In Between Men

by Mary Castillo

  “But I could—”

  “Find her another one,” Patty suggested, pointing to Alex’s photo. “This one ain’t nowhere near falling in love.”

  Oh, maybe it was her pride that made Susan refuse to give up. Or maybe it was her instinct. She knew when Tamara first brought Will home that something was there, and she knew the same thing when she saw Isa and Alex together. They were like two ends of a ribbon that had been waiting to be tied together.

  Or, it could be fear that kept her from giving up on them. What if Isa put her whole life into Andrew and when he grew up and left, she would have nothing? She would be left behind. Now that both Tamara and Memo were gone, Susan often woke up feeling the very same way.

  “You just wait and see,” Susan vowed to her comadres. “I’ll bet money Isa and Alex will fall in love before November.”

  “You’re on m’ija,” Patty accepted, while Josie rolled her eyes and begged for divine intervention.

  Divine intervention, heh. Susan didn’t have time. Then again, the wheels had already been set into motion.

  18

  “You’ve been pretty quiet,” Isa prodded Andrew when they passed the cereal aisle and he hadn’t begged for Fruity Pebbles or Cocoa Crispies. “Is it because I couldn’t come to practice?”

  “No.”

  Man, she was leaving on the guilt train, especially since she enjoyed eating a frozen Snickers bar alongside June while they watched the football team go through their stretches. She felt bad and a little sneaky checking out jail bait, but it had been fun.

  “So what’s on your mind?” she persisted.

  “You’re not going to like it.”

  “All right. But why don’t you try me?”

  “I really want to go see Dad on his radio show.”

  She stopped the cart. “You understand why I don’t want you to go, right?”

  “Yeah but—” Andrew wilted under her gentle tone. “What if he asks me again?”

  “You tell him that you’re in school and I said no. Why? Did he say something?”

  Andrew shut down. She needed a distraction, something to occupy his mind so that when she questioned him, he’d open up. Unfortunately he’d grown out of coloring books and he only read a book when he had to.

  “Well, if he does say something—Andrew?” He looked up briefly and then went back to running his fingers over the bars of the shopping cart. “Tell your dad to call me.” Even though the coward never would. “I’ll explain why.”

  And then her guilty conscience got the best of her. “But do you really want to go?”

  He nodded his head and then jerked his shoulders up. Not much of an answer, but it told her a lot about what she and Carlos were doing. Even though she swore she wouldn’t, she was playing tug of war. But it wasn’t out of pettiness or spite. Taking Andrew to this radio thing was wrong. What Carlos was doing was dead wrong and she didn’t want her son to have any part in it.

  “I’m sorry, honey, but your dad is on a radio show for adults,” she struggled to explain. “They don’t let kids listen to that show.”

  She had no idea if she was getting through to him. She wondered how Susan did it. All it took was one of her looks and Tamara, Memo, and Isa cracked open like nuts.

  She and Andrew finished shopping and then loaded up the car. He regained some of his little boy exuberance but not all of it. Isa hated it when he had that look of an old man on his face. She was just about to offer some cookies for dessert when she realized her front door stood open.

  “Now don’t panic,” Susan stated, appearing in the doorway. Holding both hands out, she said the words that never failed to inspire panic, “Everything will be all right.”

  It took a moment for Isa to realize it wasn’t a vision, but that Susan really was standing in her doorway.

  “Why?” Andrew asked.

  “M’ijo, stay out of the kitchen.”

  Isa’s scalp tingled. “Susan, what are you doing here?” She took a step, but Susan wouldn’t let her in.

  “I need you to promise me you won’t panic. Everything is under control.”

  Since when did Isa ever panic? She peered over Susan’s shoulder. This was her house and she didn’t like being blocked from entering, especially if something was wrong. She walked up, forcing Susan back into the tiny foyer. “Will you please tell me what’s—”

  The grocery bags slipped and sank into the water-logged carpet. With a panicked look around her living room, Isa saw that water glistened off the carpet. “What happened?”

