He saw Alex and Valerie exchange glances even from way over at the far end of the long corridor to the front door where Valerie stood. Then Alex zeroed in on the guy who leaned into her ear and whispered something.
“Who the fuck is that?” Romero asked, picking up on Alex’s sudden agitation.
“Let’s find out.” Alex set his beer down on the counter and started toward them slowly.
Just then another two girls walked in. One went straight toward the guy, who wrapped his arm around the girl’s waist, and the other walked over to Valerie. “I brought some friends,” she said to Romero as she walked toward him. “You said it’d be okay, right?”
Romero peered at the guy who’d walked in behind her and was now smooching with the giggling girl who’d walked in after Valerie, and smirked. “Yeah,” he turned to Alex. “It’s cool, right?”
Alex nodded headed toward Valerie whose eyebrow lifted as he approached her. Angel walked back to Sarah. “That was close,” he said as he sat down.
“She knows about the two girls today,” Sarah informed him as she bit into one of the slices of pizza.
Angel turned to her surprised because they’d come straight here from the restaurant. When had she had time to tell her?
As if reading his mind, Sarah shrugged. “I’d already decided maybe it was better if I didn’t say anything. So I wasn’t going to unless she asked directly. As luck would have it, she texted me today to ask if I knew if he was going to be here tonight and if I’d talked to him lately or seen him.” She frowned and took a deep breath. “I wasn’t gonna lie.”
What wasn’t surprising was that Alex had barely gotten a few words in with Valerie when she stalked away to the other side of the room and sat with the couple and other girl she’d walked in with. His mood changed completely as he sat there, unable shake whatever it is she’d said to him and failing miserably at not looking her way. Suddenly why he was here and not somewhere else made sense. He’d come here to try and explain what he’d evidently been certain Sarah had already told her.
Romero quickly confirmed the couple with Valerie was a team as was Valerie with the other girl who’d walked in with them. The first painful round of charades started with the birthday boy and Manny going first. They were off to a bad start as the timer went off and Manny wasn’t able to figure out what Max was trying to describe. “What the hell was that?” Manny asked as Max pulled out a hanky to wipe off the sweat he’d worked up.
“J.F.K!” Max said. “Everyone knows his head went back like this, not forward like them conspiring bastards who murdered him want you to think. Okay, maybe it didn’t make much sense—”
“Much?” Manny practically yelled out. “His head went back once. He didn’t go into fucking convulsions like you was doin!”
“All right. All right.” Romero stepped up. “Big fat zero points for you two.” He held up his hand in a shape of a circle. “Now sit down and see how it’s done. We’re up, Alex. I’ll do this.” He picked up a card, read it, and smirked. “Too easy. All right, you ready?” Alex nodded. “It’s two words, but pay close attention ’cause what I’ll be doing has nothing to do with the title.”
He put the card down, placed both hands behind his head, and then did his famous violent pelvic thrust. Immediately everyone in the room was laughing. Everyone that is except Alex who looked more annoyed than amused. “What the hell is that?”
“Turn the music up, Max,” Romero said then spun around, bending over and placing one hand on the floor as his ass began to twerk.”
“Are you kidding me?” Alex asked. “I don’t wanna see that shit?”
Sarah could barely breathe she was laughing so much. So were Valerie, her friends, and everyone else for that matter. Manny and Max laughed too, though Manny was claiming he knew exactly what movie Romero was doing.
Alex turned to Manny, exasperated. “You know what that is?” Before Manny could respond, he turned to Romero, who was on the floor now, thrusting his middle up in the air. “All right, will you stop? I give up, okay?” He shook his head when Romero continued. “I said I give up!’
“You don’t even wanna guess?” Romero asked, standing up. “C’mon at least try.” He placed his hands behind his head again.
“Okay, I’ll guess, “Alex said, holding out a hand. “Just don’t start that shit up again.” He thought about it for a moment then smiled as if he had it. “Napoleon Dynamite.”
“What!” Romero asked as Sarah fell back into the sofa and went on her second round of hysterical laughing.
