By the time I got to Daphne’s Queens neighborhood, it was almost late afternoon. I had only been down here the one time when she was working at the coffee shop. That seemed like a lifetime ago. Since then, I had come to learn exactly where she lived so I went there first.

As I walked up the sidewalk to her building’s front entrance, there were three older women sitting on patio chairs on the curb. I guess this was a thing around here because around where I grew up they called that homeless. Anyway, all three women turned to look at me and they all had some sort of reaction. I was famous-ish, so whatever.

“You’re that Max fella, right?” one of the women asked. She seemed to be their leader because the other two were tight-lipped and kind of shy. I walked over to them, standing in front of the three of them. The leader of the pack asked, “Am I right?”

“That’s me, ladies,” I told them with a wink and a smile.

Old women really loved me. It was something about the hair. They really dug the hair.

“You broke my granddaughter’s heart,” the woman on the end suddenly said. “She’s been so sad not only for you but for the loss you and your family have suffered.”

This woman was the abuela that Daphne had always spoken about so fondly of. I was being a dicky jerk to her grandmother. Great.

“I’m sorry, I—,”

She smiled. All was not lost.

“You’re here to get her back, aren’t you?” her grandmother asked.

“I am.” I felt suddenly aware of how much of an idiot I was for even thinking I was worthy of a woman like Daphne. “If she’ll have me.”

And like something out of a movie, the front door to Daphne’s building opened and there she was. She was with a guy who looked very much like the male version of her. It must have been her brother, Eddie. It was him who looked up first and spotted me standing in front of their grandmother…and the other two old women.

“Okay, so we’ll go to the craft store first and pick up charcoal pencils, that special paper, and what else was on that list, Eddie?” Daphne asked her brother.

But he didn’t answer her because he was staring at me in surprise.

I thought it best right then to actually fucking smile at the guy. And when I did so, I could almost feel the tension ease off him. He smiled back and then bit his lip.

“What’s so funny?” Daphne asked. “Did you fart?”

God, this was going to be so romantic.

Eddie playfully shoved his sister’s shoulder. “No, I didn’t fart. Someone is here to see you, you spaz.”

“Who is here to see me?” she asked.

Daphne followed her brother’s gaze to where I was standing. I was trying my hardest to look fucking humble, but I couldn’t tell if I pulled it off or not. I do know that when she locked eyes with mine, my heart fucking skipped a beat. My hands got clammy, my knees shook, and my stomach felt as if it would explode. I wanted to run to where she was standing a few feet away and pull her into my arms, hold her until she begged me to stop and kiss her senseless. But to do all of that, I would have had to jump over the row of older women in their patio chairs because none of them were moving any time soon. Actually, they all got a little bit more comfortable to enjoy the show.

“Hey,” I said by way of hello. “How are you?”

Daphne lifted her chin defiantly, “Fine. Good. How are you?”

I grinned, because that tiny bit of defiance in her…that was my girl. And everything that Jack had said to me earlier today clicked. He was one hundred percent right and I wasn’t going to waste any more time with pleasantries and small-fucking talk.

“Good, thanks. So here’s the thing, I’m in love with you.”

“You what?!”

The leader of the patio chair brigade squealed. The one in the middle, her eyes popped open as wide as saucers. And finally, Daphne’s grandmother on the end crossed herself and said something in Spanish.

“He said he loves you, you spaz,” Eddie told her.

“Yeah, I heard that, Eduardo, thank you very much for the play by play.” Daphne never dropped her gaze from mine. “And what makes you think you can come here and think I’m going to drop everything and come running to you, Max?”

“Because you love me too.”

Like clockwork, the patio ladies all gave a collective, “Aw.”

“And what makes you think I love you?” she asked me.

“That night,” I coughed and looked around us. It was weird enough having to explain this to Daphne, much less to Daphne, and three old ladies, and a minor. “In my bed that night…you felt it and I felt it. It was real. There is some kind of magic between us and you know it. And if there is one thing I learned from all of this crap that we’ve been through in the last few weeks is that time is precious. There’s no reason to waste another fucking minute apart—sorry, ladies. I don’t mean to curse. That was rude of me,” I told them. It didn’t matter, they were all giggling like schoolgirls. “So there you have it. That’s how I know this thing between us is the real deal.”

“Oh dear,” the old lady seated in the middle finally said to break the silence. “Daphne, sweetie, if you don’t want him, I’ll take him off your hands.”

Daphne’s grandmother playfully smacked her friend, while the leader of the group on the other end was dying laughing.

Eddie, in the meantime, leaned in and whispered something in his sister’s ear. Her eyes got watery and it made me want to go over and soothe her. Because the last thing I wanted was to ever see Daphne cry again. It gutted me more than I thought possible. I badly wanted to be the one to make her smile, laugh and just fucking be with her…if she’d let me.

I couldn’t stand it anymore, this distance between us. So, without wasting any more time and seizing the fucking moment before it slipped through my fingertips, I walked around the trio of patio chairs so that I was right in front of Daphne. She didn’t walk away. That was definitely a good sign.

My hands came up slowly, as if to gage if she would possibly run. But she didn’t, thank fuck. Another good sign. Her smile was barely noticeable, but I saw a hint of it when my hands came to cradle her face. I smiled too. It was all I could do not to jump for fucking joy that she had let me come this far. She reached up then and grabbed a hold of my wrists as if to anchor herself to me, this moment, this feeling that I knew we both felt between us right then and every fucking time we had been together.

There were so many things I wanted to say to her.

So many things I wanted to hear from her.

So many things I wanted to do to her.

I couldn’t decide.

So I settled for honesty.

“Daphne?” I asked just above a whisper. I leaned forward and pressed the tiniest hint of a kiss against her lips. “I need to tell you something.”

“Yeah,” she answered.

“I hate you…I hate you so much.”

“Good. Because I still hate you too, Max-A-Million.”

“That’s my girl.”

THE END