by Pinki Parks
The homeless man lifted the cup out of his hands and said, “Thanks, man. Que Dios te bendiga.”
“De nada.” Tristan took off down the street, the wait at the stoplight was over faster than usual. He breezed down the street just as a group of men in long, black coats stepped out of Lawrence Realty. He kept his eyes to the ground as he stepped inside, and the receptionist’s head popped up from the front desk.
“Can I help you?”
Tristan held up his coffee cup and said, “Yes, I’m looking for Ava-”
“Third floor,” the receptionist’s eyes considered him carefully, “You might want to find out if she’s all done with meetings from Valeria.”
He nodded and walked up the massive staircase in front of him. He’d stood outside of this office so many times but hadn’t bothered to go inside. It was an architectural masterpiece. The ceiling reminded him of the museums that Sophia had shown him photos of before. The dome-like ceiling collected a wall of snow in some parts, moisture and melted snowflakes rested against the glass in others. The floors were linoleum, and he could see himself settling into eat off of them or better yet, eat Ava on them. His eyes swept over the lounge area that was just a few feet away from the granite countertops of the receptionist’s desk. A couple of wine colored couches sat on a snow-white rug. A ritzy looking glass coffee table sat in the middle of it all, the tabletop looked as if no one had laid hands on it since they first brought it in. Tristan whistle through his teeth as he jogged up the steps as he came to the top and spotted the assistant that the receptionist must have been talking about.
A tall, skinny girl with auburn hair was hunched over her desk. She gripped a pen with a white knuckled grip as she leaned over the papers on her desk.
Tristan cleared his throat and said, “Valeria?”
Her head snapped up and her wide eyes receded into her head upon seeing him. She shifted her weight to one leg and asked, “What can I do for you?”
“I’m here to see Ava.” Tristan held up the coffee cup in his hand.
Valeria’s voice took on a robotic tone as she said, “Ava has been in meetings all day, do you have an appointment?”
Tristan opened his mouth to reply but Valeria sniffed the air. She walked around her desk and jerked her finger the coffee cup in his hand. “Is that a mocha? Extra strong?”
Tristan nodded and Valeria tossed her hands into the air, “You didn’t say that you know Ava personally!”
Valeria walked around her desk and towards the door behind her. She pushed the door open and said, “Someone is here for you.”
She could faintly hear Ava say, “Who?”
Valeria shrugged, “Some guy that knows your coffee order.”
There was a loud clunk, like metal had just slammed into wood. Ava came bursting out of her office, and Tristan held the coffee out to her. “Hey, I figured that you needed a break.”
Ava wore an insane grin as she lifted the cup out of his hands, he moved to plant a kiss on her cheek and she ducked and slipped her arm around his shoulders. “Thanks so much for stopping by.”
Her voice was curt, and she hurried towards the staircase. “Shit,” she mumbled, when Valeria called out to her.
“Who’s your friend? Aren’t you going to introduce me to him?” Valeria grinned and leaned against her desk. Her fingers tapped against the wood and Ava said, “This is Tristan.”
Tristan grinned and extended his hand to Valeria. “Hi, I’m-”
“A good friend of mine.” Ava sent a sharp glance his way and said, “Valeria, I’m going to see Tristan out. Don’t forward my calls.”
Valeria nodded and dutifully returned to her work, Tristan followed Ava down the stairs with balled fists. He leaned forward and whispered furiously, “What the hell was that?”
Ava looked at him the way that she would look at someone else his age for the first time. She narrowed her eyes and said, “I just sealed one of the biggest deals of my career- shopping centers across the entire country- and you just came in and put all of my personal life on display.”
Tristan gripped the metal railing and stopped in place. He scoffed and said, “I put all of your personal life on display? Are you kidding me, Ava? Since when are you ashamed to be seen with me in public?”
Ava’s eyes were pleading as she whispered back, “That’s not what I meant. You surprised me. You could have texted me. I’m in the middle of work and… to be honest…I’m not sure I am ready share you with colleagues.”
