by M. E. Carter
I feel really bad about the article in the newspaper. Quincy is taking it like a champ and doesn’t seem all that fazed by it, even though I know she’s annoyed that several of her new clients seem to be fans. One actually had the nerve to ask her for tickets to a game.
Most times fans are great. But in general, people really suck.
I was relieved to find out that most of the “source” information came from that Hailey girl at Chance’s day care. Quincy said she called a meeting with the director of the facility, and Hailey ended up confessing to the whole thing. She was given a final written warning for her job.
That was good enough for Quincy. She didn’t want the girl to lose her job but needed to make sure the point about privacy was made. Frankly, I agree with her. And it makes me trust her friendship that much more. Not that I didn’t trust her to begin with. It just drives the point home to me again.
I can’t help feeling partly responsible for the whole thing. I could have let Geni help take care of them when Quincy was sick, but honestly, I was having too much fun playing house. I’m still not sure why that is. I’ve never enjoyed going home to someone or spent half the day thinking about how I can lighten the load. Maybe I miss being around my nieces and nephews too much.
No matter what it is, Quincy needs to get out of the house and go somewhere no one will judge her based on a fucking newspaper article. A place where everyone knows you can’t believe everything you read on the internet. A place I need to go before my mother makes good on her threats to show up at my next practice if I don’t.
I’m bringing Quincy home.
“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” Quincy says as she tugs at the skirt of her white sundress. It’s not budging since she has a baby on her hip, but she keeps trying.
“Would you relax?” I shift the diaper bag over my shoulder and stop on the front stoop. “You know my mama threatened to hang me up by my gonads if I didn’t bring you over here for a family dinner once you were feeling better. So this isn’t about introducing you to anyone. It’s about protecting the family jewels.”
She tugs again. “That’s another thing. Thanks a lot for letting her see me half-naked while I had the flu. That’s not embarrassing or anything.”
“She has six adult children and fourteen grandchildren. She’s been in the room when every single one of them was born. There’s not a lot she hasn’t seen.”
“Ew.” She crinkles her nose in disgust. “Why would you want to be in the room for that?”
“No idea. I try to stay as far away as possible when one of these crazy women hits the nine-month mark. I miscalculated with Blanca for one of them. That was enough for me.”
I open the door and there’s Blanca, locked in yet another stand-off with Nicholas.
“You will not get in my face, Nicky,” she says as he challenges her by going toe to toe with her.
“I’m still bigger than you,” he starts, but before he can finish his sentence, she has him by his ear, twists, and he’s down on his knees squealing like a piglet.
I sigh. “At least he learned not to point in her face this time.” Quincy’s face lights up with humor for a second. I hand her the diaper bag and quickly make my way over.
“Okay, you two, break it up,” I say, reaching down to pry Blanca’s fingers from Nicky’s ear and help him back on his feet. “Why don’t you take a walk outside and cool off?” I say to Nicky and slap him on the shoulder as he turns to walk away, holding his ear.
“Damn, Mom, that hurt,” he grumbles.
“Don’t you cuss at me,” Blanca yells after him.
“Let him go,” I say, blocking her from following him and putting my hands on her shoulders. “What the hell was that about?”
“It’s that same damn fight about staying out after Homecoming.” She watches him over my shoulder, gesturing wildly. “He won’t let it go. I keep saying he can’t stay out all night. He keeps saying I can’t stop him. He’s making me crazy.”
“What? He’s still talking about that?” I pull her into a hug, rubbing up and down her back. I have learned over the years the best way to calm my sister down when she’s riled up is to hug and rub.
She snorts but melts into me. “Now that he’s going steady with that girl, she’s all he talks about. Over my dead body is he gonna lose his virginity after a high school dance.”
I step back. “She’s his girlfriend now?” Blanca nods. “The girl he invited to the dance?” She nods again. I laugh. “Good luck keeping her from popping his cherry.”