  “We got here not even five minutes ago. Your neighbor called because she heard water and she couldn’t get through to your cell phone and—”

  “How did she have your number?”

  “Well I might’ve given it to her when we helped you move in. Just in case.”

  “Guess we’re going to have to order pizza tonight, huh?” Andrew said, not doing a very good job of pretending disappointment.

  “Sorry, honey. We have to save our house.”

  He dumped his bag on the porch. “My room!” His tennis shoes made sucking sounds all the way down the hall.

  “How bad is it?” Isa turned to Susan.

  “John and Alex stopped it but—”

  “Alex?”

  “Well yes, honey. John can only fix cars and he’s too old to be crawling around with those pipes.”

  “I heard that,” John called from the kitchen.

  “Now go in there,” Susan urged. “And wait—” She dug into her pocket. “Where is your lipstick?”

  Florida wasn’t far enough away. Isa would have to move farther up north like Vermont, where it was too expensive to fly.

  Seeing she had no choice, Isa sent a quick prayer for patience while Susan fussed over the same blouse Joan had criticized earlier today. “I don’t know why she wears this old thing,” she muttered in Spanish while following Isa into the kitchen.

  Isa doubted anyone gave her neighbor Alex’s number or that he’d been waiting on the stoop in case a pipe exploded in her kitchen. Oh no, she smelled a setup brilliantly cloaked in circumstance and crisis.

  She felt a gentle shove between her shoulder blades, pushing her into the kitchen. And there he was, lying on her floor, his shirt tucked tightly into his shorts, one knee bent and cursing at something under the sink.

  She turned to Susan, who beamed with hope.

  “Looks like your pipe busted,” John commented, rolling his eyes at his wife. “Made a real good mess.”

  “Not much left of it,” Alex said from under the sink. “They’ve gotta be—damn—fifty years old.”

  “Do you know what happened?” Isa asked bravely. “By the way, thanks for coming over.”

  Alex squeezed his way out, sitting up with his elbows resting lazily on his knees. She nearly sighed.

  “We have to stop meeting this way,” he joked uneasily. “But you’ve got a serious problem.”

  “Really? How serious, Alex?” Susan asked. Isa could almost hear her thinking: serious enough to be at Isa’s house every night after work and soccer practice?

  “Everything needs to be replaced.”

  Isa thanked God she didn’t own the place. But then what did that mean? Would they have to move? This was the cheapest place she could find in a relatively good neighborhood not far from her and Andrew’s schools.

  “Hey, Alex!” Andrew said excitedly, pushing his way past Isa and Susan. “What are you doing here?”

  “Fixing stuff,” Alex said.

  “Can I help? Can I see under the sink?”

  “Andrew, is your room okay?” Isa asked.

  “Yeah, but the hallway is flooded.” Andrew fell to his knees, scrambling to look under the sink.

  “Don’t touch anything,” she warned.

  “I won’t.” Which meant he’d probably been about to touch something.

  “I’m going to the shop to get a dry vac and a couple of fans,” John said, pushing himself off the counter. He hadn’t even reach
ed for his Big Gulp when Susan intervened.

  “I think Isa and Alex should go get them.”

  “But—”

  No, but, and I think were not words you used with Susan. “Alex has his truck,” she argued. “Isa will know how many fans she can fit into the house.”

  But as her husband, John didn’t give up. “We have my truck and it’s my shop.”

  He was going to get it when they got home, Isa thought sadly.

  “How about if I go with John?” Alex volunteered, getting up to his feet.

  “Can I go too?” Andrew said, thumping his head against the counter.

  Isa instinctively reached for her son, but Alex’s large hand rested on Andrew’s head, checking him closely. “Whoa, there, little man. You okay?”

  “Fine.”

