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“Why don’t I give you two some time alone?” Gia stepped away as she realized, this was not her moment. The moment she’d imagined and reimagined a hundred times wasn’t the moment that was meant to happen. And that was okay—there would be other moments. The time would be right when it was. Her romantic notions could wait a little longer.
“Actually—” Rafael interjected. “Why don’t I giveyou twosome time? I’ve got to get back to the Springs—Rodolfo needs help clearing his main drain. Little Raul keeps flushing his Legos ‘out to sea,’ but all it does is clog the drain.Papato the rescue!”
“You know how to clear the main drain?” Roxi raised an eyebrow. They seemed thinner than usual—not over plucked, but not as full as Gia remembered.
“Course I do.” Rafael grinned. They had the exact same smile. “If not, there’s YouTube. It has the answer to everything,mija.”
“Okay,Papa. Thank you for coming tonight. It means everything that you were here.Te amo.” Roxi kissed her father’s cheek and waved him away. She was still wearing her stage costume, which gave the goodbye a theatrical heaviness. Rafael blew air kisses and skipped toward the door, still walking on clouds as he vanished.
“He thinks he’s Bob Vila,” Roxi whispered when Rafael was out of sight, then slid into her makeup chair. “But the truth is, he can’t fix a thing. He probably just didn’t want to talk anymore. He gets like that—he’s fine and then, bam! He’s done. We call it the ‘Rafael Run Away.’ Be careful how much you say, ‘cause he’ll just up and run out on you when he’s finished, even if you’re not!”
“Yeah, that checks out.” Gia’s hands found her pockets as the nerves piled on. Maybe thiswasthe moment? “He pretended he couldn’t understand English until after the show. I seriously wondered why you didn’t tell me he only spoke Spanish!”
“Oh,chica, that’s one of his oldest tricks. Gets him out of talking to people when he doesn’t want to. He’s a character, but I love him. He’s a good dad.”
“He seems like it.”
Roxi’s dressing room pals had taken to talking amongst themselves when Gia and Rafael had arrived and had left at some point. Gia was hyperaware that they were now alone in the dressing room. She cleared her throat. Shifted in her stance. Looked away. And then, Gia looked in the mirror, with its border of lights, and saw her. Saw the pureness of unrelenting joy and peace of knowing you’re following your dreams. Roxi was on a path out of driving the bus, out of Palm Springs, and maybe, out of Gia’s life. And she glowed. Like a new candle with hours and hours of wick left to burn, the fire in Roxi’s soul spilled out around her.
“You look beautiful.” The words came out before Gia could stop herself. It was an imperial fact. Roxi looked beautiful. Happiness has a way of causing that effect on people.
“Thanks. You look pretty sharp yourself.”
“These old rags?” Gia spun in a circle. Why did she spin in a circle? This wasn’t about her. But she did have the confidence of a dapper new outfit.
“So, I wondered,” Roxi said into the mirror, her back to Gia so she could finish removing the stage makeup.
“Yeah?” Gia looked at mirror Roxi, and then at her feet. Seeing herself in a mirror with other people in it had always freaked her out. She hated watching herself talk.
“Did you get your one-year token?”
Gia pulled a silver-plated coin out of her coat pocket and dropped it on the makeup table. “Oh, you mean this?”
“That’s the one. I’m really proud of you,chica.I hope you’re proud of yourself.” Mirror Roxi ran a thumb over top of the token.
“I am, but I know I have to keep going one day at a time. For the rest of my life, it’s one day at a time. This is the longest I’ve gone without a drink since I was literally a kid. But man, have things started looking up since I decided enough was enough. Palm Springs has been really good for me.”
“And you’re glad you waited?”
“Waited for what?”
Seriously. Waited for what?
“To kiss me like you mean it.” Roxi stood from her chair, fresh-skinned and beaming.
“I—”
“No more small talk. There’s plenty of time for that later. I want to know.” Roxi took a step closer and took Gia’s right hand from her pants pocket. “Are you glad you waited?”
Cue the strings. Release the butterflies. Start your engines. The moment she’d wanted, then dismissed, then wanted again was real. It wasn’t in her fantasies. It wasn’t in her dreams. It was IRL—in real life. IRL, Roxi was holding her hand, sending an electric charge through her being. And IRL, the milliseconds became seconds until she found a strong, confident, “Yes.”
“And are you going to keep waiting?” Roxi inched closer.
That one required no answer.
She was absolutelynotgoing to keep waiting. Leave it to Roxi to take her carefully-laid plans and beat her to them.
Anticipation has a way of amplifying feelings. A way of marking time. And then, without warning, the waiting, the buildup, the wondering and “what-if-ing” and imagining are in the past.
