APRIL
Chapter 16
Amy sat on Carlos’ couch flipping through her text messages. Her family was on her shit list. She still answered their texts, unless they were one of the many telling her about one guy or another they wanted to hook her up with. She ignored those.
But Tim, her new favorite family member, was different. You’re bringing Carlos to the wedding, right?
Amy smiled and typed back. Of course.
Good. Don’t worry about everyone else. They will come around, was Tim’s reply.
Amy gave her cousin the praise he deserved. You’re the best!
She was just setting the phone on the coffee table when Carlos came home. He strolled into the condo, taking her in as he dropped his briefcase at the door, discarded his suit coat, and took off his tie. By the time he was done, his clothes were perched on various pieces of furniture throughout the room and he was sitting beside her on the couch, his arm around her shoulders.
“Hi.” He gave her a lingering kiss.
“Dinner’s in the oven.”
“Oh yeah? What did you make?”
“Pizza. Though I have to admit that I bought the gluten-free crust instead of making it. But I topped it all myself.” She beamed at him.
“I’m sure it’ll be delicious. How was your day?”
Fridays were always Amy’s favorite day. But today had been particularly good. “Great. I got to work on the factory floor doing quality control stuff. It was fun and made the time go by fast.”
“Doesn’t your friend Maya work on the factory floor?”
“Yeah. I saw her.” Amy raised her eyebrows at him. “Do you know Maya?”
“I’ve seen her around.” His tone sounded a little mysterious. “And speaking of seeing people around, tomorrow is Everett’s party.”
“I know. I’ve already picked out what I am going to wear,” she told him lightly.
“So you’re still good with…coming out?”
Amy put her hand on Carlos’ cheek. His brow was furrowed, the lines cutting across his otherwise perfect forehead. She leaned forward and quickly touched her lips to his. That always helped when he was anxious. “Absolutely. In fact, I think I’m more okay with it now than I was when I first agreed.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because I’m tired of hiding. I want to go into work with you every day, instead of walking in from a block away. I want to be able to sit with you at lunch and not worry about if everyone can see how crazy I am about you. And most of all, I want to be able to give dirty looks to all the women who hit on you.”
“Hit on me? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Amy rolled her eyes. “It happens at least once a day. And that’s just what I see. For example, at lunch today, Kirstie from sales practically undressed you with her eyes.”
Carlos leaned close to her. “I didn’t notice. I was too busy undressing you with my eyes.” He pulled her earlobe between his teeth. “You’re super cute when you’re jealous, by the way.”
She was about to pull him into a kiss, when the oven timer went off. “That’s dinner!”
Amy jumped up and made her way to the kitchen. Carlos followed slowly behind. He caught up to her as she was cutting the pizza on a large wooden board that she’d placed over the island. He wrapped his arms around her waist and nestled his lips between her shoulder and neck.
Amy used the pizza wheel to make perfect triangle slices. Then she wormed her way out of Carlos’ grasp so she could go to the refrigerator and pull out the tossed salad she’d made. She returned to the island with the bowl of greens and the salad dressing.
Once everything was laid out in front of her, Carlos turned her around and pulled her back into this arms. “I talked to Marcel today. He said Robbie is planning to move into your apartment next month. He’ll help Marcel with the rent and that would free you up to move in with me.”
Amy’s stomach flipped. As much as she wanted to wake up to Carlos everyday, she had her concerns about living with him.
“I really, really missed you last night,” he said.
“You worked until almost midnight,” she reminded him.
“Yeah. But then I got home and my bed was cold and lonely.” He frowned. “It was really sad.”
“It’s just that…my worry is…what if we get in a fight? We’ve never even had one fight.”
“If we do, I’ll have to sleep in the spare room until you’re done being mad at me.”
“What if…what if you dump me? Then where will I live?”
Carlos stared at her. “Is that your real worry? That I’ll leave you?”
Amy swallowed hard. She nodded.
He kissed her. It was sweet and passionate, as if he was pouring all his emotions into that kiss. Amy was so inclined to believe everything he said in that moment. So it was easy to accept when he pulled away and whispered, “I’m not going to leave you.”
****
“You look gorgeous,” Carlos told her as they emerged from his car.
After handing the valet his keys he placed his hand on her lower back and gently moved her toward the house. Amy stopped a few feet away from where they’d left the car and looked up at the massive old home.
“See, here’s a thing we’ve never discussed.” She turned toward him. “You’re rich.”
“I’m not rich.”
“You just handed a valet your keys. I have never in my life handed a valet my keys.”
“And the car in front of us was a twenty year old beater and they also handed the valet their keys,” he pointed out.
Everett’s party was indeed a diverse affair. Everett invited every single employee of E.E.R. to the party. Amy had been the one to issue the invitation in past years. Usually about a third of them showed up, but they came from all over, the factory floor, sales, and of course all the VPs.
“I know you make six figures.” For reasons she didn’t totally understand, she was insistent on traveling down this road.
He gave a slight nod. “So?”
“And I am guessing that first number in your salary isn’t a one either.”
He sighed. “It’s not. But I don’t understand—”
“I’m not rich and neither is my family.”
He leaned close to her. “I grew up in a three bedroom apartment with seven people. But you know this and I don’t understand why we’re talking about this now.”
“I don’t know,” she admitted.