  She tensed at the way Alex handled her son. Andrew was fighting back his tears, not wanting to lose face in front of the man he adored. And then Alex was just making it worse by being so nice to him. Everything crowded in on her, one voice shouting at her to get Alex out of their lives now before Andrew got too clingy, while the other one whispered to her about making him stay.

  “Be careful there,” Alex said, glancing up to look at her. “If you’re going to be around tools and stuff, you have to know where you’re going.”

  Susan sprang into action. “Do you need some ice?” she hustled to the refrigerator. “Isa, don’t you have any ice?”

  “No.”

  Susan pulled open the refrigerator door and sighed.

  “But I have an ice pack somewhere…” Isa heard herself explaining.

  “No worries. You men go get the equipment and Isa and I will put away the groceries and then get started cleaning.” She glared at John, daring him to even think of defying her.

  He sighed from the depths of his soul and laid a heavy hand on Isa’s shoulder. “What can you do when God has spoken?”

  19

  ISA’S HOROSCOPE FOR SEPTEMBER 25

  A historic alignment occurs this week. Antagonistic influences are cleansing and clearing parts of your life and in the end, you will never be the same again.

  Isa’s only consolation was that this night would eventually end.

  As soon as they returned with the fans and the dry vacuum, Susan whisked John and Andrew away to pick up pizza, leaving Isa alone with Alex in the apartment. Subtlety was not a key part of Susan’s strategy.

  And then there was everything Isa had said to Alex the other night. Mortified, she stopped scrubbing at the bathroom floor.

  She and Andrew had been fine. No, actually better than fine. They’d been great. She’d never asked for, much less wanted, a guy. Now, she was literally being shoved at him. Couldn’t a woman be left single in peace, or was there some unwritten universal law that you had to be a nun or taking care of your invalid parents to be left alone?

  “You okay in here?” Alex asked, poking his head into her dinky bathroom.

  She took in a deep breath. “Great.”

  He swung his hand up towards the pedestal sink. “Can I check that?”

  She lowered her butt onto her heels, resigned to (a) looking like crap in front of him and (b) having to face him always with the slither of embarrassment from the stupid thing she had either said or done the last time they met.

  At least Joan hadn’t shown up.

  “Oh, sure.” Isa pushed herself up to stand so close to the tub that it pressed cold against her calves.

  He gave her an awkward smile as he eased down, his heavy tool belt sagging low on his hips. But then he didn’t stop looking at her. She was about to say something when he asked, “Do you know someone who drives a blue Beetle?”

  She frowned. “No.” But that seemed very familiar.

  “When I was setting up the field at practice, this woman took a picture of me and Andrew and then jumped in a blue Beetle. I thought you might know who she was.”

  Isa’s eyes drifted shut and her eyeballs rolled back in her head. Now she knew exactly who he was talking about.

  “No, that doesn’t sound familiar,” she chirped, planning to kill Susan and her gang of bumbling fairy godmothers. “But thanks for telling me.”

  “I told Andrew to stay close to the field just in case it was uh, I don’t know, some weirdo.”

  Alex had no idea how weird those women were. And strangely, she trusted everything but her love life with all of them. “Thanks. And for checking my pipes and everything,” she said, feeling the telltale color give her away.

  “It was Susan, huh?”

  “Her friend.”

  He laughed a gentle, tumbling laugh that made her feel like they were both in on an inside joke. “I’m no expert on this stuff but—” he groaned as he peered under the sink. “You’re welcome.”

  “But you build houses and stuff, right?”

  “I built big office buildings and stuff.” He sat back from the sink. “I might have to take this whole thing apart.”

  The frustration of her own apartment betraying her made her sigh with defeat.

  “I can put it back together,” he said.

  “I know it’s just I—” Suddenly it was like she just saw something that had been staring at her this whole time. “Where do you work? You said built. Past tense.”

  He was quiet for a moment and she spoke to fill in the space. “Can you tell I’m a teacher? I drove my friend Tamara crazy when I proofread her thesis an—”

  “I’m in between jobs right now.”