She slugs me in the shoulder. “Shut up, Daniel,” she says with irritation. “I’m not stupid, but I’m not going to encourage it, either.”
“You’re not gonna give him ‘the talk’ and embarrass the hell out of him by giving him a bunch of condoms?” I guffaw at the thought. “I can’t wait to do that to my kids someday!”
“Hell no,” she says as she smooths her hair down, finally calm enough to worry about her appearance again. “He can sneak around and hide it from me and feel guilty about sneaking around like the rest of us did in high school. That’s the way God intended it to be.”
I kiss her forehead, hear a throat clear, and see Quincy standing in the doorway, holding Chance on her hip.
“I didn’t forget about you,” I say and walk over to take the baby out of her arms. “Come here, little guy. I guarantee you’re going to be passed around the family today so you may as well get used to not being held by your mo—” I pause for a second before looking at Quincy. “What the hell does he call you anyway?”
“He doesn’t call me anything right now. He’ll decide who I am to him at some point, and I’ll follow his lead.”
“Quincy, this is my sister, Blanca. Blanca, this is Quincy and this is baby Chance.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Quincy,” she says with a wave. “Sorry you walked in on that.”
“It’s no problem,” Quincy says. “I raised my sister through her teenaged years. I totally understand.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Blanca says. “I forgot about that.”
“You knew I raised my sister?”
“It was in that article in the newspaper. Good coverage, by the way.”
“Blanca!” I say with indignation. She looks at me. “The whole reason I brought her here is so she could hang out with people who know not to believe everything they read in the news.”
“I didn’t believe everything,” she responds and moves to take the baby from me. I let her, because I’m sure she’s the first of many. “Especially the part about you cooking for Quincy while she was sick. I’ve eaten your cooking, and it doesn’t look like she has food poisoning, but I figured the part about her sister was probably fairly accurate.” With that, she turns and heads to the kitchen, where I can hear the rest of the family gossiping and talking over appetizers.
“Sorry about that,” I say to Quincy once Blanca is out of earshot. “I thought for sure she’d be the first one to shy away from that article after some of the things that have been written about me.”
Quincy tries to make light of it. “So she’s curious about me. That’s okay. I’d probably read an article about her, too.”
“Are you ready for the madness?” I ask and take her hand.
She yanks her dress down again. “No, but your sister stole my baby, so I don’t have much choice now.”
I chuckle and lead her into the kitchen. We walk through the door to a chorus of “Hey!”, “You made it!”, and “You owe me money, pendejo.” That would be my brother, Geovany, who swears I lost a bet to him the other day.
“Mama,” I say pulling her into a big hug.
“Mijo,” she says, kissing me on my cheek. “I’m so glad you could be here.” She lets me go and immediately turns to Quincy, hugging her, too. “And Quincy. Welcome. You look so much better.” She does a quick head-to-toe scan. “No fever anymore? You’re eating and sleeping well?”
Quincy smiles affectionately. “Yes, Mrs. Zavaro. I’m so much
better. I think that soup of yours did the trick.”
Mama pats her cheek then points at me, giving me a look that says I like this one. As she turns back to the stove to hand fry tortillas, I introduce Quincy to the rest of the family.
It’s obvious she can’t keep up with everyone’s names, but I wouldn’t expect her to. Half the time, I’m not even sure who is who.
After beers are passed out, and we all engage in some idle chitchat, Eduardo unexpectedly decides to go “big brother” on us. “Let’s cut to the chase,” he says, crossing his arms.
“Lalo!” Mama admonishes.
“Here we go,” Geovany mumbles under his breath.
Everyone else clears their throats or stares at the ground.
“What chase are you talking about, Lalo?” I feel like I should be on alert but not really sure why.
“Quincy,” he begins, “how do you know my brother?”
“Oh Jesus,” I mutter, looking at Quincy. She has a stunned look on her face. “Don’t answer that,” I tell her. “Back off Eduardo,” I say, turning. “I didn’t bring her here to be interrogated by you. You’re fucking psycho, you know that?”
