Popcorn Love (2 page)

“It looks like Momma gave you a makeover, Lucas,”
Nora said. “Come and let me see.”

Grinning, Lucas ran back over to his grandmother. She
crouched down so that she could be eye-level with the boy as he
asked, “Does it really look fablous, Gram?”

“Oh absolutely!”

“You see?” Elena said. “I told you. Now, can you say
‘thank you’ to your Gram.”

“Gracias Gram.”

Nora kissed his cheek. “De nada.”

Stepping over and scooping her son up, Elena squeezed
him against her in a loving hug. “Good boy.” The sensation of one
of his small hands tangling in the hair at the base of her head
made her sigh. He always played with her hair when she held him.
Over the years, it had come to soothe them both.

She leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her mother’s
cheek. “Hola, mamá. How was he today?”

“Oh, he was fine.” Nora smiled. “You know he is
always a perfect angel.” She crooked her finger at her daughter to
beckon her to follow, as she turned to head back into the kitchen.
“I was just making some tea. Would you like a cup?”

“Yes, please.” Elena dropped onto a stool at the
kitchen bar and settled Lucas on her lap. He continued to play with
her hair as she and her mother carried on.

“How was your day, dear?” Nora asked. “Everything
going well at the office?”

“The spring fashion shoot is developing smoothly.”
Elena gently bounced her son on her knee and patted his pudgy
little thigh. “Honestly, things could not be better at the office.”
She sighed. “Things with Vivian, however…”

“Oh?” The tea kettle whistled from the stove, and
Nora poured the heated water into two waiting cups. “The dating
thing again?”

“Yes. She will not give—”

“Momma, I drawed a dinosaur today,” Lucas dropped his
head on his mother’s shoulder and played with the necklace dangling
from her neck.

Elena patted his leg as she corrected him.
“
Drew
, Lucas. Not ‘drawed’. You
drew
a dinosaur
today, and I am sure it was the best dinosaur drawing ever. I can’t
wait to see it, munchkin, but what did Momma tell you about
interrupting people when they are talking?”

“Uh, not to.” Lucas chewed on his lip, his reply a
guilty murmur.

But Elena’s smile stayed warm. “That’s right. You are
such a smart boy.”

He grinned and hid his face in the crook of his
mother’s neck, letting her short dark locks fall over his features
as Elena turned back to her mother. “She will not give up on this
ridiculous idea that I am in dire need of a love life.”

“Oh, I don’t know that she is necessarily focused on
providing you with a
love
life, per se.”

“
Mother!
” Elena hissed, scandalized at her
mother’s teasing smirk.

Laughing softly at her daughter’s reaction, Nora
said, “Lucas, dear?”

When his little face peeked out from under his
mother’s hair, Nora smiled at him. “Ear muffs, please.”

Lucas huffed out a disapproving sigh as he brought up
his hands and cupped them tightly around his ears to block out any
sound.

“Perhaps Vivian is right, Elena. You need to get out
more, and not just to the office. It would do you some good to meet
new people, and truth be told, dear, your sex life is lacking. Let
off some steam. Have some fun.”

“You, of all people, are telling me to have fun,”
Elena drawled, “to go out and have s-e-x with someone I don’t
know
just to ‘let off some steam’?”

“Well,
do
be responsible about it, but yes,”
Nora said. “I know your father and I kept you on a rather tight
leash when you were younger, and things were admittedly strained
when Lucas was born, but you are an adult, Elena. We have treated
you as such for quite some time now, and you are a responsible
woman. I trust that you will take care of yourself, but it may be
good for you to simply let loose for once and stop holding onto
things you cannot change. Stop being afraid to connect with
people.”

Elena sighed as she took the cup of tea her mother
offered her and blew at the hot liquid. “Thank you.”

“At least think about it,” Nora said as she blew at
her own tea. “It’s time to move on from the past. You know what
your father always says.”

“Sólo se vive una vez.” Elena nodded.

“It’s true,” Nora said. “You only live once, and you
are in your twenties. You don’t get those years back, my darling.
So have a little fun.”

Elena tugged on Lucas’s arm to let him know he could
drop his hands from his ears. She then rested her head on top of
his and closed her eyes. Maybe her mother and Vivian were right.
Maybe it was time.

