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The line wrapped around a display, each shelf displaying a different kind of coffee, all of them from Cuba. There was the Cuban flag hanging behind the counter, and salsa played over the speakers, making me want to swing my hips as I made my way down the line. With the haircut I had just gotten, I wasn’t opposed to having everyone make a circle and watch me pretend like I knew how to dance.
I definitely have to stream when I get home. What game should I play…?
I ordered my cortadito, basically half espresso and half steamed milk, and went to grab a seat on the patio, still thinking about what game I’d stream tonight, completely forgetting the fact that I should have been worrying about an accounting exam I had coming up instead.
Halfway through my cortadito was when I spotted Jesse walking down the street, head bent down against the sun. His hands were stuffed into the pockets of his shorts. He walked like someone who was simultaneously late and pissed off, his shoulders back and his pace quick. I glanced at my watch and saw that we were still good on time. I finished the rest of my coffee as if I were taking a shot, and I stood up as Jesse walked onto the patio. He lifted his head, his eyes meeting mine, the annoyance in his gait also reflected behind his gaze.
“Thanks for coming,” I said, offering a hand to shake. It felt weird. Like I was meeting with a stranger, not someone living under the same roof as me.
He didn’t take the hand. He just sat down, his lids narrowing as he looked up at me.
Oookay.
I sat down, taking a moment to see if Jesse was going to say anything.
He didn’t. I just jumped into it, my body buzzing with caffeine and anxiety.
“All right, Jesse, I know this is as uncomfortable for you as it is for me, but I just need you to be upfront with me. Right here, right now. Why are you stealing Hazel’s underwear?”
“For fuck’s sake.”
“I can say with a hundred, a thousand percent certainty, it wasn’t me. Yet they still found their way under my mattress, conveniently moments before we caught you in the middle of the hallway. Jesse, come on. Just come clean. We can work something out.”
We can find you a good doctor, get you therapy.
I didn’t want to say all that. Jesse sat up straight in the wicker chair, a vein rapidly pulsing at the base of his neck.
“Is this why you asked me to come here? To accuse me?”
“No.” I could tell my first plan wasn’t going to work, so I had to fall back on plan B.
Which, funny enough, there wasn’t one. I improvised my way through.
“I asked you to come because, I, uh, wanted to talk to you about, well, um.” I said the first thing to pop into my head. “Moving out.”
Jesse started shaking his head, and I could see the anger boiling up inside him as well as I could see that handsome man standing near us on the street, his back turned to us.
“I’ll pay for your moving fees. And your rent for the next month so you can find a sublet for your lease.” It was an offer I knew I’d have trouble backing up, but if it meant getting this creep out of our lives, then I’d do anything. I’d sell plasma in the morning and sperm in the evenings and then see if there were any college kids who needed clean pee to pass drug tests.
Whatever it took.
And, I mean, obviously there were better ways of making money than turning your body into a human fluid farm, but I wasn’t kidding when I said that Cuban coffee was no joke. My mind was buzzing.
“You’re ridiculous.”
Yes. Yes I was. Especially considering how I knew Jesse’s family had just recently come into quite a lot of money. I shouldn’t have to offer him anything, but still, I wanted to try my hardest to get him out of there. For Hazel’s sake.
“Just take the offer, Jesse. Get out of our hair. The detective won’t keep looking into things, we can call it off.”
“I’m not leaving.”
“Why?” I crossed my arms against my chest, mainly so that he wouldn’t see the tremble in my hands. “You clearly hate living there. You never hang out with us, you never have. We would invite you all the time in the beginning, you’d just give us attitude.”
“I’m not talking about this shit with you.”
“About what? How much you’re in love with Hazel? How you’re willing to keep renting a room you hate because you want to be near her?”
That must have struck a raw nerve. Jesse’s nostrils flared, his lips raised. It was like he’d been replaced by an angry pit bull, showing his teeth and getting ready to lunge. I uncrossed my arms, placing my hands on the table, as if I were about to give some kind of TED talk.
