“Si. Let me get out of my work clothes. Give me about an hour?”
“That works for me! See you soon, prima.”
I smiled. “Adiós.”
An hour and a half later, I was walking into the little hole-in-the-wall bar in town. It wasn’t as nice as Queer Quarters, but the beer was cheap and the company was great.
“Hola, V!” Maria waved over to me as soon as she spotted me.
“¡Ay! Maria.”
I sat next to her at the bar and she already had a cold Modelo waiting for me. “Your usual,” the bartender said with a wink.
I thanked her and turned back to Maria. “Cheers.”
Maria looked towards the bartender then back to me. “Si. To nice bartenders.”
I furrowed my brow and looked at the bartender who was still looking at me as she was preparing someone else’s drink. When she finally walked away, I leaned closer to Maria. “What was that about?” I asked.
“She likes you, V. You should get her number.”
I shook my head, taking a sip of my beer. The bartender was cute. Short blonde hair. Low cut top and short shorts. But I wasn’t interested. On a normal day, maybe. But now?
“No, thanks. I’m with Cara, remember?”
“Oh, yeah. Your girlfriend we haven’t met yet. You never told me what happened in Bali. Were you together before then?”
“It’s complicated. We weren’t official before then, but things had happened.”
“Oh? Things? What things? You know what, actually? Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know about your sex life.”
I laughed. “None of that, unfortunately, except when we met. Just feelings expressed between the two of us.”
“The speed dating thing, right?”
I nodded. I’d told only Maria about that night. Well, not everything, but I’d mentioned I met a beautiful woman. Then, when Cara and I started the fake dating agreement, I’d talked about her more but my family knew we were only friends.
After Bali, I confessed to Maria the whole thing and my feelings for her. Maria was the only person in my family I could trust not to judge me on the whole thing. My brothers would’ve said I was pathetic.
“Hey, you know what? You should invite that girlfriend of yours to Lia’s game this weekend. We all want to meet her, V.”
I hesitated, unsure how that conversation would go. “I don’t know if that will be her scene. I also don’t trust Miguel to be nice. He’s been rolling his eyes every time I talk about her.”
She scoffed. “He’s just a dude. And he’s your brother. He’s going to be protective of you. There’s no harm in asking her. We all want to meet the woman who has you all tangled up in love’s web.”
“Who said anything about love?” I asked, knowing damn well how I’d felt about Cara since we met. I never used to believe in love at first sight, but maybe that was because I’d never seen Cara before that night.
She glared at me without saying a word and I rolled my eyes. “Fine. I’ll ask her if it gets you to stop looking at me like that. You’re too smart for your own good.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
CARA
“Okay, Stacy. All you have to do is make those changes we talked about before it goes to the editor next month. Any questions?”
Stacy was an author I’d been working with for the last year. She was newer on my roster of authors, but she’d already had a full series out before we picked her up.
She shook her head. “No, that should do it. Thanks again for meeting with me, Cara.”
