Sixty Days (6 page)

To be honest, Mary gets on my nerves. She has certain ways of belittling you, as if she’s above you. My uncle Luke, he’s more like a brother, my best friend. We share so many secrets and so many stories together. I love him dearly.  He’s always been there for me without any judgment.  I can’t wait for him to get here already, I’ve been itching for that day to come. And of course, how can I forget about Mario, the best cousin in the whole wide world? Ironically he’s a year older than Luke. Just like his dad, Junior,  Mario is the life of the party and always finds a way to make you smile. Part of me has always compared him to Mama. They are so much alike, it’s kind of freaky at times.

“Saben,
this turkey would have been better if it were made a la varita como solo lo hacen alla en la Isla,” Mama exclaims in reference on how they cook the turkey in Puerto Rico as she starts digging into her food, breaking through my thoughts. We all smile at her and begin to eat.

Chapter three

L

ike always, we’ve spent the entire dinner in silence.
There is something about this family and food. For us, a good party is one where there is great food and lots of it. Food just also happens to be the perfect way to shut them up if they start talking too much. It has always been like this, there is no such thing as family dinner table conversations. Dinner time is for eating and nothing else. Conversation is usually saved for when dessert is served.

Once everyone has finished, m
y entire family starts talking at the same time, each one to a different person. To be honest, it’s hard to figure out what the heck they are all even talking about. Mama and Lola head over to the kitchen. A few seconds later, they arrive back to the dining area with the dessert in hand; a traditional Boricua dessert that is normally served during the holidays, tembleque, and some very yummy carrot cake. Mama might be a miracle worker in the kitchen but when it comes to desserts Lola’s are the best.

“Oh my God, Lola! Please tell me these are some of your heavenly ma
de desserts that I so much love,” I blurt without thinking.

Shit!

“Pues claro. I happen to know the carrot cake is your favorite,” Lola says calmly.

“Wait a second, h
ow is it that you know so much about Lola’s desserts?” my dad asks, looking at me. He suspects, I can feel it.

“Oh, I send her desserts all the time. S
he had the privilege of trying a few while she visited here a while back and begged me to mail them to her in California,” Lola says, smiling kindly at him and winking at me.

“
I just fell in love with them. You know how much I love my sweets, Dad,” I say, smiling at him. He smiles back. Thank God for Lola and fuck my big mouth. Thanks to her save, I can finally breathe again.

Mama and Lola sta
rt serving the desserts to each of us. The conversation continues as if nothing happened.

“
What exactly are we going to be doing during all this time here? Do we actually have plans or are we going to be bored out of our mind?” Mary pipes in out of nowhere, interrupting the separate conversations.

“Bueno…
your uncles, your dad, and I talked about this over the phone and we do have a few things planned. We would hate for you to be completely bored while you’re here,” Mama says, handing me a plate of dessert. “Una vez tu tío Lucas llegue, we can begin,” she finishes, taking a seat and smiling at everyone.

“What kind of plans
?” Arianna asks.

“That, my dear, i
s a surprise. All you youngsters should worry about now is finding something to do so you don’t die of boredom. Go out and have some fun before you all have to spend some time with all of us old folks,” Uncle Angel says before taking a mouthful of cake.

“Well, that settles it. W
hy don’t we young men go out to a club tonight? We can get some drinks, meet some hot ladies, and drink and dance til we drop, like the ladies tend to say. What do you guys say?” Kevin asks, looking to Mickey, Chino, and Mario.

“That sounds good! Can a lady join?” Mary
interrupts.

“
Sure, why the hell not? The more, the merrier. So, what’s it going to be guys? Are you in or out?” Kevin asks the guys.

“We’re in!” Chino and Mario say at the same time.

“What about you, Vega? You coming or what?” he asks, looking at Mickey. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Mickey glance my way as if looking for some sort of response or permission from me.

“
Well, if Mary’s going then I’m in. I need to get out and have fun, too,” I say to Kevin while giving Mickey the response he seemed to want.

“
Who said you were old enough to go to a club?” Kevin asks but it comes out as more of a statement.

“Oh
, for the love of God, how old do you think I am? You do know that I’m old enough to go out and have some drinks, right?” I say to him with a straight face.

“Fair enough. S
o, what’s it going to be, Vega?” he asks Mickey, moving his attention back to him.

“Ok…I’ll go,
” he says, giving a smile I know is directed toward me. I can’t help but smile back.

“Whoa…hold up!” my dad says
, interrupting our discussion. “Who told you it was ok to go out to a club at night?” he asks, looking directly at me, being overprotective.

“Twenty one, D
ad. Plus I’ve been living on my own and away from you guys, for almost four years now. I’m pretty capable of making my own decisions and going out whenever I want,” I say to him.

“Good point. See, this i
s exactly why you are perfect for the business world, honey,” he says proudly, smiling at me.

“Yeah…” I half-smile, looking down to my almost empty plate

It’s this sort of behavior that makes hiding everything hard. Part of me thinks he won’t stop talking about this until he sees me with a diploma in hand and working right by his side.

My dad and I have a great relationship and I really don’t want to ruin that. I know that our relationship w
ill be affected once he finds out that I’ve  been out of business school for two years and living with the one person he warned me about. Then again, he really has to learn to accept who I am, including who I love. I guess, that’s the thing I’m most afraid of. That he won’t be able to get over it. My mom is the least of my problems. She will always support me in any of my decisions, no matter what. Right now, my biggest worries are my overbearing brother and father who still seem to see me as a six year old.

