate, smiling at him. “There’s a lot going on. Bombs are exploding, car chases are happening, but where’s the heart of it?”
“I didn’t want to say anything, but this movie isn’t very interesting,” he asserted as he grabbed the remote and turned off the T.V.
“What do you want to do?” Kate asked, giving him a sexy smile and snuggling closer to him.
The discomfort of the invasion of space showed on his face. “I don’t know.”
“I can think of something,” she said, covering his face with miniature, lingering kisses.
“Katie,” he said firmly as he gently pulled away from her. “I’m sorry.”
“What’s wrong?” Kate asked, hurt.
“With it having been the first day of school, I’m a little tired.”
“Oh,” she said, disappointed.
“I apologize.”
“It’s okay. I know that the first day back can be crazy.”
“Yes, very crazy,” he said dryly.
“It’s a miracle you have any energy at all by this time.”
“Do you forgive me?” he asked, hugging her loosely.
“Of course.”
“Thank you,” he muttered softly. “You know how much I care for you, don’t you?”
“Yes,” she said, quietly with a slight frustration in her voice. “I know.”
The next day, before the first bell of the morning, Lorenzo stepped into his classroom but not before nodding his head in greeting at Valeria who had also just arrived. Unsmiling, she nodded back before entering her room.
He shoved her wild hair, her vibrant eyes, the way she felt familiar to him, her cold greeting, and the rest of her into a tiny, hidden compartment in his head. It helped that his students, who were now completely at ease with him, demanded so much of him. Their questions didn’t cease, coming one after another. Other teachers would’ve been irritated but it was Lorenzo’s firm opinion that learning involved many, many questions.
Still, it was a relief to get to the quiet of his free period. Being basically an introvert, he could only take noise for so long. Billy ambled into Lorenzo’s room since it was unfortunately his free period also. The only reason they had a loose type of friendship was because Lorenzo was too polite to tell him to get lost. Billy annoyed most of the other faculty.
“Hey, Lorenzo,” he greeted.
“What’s up, Billy?”
“You are so lucky being in front of the goddess,” he murmured, looking through the door window over to Valeria who seemed in complete concentration of the lesson she was teaching.
“You need to get you’re mind off of her,” Lorenzo stated dryly. “She’s engaged.”
“I know but I
can dream, can’t I?”
“Is that the only reason you’re here? To stare at her from across the room?”
“Well, yes,” he said with a grin.
“Stop being such an animal. A woman like her doesn’t appreciate being gawked at as if she’s a piece of meat.”
“I don’t look at her like that.”
“All you ever talk about are her looks.”
“I can’t help it if she’s so mesmerizing.”
Lorenzo shook his head. “Stop staring at her.”
"She's my soul-mate—I just know it."
"Your soul-mate?" asked Lorenzo in disbelief.
"There's a special reason she's here."
"To teach kids, isn't that what she said?"
"It's kismet."
Lorenzo frowned. "Kismet?—what's that?"
"Destiny."
Lorenzo guffawed. "I never took you for one of those new age people. Do you keep crystals in your pocket?"
Billy shook his head, annoyed. "Of course not. I'm not a new-ager, but I do believe in certain things like fate and soul-mates. This thing with her has to be synchronicity. We're perfectly synchronized. I mean, I'm a teacher, she's a teacher. I'm at this school, she switches schools. You're my friend, she's across from you. See how it works?"
"No, not really."
"She's my destiny—there's no two ways about it."
"As soon as you get tired of her then someone else will be your destiny," Lorenzo remarked dryly.
"You're making fun of me, but I'm in love."
"Yeah, right," Lorenzo snorted.
"I'm being sincere."
"Are you? I don't think so."
"I know I'm not a hero like you," he said, heavy envy in his tone, "but I have my own attributes."
"I didn't say you didn't."
"At least I’m not rude like someone I know,” he said, eyeing Lorenzo.
“Rude? What do you mean?”
“The way you walked out on us during lunch yesterday was very rude.”
“I excused myself.”
“You’ve got her thinking that you don’t like her,” Billy remarked matter-of-factly.
“What?”
“She thinks you dislike her.”
“She does?” he asked, perplexed.
“Yes, and I don’t blame her. You hightailed out of our company as if you couldn’t wait to get away.”
“I told you that I had stuff to do," Lorenzo stated.
“Your excuse sounded phony to me and phony to her too.”
“I had stuff to do,” he mumbled, irritated.
“Why don’t you like her, Lorenzo?”
“I don’t know anything about her. Why should I like or dislike her?” Lorenzo asked uncomfortably.
“Are you sure that’s all that’s going on with you?”
“Yes,” Lorenzo declared, annoyed.
Billy nodded and looked over to her room. “She’s one incredible woman. I couldn’t figure out why you didn’t like her.”
“I don’t dislike her,” Lorenzo insisted as he looked over to her room too. Valeria was speaking to Ema Beltran, one of his students from fifth period. They shared a student—they had a connection. He didn't know if the thought caused him pleasure or disruption—maybe both. He did know, however, that while Ema was quiet and he had a difficult time getting her to talk, he hoped Valeria would have better luck getting this particular student to open up because she was like a tight shell.
“Maybe Valeria will break up with her fiancé,” declared Billy, sighing.
Lorenzo shook his head. “That’s not a nice wish.”
“No, but at least I’m being honest.”
Chapter 9
Compelled to stay away from the cafeteria and from a certain someone, Valeria packed a ham torta at home. Her expert fingers rubbed refried pinto beans on one side of the sliced lengthwise pan blanco bread, and she put ham slices on the other. She placed a generous amount of jalapeño pepper strips on top of the beans before closing the bread roll together. During lunch, she bought a juice from the machine in the teacher’s lounge. Other teachers had also brought their lunches and she took advantage of the opportunity to get to know them. Some of them had been at the school for many years and others for a short time but all agreed that teaching had its unique challenges. In her opinion, teachers were a different breed of people. The better they were, the less they talked about themselves and the more they spoke about helping students.