“What does it matter? Are you ashamed of me?” Tristan asked. He swallowed his anger as an intern hustled up the stairs beside him, Ava nodded at him and waited until he got to the top of the stairs before she resumed speaking. “This is a very old-fashioned group, people could start-”
Tristan held up his hand and said, “I can’t believe you. You made me think that you were taking me seriously this time and-”
“I am,” she hissed. “Don’t let your age fool you into thinking that I’m not, don’t jump to conclusions.” Ava pointed towards the double doors on the first floor. “Look, we can go grab some lunch and I can go over all of this-”
“No, I’m alright, Ava.” Tristan said, he pointed at the coffee cup that loosely dangled from her fingertips. “I’m going. I’ve got other places to be.”
Ava groaned and grabbed his arm to pull him back.
“I’m not ashamed. I am the boss here. It’s not the same as being one of the workers introducing her boyfriend to everyone at the Christmas party. There are certain things that come with being the boss that you just have to let me be the judge. This is my call, not yours. Can you respect that?”
“I suppose.” Tristan bit out, he hurried down the steps and ignored the perky goodbye of the receptionist at the front desk.
***
If there is a God, he’ll make it so that Mom won’t have any questions about my life that I can’t handle tonight. In the past, Sunday dinners had always been especially hard to sit through when something was on his mind. Anna would smell his discomfort like a stray dog smelled meat. His father would have worry written all over his face but refuse to ask any prying questions out of fear that he might push Tristan away.
Tristan stared at the door of the first floor from where he stood on the sidewalk. His hands were buried in his pockets, his cheeks were cherry red from the cold, and like always, Justine was on her porch going through another drama.
Justine held her phone away from her and shouted, “Hey, Tristan! How have you been?”
He held up his hand in a wave and said, “I’m alright, Justine. How’s it going?”
She shrugged and said, “My girlfriend is freaking out over some bum. I already dated him, and I told her that he was a bum.”
Tristan chuckled and waved as he decided to move up the steps. It had been three days since his fight with Ava, maybe his irritation wasn’t as obvious as it had been on that day. He remembered the way that Sophia had looked him with a mixture of fright and concern when she walked past his desk when he went to work that day. Ava had been sending him half-assed apologies through text since he left her office.
She can’t even come see me to apologize. Tristan pulled himself out of his thoughts and moved up the steps, he stopped at his parent’s door and knocked, but the door fell open. The smell of marinara clung to the air, and his father was slouched in front of the television. Mateo raised his head to the door and said, “Tristan? What the hell? You use your key?”
Tristan shook his head, “No, it was open.”
Mateo pushed himself off of the couch and straightened his sweater. “Shit. Anna, you left the door open again, where is your head?!”
Anna had yet to find a job despite having had several interviews, she confided in Tristan that she was considering a move to New Jersey if things didn’t get better, but she was afraid to tell Mateo since he loved the city.
Tristan stepped into the kitchen, Anna’s hair was in a long brai
d that spilled down her back. He slipped his coat off and hung it on the back of his chair, “Mom?”
Anna whipped her head around and said, “How dare you, Tristan!”
His hand flew to his chest as he searched his brain for something offensive he could have done between now and when he walked in. “What?! What did I do?”
Anna sighed and said, “You didn’t tell me that you’d broken up with Hailey or that you were dating. And an older woman at that?!”
Tristan’s eyes widened, and he collapsed into a chair. “How do you know about Ava?!”
Anna shook the wooden spoon that she held at him and said, “I know everything. Don’t try to hide things from me. Emily’s mother goes to my pottery class- did I tell you that I’m taking a pottery class?”
Tristan sighed and said, “Mom. One thing at a time. Emily’s mom? She took a pottery class? She’s loaded-”
Anna shrugged and resumed stirring her sauce. “I suppose she’s looking for a way to keep busy. You know the rich need a million hobbies so that they don’t have to spend any time spending guilty.”
