“Flat is fine.” She passed me a bottle, gave Camilo a seltzer, and took another for herself. Once we were all seated, Melissa passed me a packet of papers, and we got to the business at hand.
She gestured towards Camilo and smiled. “So this is Camilo Briggs, our residential programs director. He’s been with New Beginning for almost five years. He started as the program coordinator for residential. Working with advocates who support our clients in preparing for the job market and securing permanent housing among many other things. He did such an amazing job and developed such wonderful initiatives there, we had to give him a raise anda lotmore work!” Melissa and I chuckled at Camilo’s mortified face. “He’s been in the position for two years and he’s been killing it there, too.”
She waved a hand over the folder in front of me. “As I mentioned when we spoke on the phone. Our agency has a strengths-based, client-centered approach. We meet our clients where they’re at in every way and walk with them as they figure out how they want to move forward after finding safety. Camilo is an amazing advocate and leader, and his programs have thrived because of it. I couldn’t have wished for a better person to head the renovation of our Harlem site.” Melissa stopped talking suddenly and gave Camilo a funny look.
He lifted his eyebrows and she laughed. “I’m sorry, it’s just you’re so quiet! You’re usually a lot more opinionated than this.”The look of astonishment on her face was so genuine I almost laughed, too.
“Maybe it’s me.” I winked at Camilo, hoping I didn’t scare him if I mentioned we’d met. “Camilo and I actually met at a gala on Friday. We were both kind of surprised at the coincidence.”
“Really?” Poor Melissa sounded like this meeting was turning out to be a lot more of a roller coaster than she’d planned for. “That’s wild! New York City can be like a small town sometimes, huh?”
I laughed with her, but just nodded silently, hoping Camilo could tell I had no intention of divulging any more information about our first encounter. After a moment his shoulders seemed to relax, but not by much. I looked from Camilo to Melissa, hoping I looked harmless enough to get them to relax a bit. “Thanks for the introductions, Melissa. Camilo sounds like the perfect person to lead this project.” I turned around so I could speak to him directly and on impulse I decided to switch to Spanish. “Me dice Melissa que tú hablas español. Eso será de mucha ayuda para mí.”
At this Camilo’s eyebrows shot up and he blurted out, “Wait, why’s your accent Dominican?” The suspicious look on his face was so endearing, I almost had to sit on my hands to keep from touching him.
Melissa’s eyes widened like she hoped Camilo would not open his mouth again, which for some reason made me laugh.
“I’m Dominican.Born and raised.”
chapter four
camilo
I knew I hadn’t fallen into some bizarre parallel universe, because Melissa’s office was stifling hot as usual and those corny affirmation posters she had all over the place were still hanging on the walls. But something or someone was definitely fucking with me today. First, the random I decided to give a blow job to on Friday turns out to be the mysterious billionaire donor for the shelter project.Thenthe guy—whose name isThomas Hughes—breaks out into Dominican Spanish. I mean both these things were possible,obviously, but it was all just too fucking weird.
I looked over at Tom, who was staring at me again with an amused expression, like I was the most adorable thing he’d ever seen. He was dressed down today, just gray slacks and a burgundy cashmere sweater. The red made the sexy salt and pepper at his temples stand out even more. It was a challenge not to stare, to be honest.
“So you’re Dominican?” I didn’t mean to sound like I thought he was shady, but I was barely hanging on to my sanity by this point.
More rich and velvety laughter escaped his lips. The husky sound reminded me of being on my knees and him asking me if I wanted his cock down my throat. I coughed to cover the moan that almost came out of my mouth.
Tom’s eyes widened like he knew exactly what I was thinking.
Shit.
He cleared his throat and leaned in to answer my question. “Well, my father’s American, but he’s lived in the DR since the seventies. He was a marine during the `65 occupation. He fell in love with the island and the people while he was there.” His lips turned up on a lopsided smile.
Working with this guy was going to be torture.
“When he left he vowed to return someday. He served two tours in Vietnam and only returned to the U.S. long enough to get his GI Bill degree. In `74, he moved to Santo Domingo and took a job as a high school math teacher at the international school. He met my mom about six months later and that was all she wrote.” He smiled fondly at that. “I came to the States for college and stayed. My family are all in DR though, so I go back a few times a year.”
Melissa was the first one to react to his story. “You rarely hear stories of Americans immigrating and settling in other countries, even though there are so many living as expats all over the world. Thanks for sharing that, Tom.”
I knew I should say something, but Tom’s whole vibe was really throwing me off my game.
He was so…unlikely.
“One of my best friends is Dominican. He came from DR with his mom when he was six. We grew up together in the Bronx.”
His smiled turned just a tiny bit mischievous then. “Is that how you recognized the accent?”
I shrugged and tried hard not to moon over the sexy dimple on his right cheek. “Well, you do sound like Nesto, but there area lotof Dominicans in New York City, as you probably know.”
He dipped his head before he answered. “I do. I’ve lived here for most of the last twenty years. With the exception of two years of grad school in Boston and short-term stints overseas for business.”
This conversation felt too intimate, like it was almost wrong to have Melissa here to witness it, still I kept talking. “I was born here but my mom’s Cuban, so we made the mandatory pilgrimage through Miami. We came up here when I was thirteen.”
I had no fucking clue why I was giving him my bio in detail, but I didn’t seem to be able to keep my mouth shut. It was the look he was giving me. Like he wanted to throw me on the floor and order me to have another go at his dick.
