Call It One-Sided

by Daniela Reyes

  And it was.

  Cecilia made some quick small talk, mostly directed at Marco, before the show finally started. Will remained relatively silent. He didn’t look in Elena’s direction, not through the hour or so of performances by the various professional dancers on the stage. They performed the Argentinian tango and some modern takes on it. The guitarist stopped and discussed brief historical snippets that Elena missed because her focus lay solely on the fact that through the performance, Marco had been holding her hand.

  She knew it was probably because he’d seen Cecilia holding Will’s hand, and this was in some way his attempt at mimicking it or trying to get a reaction from Cecilia. Even so, Elena didn’t move her hand away. She kept it tucked under his, growing too familiar with his touch.

  Eventually, when the performers finished, the lead singer invited couples on stage to learn some basic tango steps. Cecilia pulled Will up to the stage before he had a chance to protest. Then she pointed to Marco and Elena.

  “Come on, guys, it’s easy. I learned this when I spent a summer in Argentina. I can help you.”

  Elena and Marco remained still.

  “I think we’ll-” Sit this one out Elena wanted to say, but Marco finished for her.

  “We’ll give it a try,” he said. Then before she knew it, they were on stage too, with other couples, some younger, some looked like they were in their twenties or thirties, and then older couples who all looked eager to learn. Two of the professional dancers were at the front of the stage to demonstrate the steps.

  “All right,” the lead singer said, after they’d gone through one round of lessons. “You saw the dance, now we will play a slow tango so you can practice. If you miss a step, don’t worry. Our performers will be walking around to help.”

  The song began to play. Elena stood in front of Marco, half watching him and half watching Cecilia showing Will where to step. They moved with ease.

  Marco approached Elena, slowly.

  “Should we start?” he asked. She’d missed almost all the steps because she’d been watching Will and Cecilia, not with the jealousy or longing she usually felt, but with a strange sort of understanding.

  Will and Cecilia looked great together, and if they both ended up going to New York for school, Will might lead a totally different life. He could go to events like this, follow his passions, and leave behind any worries in Glensford.

  “Elena,” Marco said. “You okay?”

  Her eyes flashed back to him. She nodded and grabbed his uninjured hand, placing her other hand on his shoulder. Marco brought his free hand to her back. The two of them went over a few steps, failing as they went.

  “It’s all right,” one of the passing instructors said. “Free dance as you wish.”

  Elena laughed. “Well, why don’t we settle for a slow dance?”

  Marco’s hands went to her waist, and she wrapped hers around his neck. Some other couples slowed danced too, trying different levels of the footwork.

  Elena hadn’t slowed danced with anyone, aside from the few pity dance she’d danced with Will at his prom last year, or with some of the boys she’d asked to dance at middle school dances. There’d never been much of an opportunity for her to slow dance with anyone.

  Marco pulled her closer as the music went on.

  “You look beautiful tonight,” he whispered.

  “Thanks to your stepmom. Really. She helped a lot.”

  “Not just tonight,” he said. “Abby didn’t suddenly make you beautiful.”

  What was he saying? And where was he going with this?

  Elena looked up again to see if Will and Cecilia were close by. They weren’t. They were across the stage, actually dancing a decent beginners’ tango, while a few couples stopped to watch them.

  “I mean it,” Marco said. Elena leaned away, so she could see his eyes. They were right on her, sincere and waiting.

  “Thank you,” she said. It wasn’t like she didn’t have insecurities, but Elena had always been okay with the way she looked. She sometimes wished for better hair or better vision, but at the end of the day she’d never thought she would need someone to tell her she looked beautiful. That didn’t mean her heart didn’t race when Marco said it. “You don’t look too shabby yourself.”

  Marco remained serious. He was looking at her differently now, kind of the way Will had been looking at her.

  “Marco-”

  He spun Elena around, and then leaned her into a dip that she would’ve fallen back on had he not caught her, brought her back up, right into a kiss.

