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MARLENE
“Ithink our girl has a boyfriend!” I wait until we’re in the car before I say a word, but I’m busting to get it out from the second we leave Livia’s home.
“Looks that way,” Alfredo says with a chuckle as he drives us to my house.
“How old do you think he is?”
“Sixties?”
“Yeah, I’d say probably early sixties. Girlfriend is a… What do to they call it?”
“A cougar?”
“Yes! She’s a cougar!”
“You might want to refrain from saying that to her. She’s apt to punch your lights out.”
“True.” I rub my hands together, thinking of all the many ways I can push her buttons about this. I love that expression—push her buttons. I learned it from Livia calling Nico Button. When I asked her why, she told me how he pushes everyone’s buttons and what that means.
If you ask me, Nico comes by his button-pushing naturally, straight from his grandmother, the master button pusher.
“Thank you for driving me around and taking care of me today,” I tell Alfredo. He’s been a rock since we got the news about Milo last night.
“It’s my pleasure to drive you around and take care of you.”
I look over at him, handsome and immaculate even after a night without sleep. How does he do that when I feel like a wreck? “I’d forgotten what it was like to have someone to lean on at times like this.”
“I’m happy to be the one you lean on in good times and in bad.”
“What you said… On Nochebuena…”
“About getting married?”
“Yes. That.”
“What about it?”
“I, uh, I’ve been thinking a lot about it.”
“I’m very happy to hear that. I think about it all the time.”
“You do? Really?”
At a stoplight, he looks over at me with so much love and affection. “All the time.”
The surge of emotion that comes over me takes me by surprise, but I’m not sure why. It happens a lot when he’s around and saying sweet things to me and anticipating my every need. He’s been a gift to me, and to deny that would be foolish and pointless.
“I’d understand if you wanted to hold out for a young, handsome fella like Livia has found for herself.”
The comment has me sputtering with outrage. “I’m not holding out for anyone else.”
His laughter lets me know he was teasing, and I fell right into his trap. I laugh, too. I’ve laughed more with him than I have in years.
“I’ve got all I can handle with you.”
He pulls the car into my driveway and shuts off the engine before turning in his seat to look at me. “I love you, Marlene. You know that, right?”
“Yes, I do, and I love you, too. I’m so sorry I held out for so long on accepting your dinner invitation. I was a fool.”
