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“I’m having a hot flash, and I’m only twenty-six. Do you have a brother?” Josie asks.
“No, ma’am.” He tugs my hand and pulls me to him. “If the sugar won’t come to me, I’ll drag her close and get it myself.”
Diego kisses me slow and hot, his tongue dancing with mine. I’m at meltdown point when he’s done.
When he flirts like that, I lose my mind. “Good day, Diego?
“Something like that.” He turns to Josie as he lets me go. “You must be Josie. Diego and only child. Keep her in check.” He winks at me. “Got a few more things to do, any trouble?”
“Nope.”
“Okay. then. Keep yourselves safe.” He saunters off.
Josie fans herself with a cushion. “You dark horse, and here I thought you’d settle for Fizz.”
“Riff.” I sigh. “Not settling and not a dark horse.”
“Nadia . . . c’mon, you just made out, and I was jealous of your tongue.”
I laugh, then lean against the door. “I’ve loved that man since I was twelve. Fell for him at fifteen, like I understood something of romantic love. And we got together when I was eighteen.”
I look down at my blue denim kicks.
“Here’s something I haven’t told anyone. When I was sixteen, I kissed him, and he started kissing me back, but stopped. I wasn’t old enough.”
“How old was he?”
“Twenty. But when I was eighteen, and I kissed him again. It happened. He kissed me back properly, and we became a thing. He crushed my heart. Told me he didn’t love me, and left town.”
I’m leaving lots out, like Dad, but that stuff is just juicy window dressing. It’s not important.
“And now . . .”
“Your man is back, Nadia.”
“For now,” I say. “It can’t be.”
“I don’t believe it. The way he kissed you and looked at you. Dear Lord, you can feel the heat. And it isn’t just sex. It’s feelings.”
“He told me he loves me, but also, it can’t work. Our lives go in different directions. I’m here, he’s in Dallas. And then there’s trust.” I take a breath. “He lets me in to a point, more than most, but not all of it. He keeps the important things locked up.”
“Everyone has locked parts, Nadia,” she says as we continue to put things away. “I think you’re scared.”
“Of course, I am.” I stack the chairs. “Even if everything else was aligned, I want that trust. That part of him. A-and, I want to know he won’t hurt me like he did last time because he threw my love back at me.”
“Did he have reasons?”
“Not that he’s explained.”
She sighs. “Have you asked?”
“No. Because I don’t think I’ll survive his flinging my love down.”
Her face is a million words she’s not saying. All she says is, “Love is weird, Nadia.”
“You’re telling me.”
“Tell you what. Why don’t we go get a drink and get your personal hunk to meet us? It’ll be fun.”
