Call It One-Sided

by Daniela Reyes

  “Yeah,” he said. “Might as well meet him, I guess.”

  “I have a meeting,” Elena said. “With our new building owner, so if you do meet my dad, it’ll be quick.”

  Quick sounded better than some long dinner where Elena’s dad might grill him with questions or try to ask Marco why he’d asked his daughter out so publicly.

  “I’ll pop in and out,” Marco said. “Who’s your new building owner?”

  “No clue. Well I know it’s a he.” Elena said. She started to gather her things as they entered the San Mateo district. “I’m meeting today today.”

  “I feel like that’s something you should know, though,” Marco said.

  “It is,” Elena said. “But I’ve been avoiding it.” They company left a message, saying the new owner was showing up today.”

  Greg lowered the music. “Would you like me to park or should I drop you off at the book shop?”

  Marco looked at Elena, then at his watch. He had a while before his shift at Melo’s started. The thought was still foreign. He’d keep working those shifts until he was back in his dad’s good graces, which he hoped wouldn’t be too long

  “Drop us off,” Marco said. “My shift at Melo’s ends at eight, so pick me up there.”

  Elena leaned forward, right as Greg drove up to the bookshop and got ready to open the doors for them.

  “It’s okay,” Elena said. “I got it. Thank you again for driving us. And for driving me on Saturday; I know it was early.”

  “My pleasure,” Greg said. He smiled at Elena, ignoring Marco all together. Marco wanted to say that Greg got paid to do this, really good money too. The least he should do was hold doors open, but before he could argue, Elena had the door open.

  “Let’s go,” she said. “My dad should be working the counter.”

  Marco followed her out, but not before giving Greg a quick glare. He shut the door behind him, the chill November air hitting him all at once. Elena walked up to the bookshop but stopped and turned.

  “Let me talk,” she said. “The sooner we get this over with, the better. Then you can go off and do whatever you want.”

  “What if he asks me something?” Marco asked, his mind suddenly racing again. “Also, I don’t know his name. What do I call him? Should I not bring up stuff?”

  “Mr. Castro is fine and all conversation topics are fine too. Just don’t bring up my mom, okay? I’ll try to steer the questions to me. Come on.”

  Marco walked through the door, right behind Elena. The jingle bells jingled, reminding him of the Christmas stories Abby would read him when he was younger. He hated the memory, throwing it away as soon as it entered his mind.

  The bookshop smelled like old leather and even older paper. It wasn’t a terrible smell, not as bad as the coffee odor that took up every inch of Melo’s. He walked past somewhat familiar shelves, the bookshop feeling different now that he couldn’t make a purchase and walk out right away. That reminded him.

  “Did you ever find that Preston Blanchard book I asked about last time?”

  Her brows furrowed together, then her expression eased. “Oh, no. I completely forgot. I’ll ask my dad to look into it for his next weekend trip to the book collectors.”

  Marco didn’t argue. He didn’t expect her to find it, but it was worth asking. He’d looked everywhere for that book. It wasn’t important to him, but he knew how much it would mean to Vovô if he found it.

  “Welcome to Bee’s Books,” said a male voice. “Is there anything I can help you find?”

  Marco stayed behind Elena as she approached the counter. The man paused, looking up from the laptop he’d been writing on and smiled.

  “My favorite customer,” he said, looking at Elena. He walked around the counter to greet her with a kiss on the cheek. When he stepped back from the embrace, he finally noticed Marco. “You brought a friend.”

  “Dad,” Elena began. The pause after that fell too long for Marco, who realized now this was the first time he was meeting the parent of someone he’d dated, fake or otherwise. “This is Marco. He wanted to meet you and see the book shop.”

  She stepped back, letting Marco get a good view of her dad. Mr. Castro didn’t look like Elena, but they did share the same dark brown hair and the same one-sided smile. He wondered then if she looked more like her mother.

