Page 42 of A Curvy Girl’s Hurricane Survival Guide

“Te da miedo?” she asks, making a scream-like expression to convey her question. She is asking if I am scared.

“Kinda… I think gas stoves are going to blow up and leave me looking like Two Face.” Her expression looks a little confused, so I gesture with my hands to indicate a big explosion.

She understands and begins to laugh, slapping my arm lightly. “¡Qué va a explotar! Ay, niño, qué bueno que eres tan guapo.”

I smile politely, not sure what she is saying. She grabs a small cup and gestures to the sugar. I nod, and she begins scooping into the cup.

“After Hurricane, what you do?” She asks in broken English.

I want to say I’ve been trying not to think about it. “Back to work. Back to the usual.”

She hands me the cup filled with strong-smelling coffee and says, “Y Cayetana? Together?”

How am I supposed to answer that? I have no idea. I don’t want this to just be a layover in Miami. I want this to be the start of a whole new adventure, something I didn’t even know I wanted. But once I tell her about me, then it might all come crashing down.

I take a sip of the espresso to buy some time. It hits like rocket fuel. “Wowzer! That is something!”

Abuela beams. “Déjame tu email, I give you how to.”

“You want to email me the recipe? Sure!” I jot it down on a nearby notepad.

Then she starts speaking rapidly in Spanish, looking at me earnestly. “Ya sé que no me entiendes, pero yo sé que El Señor te trajo acá. Ten paciencia con ella y verás que ustedes son únicos el uno para el otro.”

She is looking at me so earnestly, and I try so hard to piece together what she is saying, but it’s useless. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”

She sighs. “No importa. Es cosa de vieja.”

“Huh?” I respond, still lost.

“She says it’s not important, old lady stuff,” Cai says, walking into the kitchen.

I turn at the sound of her voice, holding it close, not knowing when the last time would be.

“Good morning,” I say. “Did you catch what she said before that? It sounded important.”

Cai pours herself a cup of coffee and asks Abuela, who waves a hand at her dismissively.

Cai turns to me and shrugs, “Sorry.” Then, leaning against the counter, she asks with a cautious smile, “Did you sleep ok?”

I doubt that is the question she wanted to ask. We both know last night had ended with some tension. “Yeah, not too bad,” I lie.

“I wanted to…” Cai begins, then glances over at Abuela, who starts humming to herself as she begins tidying up. Still, Cai lowers her voice. “I’m sorry if I insulted you last night when I was generalizing about the type of people who play games. I got that text, and I was just describing Trevor, not you.”

There is so much to unpack there. Do I pull on the text thread, the video game, or the boyfriend status in general?

I choose the most important since her relationship status determines how far I’ll take it with her. “Do you want to tell me what the text was about now?”

She sighs and pulls her phone out of her dress pocket. “The rice trick worked. No signal, but you can see for yourself.” She unlocks the phone and hands it to me, with a text on the screen.

Trevor:

LMAO You’re so crazy babe. I’ll talk to you later.

What an ass.

This guy knows what he’s doing. He knows that this response was the only one that will keep her from feeling closure.

“Do you mind if I read the text before this?” I ask.