Finally
done with desserts,
the family heads to the living room while
Mama and Lola collect all the dishes. I offer to help them clean up. After all, there are a lot of dishes to clean and three sets of hands are better than two.

“Oh no, mi niña. You don’t have to do
that. Lola and I can handle it,” Mama says to me as soon as I begin cleaning silverware.

“Come on, vieja. It’s the least I can do afte
r everything you’ve done for me,” I say to her, smiling. She nods in acceptance and gives me the gift of her angelic smile. “I don’t know how you can do this all so easily,” I tell her, resignation in my tone.

“Oh,
taking care of my family is what I do best. Makes me feel needed and whole,” she says as she places dishes into the dishwasher.

“That’s not what I meant
,” I sort of whisper.

“Lo se, mi n
iña. You just have to be strong. We can do this,” she says as she closes the dish-washer and smiles at me.

Mama seems to have
things under control, so I head back to the dining area where Lola is still cleaning the table. As soon as Lola notices me, she smiles. I smile back, but realize she isn’t smiling at me. I look behind me toward the dining room door and see Mickey. When I turn back to Lola, I notice that she has disappeared into the kitchen to ‘help’ Mama.

“Hi,
” I whisper to him and can’t help the smile that stretches across my face.

“Hi,
” he says, smiling back at me.

Without even realizing it
, we are in each other arms embraced in a kiss. A deep, sensual, toe curling kiss, as if we haven’t seen or touched each other in years.

“This is already so hard,
” he breathlessly whispers close to my mouth, moving to plant a kiss on my forehead.

“I know,” I tell him as I caress his gorgeous
face.

We
reluctantly pull out of our embrace before someone catches us. Mickey moves to one side of the table and begins clearing the dishes while I take the other. We develop a quiet work rhythm that feels slightly awkward.

“I have a question,
” I finally say after a few seconds of dead silence between us.

“Okay…” he hesitates, r
aising an eyebrow at me.

“Did you really feel
like you needed my permission to go out today?” I finally ask him.

Mickey smiles
. “I don’t know…I know I don’t really need it. But, part of me was hoping that if I said no, we would get to be together for a while. After all, we would of have been all alone,” he says, a playfully dark smile teasing his lips.

“You know
, that’s not completely true. Even if we stayed, we still wouldn’t be alone.” I look into his eyes.

He frowns. “I know…my mom and Mama would be here. But
, they know about us so there wouldn’t be any issues.”

“I
meant that Arianna would be here, too; talking endlessly until we decide to leave just to get away,” I say, internally laughing at the things she would come up with.

“
She can be very persuasive.” He chuckles, heading to the kitchen with whatever was on his side of the table. To be honest, I wasn’t paying attention. Those sexy dimples of his tend to be extremely distracting.

I finish
piling up the dishes from my side and attempt to make my way into the kitchen with my hands overloaded. Suddenly, Chino enters the room and takes half of the load from my hands. I tell him that I can handle it, though I’m being stubborn. Luckily, he won’t take no for an answer. When we get inside the kitchen, Mickey looks at us with a frown. I can see that the green-eyed monster has paid him a visit and I can’t help but laugh at him.

“¿Cuál es el chiste, mi niña?”
Mama asks what I’m laughing about.              “Nothing, Mama,” I say as I place the items in my hand onto the kitchen island. Shaking off my laugh, I stand next to a jealous Mickey.

“You know what they say…quien se ríe solo es porque de sus maldades se acuerda.”
Lola says, winking at both Mickey and I. We smile.

“My brother likes you,
” Mickey whispers at me.

“Too b
ad I only have eyes for one guy,” I whisper back. I glance at him and smile.

It’s five in the afternoon already.
We have all been in the family room for around three hours now. I’ve been sitting quietly watching everyone, but I barely pay any attention to what they’re saying. Knowing them, they are probably talking about things happening back in la Isla or gossiping about some distant relative of ours.

I
quietly excuse myself, deciding to head upstairs, unload my luggage, and get settled in. Arianna offers to help and I accept, wanting her company. Talking to someone other than Mama and Lola will be refreshing. I’ve also missed my long talks with her.  We have so much in common and she’s really easy to talk to. Once we are in the room, I grab a bag and start unpacking.

“I can’t believe you’re going to leave me here
, alone, with the oldies!” Arianna exclaims, closing the bedroom door.

“Yeah
, about that…I’m sorry. I just need to get out and blow off some steam,” I frown.

“It’s okay. I get it.
If I were old enough to get in, I would be going too.” She smiles.

“Look on the bright side, tomorrow I’ll be all yours.
We can catch up.  Maybe even finish our online book club.” We both laugh at this.

Arianna and I
are book addicts. Lately, we’ve been reading Society and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud. It was Arianna’s choice. She’s really into psychology and considering it as her major in college. Well, it’s either that or some art school where she can pursue singing. It’s a toss-up with her.

“So…how long have you and Mickey been an item?” she
suddenly says, taking me by surprise.

I gasp “What? No…what?” I say
, feeling the flush rise to my cheeks.

“Oh
, come on, Laylah. I’m not an idiot. I know when two people are in love, and you two obviously are.”

“How is it that you know this?” I ask her
, regaining my breath.

“It’s obvious. But
, thankfully for you two, I’m the only one not blind enough to recognize it. Plus, the room dad and Carla are staying is the same one I see when we are talking on Skype. Your secret is safe with me,” she says, miming locking her lips with a key and throwing it away as she sits on the bed.