  It was a quick peck, different to the one at Mr. Thomas’s library. Elena pulled away from it, heat traveling to every part of her body.

  “Switch partners,” the singer said. “Let’s mix it up.”

  Elena stared at Marco, who had his hands around her waist, still.

  “You said we shouldn’t do that.”

  Before he could answer, Will walked up to them, Cecilia by his side. She gave them a forced smile.

  “Switch partners?” she asked Marco. He didn’t reject the offer, letting Elena go in an instant and then going to her, the person he liked.

  Elena stood there, deciding whether or not she should leave the stage.

  “Want to dance?” Will asked.

  Elena nodded, and let Will step closer. “Are we trying to tango, or just swaying along?”

  “Swaying along.”

  He didn’t grab her waist, instead he held the small of her back with one hand, and her free hand with his other.

  Elena watched Marco and Cecilia dancing now, laughing as she tried to teach him the steps.

  “Did you like the event?” Will asked.

  Elena looked back to him, her mind still everywhere. Had Marco kissed her to make sure Cecilia saw them?

  “It was wonderful,” Elena said. “Makes me want to take a dance class.”

  “You should,” Will said. “There’s a studio near my place. We can pop in one day.”

  “Funny,” Elena said. “Me with my two left feet and you with your talent to pick up tango in two minutes. We’d make the perfect pair.” She tried to sound funny, but Will remained serious.

  “We might,” he said, again too serious. Then he changed the subject. “I’ve thought about it, and I think I want to stay in Glensford. I can go to grad school in New York if I still feel like living there after college. I’d save money going locally. And even if I don’t get into Glensford College, I can attend community college for two years and then transfer over. It’d be the same length of time.”

  “Wait, what?” Elena stopped dancing. “You can’t stay, Will, your whole dream is in New York. And if Cecilia goes there, you two can keep dating. What if you get serious? Maybe eventually you’ll live together. My dad and I will be fine here. Trust me.”

  “It’s not about your dad,” Will said. He brought his hands to his side. “I can’t keep doing this.”

  “Doing what?”

  The music stopped. Elena stood, more confused now. Cecilia and Marco were still laughing as they tried to dance. She backed away.

  “Excuse me,” Elena said. “I need to use the restroom.”

  Then she walked off stage, leaving a stunned-looking Will behind.

  Chapter 23

  Marco watched his phone.

  He’d set it on the counter as he started his Saturday morning shift at Melo’s.

  What had he been thinking?

  Elena liked Will, not him.

  He’d kissed her without a reason and had been two seconds away from telling her he liked her.

  Marco’s phone buzzed as he cleaned out the espresso machine. He dropped the residue tray at the sound of the notification. It wasn’t a text from Elena. It was from Lucas.

  Can we grab dinner tonight?

  Marco didn’t know what his brother wanted to talk about now, but usually it had to do with family stuff, their dad telling Lucas to tell Marco what to do.

  Marco had written his mom a few day
s back, not mentioning the accident of course, or his dad’s health issues.

  She hadn’t responded yet. He understood, though, his mom was busy. She’d always been busy.

  “No phones on the job,” Laura said, as she passed by. She winked, though, which Marco didn’t know how to read. He slipped his phone into his pocket, then picked up the residue tray from the floor. It would need extra sanitizing.

  Elena hadn’t said anything out of the ordinary on the way back from the tango exhibition. Greg had dropped her off at Will’s apartment before dropping Marco home. Elena hadn’t mentioned the kiss or anything else, while Marco sat beside her having what felt like an existential crisis.

  He’d seen Cecilia and Will together and felt nothing.

  He’d watched them dance and smile and it’d been okay. But when he’d seen Will holding Elena close, he’d noticed. Every part of him had wanted to switch back to their original partners. He hadn’t, though. And instead he’d laughed extra loud, pretended like he was having the best time with Cecilia.