“That scene at the end where he dances on stage,” Alex explained.
“No! That was Magic Mike, man!” Romero said, shaking his head disgusted. “Napoleon Dynamite?” he muttered as he walked back to sit next to Alex.
“I knew it,” Manny said with a big smug smile. “Man, why couldn’t we have gotten that one?”
Now Angel laughed. That might’ve been Manny up there twerking instead of Romero. He shuddered at the thought.
As the night went on, there was no shortage of laughter. They sat through Manny’s interpretation of White Men Can’t Jump as he nearly took out an ankle then laughed even more because every one of Romero’s movies had him dancing. The moment Romero started doing the twist on the fourth round Alex threw his napkin on the floor as if he were slam dunking a ball. “This is bullshit!”
“No, watch, watch, watch!” Romero said then brought two open fingers over his face pulling each hand off to the sides over his eyes as he continued to twist in slow motion.
Alex’s disgusted face eased up. “Pulp Fiction.”
“Yeah!” Romero jumped up in the air then clapped. “Finally,” he high fived Alex as he reached him. “Man, you suck at this.”
“I suck at this?” Alex looked at him incredulously. “How was I supposed to get Rocky from you prancing around up there earlier?”
“I was running in place and bobbing and weaving!”
By the time the game was over, Sarah said her sides hurt from how much she’d laughed. Another not surprising outcome was that Alex and Valerie were now in a corner of the kitchen, talking in hushed voices. Even though she seemed a bit pissed still, their faces were much too close for her protesting to be taken too seriously. Since her friends had already left without her, it was obvious who’d be taking her home.
“Those two.” Romero shook his head as he downed his beer.
“No more of those, Moe,” Manny warned. “Or your ass ain’t leaving this house tonight.”
Sarah walked back toward Angel from the bathroom. She almost walked into Max she was so busy reading something on her phone. Their eyes met as she looked up suddenly and she smiled. Angel could hardly wait to get her home. By the time she reached him, she was back to reading whatever it was she’d been reading on her phone. ‘You ready to go?” he asked.
She looked up and nodded. “Yep,” she said then looked back down at her phone.
“Something wrong?” Angel asked, hating that feeling that it could be anything these days—Leo, Syd, her dad.
“No.” She looked up at him again, smiling that sweet genuine smile he loved seeing on her like earlier when she’d laughed so heartedly. “I got the confirmation from UCSD that they were able to switch that class I wanted switched.”
Angel casually let out a sigh of relief. All he wanted was one night of no drama—a night he could just enjoy his girl with no outside third parties intruding in their carefree time alone. They said their goodbyes and Angel had every intention of doing just that tonight: enjoying every inch of Sarah all too himself without interruptions or other annoying thoughts.
~*~
Sarah
Last night Sarah had decided to keep Sydney’s opinion about Leonardo’s photo to herself. She hadn’t been able to help herself and had forwarded him the email yesterday from her phone. He didn’t respond until the eve when they were at Max’s party. His initial response was three capital letters.
“W.T.F?!”
/> He later elaborated with a longer email that he had no doubt Angel would have some objection about the photo. Sarah had wanted Sydney’s sincerest response, so she hadn’t mentioned in the first email what she’d thought of the photo or that Angel had seen it. She just sent it as a generic check-out-this-fish-Leonardo-caught type of email to see if Sydney would even mention it. As expected, his reaction was completely sincere and what Sarah had feared. He, too, was suspicious of Leonardo now. Though Angel hadn’t actually said so, she’d seen it in his face. She’d been reading Sydney’s email when Angel had asked her if anything was wrong. She didn’t actually lie about the confirmation of her classes being changed. It was the email just before Sydney’s second email regarding the photo. She just hadn’t wanted to ruin what had turned out to be such a fun night. When they got back to her place, she’d been glad she hadn’t because they’d had another amazingly exhausting night.
