Her eyebrow rose. “Oh, yeah. You mentioned it.”
“It will be huge. There will be a church ceremony at Mary, Star of the Sea. Then pictures on the beach. And finally, a big reception in La Jolla at the Del.”
She nodded. “That sounds fun.” She looked down at her shoes. “Let’s go eat.”
Jaime noticed that she changed the subject rather quickly. He had already asked her a while back, but she hadn’t taken his invitation seriously.
He took her hand. “Alma, I already asked you, but I will again. Do you want to go to the wedding with me? You can come down and stay in my house. I’ll show you around San Diego. It will be really fun.”
Her eyes opened wide, and her long black lashes fluttered. “You really want me there?”
He dropped his hand around her waist and kissed her. “Of course I do. I already told you that. I’d love for you to be my date.”
She grinned and then bit her lip. “Are you sure? There are always beautiful women at weddings. I’m sure Julieta has a big family with a bunch of cousins. I don’t want to cramp your style.”
Jaime was sick of her teasing. “Stop. You act like I’m some womanizer.”
“Aren’t you though? I’ve seen your Instagram.”
“Alma, it’s not like that. Many of the girls are just models who I never even dated. And the rest…” He exhaled. “They meant nothing.”
“Sure they didn’t. And you wonder why I think you’re a playboy. Because make no mistake, you are a playboy. I’d almost go so far as to sayfuckboy, but spare me the details.”
Why was she being so nasty? Yes, he had dated women but not when they were together.
She was probably feeling insecure. Jaime decided to put her mind at ease.
This was his chance to lay it all out there and be honest with her. “Fine, I’m not going to lie. I was. But I’m crazy about you. I love you. And when we were together, I never cheated on you. You know that, right?”
“I don’t think you ever cheated on me, but things were different then.” She clasped her hands together over her mouth. “You say you love me, and I don’t doubt that you feel that in the moment when we are having sex, or even now, but we’ve been dancing around this question since you came back into my life. What do you want? Do you want to get back together? What does that look like? Do you want to do long-distance? Because all I know is that we are flying back to San Francisco tomorrow and you’re turningaround the next day and flying to San Diego. And I’m not. And I can’t take this anymore. You disrupted my life. I was happy before you showed up. And now, look at me. I’m acting jealous.”
Jaime sat on the sofa. Here it was. They couldn’t avoid this conversation any longer. “I want you back. And I’ll do anything to make it work.”
She sat next to him, her lip trembling. “Jaime, I can’t believe I’m hearing these words from you. To be honest, I don’t know what I want.”
Jaime gulped. “You don’t want to get back together? You don’t still love me?”
She placed her hands in a prayer position. “I do love you. I’ll always love you. But I’m happy in my life. Maybe you were right—we were too serious too young. I want to focus on my career for a bit.”
Jaime hung on every word she said. Did she really not want to try to make this work?
“You don’t think I could make you happy? Alma, it’s different now.”
“I don’t know, but I’m not moving to San Diego. I own the bar, and I’m happy in Tiburon. And I would never ever ask you to move to Marin, so how could this work?”
Jaime exhaled. “Well, itcouldwork. I think we could figure it out slowly. Organically. Not make any rash decisions. But I’m open to moving.”
Her jaw dropped. “That sounds nice and mature. What do you propose?”
“Come to the wedding. And then I can see if I can spend some time up there. I want to make a change. I love Marin. Obviously, you are there, but I’m super close with Santi. My brothers are sobusy with their women that I barely see them.” He paused. Time to lead into what he had to tell her. “And possibly we could work together.”
Her head tilted. “Really? How so?”
Rain splattered against the window, as if echoing the heaviness in both of their hearts. Alma looked at Jaime, who buried his hands in his pockets.
“Well, I told you I wanted to start a tequila line.”
Alma crossed her arms over her chest. “I know, Jaime.”