Carlos put his hands on her shoulders. “I promise we can talk about this, since I can see it’s bothering you. But can we do it later?”
She nodded sullenly. “I guess I’m just feeling like I’m not in your league.”
Carlos swept his gaze slowly from her silver strappy heels to her shapely bare legs to her light green cocktail dress that fell just off the shoulder and showed the smallest amount of cleavage. At her neck was a bright diamond necklace Carlos had gotten her for no reason at all except he said he wanted to.
He leaned down so his mouth was beside her ear. “You’re wrong, sweetheart. It’s me who’s not in your league.” He kissed her cheek.
A strange choking sound came from behind them and both Amy and Carlos turned. Standing in front of an eighties model muscle car was Kenny, his eyes wide, his mouth flopped open as he stared straight at them. Beside him was a confused-looking man, handsome, built, and maybe ten years his senior.
“Hey, Kenny.” Carlos took a step toward him and outstretched his hand. After shaking Kenny’s hand and being greeted with silence, he turned to the man beside him. “You must be Jonathon. I’m Carlos, Kenny’s boss.”
“Yes. I’ve heard about you, too. Nice to meet you,” Jonathon said, still glancing sidelong at Kenny.
Carlos put his hand back on Amy’s lower back. “This is my girlfriend, Amy.”
Kenny seemed to gather his shit together while Amy and Jonathon shook hands. “So, um. I did not see this coming,” he finally spit out.
Carlos chuckled and looked over at Amy. “Funny. I did. Shall we?”
The four of them entered Everett’s house together. Amy took comfort in the fact that she wasn’t alone in presenting her boyfriend for the first time. While Carlos knew about Jonathon, Kenny hadn’t told anyone else at work. Jonathon revealed this as he and Amy slowly moseyed up the walk, somehow becoming comrades in arms during that short journey.
When they burst through the front double front doors of the estate, a few heads turned, but mostly people continued their conversations. A mass of bodies, grouped together in threes, fives, or even tens were dotted throughout the open layout of the ground floor of the house and spilled out onto the patio on the opposite side.
Carlos offered to get them something to drink as Amy spotted Maya and Julia standing together at the bottom of a spiral staircase. She told him she’d meet him over there and they parted ways. Amy approached the two women. Julia, an intense look on her face, leaned toward Maya. Looking defiant, Maya seemed to be almost ignoring the woman right beside her.
“Hey, ladies!” Amy said in greeting. They all hugged and talked about how glad they were to see one another. Then Amy turned the conversation back to what it had been before she arrived. “What’s going on? What were you talking about before I got here?”
“Dates,” Julia said, her gaze hard.
“Speaking of which, I assume Prince Charming is around here somewhere?”
Last week the four birthday buddies had gotten together at their favorite watering hole at Amy’s behest so she could give them the heads up about her and Carlos. Much to her surprise, no one showed even the slightest inkling of shock. In fact, Julia seemed to even expect it.
At that time, Julia had announced she would be attending the party alone and Maya had been vague. Alice hadn’t been sure which of her “marriage candidates” she would be bringing.
“Where’s Alice?” Maya asked, still clearly avoiding whatever she had been talking to Julia about before Amy arrived.
All three of them looked around the room until they spotted Alice and called her over. Alice approached, a look of sheer exasperation on her face. And trailing in her wake was one of the most beautiful men Amy had ever seen. The blond stood a little taller than Carlos, was lighter in skin color, but still deeply tanned, and his chiseled face held the most incredible sapphire eyes. The man was painfully hot.
“Oh my God!” Maya blurted out.
“Hi ladies,” Alice said without much enthusiasm.
The gorgeous specimen, who’d recently become the model and spokesman for E.E.R. Tranquility Candles, sidled up beside Alice and smiled at them all.
Unable to get out of introductions, Alice gave them in the most depressing and uninterested voice imaginable. “Amy, Maya, Julia, this is Darius Fleck.”
The ladies took turns shaking hands with the sculpture of David in the flesh while his dimples popped out at them and he spoke in a charming southern drawl. Before Amy could determine exactly why Alice looked like she was about to throw up if Darius made one more smooth and sweet comment to her friends, Carlos appeared at her shoulder holding a glass of beer.
“You said you were in a beer mood.” He handed her the red plastic cup which seemed so out of place in the opulent surrounding.
Amy noticed that his other hand was empty. “Didn’t you get yourself one? Surely Everett has something you can drink.”
His gaze, almost involuntarily, slipped across the room. Amy followed his eyes. And there she was, the Dragon Lady. “I think I’ll stay sober tonight.” He turned back to her and winked. “I’ll just get you drunk and take you home.”
“You dirty dog.” Everett came up behind Carlos and slapped his hand over his friend’s shoulder.
Carlos grinned at him. “Hey, I’ve got a beautiful woman on my arm, Ev. You can’t give me shit tonight.”
Everett wasn’t looking at Carlos, even though he was speaking to him. Amy followed his gaze to Maya, who seemed to have a new interest in the ice cubes floating in her glass.
“I’m so glad you two came,” Everett said. “You, too, Darius.”
The conversation took off then, and since Amy was more of an observer than a participant, she took a moment to glance back across the room toward the sliding glass door where Kimberly stood. With one arm cocked like the handle of a teapot, fist on hip, the other holding a glass of wine, Kimberly stared daggers straight into Amy’s heart.