“I will think about it.” Though her eyes were closed,
she knew her mother was smiling.

* * *

Later that evening, after putting Lucas to bed, Elena
collapsed onto her plush leather couch and reached for the remote.
With a sigh, she flicked through the channels on her flat-screen
television. She cycled through all of them twice before giving up
and clicking the damned thing off again.

She laid her head on the arm of the couch and closed
her eyes, the events of the day spiraling through her mind. Her
mother and Vivian were right: She was only twenty-seven and already
extremely successful and wealthy, but if she was deeply honest with
herself, she was also lonely. She was so lonely she could feel it
in her bones.

A single tear slipped from the inner corner of her
eye and over the bridge of her nose, and before Elena even realized
what she was doing, her cell phone was pressed to the side of her
head and a soft ringing echoed in her ear.

“El—”

“Okay.” Elena began before Vivian could get a word
out. “I will do it. I will let you set me up.”

Vivian’s squeal of excitement made Elena roll her
eyes as she swiped at her cheeks, thankful that her friend couldn’t
see her. “See?” Vivian said. “I knew there was some good sense
still floating around in that head of yours. Why the change of
heart?”

“Is insanity a fair answer?” Elena could only imagine
how pitiful she looked in that moment.

“No, but I will let it pass for now. I can’t wait to
get started. I already have at least two people in mind.”

She interjected before Vivian could get swept up in
her excitement. “I have a condition.”

“Of course you do. What is it?”

“A babysitter.”

“You want me to set you up with a babysitter?” Vivian
asked, confused. “Seriously? I was thinking someone more your
status, Elena.”

“I don’t care about status, Viv.” She sighed. “You
know that, but no, I was referring to my condition. You have to
find me a suitable babysitter for Lucas. My mother already keeps
him during the days while I work, and I don’t want to put any extra
burden on her. Oh, and also, no more than two dates a week,
maximum. I refuse to give up too much of my time with Lucas.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re the world’s best mom.” Vivian’s
voice fell into a bored drone. “I’ll buy you a trophy later.”

Elena chuckled. “Those are the terms. Do we have a
deal?”

“Oh, we definitely have a deal. I find you a
babysitter, and then we work on finding you a spouse.”

“Let’s not go overboard.”

“I’m just saying. You never know. Anyway, I’m
guessing you will want to meet the sitter ahead of time?”

“Of course. Just let me know when you have someone
for the position, and I will set up a meeting.”

“Deal.”

“Oh, and Viv?”

“Yeah?”

Elena sighed, blowing a wild strand of hair from her
face. “Thank you.”

She could practically hear Vivian’s smile through the
phone, even though she spoke in a whisper. “You got it, babe.”

* * *

Her hand shot into the air as Elena rushed to the
curb for a cab. She was already ten minutes late for her lunch date
with her potential babysitter. Thanks to Vivian’s last-minute phone
call a few hours before Elena’s lunch break, information on the
applicant was limited. In fact, Elena knew absolutely nothing about
the young woman she was about to meet except that she was a senior
at New York University. Vivian hadn’t even given her a name or
appearance to go by, so Elena could only hope that the café she
chose wouldn’t be too terribly packed; she didn’t want to spend
half of her lunch searching for the girl. Then again, it was
entirely possible that there would be no one waiting for her at
all. She would be nearly twenty minutes late by the time she got
there, after all.

When the cab pulled up to the curb by the café, Elena
handed the driver a few bills and dashed inside. She let out a
breath of relief when she saw that the café was mostly empty, only
a few people dining. So she let her eyes shift from occupied table
to occupied table. When a young woman with a long yellow-blonde
ponytail and startlingly bright green eyes smiled awkwardly and
waved her over, Elena let out another sigh and crossed the café to
meet her.

A young woman rose from her seat, and Elena took in
the old jean jacket, white tank top, and skin-tight jeans with
narrowed eyes. Her style was bland, but the girl was definitely in
good shape; that much was obvious, and Elena hoped it meant she
would be able to keep up with Lucas. The boy was a bundle of energy
during the day, but he could be even worse in the evenings,
transforming into an unholy nightmare the moment she tried to put
him to sleep, if he wasn’t yet ready to go.