That morning, however, unlike yesterday, Angel had to leave early. He was opening the restaurant. Sarah had the day off and was planning to make a nice dinner for her and her mom when her mom got home later that night. She also figured, given the questionable photo, she should get to know him sooner rather than later so she could decide now if she was moving forward and meeting with him or cutting her losses now before she was in too deep. She shot off an email that morning letting Leonardo know her day was pretty much open if he wanted to chat online.
His response once again had been almost immediate. They’d set up a time, and now she sat there just minutes away from when they’d decided the chat would take place. For the first time since this all came about, she didn’t tell anyone about this. She was nervous enough, so she figured she’d do this alone and then share it with Angel, Sydney, Valerie, and even her mom.
She sat in front of her laptop now, waiting for the indicator to flash. When it did, she clicked on it and up popped the screen with a smiling Leonardo. “Hey,” he said with an even bigger smile.
The first thing Sarah noticed was the low voice. It was how she’d expected him to sound, but it was so resonant it made her clear her voice, afraid hers might squeak.
“Hey,” she smiled, back pulling a strand of hair behind her ear in nervous reaction.
She tried her best not to stare at all the tattoos or his muscles that bulged out of his tank. She knew from experience that the only time Angel and Alex’s bulged that way was just after they’d worked out. It made her wonder if he’d just finished working out, and if so, was there a reason for that?
The scars were another thing she’d noticed. She couldn’t be sure because they were on the light side, but he had quite a few just under his hairline at the tip of his forehead. Trying hard to relax, she did her best to just enjoy the excitement that he was very likely her brother.
“I gotta tell you, Sarah. You’re all I’ve been thinking about lately. It’s just so crazy that I have a sister. I don’t think it’s really sunk in and probably won’t until we meet, but this is close.” His fingers tapped the desk in front of him, and then he laughed. “Shit. I didn’t think I was gonna be this nervous.”
“Good. I’m not alone,” she admitted, clearing her throat again. “I was pretty nervous about this.
His smile went from big bright to soft and sweet. “Don’t be. I’m the least intimidating person you’ll ever meet. I promise.” She could hardly believe a guy that looked like he did could sit there and say that with a straight face. But he sat up, straightening up a little without laughing as she expected him to. “So how are you? You have a free day today?”
“Sort of.” She smiled. “I’m off today. My boyfriend is working, and my mom’s in Vegas, so I have the place to myself and pretty much nothing else to do.”
“Hey, sounds like a good time to get to know your brother.” He smiled again, sitting back and crossing his arms. “How long you been with your boyfriend?”
It took her a little by surprise that that would be his first question, but she didn’t over think it. She just answered as casually as he’d asked. “Almost three years.”
“Really? Wow.”
Taking his prompt, she shot right back. “How ’bout you? You have a girlfriend?”
“Nah.” He shook his head then sat up again, leaning his arms on the table or desk in front of him.
He wasn’t lying when he said he was nervous. He seemed really antsy.
“I had one for a little over a year, but we broke up a few months ago. It’s just as well,” he added with a shrug. “Since I’m seriously considering moving out to California with Omar, it wouldn’t have worked out. Things were already shaky between us. Oh, hey, that reminds me. You’re in the San Diego area, right? How far is that from Hansen Beach?”
“About an hour,” she said, thinking about it. “Yeah, I think it’s like halfway from here to Los Angeles.”
“That’s cool,” he said. “We’ll be pretty close to each other.”
“Yeah,” she smiled, trying to sound as excited as he did, though she wasn’t sure if that made her more nervous than excited.
As the conversation went on, Sarah found herself relaxing a little, even laughing at some of the stories he told her about his childhood. His friends in Phoenix sounded a lot like Angel’s friends. He’d known them his whole life, and they were still really tight.
“Aren’t you gonna miss them when you move away?”
“Uh . . .” He seemed to ponder that for a second. “Well, one of them might come out there with me. My closest friend, Alonzo. And the others said they’d visit. Plus, I plan on going back a lot. I recently bought a Jet ski. It was used but still in real good condition, and we’ve been having a blast out here in Havasu this summer. We’re out there almost every weekend. I plan on making the trip back out a lot.”