  Mr. Castro stuck out a hand. “Well, I’m glad you decided to stop by. I finally get to meet the guy customers have even asking about through the day.” Marco didn’t know if he sounded mad or it was just a fact. He stuck out his hand, taking Mr. Castro’s into a handshake.

  “I’m glad to finally meet you too,” he lied. Because obviously he’d never planned on meeting anyone in Elena’s family. Frankly, he would’ve preferred to avoid this if possible. “I apologize if my stunt caused any people to invade your privacy.”

  Mr. Castro smiled at that. He took his hand back. “It was only two customers, two girls wearing the same uniform you are, well, the blazer at least. They were curious. I told them I had no idea what they were talking about and they left after buying some romance novels. So if anything, I’d like to thank you for bringing in new customers. Our usual romance reader hasn’t been here in ages.”

  Marco nodded, because he didn’t know what else to say or do. Thankfully, Elena stepped in.

  “Marco has to get to work soon, but he just wanted to stop in and say hi.”

  “Well, I’m glad you stopped by,” Mr. Castro said. He definitely had Elena’s smile. “Why don’t you drop by for dinner Friday?”

  Marco bit his tongue so he couldn’t say no right away. Instead he turned to Elena, who looked even more against the idea than he was. Her dad looked at her and then at Marco.

  “Unless you two don’t want to. I wouldn’t want to force you to come over. You know what, forget I said anything. I’m glad you stopped in, either way. I don’t have to do that whole, if you hurt my daughter I’ll find you speech, right? I figured if you hurt her she’d find you herself.” Mr. Castro turned to Elena, who looked embarrassed now. She grabbed Marco by the arm.

  “Well, I’ll walk Marco out. Maybe we can save dinner for another day.”

  “Sure thing,” Mr. Castro said. “It was nice meeting you, Marco” He said Marco’s name the way it was pronounced in Spanish, not that Marco spoke it. He barely understood Portuguese when his vovô spoke it.

  “It was good meeting you too, sir,” Marco said. He’d wanted to say Mr. Castro, but sir came out instead.

  He let Elena nearly drag him out of the shop, until they were back out on the Main Street.

  “Well, that was quick,” Marco said. “So, no dinners, right?”

  “Of course not,” Elena said. “Will comes over for dinner on Fridays. I don’t need him there to witness our lack of affection or to ask questions we might not have answers to.”

  The mention of Will brought Marco back to why they were in this situation in the first place.

  “Maybe I should come to dinner, then,” Marco said. “It might make us seem more convincing.”

  “We’ll never be convincing, at least to Will. He’s known me for years, so he’ll know something’s up. For now, let’s just stick to me going to events or dinners with you, no Will or Dad present. Okay?”

  “Okay,” Marco said, because he didn’t want to make it seem like he was desperate to have dinner with Elena. It’d just been an idea. “Well, I should get to Melo’s. My shift starts soon.”

  “Okay,” Elena said. “The new building owner will be here soon, so I want to prep my dad.” She pulled out her phone. “What’s your number by the way? We should at least have one way to contact each other.”

  “True,” Marco said. He already had her number, which he’d retrieved from the employee contact information Melo’s had. He just hadn’t texted her because he hadn’t known what to text for the whole weekend. He typed his number into her phone, and then added a heart next to his name. When Elena gave him a weird look he played it off. “We�
�re dating, remember?”

  “Yeah,” Elena said. He saw her delete the heart. “But I wouldn’t do that if we really were.” Then she tucked the phone into her pocket. “See you soon, I guess?”

  “Yeah,” he said. He had another half hour until his shift started. He’d have to walk around the area until then. “Do you usually take the bus from school?”

  “No,” Elena said. “Will picks me up. We drive over together. Why?”

  “No reason,” Marco said, annoyed at himself for asking. “See you around.”

  Then he waved himself off and turned, before Elena had a chance to say anything else. He walked on, turning only when finally reached the end of the street. Will was walking up to the bookshop. He didn’t see Marco; he went straight inside. Marco wondered if he went at the bookshop every afternoon. Then he let the question fall away.