“Boys!” Mama yells.
“I’m sorry. Am I missing something?” Quincy says with obvious confusion.
I sigh. “My brother here is a paranoid freak,” I say, and he narrows his eyes at me. “He seems to think our relationship is some sort of scam on your part because of my job.”
“What?” she asks. “Why…?” She looks at him. “Why would you think that about me?”
“He thinks it about everybody,” I say, staring at him. “Somehow he got it in his mind I can’t have any friends or ever date anyone without them having nefarious intentions.”
“He’s only trying to protect you,” my sister, Erika, says softly from across the room.
“By embarrassing a guest in Mama’s home?” I argue. “A guest Mama herself invited? Nice way to do it.”
Quincy puts a hand on my arm, stopping me. “I’m more than happy to answer any of your questions, Eduardo,” she says. “I don’t have anything to hide from you or anyone else.” She takes Chance out of Elizabeth’s arms. She’s been swaying and bouncing him for the last several minutes. Chance immediately smiles, patting Quincy’s cheeks, and lays a big, slobbery kiss on her. She smiles at him. “So what do you want to know, Eduardo?”
He looks almost startled that she would be willing to answer questions. Her unexpectedly amenable attitude makes me gloat a little. Well, it’s unexpected on his part, not on mine.
He recovers enough to start the interrogation. “Where did you two meet?”
“At Walmart,” she says without looking at him, still smiling at Chance. “About six or seven months ago. The night my sister died.”
Eduardo stiffens a bit as he realizes he’s already touched on a sensitive topic. He clears his throat though and keeps going. “I’m sorry about that, but that doesn’t explain how you ended up meeting the captain of the Mutiny.”
I huff loudly and shake my head in disbelief, but Quincy doesn’t flinch. “I was having trouble figuring out what formula and bottles and diapers to get. I had just gotten custody of Chance, and not having been around many babies, I was really lost. Daniel saw I was having a hard time and offered to help me.” She looks at Eduardo with challenge in her eyes. “In case you didn’t catch that, he approached me.”
Elizabeth decides it’s time to speak up. “Lalo, maybe you need to stop now.”
He holds up a hand to shut her up. “It seems awfully suspicious to me that all of the sudden you have the responsibility of raising this baby on your salary and along comes Daniel, a professional athlete.” Several people gasp at the accusation. “I’m not saying you’re lying about how you met, but once you figured out who he was and what a sucker he is for family, well, you know what I’m implying.”
I’m shocked he would jump to conclusions. I’m even more shocked my family would sit by and let him. As much as I love them, apparently we’re more dysfunctional than I thought.
Ever since my dad left my mama ten years ago, Eduardo has taken on this role of “protector.” It pisses me off, and I’m done with letting him get away with it.
I get right in his face and speak in the most menacing tone I can muster. “Back. Off. That completely crossed the line, and we’re done with this.”
“Daniel, I’m just trying to protect you—”
I cut him off. “I didn’t ask you to protect me!” His eyes widen at the volume I’m using, and Geovany and Aaron walk over to us in case fists are thrown. It’s possible they will be. It’s happened before. “I’m not your son, Lalo. I’m a grown man. Who I date and whether or not they screw me over has nothing to do with you.” I back up, still glaring at him, and stand beside Quincy. “I’m embarrassed by all of you tonight,” I say, looking around the room. “Every single one of you owes Quincy an apology. Until she gets it, you won’t be seeing me here again.”
“Daniel,” Mama pleads.
“No, Mama,” I say. “You know this was wrong. I won’t have any of my friends treated like this.”
I take Quincy’s hand and start to pull her out of the room. She tugs me to a stop and turns to face my family.
“Eduardo, can I ask you a question?” His eyes narrow slightly, but he nods. “How much does Daniel make? You know, his salary.” Eduardo doesn’t answer. “Because I don’t know. I’ve never asked. It seems to me you’re more interested in his money than I am.” Her attention shifts to my mother. “Thank you for inviting me. And thank you again for the soup last week.”