  Marco didn’t know if he’d stopped liking her. Was he confused now because he’d kissed Elena again?

  “We have extra residue trays in the dishwasher,” Elena said.

  Elena.

  He looked up, hoping he hadn’t started to hear voices. Elena stood in front of the counter, wearing her Melo’s uniform, looking like she’d only gotten a few hours of sleep.

  “I’m covering a shift,” she said. “Laura called me this morning to see if I could fill in.”

  Then she headed to the kitchen area, again, as if last night hadn’t even happened. Marco followed her as she went to the freezer section. She turned and motioned for him to help her with the door.

  “Are you working back here?” he asked.

  Elena nodded. Why wasn’t she freaking out too? Marco needed to know how she felt about last night. Instead, he held the freezer door open as she rushed inside and got buckets of cookie dough. He slammed it shut when she ran back out.

  Elena paused, turning. “About last night,” she began. His heart raced. “Please don’t kiss me again to try and make Cecilia jealous, okay.”

  Marco shook his head. He didn’t need this miscommunication to carry out longer than it needed to. “I didn’t do it to make her jealous.” Elena’s eyes widened. “I did it because I wanted to kiss you.”

  It sounded like he was confessing to a crime now. Marco waited for Elena to say something, but she remained there, looking like a stunned deer.

  “I kissed you because I wanted to,” Marco said again. “It had nothing to do with Cecilia or Will. I…” He tried to remember the night of the game of seven minutes in heaven. What had he said exactly about Elena, about kissing her? Why had he said it, that she was a bad kisser, when all he wanted to do now was kiss her again?

  “You what?” Elena asked.

  “It was a weird night. I think I got caught up in our fake relationship.”

  Elena looked disappointed. “Yeah, me too, I think. I should get back to work.”

  ___________

  Lucas sat across from Marco, his usual smile gone, as he pondered the menu in front of him.

  “Are you finally going to tell me why you suddenly wanted to have dinner?” Marco asked. He’d gone ahead and ordered appetizers, mozzarella sticks, because it was what they could have out the fastest. He twirled melted cheese around his finger, knowing if his brother had been his regular self he would’ve told Marco to use a fork.

  Lucas set his menu down. “I didn’t want to have this conversation at home.”

  “So a public setting was better?”

  “This isn’t a joke,” Lucas said. He leaned in closer. “I’ll get to the point.”

  “And what is that point?”

  “You know about Dad, right?”

  “Yeah, Abby filled me in. Thanks for telling me.”

  Lucas shook his head. “He asked me not to. That’s not important.”

  “It is. Dad has cancer, sounds pretty life-changing to me.”

  “Did you tell Mom?”

  “Of course not. Why?”

  Lucas sighed. “She’s coming to Glensford for some reason. She told me about it yesterday, saying she wants to see us.”

  Marco sat up straighter.

  “She is?” She hadn’t mentioned it to him, not that they’d video called or emailed recently. “Why do you look scared?”

  “It feels sudden. It scares me.”

  Marco laughed at that. “Of both our parents, Mom scares you the most?”

  Lucas said nothing. Marco stopped finding humor in the situation. He thought about Abby crying in his room as she told him about Felipe’s health.

  “You’re scared Mom’s back in town, then maybe you think she knows something and is coming back to stir something up with it.” Marco shook his head. “She wouldn’t do that. Even after everything Dad did to her, she wouldn’t. You know that.”

  “No,” Lucas said. “I know the opposite. I know she’d use anything she learns to try and get something.”

  A woman at the table beside them turned.

  “You know what, I think we’re done here. I won’t sit by while you accuse Mom of coming here to expose Dad’s cancer,” Marco said. He stood. He’d been in a good mood. Why did Lucas have to ruin it?

  Lucas didn’t try to stop Marco as he gathered his things and made his way out of the restaurant. Luckily, he’d had Greg bring him which meant he didn’t have to sit through a pointless dinner where his brother tried in insult their mom.

