Page 83 of Unscripted with Mila

“That works.” I leaned forward, suddenly worried. “What if they don’t like me?”

“My mom will want to take care of you, and my dad will quiz you, then talk to you man-to-man. My uncles will test you, and my aunts will love you up. My cousins will tease you to death, so tease them right back. You’ll be fine. I think they’ll like you a lot.”

“Yeah?”

She smiled. “Yeah.”

Again, I smiled so hard, my cheeks hurt. I wanted to meet her family and get to know them. I hoped they gave me a chance.

Carmen came over, and I handed her my credit card. “Put it through before your dad knows,” I warned.

She smiled, and I settled the bill. Manny never wanted to take my money, but this was a date and I wanted to pay for it.

We headed for the door, pausing as another customer came in, shaking his head.

“Holy shit, what a circus,” he muttered, looking at me. I saw the recognition in his eyes, but he didn’t react. Men usually didn’t. The women, though—they often screamed. I hated it when they screamed. It made me want to run.

“If they’re waiting for you, I’m sorry, man.” He brushed by me, and I peered out the side window, cursing.

“What?” Mila asked.

“We’re surrounded. Paps everywhere. Fuck.”

Manny came from the kitchen. “They’re out back too, Nick. I have no idea how they found out.”

I had a pretty good idea, although I never recalled telling MJ where I was going. But this had her written all over it. She’d anger me and out Mila at the same time.

I wasn’t going to allow that to happen.

“We’ll just stay inside until they get tired of waiting,” Mila suggested.

“They never get tired,” I snapped.

“Oh.”

She was quiet for a moment as I fumed, internally cursing MJ, this life, and everything else.

Carmen joined us. “I’m off now. I could run over a few with my car.”

Mila looked at her. “Oh, I have an idea!”

“What?”

“If you loan me a uniform, I could go out with you. They’ll think I’m just a waitress and not look twice. Nick can wait a bit and walk out on his own.”

“They’ll follow me.” I protested, even though I saw how she was thinking. My car was parked around back close to the door, so they’d only get a few snaps of me and I would be alone.

Carmen waved her hand. “I’m headed into the city to meet some friends. I’ll drop Mila off wherever she needs to go, and you can head to your place.”

Mila smiled at me. “I’ll meet you at the hotel.”

“This isn’t how I wanted our night out to go.”

She squeezed my arm. “We won’t let them spoil it. We’ll have fun at their expense.”

I couldn’t resist her smile. “Okay.”

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