“Hey, uh, Elena Vega, right?” She held out a hand,
and Elena watched the girl’s emerald eyes rake the length of her
body quickly before darting back up to lock onto hers. Women were
strange in that way, always scanning one another, sizing each other
up, and comparing. It didn’t bother Elena, though, or she never
would have survived the fashion industry.

She plastered on a smile and nodded as she took the
outstretched hand and shook it firmly. “I am,” she said. “How did
you guess?”

“Your friend said you were some big business
something-or-other.” The girl plopped heavily back down into her
seat. “You’re the only person who’s come in here in the last
fifteen minutes wearing anything even remotely expensive and
looking all shit-my-meeting-ran-late.”

Elena arched one slender brow at the young woman’s
blunt speech, but she could hardly help the chuckle that escaped
her as she lowered herself into the opposite seat. “Yes, I
apologize,” she said. “It has been a terribly busy day.”

“It’s cool.”

“I’m sorry,” Elena said, blushing slightly. “I just
realized that I don’t even know your name.”

“Oh, it’s Allison. Allison Sawyer.”

“Allison.” Elena repeated the name softly on her
tongue. “It’s lovely to meet you.”

“Wow.” Allison laughed. “No one’s ever said it was
‘lovely’ to meet me. Good, yeah. Nice, definitely. But
lovely
? That’s a new one. Let me guess. You went to some
fancy prep school immediately followed by Harvard or Yale or
something, right?”

The surprised look on Elena’s face made Allison
smile. She slipped a pair of thick black-rimmed glasses out of her
backpack and onto her face as she pulled the menu toward her.
This is going to be a trip
, she thought as she glanced back
up at the woman, who was still just staring at her.

“Yes, actually,” Elena said as she shifted
uncomfortably in her chair. “I earned my MBA from Harvard Business
College.”

“Knew it,” Allison said smugly. This woman certainly
wasn’t the first upper-class person she had worked for. She had had
several catering jobs at random high-class events throughout her
first couple of years in college, and she had babysat a lot of
friggin’ kids, for rich and poor families alike. So, she was used
to the five-minute delay that the wealthy folks sometimes required
in order to acclimate themselves to what Allison referred to as
normal-people speak
, but they all eventually caught on. Or
they sneered and decided not to hire her.

Whatever.

“So, what’s good to eat here, Elena?” She paused. “Is
that okay?”

Elena looked up at her, confusion in her eyes. “I’m
sorry? Is
what
okay?”

“That I called you Elena. I can call you Mrs. Vega if
you prefer that instead, or whatever.”

“Actually, it’s
Ms.
Vega.” Glancing away,
Elena rubbed a hand down the side of her neck before clearing her
throat and turning back to Allison. “I am not married, but the
formality is unnecessary. You are welcome to call me Elena.”

“Awesome!” Allison smiled before letting her gaze
fall back to her menu. “So, what’s good to eat here?”

The small smile that tugged at the corners of Elena’s
mouth did not go unnoticed. It was soft, more natural than the
tight smile she had worn before, and Allison hoped it meant the
woman was relaxing a bit.

“Well, I suppose I almost always order a Cobb
salad.”

“Okay.” Allison shrugged. “Let’s go with that then.”
She put her hand up and waved the nearest waiter over.

When the young man reached their table, he pulled a
pad and pen from his apron and politely asked, “What can I get for
you ladies?”

“Uh, yeah.” Allison chewed on her lip and pointed at
Elena. “She’s ready to order, and I’ll have whatever she has plus
another water with like three lemons.”

An audible chuckle escaped the waiter as he turned to
Elena, who was staring at Allison as if she was some sort of
natural phenomenon.

“Okay,” Elena said, “then I will have a sparkling
water and the Cobb salad, and I suppose Ms. Sawyer will have the
same.”

“I’ll have it right out, ladies.”

“Thank you,” Elena replied at the same time that
Allison said, “Thanks, man.”

As soon as he walked away, Allison scrunched up her
nose. “Can we not do the whole ‘Ms. Sawyer’ thing?” she asked.
“Ever again, preferably.”