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Mimi is even better with Carlos. The two of them meet with their mother often and have dinner. Mimi wants to bring me to one, obviously not as a date. But then, the two of us have been wondering about our relationship more and more. I want to ask Mimi what’s going on. She wants to ask me too. Except we both bring it up at the wrong times. Either our timing is off or the world’s timing is off. But we keep forging on and enjoying ourselves.
At Luca’s birthday party, we all have the great excuse of coming together in one car. It feels stupid, silly even to think of it as exciting, especially when Mimi has been in my car plenty of times and Carlos too, but neither of us have ridden together since Carlos picked us up from the airport. More than that, it’s a dress up party, and we’re all looking like kids at Halloween.
The party is pumping when we arrive. It’s going to be a late one, and little Michael is being taken care of by his grandpa Tommy at his house. Luca is dressed in a Hawaiian vampire costume, and Sophie is a Hawaiian mummy. They hug and shake our hands warmly.
“It shouldn’t work. Itshouldn'twork, but it does,” Carlos says, laughing and gesturing at them.
Luca and Sophie wave back at our outfits. “What about you?” Sophie says. “The Three Mouseketeers.”
Carlos grins but rolls his eyes. “You can thank my sister for that one.”
“Thank you,” Mimi says sarcastically. “But it was easy. We had to tie all of us together somehow.”
“And we couldn’t have done that as Fred Flinstone and Barney?” Carlos hugs Mimi around the side and laughs. “You would’ve been a great Dino.”
“The pet? Really?” Mimi cocks a hand on her hip and looks at him with mock disdain. “That’s telling of some Freudian problem.”
We all laugh and continue on into the party. Even the security guards are dressed up, and it looks like the best day at Disney World, a kid could dream of. There's more cartoon characters, more monsters, moreeverything, than I thought would even be possible to fit into the room. There’s a dragon strapped to the roof blowing smoke, outside is a Tiki head breathing fire, and thedrink fountainis shaped like a small statue of Luca peeing… It puts Micahels’ birthday party to shame.
Well, no, that’s not true. Nothing could stop that night.
“I’m gonna get us some drinks,” Carlos says, heading for the chicken serving drinks behind a bar that is built like abarn.
It’s just Mimi and I now, and I can sense the nerves between us. We’ve decided to tell Carlos the truth…
“Are you sure?” I say to Mimi.
She nods. “One hundred percent. We both feel this way.”
I rub her shoulder. “I agree. I think it'll just change everything. It’ll give us an opportunity to breathe.”
“And not sneak around.” Mimi squeezes my arm. “Ready?”
She grabs my hand in hers as we watch Carlos threading along with drinks. He’s talking to people as he comes by and laughing away. He’s completely transformed since returning. He’s so much more optimistic and open. He’s made friends really quickly.
We both watch this as he arrives back in front of us.
What are we doing?
“Alright, Mohito for the lady, and Mohita for the men.” Carlos passes out the drinks.
“Is there even a difference?” I ask.
He laughs. “Nope. But if you want, I’ll make something up.”
We all take a sip of the fruity cocktails, and I let the alcohol soothe my worry. It’s loud now that the music has pumped up a few notches.
“I heard Luca brought the sound system from Hush,” he calls. “Pretty cool huh?”
Mimi and I nod. “Carlos,” I begin.
Mimi claws my arm into restraint. “Carlos, did you lock the car?”
Carlos frowns. “Huh?”
“The car? Did you lock the car?”
“Why in the hell does that matter?” he says, looking for the point of Mimi’s question as a joke.
