“Sure thing, boss.”
He pulls smoothly away from the curb and back into traffic. I stare out at the city lights,
wondering what the hell is happening to my life. How did I get myself in this position? Here, in the
dark of my Escalade, I can admit that I created this. I fixated on Maya for months. I had this idea that
she would take our business to the next level, and it made me…not me. Every time she refused to see
me, it sucked me in deeper. And that was before I ever met her. Now? I don’t know what the hell to
do. How do men do this? Handle this kind of want?
“You married Luis?” I know he is. I clocked the ring on his finger the day I hired him, but I ask all
the same.
“Thirty-five years to the most beautiful woman in the world,” he says proudly. I whistle low
because, seriously, thirty-five years with one woman? I didn’t think people did that anymore.
“Kids?”
“Three. They’re grown now. They’ve got kids of their own.” His pride in his family is evident in
his wide smile, visible in the rearview mirror.
“How did you know? I mean, there are a lot of women out there, so how did you know she was
the one?”
He chuckles softly, “I understand now, Mr. Lee. You’ve got woman troubles.”
Groaning, I prop my forehead on my fist. “Something like that.”
“Congratulations,” he says far too cheerily. “The night I met my Rosa, I looked a lot like you do
right now. Like the breath got knocked out of me, and like the world tilted sideways.” Jesus, is that
what I look like? I feel it, but I didn’t realize it was that obvious to everyone else. My mask never
slips, and that alone is a reason to straighten the fuck up.
“Did it get better?” I ask desperately. It has to get better. I can’t keep feeling like this.
“It did. And it got worse. She is the reason I get up in the morning, Sir. The reason I come home
every night. I love my kids, but that woman is my world, and if I ever lost her, there would be nothing
left of me.”
That’s the most terrifying thing I’ve ever heard.
I know exactly what he means because that’s how I feel about my brother. If he’s not ok, I’m not
ok. The idea of feeling that way for someone else sends ice down my spine. I won’t do it.
“I don’t want that. I don’t want to be that dependent on another person. It sounds horrible.”
