“Auntie it’s him.”
“Wait, what, him?”
“Yeah, I have to go I’ll call you back.”
“When? Yely make sure you call-”
I clicked over. “This is Nayely.”
“Hi Nayely this is Raymond.”
“Hi.” This conversation was already dry and awkward. ‘Why did I pick up?’ I thought.
“I wanted to call and let you know that I will be in New York on Friday.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“I- uh, booked a flight for Friday I’ll be there Friday night, I was hoping that we could meet Saturday. I’m sorry, is this not good for you?”
“Um, yeah, sure.”
“Are you sure? Really if it’s not convenient let me know, I don't want to interrupt your life.”
“No, no, honestly it’s OK, I actually feel like I’m the one barging into your life. Am I pulling you away from any family or work obligations?”
“I’m retired, single, and have only one daughter.”
“Me?”
“You.” He chuckled in his deep voice into the phone and it felt comforting in my ear. “I guess that's why I am so happy to hear from you and so excited to get there and meet you.”
“So, did you know about me, or not?”
There was a pause.
“That's why I want to come and meet you as well. Just like you feel there are some things that we should speak about in person, there are also things that I think would be better discussed in person."
“I get it.”
“Good.”
“Another thing that I think we should do when you get here, before we get too deep into, you know, getting to know each other, Take a DNA test.” I waited to see if he would have any objection but he said nothing. “I really think I'm talking to the right guy. But some things are throwing me off and it's always best to be sure. I'm sure you don't mind.”
“No, I don't.” He sounded relaxed on the phone as if he were just talking to an old friend. “You sound just like you mother, has any of her family ever told you that.”
“No. Just you. Twice.”
“Your Aunt never told you that?”
“You know my Aunt?”
“Only what your mother told me about her, and according to her they were really close. I wonder if you look like your mother.”
“No. I've seen pictures of her, I look nothing like her. I've always assumed I looked like whoever my father is.”
“I'm sure you have some of her features.”
“My Auntie always said I had really thick hair like her.”
“Your mother did have really thick, beautiful hair.”
"Well, I'm really glad you’re coming into town. How long can you stay?”
“As long as possible.”
“I guess I'll see you Saturday, just give me a call, I'm normally free on Saturdays if I'm not studying and my statistics exam is on Friday and I'm not studying all weekend to celebrate.”
“You're in college?”
“Graduate school, yes.”
“Your major?”
“Engineering.”
“That's amazing.”
“I guess.”
“It really is, if that's what you love and are passionate about then it's amazing that you are following your dream. That's what I did, turned my dream into my day job. Now I'm retired early.”
“I'm not sure if it's my dream but it was the only major that my Aunt approved of that I actually felt like I could tolerate. My fiancé is an engineer as well, he didn't even go to graduate school and already has a job at a really big firm.”
“Fiancé?” His tone was interesting as if he was surprised but also a little upset.
“Oh, I should have mentioned that. I would have eventually, that was one of those things I thought could wait until we met in person. Now I feel like I've said too much.”
“No worries, I think that's tame enough for a phone conversation. Well, congratulations, I can't believe I almost missed another huge milestone in your life.”
Just as I was going to reply, another call beeped in. I glanced at the phone and it was Omar.
"Speaking of my fiancé, he’s calling me right now.”
“I'll let you go, Maybe I'll talk to you tomorrow.”
“Yeah, hopefully.”
I clicked over.
“Hey baby.” Omar’s voice sounded upbeat and expectant and the first thing I thought was, he knew.
“Hey baby, have you talked to my aunt lately?”
“Yup,” he admitted without shame, “So how did it go? When is he coming?”
“It went fine. I found out he is retired, no wife, no kids, and will be in town on Friday night. He wants to meet on Saturday.”
“That's great baby, you did it.”
“Yeah, I did.”
“I mean, you haven’t completed the mission as of yet, we still have some work to do but I'm sure you'll be fine. You’re his only daughter, I'm sure he will be smitten with you and do anything you ask. It seems like you were always meant to be a spoiled little Daddy's girl.”
“I told him I was engaged, and he seemed, put off, taken aback, you know, no major reaction, but I could tell there was a slight shock and recoil when I told him.”
“Well, I mean, again you are his one and only daughter or child period. He probably feels like you just came back into his life and now he is losing you to some random guy. I'm sure you considered that that could be an outcome of this whole thing.”
“I have considered so much that eventually I just stop considering and decided to let whatever happens, happen.”
“Well it's happening sweetheart, there will be hills and valleys in this journey, try to enjoy all of it, OK?”
“I promise.”
“You did tell him what a great guy I was, right?” He said in a funny corny voice.
“Of course I did baby.”
“Everything should be all good then.”
“He did say he would've hated to miss my wedding, his exact words were that he 'couldn't believe he almost missed it’.”
“That’s a good sign.”
“It is, but he is only suggesting that he would want to attend the wedding, not that he will walk me down the aisle.”