We walk out the door, not looking back.
After the nightmare that was meeting Daniel’s family, we went back to my place to watch Netflix and chill. And by that I mean we talked, put the baby down for the night, and had sex.
Lots of sex.
The kind of toe curling, mind-blowing sex romance novels are made of.
And Daniel apologized. A lot.
I’m slightly embarrassed by the whole thing, sure. I was nervous about meeting them and now, knowing what they think of me, I have no desire to see any of them again. But I’m not really mad. Geni has told me all about the “cleat chasers.” Why would his family assume I was anything different?
When I expressed that to Daniel, and told him none of it was a deal-breaker for me, he got the strangest look on his face. Almost a mixture of disbelief and awe. Maybe I’m not freaked out about it enough, but I have more important things to do with my time than worry about what his family thinks. I’m not marrying the guy. We’re just dating.
Actually, I don’t really know what we’re doing, except hanging out. And having awesome sex. We haven’t ever talked about it, so I’m not sure what our status is. But he’s become a good friend, and we enjoy each other’s company. That’s all I really need at this point in my life.
That, and more free tickets to see the Mutiny play, which is why I jumped at the chance when he offered me tickets to today’s game. If this is his way of apologizing, I’ll take it.
“I’m gonna guess that’s the end of dinners with his family?” Geni asks as we trot down the steps to our seats, yard-long margaritas in hand.
“No idea. I assume he doesn’t want to take me to his mother’s house anymore. Are we in the same row as before?” I ask, trying to balance my drink, nachos, and ticket at the same time.
“No, we’re down one more row.” She’s having no problem with the balancing act. “Right here.” We find ourselves sitting next to Tiffany, the groupie. Geni rolls her eyes when she sees her already sitting down, mirror in hand, putting on lip gloss.
“Hey, Tiffany,” I say politely. She glances at me, making no attempt to hide her once-over.
“You’re back,” she says in surprise.
“So are you,” Geni retorts, gazing at the players warming up on the field.
Tiffany leans over me to talk directly to Geni. “Yes, but I’m friends with the team.”
&nbs
p; Geni glares at her. “If by friends with the team, you mean groupie whore, why yes, yes you are.”
“Geni!” I exclaim as Tiffany turns bright red and faces front again. “Stop it!” I whisper in reprimand.
“What?” she whispers back. “If she doesn’t want to be called out, she needs to not be a bitch.”
“She’s not being a bitch. She’s being… she… I don’t know! But don’t feed into it.”
“Whatever.” Geni replies dismissively and takes a long sip of her drink. “Anyway. No more dinners at the Zavaro household then. How is Daniel feeling about the whole thing?”
“He was pretty upset that night,” I say, licking nacho cheese off my finger. “But what’s he going to do about it? I mean, it’s his family. They’re just worried about him.”
“Pfft. They’re worried about you taking advantage of him? You told them you didn’t even know who he was when you met him, right?”
“I told them, but who knows if they believed me.”
“I totally get why they are worried about some gold-digging whore coming along”—she leans over and glares at Tiffany as she voices the insult without losing her train of thought—“and tricking him into marriage or something, but honestly, Quin, I’m more worried about you getting hurt than him.”
I look at her quizzically. “Me? Why? We’re not betrothed or anything.”
“Honey, I love you,” Geni says, putting an arm around my shoulders, “But look around this section of the stadium. You see all these beautiful women?”
I’ve never noticed there are quite a few beautiful, well-built, twenty-something women sitting in the stands. The ratio of hot to not is different over here, and it makes sense; this section is reserved for the people who get comp tickets from the players.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this,” Tiffany butts in, “but she’s right. I know these guys pretty well. I can count on one hand how many of them are faithful to their women.” I have a sinking feeling in my stomach. I wouldn’t say it’s a feeling of dread, but it certainly makes me think twice about the fact that Daniel and I have never discussed what our relationship is.