  The only thing he needed to worry about now was making his fake relationship with Elena convincing and making sure Cecilia and Will broke up by the time three months were up.

  Marco would make sure of it.

  Chapter 13

  “Thank you so much for stopping by,” Elena said.

  She shook Mr. Shaw’s hand again.

  “It was nice meeting you,” Mr. Shaw said.

  Elena tried her best to keep smiling. Her dad nodded beside her. He’d been surprisingly calm during the whole encounter, even when Mr. Shaw had brought up the matter of their back rent. Elena had tried to pretend she didn’t know much about it, like she didn’t have the amount they needed sitting in her savings account.

  “Thank you for all the information,” Andres said. “We’ll have a check ready for the rent soon.”

  “I prefer ETF,” Mr. Shaw said. He couldn’t have been older than fifty, a few specks of gray standing out against his otherwise black hair. “If that’s an option for you. Otherwise, check will do. I will warn you, Mr. Castro, we are hoping to sell your building.”

  “You’re planning to sell the building?” Elena asked. “But you just bought it.” She hoped she didn’t sound like a child, because right now, she felt like she was five years old again.

  Mr. Shaw adjusted his tie. “It’s not official, but since you’re the only tenants and your lease ends at the end of the month, we hoped to do a quick remodel and sell it. There are a few buyers who are interested. I promise, we won’t rush you to vacate; we’d give you an extra two months, to gather your things and find a new location.”

  “We live in the apartment upstairs,” Elena said, like that should change something.

  “I know,” Mr. Shaw said. “It’s what made our buyers interested. They want to make the place into an apartment building, possibly student housing. The remodel plans are pretty amazing. It would look like an entirely different place.”

  Elena’s heart fell. It didn’t matter if she could pay the rent on time, Bee’s Books was going to be sold.

  “There’s nothing that can change your mind?” Andres asked.

  Elena knew the answer.

  “I’m sure this might seem harsh to you,” Mr. Shaw said. “But it’s business. I bought this building to make a profit, and as much as I’m sure you’re fond of it, I think it can be put to better use.”

  “I see,” Andres said. “Is there a date we have to leave by?”

  “Nothing’s certain,” Mr. Shaw said. “But, you’ll have at least another two months after your lease ends in December. We’re thinking of giving you the added bonus of making it rent free for the period, that way you can use the money to put a deposit on a new store, or maybe save up for your move.”

  Elena stood still, because she feared if she moved she might cry. She knew it was business, that two month’s rent free was more than a building owner needed to do. But this was her home, her mom’s legacy. Bee’s Books was everything.

  “Thank you,” Andres said.

  Elena stood, collecting all her emotions and burying them deep down within herself.

  “Thank you for coming,” she said.

  “Mrs. Keller is very fond of your bookstore and of your family. The only way she agreed to sell the building to me was if I made sure you didn’t leave angry.” Elena wanted to tell Mr. Shaw that that would be next to impossible, but she didn’t.

  “She’s a lovely lady,” Elena said. “I should get back inside, but it was great meeting you.” She lied with such ease now.

  He didn’t seem to notice. “I’ll be back at the end of the month to discuss finalized plans,” he said. “Have a good night.”

  Elena waited until he turned the street corner, then she turned to her dad.

  “What are we gonna do?”

  “We’re not leaving if that’s what you mean,” Andres said. “We’re late on rent, but we’ll make it. He has no sure buyers either.”

  “Dad,” Elena said. “The real estate in this area is selling really quickly-“

  She saw his smile fading, the look in his eyes, the familiar lost way he’d looked after her mom had died. Elena stopped.

  “We’ll be fine,” Andres said. “Go to your shift at Melo’s. ”

  Elena didn’t want to mention that Laura had texted her asking to change her work schedule for the day. Apparently, she wanted to avoid people seeing Elena and Marco together until the video stuff died down.

  Elena held back the tears. She focused only on the fact that even if the building sold, they still had Bee’s. They could find a smaller location, put some books in storage for the time being. Her dad knew collectors who could store their older books properly. Bee’s wasn’t just the location, right? It was the name, the experience the bookshop symbolized.