Tristan chuckled. I wonder if I’m Ava’s way of keeping busy when she’s not making her billions. Anna moved over to the sink and stuck her hands underneath the faucet. “I don’t know a lot about this lady, but I’m wondering what’s she doing with a twenty-year old when men are probably falling all over themselves to date her.”
Tristan shook his head and said, “I don’t want to talk about this, Mom.”
“You never want to talk about anything with me- you’ve gotten so closed off since you left for college-”
“Anna!” Mateo barked, he stomped into the kitchen and said, “Leave the boy alone. He can date whoever he wants, who knows, maybe this woman will give him a job.”
“I doubt that,” Tristan mumbled.
Anna whipped her head around and narrowed her eyes into thin slits, “Mateo, he doesn’t know what he’s getting into. She’s going to milk him for what he’s worth physically and run off with the older guy that she actually wants to marry. Not to mention, is she going to give us grandchildren?”
Tristan stood up so fast that chair toppled for a moment before it fell against the floor. He moved to the bathroom down the hall and shut the door behind him. Mateo and Anna’s raised voices flowed underneath the bathroom door but Tristan tuned them out. He plopped onto the toilet seat and mumbled, “Why do I even show up every Sunday? I should just let them drive each other nuts.”
His phone vibrated with another notification and he sighed. What now, Ava? He withdrew his phone from his pocket, and he didn’t have any new text messages. All of them were read, but there was a new notification in his emails.
His heart fell into his stomach as he read the subject line of the email: Re: Summer Internship. He’d applied to a job out of the state a few months ago, and he thought that they passed on him, or weren’t going to get back to him for months. He pressed his thumb against the letter and scanned the contents:
Dear Tristan Marquez,
I appreciated the thoughts that you expressed in your essay, and I do think that you’d make a wonderful addition to our summer internship team in D.C. I feel that you’d be able to grow with some of our other students, and we’d be happy to write you a glowing letter of recommendation when everything is said and done.
I look forward to connecting with you,
Professor Greene
Tristan launched himself off of the toilet and slid his phone into his back pocket. Anna and Mateo’s bickering had gone from a high-pitched whine to a dull roar, he could faintly make out Anna’s last dig, “Some of us need to be more involved, Mateo. You can’t just sit back and let everything happen to this family.”
Tristan shook his head and wrapped his fingers around the doorknob, the wood creaked underneath him as he stepped into the hall, and Mateo could be heard from the living room, “Shh. He’s back.”
Tristan took slow steps into the kitchen and reclaimed his seat at the kitchen table. Anna exchanged a nervous glance with Mateo before she set a steaming bowl of sausage and marinara in front of Tristan. Tristan kept his eyes glued to his plate as he flexed his fingers. Anna slipped into the seat beside him and said, “Tristan? Honey? Everything okay?”
Mateo cleared his throat as he lumbered over to the table. He eased into the seat on the other side of Tristan, the aged wood of the chair creaked underneath him. “We didn’t mean to upset you,” he sent an aggravated glance in Anna’s direction, “You’re an adult, you’re going to date whoever you like.”
Tristan grinned and said, “I know. I’m not upset, guys. Can we just eat?”
Anna’s fingers hovered over her fork and knife before she picked them up. “Sure, honey.”
Tristan breathed a sigh of relief as he focused his attention on his plate. D.C.?
Chapter 21
Tristan rolled over on his mattress, he slung one of his long arms off of the side of the bed. His skin was sticky, and hot. The cheap heater in his apartment was never able to find a happy medium, it either heated the room until he was walking around the apartment in his boxers while it was below zero degrees outside or it rattled against the wall all night while Tristan wrapped himself in two layers of blankets.
He flicked his tongue along his lips and reached towards the floor, his phone had been lying there since the day before. After Sunday dinner, he’d come home, pulled his jeans off and collapsed in bed. His phone had clattered to the floor, and he’d been too preoccupied with Professor Green’s email to bother with picking it up.
