Her grandmother held out her phone with a sweet smile, which was deceptive, because as soon as the phone was in her hand, she saw a reply had been made to Mason. “What the hell?”
“Language, Natalie!” her mother said.
“She responded to my text message for me!”
“What?” the three younger women said together, scrambling to get behind her so they could see what was on screen.
All her grandma had written wasNo, plus the kissy face emoji. She didn’t know her grandma even knew how to use emojis.Ugh! This would not stand.
“Buen trabajo, Abuelita,” Mariana said.
“We can do that? Here, let me have it,” Carla made a scramble for Natalie’s phone and soon they were wrestling over the device. “Let me help you, hermana! I’m doing this out of love.”
“All I want is a little privacy. Why can’t you love me by leaving my business alone?” She yanked her arm, slipping from her younger sister’s grasp, except the momentum wasn’t enough to stop the phone from bashing the outside corner of her eye. “Ow!” This was followed by gasps. Her mother soon sat her down and put a bag of frozen hominy over her left eye and a plate of food on the table for her to eat. She gave her phone to Mia because out of all them, she trusted her the most. Mia was a manipulator, but she got people to do the dirty work themselves. She wasn’t one to send sneaky text messages under the guise of someone else.
“Your young man looks like Chris Evans?” her grandmother asked.
“Sorry. He’s a white guy but no.” She wasn’t about to tell all of them that he was better than Chris Evans because she could fully sink into his arms and he gave the warmest, best hugs and smelled like white fir Christmas trees—And now she actually missed the guy. Her life was a disaster.
“He responded,” Mia said.
“About time,” Natalie said flatly. “He probably wasn’t sure how to respond to a kissy-face emoji and now thinks I’m clingy. Thanks, Abuelita.”
“He said Thursday is board game night and he wants to know if you can come.”
“Ooooo, like Twister? Not sure if you’re flexible enough for that one, Nat.” Carla wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.
“Shut up,” she responded. There was no use in rolling her eyes when one was covered with a bag of frozen hominy. She turned to Mia. “Do you think he means Twister?”
“Okay, I said,Like Twister? and he just responded,lol.”
The women around the table all exchanged confused looks with each other. “What the hell does that mean? I hate texting with guys and all this damn flirty shit. I just want straightforward answers,” she grumbled.
“Language, Natalie!” her mom said again.
“Wait, he followed up with,I don’t have Twister, but I can ask the group if you really want to play it.”
“The group?”
Mia gasped, a hand going to her chest. “His friends. He wants you to meet his friends.” The other ladies also aww’d at this including Abuelita.
“He has friends?” She felt herself shut down. Everything was moving way too fast. It was too much to meet these mystery gaming friends already. She and Mason were work acquaintances who sometimes did sexy things inside of empty barns. Now she had to meet other people?
Her friend raised an eyebrow. “Yeah. Most people have friends. I think it would be weird for a person not to have any.”
“Ross didn’t have any friends when you met him.”
“Well, yeah, but…he’s weird. See? Exactly my point and why I want him to be friends with Mason. Ross might really like going to a game night.”
“I don’t know.”
“God,” Carla said with an exasperated sigh. “It’s just a silly game night with a bunch of friends. It’s not a big deal. What’s wrong with you?”
“Ay, mija, I have a good idea. What if you invite your friend here. His friends can come too. I’ll invite the family and we can make it a big party with lots of food and stuff. I think there’s Monopoly in the closet. Sounds like lots of fun, right?”
Natalie and her sisters did a slow turn to stare at their mother after her suggestion. “Yeah, no,” Mariana jumped in. “Mom, come on. We don’t want to scare the guy off already. You want him to meet weird cousin Eduardo at this stage? Let’s give Natalie a chance here.”
“Okay, I think everyone is getting way ahead of everything. There’s no reason anyone has to meet anyone—”
“I told him you’d come!” Carla said.
“What? Mia! Why’d you let her have my phone?”
“Sorry. I just set it down for a second.” Except she didn’t look sorry at all.
“Oops!” Carla said, looking sheepish before giggling. “Abuelita just added the eggplant emoji.”
