She squeezed my shoulder and gave me an understanding look. “I hope so, too, but even as stubborn as Milito is, he’s smart and is not one to be wasteful. He knows what you have is special. He’s hurt and disappointed, and a little scared, but he loves you.”
“And I love him.” I stared straight ahead as I maneuvered the car through the busy streets of the South Bronx, getting us out of the city.
Dinorah scoffed as if to say, “Well, no shit.”
“I know. From the first time he talked to me about you, I had a feeling you two were like his daddy and me. Meant to be.”
I was trying to figure out how to respond to her words without making a fool of myself when she jumped in her seat, and started looking through her purse. “I need to call him before we leave the city, to let him know.” She laughed nervously, and I felt her pain. Camilo’s temper was nothing to take lightly.
She tapped her phone, and soon it was ringing on speakerphone. She winked at me as we waited.
“Hey, Mama.” He sounded so weary, and my heart lurched at the sound of his voice.
“Hola hijo, so, I want you to know everything is fine.”
“Okaaaay,” he answered bemusedly.
“I’m on my way to Miami, to go see your daddy’s grave. I’ll be back on Saturday.”
Camilo’s shriek echoed in the car. “What?” He spluttered. “How?”
“I’m driving with a friend. Someone totally safe. I’m one hundred percent alright.” She sighed as we listened to his string of protests. “I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time. This month he would have turned sixty-five; this is the right time. I want to go down there and see the places that were special to the two of us. I know we talked about doing it in the spring, but I’ve got the timenow. Besides, I know you’re not ready to go back there. I can do this on my own.”
“Mama, what if something happens to you?”
She laughed at that and shook her head. “I don’t know if you remember this, but I came from Cuba in a boat on my own. I can do this.”
“I know.” His tone changed then, like he remembered he needed to reassure his mom he believed in her. “You can do anything. I’m just surprised and a little worried. This is so sudden.” After a pause, he asked, “Can I talk to the person?”
Dinorah and I shared a look at Camilo’s overprotectiveness. “No, you may not, Camilo Santiago Briggs. You just need to trust me. I’ll call you every night, and I’ll be posting on my Facebook account. You’re always pestering me to use it.”
He chuckled at that, but when he spoke, he still didn’t sound very convinced. “Okay, Mama, but text, okay? This is so unexpected, but you sound happy and that’s all I want. You, happy.”
“I know, papí. Don’t worry about me, esta bien?”
“Si. Te quiero, mama.”
“Y yo a ti.”
She ended the call and we sat there in silence for a few seconds, then Dinorah laughed. “Well that went better than Ithought it would. He’s going to fall over when he realizes who my travel companion is.”
I smiled with a lot less confidence in this whole plan than I’d initially had, now that I’d heard Camilo’s apprehensiveness. “No matter what happens, like Camilo says, what’s important is that you’re happy.”
She smiled and squeezed my shoulder again. “You two will be fine.”
I really hoped she was right.
Camilo
I heard my phone’s voicemail alert as I got out of the shower. It sounded like Tom’s nightly message had arrived.
I sighed and sat on my bed as I tapped the screen to listen. It was Thursday, almost a week since our fight, and we still hadn’t seen each other. On Sunday after calling me like ten times, he’d finally texted asking me if I wanted him to stop calling. I responded with one word.
Never.
He’d asked if he could just leave messages. I’d texted back a yes, and asked him not to give up on us, that I just needed time.
So every night since then, he’d been leaving me these heart wrenching messages telling me all the ways in which I made his life better. The plans he had for the future, which all seemed to include me. It was not easy to resist, but I was glad I’d taken some time to think about what I wanted.