He heaved a heavy sigh as he scrolled through the menu on his phone screen, his fingers hovered above the email client before he tapped it. Tristan pulled himself into a sitting position and scanned the lines that Professor Greene had sent. A few months ago, his first thought would have been how to break the news to his parents so that they didn't lose it. Well, so that Anna didn’t lose it. Now, Ava’s face flashed through his mind, and gave him pause when he considered typing an enthusiastic response to Professor Greene’s letter.
It had been almost six months ago when he’d applied for this internship program, and he’d tucked away it in the back of his mind as another rejection. It wasn’t as if he wasn’t used to getting rejected from paid opportunities, Mateo constantly reassured him that it was a rite of passage. However, he’d been planning to stay in the city for the summer, and for the foreseeable future due to recent… developments.
Would Ava do the same for you? Tristan scoffed, she couldn’t even be bothered with introducing him as her boyfriend, much less giving up an opportunity for him. Besides, isn’t that how she’d gotten so far? She didn’t let anyone or anything get in the way on her way to the top, and the move seemed like one that she’d respect. Maybe it’d even be a big enough move so that she takes me seriously. Tristan swung his legs over the side of the bed and turned his head towards the window. The sun was starting to peek out over the tall apartment buildings across the street, he could smell the first round of freshly baked bread from the bodega next door to his apartment.
A cup of coffee always puts things into perspective. Tristan moved over to his dresser and pulled a pair of jeans and a dark sweater out of it. The mulberry and black sweater had been one of Ava’s recent gifts, she said that she loved the way that dark fabric looked against his skin. Tristan rolled his eyes and pulled the sweater over his head and stuffed his feet inside of his shoes. He snagged his coat off of the coach and headed out the door.
The building wasn’t particularly active to start with, he was confident that a girl that went to the University with him lived in one of the apartments on the first floor with her sister. However, every creak of the steps and every whine of the wind as it slid through the old structure of the building felt deafening. Why does it feel like I’m the only one here? Tristan jogged down the steps and hurried towards the main door. Once he stepped outside, the wind whipped against his skin. He walked along the
sidewalk, there was a small coffee shop just a couple of blocks away, and while it was no Keller's, it had always made due when he needed it.
He spent most of the walk from the apartment to the coffee shop absorbed in his thoughts. It wasn’t long before the faded tangerine color sign that read, Luisa’s Cafe! Tristan stepped in line behind a girl with a long curtain of dark hair, she smelled faintly of the expensive perfume that Anna treated herself to a few times a year. She turned her head just slightly when Tristan’s gaze lingered a moment too long, and she flashed her perfect smile at him.
Her eyes were chocolate brown, and her skin was the smooth olive color that reminded him of the women at the Spanish bakery near his parent’s apartment. Tristan chuckled. Dad is somewhere losing his mind that I’m not trying to hit on this young, beautiful, Spanish girl.
The line moved forward and the girl stepped to the side as Tristan placed his order, “I’ll take a mocha, extra strong.” He fished in his pocket and withdrew a wad of bills. He tossed them into the glass jar that sat on the counter and the woman that wrote plugged his order into the register said, “Gracias.”
“De nada.” Tristan stepped to the side and fell in line behind the Spanish girl. She narrowed her eyes and turned towards him. She fixed her lips into a smile and asked, “Do I know you from somewhere?”
Tristan blinked and said, “No, I don’t think so.”
She grabbed her coffee from the barista and said, “I think I’ve seen you somewhere before. Do you go to Keller’s sometimes? Aren’t you there with an older lady every so often?”
Irritation ebbed at the corner of Tristan’s mind as he said, “What about it?”
Sensing his irritation, the girl’s eyes opened wide as she said, “Oh, nothing. I guess I was just wondering if- well, I’m just going to go for it. I just wanted to know if you guys were together.”