  He started the walk back to the car, until someone stepped in front of him, with what seemed to be the purpose of conversation. It took him a moment to recognize the man. It was the guy he’d served at the Thanksgiving dinner, the one who’d complimented Marco on his supposed work ethic.

  “Marco, right?”

  Marco sighed, but he threw on what he hoped was a cordial expression. For some reason, despite everything, he didn’t want to upset his dad’s business partner.

  “Yes,” he said. God, why couldn’t he remember this man’s name. “How are you-”

  “Shaw,” the man said. “Most people call me Harry, or if they’re doing business with me, Mr. Shaw works too.”

  “Mr. Shaw,” Marco said. “I’m sorry, I’m terrible with names.” That wasn’t a total lie. He remembered names without a problem, it was just he took no interest in memorizing the name of his dad’s business partners. “How are you?

  “Good, working on some real estate purchases in the San Mateo district. I just bought an old book store-.”

  Marco’s ears shot up. “Bee’s Books?

  He nodded. “I’m planning on renovating it into a small apartment building. It’d be the first of its kind in San Mateo. It took a lot of planning, convincing the city that it would add to the historical value of the district versus take anything away from it. If everything goes to plan, we’ll have the remodel done by April of next year. We already have interested buyers.”

  Marco paused. This was the new building owner Elena and her dad had been arguing about that day. He didn’t know why it suddenly mattered to him now, this conversation, the way Mr. Shaw made the whole project sound like the best idea in the world.

  “You have interested buyers?” Marco asked.

  “Quite a few,” Mr. Shaw said. “I want to remodel and sell the building soon, without having to deal with tenants. Your girlfriend probably doesn’t like me very much because of it.” He paused, shrugging. “I heard that bookstore wasn’t doing so well to begin with. I think it’s better this way. They can walk out of a bad business and we give them two months to sort everything out.”

  “Two months.” Marco’s jaw set.

  “Oh, yes,” Mr. Shaw said. “Andres has been trying to convince me to give them longer, showing me spreadsheets and numbers to prove how viable the bookshop is, how much it means to the community. He’s determined, I’ll give him that.”

  “You won’t give them a chance?” Marco ask
ed, because he couldn’t say what he really wanted to say.

  “Business is business,” Mr. Shaw said. “Change is the best thing for the historic district. I thought Felipe would’ve taught you that.”

  “He did,” Marco said. Then he paused. “I need to go. Excuse me.”

  He rushed to the car. Mr. Shaw didn’t try to stop him. Marco didn’t know why he suddenly felt the injustice of this. He knew business was business. But this business deal meant Elena lost something she cared about.

  Marco doubted he could do anything, but still, it bothered him. But he had to focus on the fact that his mom was coming to town. And a part of him knew Lucas was right. Their mom didn’t do anything without a reason.

  When Greg started the car, Marco started to type a message.

  Mom,

  Are you really coming to Glensford? I’d love to see you…

  Chapter 24

  Elena finished the last sentence of her essay.

  When she hit the period on her keyboard a new sense of freedom found her. She lay back on Will’s small lounger, arms up as she realized she now had a half-hour break until she had to start working on her next essay. That was a handwritten essay, though, to give her practice when she actually took her AP European History test.

  Elena closed her laptop, setting it on the lounger as she got up. Her dad still hadn’t tried to contact her, not since she’d snuck out of their apartment before the tango exhibition. How many days had it been since she’d slept in her own bed? Too many, that was all Elena knew.

  The door to the apartment opened. She waited, trying to think about what she’d say to Will. They’d said very little to each other since last night. And now, she had to process the fact she was technically no longer fake dating Marco Silva. She wasn’t sure where that left her feelings for Will.

  He had Cecilia, just like at one point he’d had Mia. Elena hadn’t stopped liking him back then, but now it was different. She had someone else that her heart kept racing for, someone she wanted to kiss. Elena leaned on the arm of lounger, casually, like she’d expected him.