“Whatever you say.” She takes a step back, loosening my hold on her. “Just be prepared for him to exceed your expectations, that’s all. And I mean that in a bad way,” she says, leading the way to the car rental to pick up our reservation.
Sarina takes the keys from the worker, dangling them. “Guess I’ll be driving.”
“Why is that?”
“It’s a manual. That’s all they had left.”
I snatch the keys from her. Albeit more aggressively than I intended. Not that she seems to care, intrigue rather than insult taking over her expression.
“Stop. You’re meaning to tell me that a city boy like you knows how to drive? And a stick shift, no less?”
“I don’t know if I should be motivated by that or insulted.”
“Let the insinuation of my insult motivate you.” She winks. “Now, come on, my brothers are waiting for us.”
Here she was worried about me meeting her dad, and I’m more nervous about meeting her brothers.
“Anything you want or need to warn me about with them?”
“Nope. I just hope you don’t mind weed.”
I don’t know what I was expecting her to say, but it wasn’t that.
“Weed as in…”
“You’re best friends with Tino, don’t pretend like you don’t know what weed is or that he didn’t give you an edible the other night.”
“Hey, how’d you know about that?”
“I may have suggested that you needed something to loosen you up to your sister in the hopes that she’d pass the message on to Tino.”
“Aww, you were looking out for me?”
She looks me over, nice and slow, from head to toe. I can tell there’s something on her mind that, she’s refraining from.
“Whatever it is you want to say, you can say it to me.”
“There you are again, being so bossy.”
I click my tongue. “Bossy would be telling you what to do for my own benefit. That’s not what I’m doing. I’m simply encouraging you to speak your mind when you’re around me. To not hold back. That is, if you’re comfortable enough with me to do so.”
Her head shakes, tossing her onyx hair from side to side. “I don’t know where you came from.”
“The Bronx,” I interject, like a smart-ass, and it earns me a smile from her.
“No, I mean, what planet you’re from.”
“Jupiter, obviously.”
“Tomás, be serious.”
“I always am, though.”
Except when I’m with her.
There’s something about her that reminds me of who I am when the burdens of my profession and my personal responsibilities are stripped away. “You make me feel comfortable enough that I can let my guard down. It’s exhausting being serious all the time.”
“I’m glad you can be unserious with me then.”