  The way he said it wasn’t good but she didn’t want to embarrass him. “Is that a good or bad thing?”

  He grimaced as he twisted something with whatever tool he had in his hand. “Not really,” he groaned and then his hand slipped and the tool clonked on the floor. “Sorry,” he apologized, holding his thumb.

  Isa had embarrassed him and it made her lock up. But then she crouched down and reached for the first-aid kit at the bottom of the shelf and ended up wedged between him and the shelf. “Sorry, I should—”

  “No, let me just—”

  “Go see if Susan is—”

  “—move this way and—”

  They both stopped. “You go first,” he said.

  “No, you.”

  “Wait.” He held her by the waist and her resolve not to do something stupid with him melted and flowed down into a puddle on the floor. They stared at each other until he said, “I was laid off a few weeks ago. I’d appreciate it if you kept that between us.”

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t know. June never said anything.”

  “She and my dad don’t know.”

  “June would want to help out. She makes a good salary.”

  “She and Ted are saving to buy a house. I don’t want him worrying about us while he’s out there. And I don’t want her to use their savings in case, I uh…”

  “In case you don’t get a new job?” Isa offered.

  His gaze plopped to the floor. “Exactly.”

  “Why don’t you put in a bid for the complex? Mrs. Lee needs some work in her apartment and the plumbing is probably bad in all the units. Maybe you could go into business yourself.”

  “Plumbing isn’t my specialty.”

  “But you could contract it out.”

  He still hadn’t let her go. “From the upkeep, no offense, but I can guess the landlord won’t be willing to pay the kind of money necessary to renovate this place.”

  “You never know.” Impulsively she hugged him and he patted her shoulders as if not wanting to get too close. And then she nuzzled his shoulder. Stupid thing to do, especially after the last time he’d been in her house, but it was like her body just took over and did what it wanted.

  His arms closed in around her, fingers splaying over her back.

  “Can I ask you an honest question?” he asked.

  She nodded, bracing herself.

  “That night when you told me about Andrew, was it because of him or, uh, do you really not like it when I touch you?”

&nbs
p; “Yes,” she whispered. “I mean no, I—I like it when you…”

  “Me too. I can never seem to—”

  “We’re back!” Andrew shouted.

  Isa sprang away from him, nearly thumping her head against the shelf behind her. Alex caught her by the arms.

  “Tía Susan let me play some games and—” Andrew’s tennis shoes squeaked to a halt on the tile.

  Isa could just imagine what Andrew and Susan were thinking as Alex held her up off the floor.

  Andrew’s lips pulled down into a mulish line. “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing.” Isa reluctantly let Alex go. “I was just thanking Alex for helping us.”

  “Were you kissing?” he accused.

  “M’ijo!” Susan admonished, barely containing her glee.

  “No man, I was just hugging your mom.” Alex exchanged an apologetic glance with Isa. “We’re friends.”

  Her son’s frown refused to budge and if she wasn’t absolutely mortified, she’d be proud of his protectiveness.

  “Pizza’s outside,” Andrew mumbled, turning to walk out of the bathroom.

  “We’ll see you in a moment,” Susan trilled in an annoying falsetto, throwing in a little finger wave to convince Isa that even Vermont was still not far enough away.

  Alex caught her hand. “If you want I can cut out.”

  She took a deep breath and squeezed his hand back. “Stay. I’ll talk to Andrew in a minute.”

  “I can’t say you didn’t warn me,” he said ironically.

  Isa didn’t know what to say, so she got up and found her son in the kitchen.

  “Andrew, what’s up?”

  “Nothing.”

  “You’ve seen me hug Tío John and Memo before, right?”

  He didn’t even nod, but she could tell he listened.

  “I’ve hugged lots of men and I—” Oh, that didn’t sound right. But she kept going. “It was out of friendship. Alex spent his evening helping us with the house and that’s all it was. You have nothing to be afraid or upset about.”

  “But Dad’s always hugging his girlfriends.”