As Valeria took a swig of her beverage, the door swung open. She awkwardly gulped down the juice in her mouth, almost choking on it. Lorenzo's eyes widened when they saw her and the impenetrable texture in them became more pronounced. He nodded a quick greeting, went to the vending machine, and bought a bottle of water. He disappeared almost as soon as he had appeared.
“What’s wrong with Lorenzo?” asked Martha, an Algebra teacher.
“I don’t know,” expressed Jan, a P.E. teacher, frowning. “He's a quiet person, but he's usually friendly.”
That evening at home, Valeria prepared dinner for Leonel who was coming over. Struggling fiercely, her mind tried to stay on the picadillo, ground beef with her specialty salsa, she was making, but it would invariably stray. Lorenzo Montes. That man is so rude. A clumsy elephant has better manners. But if she confronted him to ask why he disliked her, what would it help? Would she change for him to become someone he liked? No, of course not. She'd have to learn to live with it. By the time Leonel arrived, she had managed to calm down.
“Dinner looks wonderful,” he said, smiling at the picadillo.
“Thank you.”
“You’re such a great cook. You can make even the simplest of dishes into gourmet platters.”
Valeria smiled back at him, her face glimmering with the compliment. “Thank you.”
He grabbed the champagne he had brought with him, took out the corkscrew from one of the drawers in the kitchen, and popped the bottle open.
“What are we celebrating?” Valeria asked with puzzled curiosity.
After pouring the sparkling drink, he handed her a long stemmed wine glass. “We’re celebrating us.”
“Us?”
“Nothing else matters but that you love me and I love you and we should celebrate all the time,” he announced as he put forward his glass in a toast.
Perplexed, she eyed him. "What brought this on?"
"Oh, I don't know. Lately, I've been feeling we shouldn't take our relationship for granted."
Valeria smiled as she clinked her glass to his. “Okay, let’s celebrate.”
They each drank from their glass. He allowed the liquid to stay in his mouth and tongue for a moment while she gulped hers down right away. The truth was that she didn’t like this brand of champagne very much. It was too dry and she liked her alcohol sweet the very few times she’d have it. But he loved this particular champagne saying that it was so prestigious and expensive, he had to order it from Europe.
“You don’t know how great it is to come here after a very long day and have a drink with you,” he sighed.
“Bad day?”
He nodded. “Very frustrating.”
Valeria eyed him carefully, hesitating before speaking. Finally, she let her words tumble out. “Face it, Leonel,” she said quietly, “you hate your job.”
“I don’t,” he rushed to say. “I—"
“Yes, you do. You hate being a stockbroker.”
He cleared his throat. “I don’t hate it. It can be very rewarding, you know.”
“You’re so good with people. I don’t know why you don’t switch careers to what you really want to do—Public Relations.”
“That would be crazy,” he declared, his voice energetic and annoyed. “Very crazy. You know how much money I make.”
“Money isn’t everything.”
“You say that because you’ve never had it,” he blurted before he could catch himself. “
Sorry, I didn’t mean to—"
“I know that I’ve never been rich,” she stated. “I’ve never had it and lost it like you, but I know the value of things.”
“Do you know what it’s like to have your father kill himself because he couldn’t take care of his family?” Leonel asked quietly, his voice in pain.
Valeria solemnly shook her head. There was nothing she felt she could say to alleviate such a tragedy. Leonel’s father had flung himself from a window when his stocks had plummeted, leaving his finances in ruins. Before then, she had heard that Leonel had been a happy-go-lucky person, playful and very easy going. While he still had heavy traces of those personality traits and she caught glimpses of them often, they were still well hidden underneath a blanket of insecurity, sadness, and frustration.
He let out a deep breath. “I know that you tell me to switch careers because you worry about me, but I’m great where I am,” he stated, gently gliding is index finger over her cheek. “Sometimes, you can’t live your dreams.”
“But Leonel—"
“That’s not how life works. Reality isn’t a fairytale,” he chided.
“Doing what you want to do isn’t a fairytale,” explained Valeria.
“Sometimes it’s not possible. Responsibilities interfere.”
“Responsibilities?” she asked lightly. “What responsibilities?”
“My mother. My sisters.”
“They can live without so much expensive stuff,” Valeria blurted.
“You just don’t understand.”
“You’re right—I don’t get it. Their way of thinking makes no sense to me. Things are just things to me. They’re just silly possessions. They don’t tell me who I am, and they don’t tell others who I am either. If they did, I don’t need those kinds of people around me. ”
He took her hands in his. “What do you say if we drop this conversation? I don't want to fight."
"I don't either."
"You made such a great dinner for us. Let’s stuff ourselves, drink our champagne, and be happy to be together.”
Valeria sighed. “That sounds good.”
“Great! To my beautiful fiancée,” he gushed as he brought his glass to hers.
“To my handsome future husband,” she said, clinking the glass.
The bitter taste of the dry champagne slid down Valeria's throat as Leonel smiled contentedly at her.
Chapter 10
Lorenzo sat in front of Principal Bleaker with an exasperated look on his handsome face. He had been called in and could think of nothing less enjoyable. As Principal Bleaker finished his phone call with the new superintendent, Lorenzo counted in his head the more enjoyable tasks he could be doing. I could be preparing the quiz my students will surely complain about, I could be getting stung by a bee, I could be eating a cactus prickly fruit with the stickers still on.