“Baby steps, baby, baby steps.”
Chapter 4
I knew where Mya would be today, it was Thursday and she normally spent the entire weekend at the dance studio she had been working at since she first moved to NY. I stopped by the vegan Mexican restaurant and picked up two orders of Creamy Green Enchiladas. This was our routine, on Wednesdays I would sneak out of work early, it's not like anyone ever noticed I was gone, I was usually finished with most of my task by the hour before lunch. After lunch usually consisted of online shopping, looking at texts from my aunt about the wedding, and catching up on office gossip. I texted my boss to let him know I was going home early. I think I blamed it on an earache this time. I lost track of my excuses. I never wanted to be there in the first place. I would prefer going to the dance studio and watching Mya do what she loved. I pulled up outside the studio with its pretty red brick outlining the glass front walls and doors that invited you to watch the graceful dancers in their natural habitat. Only after I spent about fifteen minutes trying to find parking, I realized that I was a little earlier than I usually was and Mya’s class wouldn't be over for another fifteen or twenty minutes. I had gotten a pretty good spot right in front of one of the big glass windows that allowed you to see inside and decided to sit and watch from my car like all the moms who were too antisocial to actually go inside.
Mya was teaching her regular class of little girls classic ballet. The little girls in the class were mostly Caucasian, there were a few middle eastern girls and a couple Asians, but only one Hispanic girl and no little black girls what so ever. It was the same way for Mya when she was growing up, there were never any nice dance studios in her area and if there were they only taught hip hop dance. Never the
things she would need to compete in a real professional dance environment.
Mya’s mom decided to sign her up in a dance studio about an hour outside of her neighborhood, and that's when we meet. We were only 5 years old and we became best friends, we both loved to dance and that's all we needed to form a bond. Mya's mom and my aunt became close as well and my aunt gave Mya's mom a recommendation for her to attend my private school. Mya won the scholarship. We went to school, and dance class, together ever since. As I got older though, my aunt started pushing me more toward the sciences and that's how my fiancé and I got closer. Around ninth grade we were in a lot of the same science and mathematics classes and clubs. We both knew we liked each other but he knew I couldn’t have a boyfriend until I was sixteen. I was fourteen when he asked me thefirst time, he asked again when I was fifteen, and then again on my sixteenth birthday. When I saw the beautiful diamond heart necklace I told him yes without getting my aunt’s approval. When she found out about it she told me that if she had known it was Omar that was trying to date me she would have said yes long ago. My aunt had always thought Omar was a good guy. She knew he had a good father in his life, a role model who was teaching him what being a man meant. Looking back, I think my aunt had a crush on Omar’s dad. On our first few dates she insisted we have a chaperone, yet she would always claim to be too busy so Omar’s dad would agree to do it and then she would realize that she was free and could join us at the at the last moment. My auntie was not slick at all. She always told me to hold onto Omar.
I was surprised my aunt was in agreement with us dating, but I could immediately tell that Maya was not so pleased. Going on dates with Omar cut into our girl time. I would tell her to come with us, I was so nervous just to hang around Omar in a dating capacity and really preferred if someone was there to make it less awkward. The idea of my best friend coming along was comforting. She didn't feel the same way. Even though we had all been friends for years and all gone out together on several occasions. Because we were officially dating now it was different. I didn't see how but maybe now that I'm older I can. Either way, from that point on I made time for both my best friend, and my boyfriend, and my Aunt Yaya. Ten years later, I was an expert at making time for all of them, and we all had our routines. This was part of Mya’s and my routine. I would come by on Thursdays after her last class, bring her food, and we would go out for drinks and usually she spent the night at my house because she was too drunk to catch the subway and I wasn't going to put her into the back of a cab drunk and alone.
I looked up from my daydreaming to notice that the little girls and their mommies were filing out of the building and packing into their vehicles. I waited until most of them had driven off and saw that Mya was looking right at me as she turned the lights off in the front and started to draw the curtains. I jumped out the car and skipped to the door, she smiled at me as she noticed the big brown paper bag in my arms and opened the door.
“Vegan Mexican?”
I grinned, knowing she couldn’t resist.
She opened the door a little wider and stepped to the side so that I could come in. I pushed through and took two steps inside before handing the bag to her with a smile.
“I'm sorry I'm annoying.” I said with a laugh.
She snatched the bag from me without saying a word. She opened it and began digging through it. I thought she was going to get her food and show me the door. Instead she took out the containers that contained the chips and salsa and handed them back to me.
“I'm sorry too.” She said as I accepted her peace offering. I was still going to share, it was more fun to fight with her about who was being the greediest and eating all the big chips.
We took our food to the middle of the gleaming dance floor and sat on our butts on the warm wood. That's one thing I loved about this place, heated floors, I could fall asleep on these floors in minutes, and I had before.
We dug into our enchiladas without doing much talking. She asked if I had gotten drinks and I had to go back outside to the car to get them. They were watered down with mostly melted ice by now, but still did a good job of washing everything down.
