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Maybe this could be like any other date, after all, including the necessary brush off when it was time. I’d friend-zoned a lot of guys after a date or two, to the point where my girlfriends cracked jokes about it. They thought I was harsh. I wasn’t trying to be. If anything, I was being merciful. If I didn’t do it, one of us would catch real feelings, only to be sideswiped later when the other person decided they were done.
“You okay?” Isaac whispered.
I nodded. I was fine. Totally fine. A little too in-my-head, but he didn’t need to know that. “What do you think?” I asked. “Are you a Zipper fan?”
“I prefer buttons, actually.”
“Wow, I walked right into that one, didn’t I?” I elbowed him lightly, which earned me a smile.
“On caterpillar nights,” Isaac sang softly into my ear on the last chorus. “Your memory tickles like little feet across my skin. The memories are fuzzy, but they won’t go away.”
Tingles erupted all over me. The man could sing. I hadn’t known that. And he was singing for me. Probably in an attempt to make me laugh, but all the same.
Why did he have to be both awkward and smooth? It was my kryptonite. I liked a guy I could make nervous. But not too nervous. Clearly, I had issues.
During a break between songs, my phone rang in my purse, and I grappled to hit the side button and silence it before it could disturb everyone. Once silenced, I turned it over and checked the screen. Gia. She never called. What could my sister possibly want that she couldn’t text about?
As if reading my mind, a text from her popped up.
Gia: Call me.
Something was wrong. I put on my jacket and slid off my stool. Thankfully, Isaac jumped up and followed without me having to ask.
“What is it?” he studied my face once we were outside and away from the noise of the café.
“I don’t know yet. Maybe nothing.”
We leaned against the brick façade while I called my sister back. A thousand possibilities were running through my head. Gia usually went out on Friday nights, but after breaking up with her boyfriend, she hadn’t felt like it tonight.
She answered on the second ring. “Carmen, it’s Papá. He fell.”
“I’m fine,” he growled, letting me know I was on speaker. I also knew he was lying, because I could hear the pain in his voice. “I twisted my ankle. It’s nothing.”
“Hebrokehis ankle, and he should let us call an ambulance.”
“Ambulancia. Says the girl with the Coach backpack. Too expensive.” Papá groaned.“¡Caray!Maybe I should have bought a Cadillac, though. More legroom.”
“We’re not taking your little truck. You’ll have plenty of legroom in the back of the van, Pá.”
“Where did he fall?” I started digging for my keys, but like always, they were playing hide-and-go-seek somewhere in the bottom of my purse.
“In the front yard. He hurt his knee, too.”
“My knee is fine.”
“Papá,” I sighed. “Did you go up on the ladder after I left?”
“No.” He sounded highly offended. “I ran into the ladder while I was taking the garbage out. Knocked it over and then tripped over it in the dark. Maybe save your lectures for when I’m not…in…so…much pain.”
“Carmen,” my mother called out. “Gia’s going to drive us to the hospital. Don’t worry about any of this,mija. Just stay on your date. That’s what’s important. I told you not to call her, Gia.”
“Ay, when I’m old like Carmen, are you going to hold back the killer zombies every time I’m out with a man? Oh look, the city’s on fire. Don’t tell Gia. She might meet her soulmate tonight at the movies.”
I glanced at Isaac, who was staring straight ahead, pretending he couldn’t hear my loud family through the phone. But he couldn’t hide his amusement from me any better than I could hide my embarrassment. I had to look away so he could smile without feeling guilty. Ah, my family. They were the best and the worst, all at the same time.
“I’ll be there in a minute, Gia.”
“Good. Bring your guy. I hope he has muscles, because Papá is like dead weight with this foot.”