  She breathed in.

  “Okay,” Elena said.

  “It was nice meeting Marco today. You should really invite him over for dinner on Friday.”

  Elena knew her dad well enough to know that wasn’t a suggestion. She also knew she wanted him to tell her what his plan was to keep them from moving. She didn’t ask him though.

  “We’re just dating, Dad. It might be weird for him to spend time with us.”

  Andres smiled again. “For him, or for you?” He sighed. “I won’t force you to invite him over, but I would like it if I could have a conversation with him that was longer than a minute.” He walked back to Bee’s.

  Elena figured she could sneak up the outside entrance and grab her backpack. She wasn’t failing her way out of the eleventh grade, but this year, her grades had dropped from As and Bs, to Bs and Cs. She hadn’t seen an A in a while, and the thought of it made her stomach twist. She knew she had to do better, especially with college applications starting next year. Then again, maybe college wasn’t her main priority. Keeping everything from falling apart was; it had been her only concern since her mom had died.

  She just needed to hold everything together a little bit longer.

  _________

  Elena couldn’t keep her head up.

  “Miss Castro,” Mr. Blithe, her AP Euro teacher, said. “Are you all right?”

  Elena looked up. She felt sick; she’d been feeling like this since Mr. Shaw’s visit Monday, like something might jump out at her. Will knew something was up; he’d been asking her every morning if she needed to tell him anything. It was Thursday now, and Elena still couldn’t bring herself to tell anyone. How could she? It would just be sharing the stress of it all.

  “Can I go to the nurse’s office?” Elena asked. Maybe a nap in the school clinic would do her some good. Mr. Blithe nodded, handing her a hall pass as she left the classroom.

  Elena lay down on one of the beds, closing her eyes and hoping everything would fall into the background noise of her life. She didn’t want to think about Bee’s, or about Will, or least of all Marco. Her classmates already reminded her that she was dating him. They weren’t being as nosy as before, especially after she’d called out the guy in the cafeteria, but it felt like everyone at school knew who Elena was.

  She couldn’t sleep. Her mind raced with too many thoughts, too ma
ny things at once. Elena wanted to forget. Why couldn’t she forget?

  “You’re here,” someone said.

  Elena turned over to find Will standing beside her.

  “How’d you know I was here?” She sat up. “I’m fine, just have a headache.”

  Will took a deep breath, and then he sat on the bed, near Elena’s feet.

  “Apparently people in school are watching you and they also call you Marco Silva’s girlfriend. Someone in my class said they’d seen you in the nurse’s office, started making up theories about why you were here. I came to check in on you.”

  Elena sighed. “What theories exactly?”

  Will shrugged. “Nothing worth repeating.”

  “Will, tell me.”

  “They’re saying you’re getting overwhelmed by the attention, or that, well-”

  “They think I’m pregnant,” Elena said, suddenly more awake. “Wow, how creative. I get pregnant by a guy I haven’t even kissed yet.”

  That caught Will’s attention. He looked at Elena, his blue eyes serious.

  “You two haven’t kissed?”

  Elena swallowed down the truth. “We have,” she said. “We just haven’t kissed, kissed, you know.”

  “Kissed, kissed?”

  “We haven’t kissed, okay? He’s the first guy I’m dating and I want to take things slow.”

  Will nodded. “It’s your first kiss. It can feel like a big deal.”

  Elena nodded too, knowing this she could lie about. She’d had her first kiss, at a party her freshman year of high school. It’d been quick, embarrassing, and with the same guy she was now in a fake relationship with. Except it seemed that Marco didn’t remember that particular game of seven minutes in heaven. Elena shook the thought away.

  “Can we talk about something else? Actually, I kind of want to nap.”

  “Okay.” Will stood up. He leaned down and pressed a hand to her forehead. “No fever, so I’ll let you sleep. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.” His hand was warm, his skin soft. The touch sent a wave of warmth down Elena’s whole body.