“So,” I said getting ready to have what I hoped wouldn't be, but probably would be, a tough conversation, “I spoke to my father and he will be here on Friday.”
“Wow, that's great.” She said munching mindlessly in her Spanish rice, giving it full attention eye contact and all.
Her words came out dry but I could tell she had attempted to sound somewhat enthusiastic.
Mya never liked to be fake and would always tell you exactly how she felt no matter what. It’s one of the reasons we are still best friends twenty years later and it was one of the reasons I loved her so much. So then why was I trying to change her, why was I upset that she was doing the exact thing that made me love her so much, giving me her honest opinion.
“Mya, I don't want you to feel like you have to say that because of my feelings, I want you to be honest with me.”
“I am being honest with you. This is clearly something that is going to make you happy, if it's going to make you happy it's going to make me happy. So, again, that's great. Are you going to meet him Friday?”
“No, Saturday, and we have to do a DNA test first.”
“What, do you think you found the wrong guy?”
“No, it's just I want to get that last little glimmer of doubt out of the way so I can let my guard down, and have the courage to ask him the favor I need.”
“If you're his daughter, the least he can do is walk you down the aisle on your wedding day if that's what you want. Considering he has missed so many important things in your life. Did you even tell him you were getting married?”
“Yeah, you know he doesn't even know my mom is dead?”
She gave me the craziest look, “Yeah get that DNA test, because you may have the wrong guy. Does he even know who your mom is?”
“Yeah, he even said he loves her.”
The look on her face said that she didn't have anything nice to say so she wasn't going to say anything at all.
“So,” She said, signaling that it was her turn to share some big news. I perked up being that she hadn't really shared anything big with me in the longest time, “I got another job.”
“Yay!” I silent clapped for her with a chip loaded with salsa in my hand. “Did you get a new job or another job?”
“Another job, I'm keeping this one too.”
“Yes girl, get that money. Where?”
That's when she got quiet. I wondered really quickly what kind of job she could've gotten that she wouldn't want to tell me about.
“You’re looking at Shimmer, the newest exotic dancer at Rose Petals.”
“Wow.” I said shaking my head before I could even think that maybe this wasn't the best reaction.
“Wow, what? I thought you said get that money?” She bit on a chip nonchalantly while looking me straight in the eyes.
“Yeah, but Mya, you’re better than that”
“Better than what, a single mother trying to feed her child, a college student trying to pay for classes, or just a little Latina girl trying to pay rent? Which one am I better than? Because the last one is me, so I can't be any better than that.”
“Does your mom know?” I knew immediately that I had gone too far.
“No. She never will right?”
“Mya, why?”
“Because I'm broke, and as much as you love me, I know you can't pay my bills for me. And my mom damn sure can't pay my bills for me, so frankly, I don't give a damn what she has to say either.” I could tell she had her mind made up about this.
“When do you start?” I asked taking a sip of my drink.
'I've been working for about three months.'
'Wow, no wonder you've been balling, I thought you were dating a drug dealer or something. I probably would've been able to handle that.”
“Really?” She tried to keep a straight face but couldn't help but laugh. Her l
augh was contagious and eventually I was laughing with her.
When I finally caught my breath, I tried to be serious again. “I know you’re beautiful, you’re sexy, you’re an amazing dancer, so I know you've been killing it, and at this point I know there won't be anything I can say to pull you away from that money. All I'm saying is this is not why you came to NY, you came to go to the dance academy.”
“Well, they didn't want me.” she shrugged one shoulder, her head tilting to the side.
“They didn't want you last year. It's a new year. You've gotten better, you’re always getting better, audition again.”
“How about you audition?”
“I will if you will.”
“Really?” She looked genuinely shocked.
“Yes!”
“What about Auntie? She'll flip if she even thinks you're thinking about having a career in dancing again.”
“Auntie won't find out, right? And as long as Auntie doesn't find out about my audition, your mom won't find out about your new job.”
“Don't threaten me, little girl.”
“Are you going to audition with me or am I going by myself?”
“What if you get in and I don't?”
“I'm not planning on dropping out of graduate school to go to dance academy anyway. I only want to do this to support you in your dreams that you've lost sight of.”
“Wow,” She said leaning back with her hand over her heart, she did that when she wanted to make me feel like I had hurt her feelings even though she had no feelings for me to hurt in the first place. "I've lost sight of my dreams? From what I remember we both wanted to go to the dance academy when we were little girls, we both wanted to own dance studios when we were teenagers, we both wanted to be dancers in the college band. You decided to focus solely on engineering because auntie said it was a safer career choice,” She looked around as if somehow Auntie could be listening, “and it was, but it was never your dream, so don't try me, I know you better than you know yourself little girl.”
“Yeah, well, dreams don't always work out the way we want them to, we both know that. All I want to hear is are you going to do this audition with me or not?”
Father of the Bride Page 4