Sarah thought of the first photo he sent on the lake then the second and how he’d been in his swim trunks. The longer she talked to him, the more she felt as if maybe he was the real deal. Not once had he flirted with her or even said she was beautiful. He was so down to earth he even reminded her a little of Romero the way he’d let some F bombs slip here and there, but he’d quickly apologize.
“So have you had a chance to talk to Omar about the past? About his time in jail or about the rest of the family? You know anything about his brothers and sisters?”
“No,” Sarah shook her head. Even her mom didn’t know much about her dad’s family except that they were all trouble according to what little she had told her, but she’d keep that to herself for now. “I really haven’t talked to him, and my mom doesn’t know a whole lot about his family. They weren’t together long when she got pregnant and he went to jail the first time,” she explained. “Then when he got out again and they moved in together she said he didn’t take her around his family at all and really didn’t talk about them.”
“So you don’t even know how many uncles or aunts we have? We have cousins too, Sarah. Lots of them. You don’t know anything about them either?”
“No. Nothing.”
With all this thinking about having a dad and an actual sibling in her life now, Sarah hadn’t even thought beyond that and the fact that she might have cousins. Lots of them?
“Have you met any of them?” she asked curiously.
He shook his head. “No, uh, Omar said he doesn’t keep in touch with them except for the sister he moved in with for a while. But he said he could get me their info and stuff so I can contact them. Only once I found out I had a sister I said first things first. I need to meet Sarah before anyone else.”
That made Sarah smile. He brought his arms up placing his hands behind his head as he sat back giving her an excellent view of his flexed biceps and triceps and a curious view of his tattoos. “So when can I meet with you in person?”
That caught her off guard. Even with the tattoos and numerous scars—as they’d spoken longer she noticed more—he still seemed harmless even sweet in his own awkward way, but she’d been hoping to talk to him a few more times online
before making any plans to meet. “Um, I, uh—”
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be pushy.” He brought his arms in front of him, leaning on them again. “Omar said you want to take things slow. This has just been so painless and easy I guess I just jumped ahead of myself there. I can wait as long as you need me to.”
“It’s not that.” She stopped, unsure how to say she still hadn’t fully accepted that this was really happening. “Everything’s happened so fast. I just want to do this slowly.”
“I get it,” he said quickly. “It’s cool. I told you I’m not the most patient, but I’ll try to be. I promise. We can just do this until you’re ready. However long that is.”
It was an almost strange feeling hearing him say that. She knew he was talking about meeting as brother and sister, but it felt different. It felt as if maybe they were talking about something else, which was insane, so she shook it off and instead focused on how thankful she was that the chat had gone well—so well she could hardly believe when he mentioned that they’d been chatting for over two hours.
Her eyes were instantly on the corner of her monitor to confirm he wasn’t mistaken. “Oh wow. The time flew.”
“Yeah, it did,” he smiled. “Doesn’t mean we have to hang up unless you want to.”
Strangely, she didn’t. Before she could react to that last comment, he asked her a question that completely threw her. “Growing up, did you tell people your dad was in jail, or did you just say you never knew him?”
Sarah stared at him for a moment, a knot forming at her throat. “I didn’t,” she whispered then cleared her throat. “I didn’t know anything about him until just recently when he came looking for me. My mom kept it all from me. To protect me,” she added quickly. “All she told me growing up was that he’d never wanted anything to do with us. I didn’t really ask much.”
He was quiet for longer than he’d been the whole time they’d been chatting, and then finally he spoke again, changing the subject entirely, and told her about his stepsister. Even though she was a stepsister, he’d still had a sibling of sorts for at least a few years. Unreasonably, that made Sarah jealous. She’d grown up all alone, but at least he’d had a sister he’d grown up with, even if she wasn’t blood. That made her think of the next best thing she had, and she told him about Sydney. Curiously, this interested him quite a bit, and he asked a lot of questions. By the time they finished chatting, it had been nearly four hours, and she’d told him so much that when she hung up she wasn’t sure if she should be happy or worried.