Hijacked

by Sonia Esperanza

  Chuckles and snickers surrounded me as he backed away from my friend and glared at me. “You make me regret the day I let you work here,” he said to me.

  “You love me and you know it,” I said to his retreating back. He flipped me off.

  “Speaking of protective friends, I had a safe installed in your office, just as a safety precaution. I don’t want any of the women getting their hands on that.”

  I saluted her, understanding her caution.

  On my way home, I stopped at Maria’s for dinner. I worked and lived in the city and Hector’s restaurant was located at the center of New Hazle so I had a long bus ride ahead of me and I was somewhat grateful for it. I didn’t want to pass his occupied car, knowing he still hadn’t made up his mind about us yet. Or even worse, maybe today would be the day he did make his mind up and neither he or his car would be there. It had been two weeks of his silent presence and each day I grew more anxious, more nervous, more afraid.

  The same girl that was working the night Hector brought me was standing ready near the hostess stand, a smile ready on her face. She greeted the couple in front of me and escorted them to a table. She was back in record time, that same smile pasted on her face.

  “Hi. Welcome to Mar—” Her words died off when she looked from the menus in her hands to my face. A genuine smile appeared. “Annie, right?”

  I nodded. “Is it just you tonight?”

  The knowledge that there should be someone with me here tugged at my chest. “Yes. And I don’t need a table. I just want to take it to go.”

  She held out her hand and for some odd reason, I took it. I followed her around the bar and past the kitchen doors. “Mr. Rivera has a lot of rules and one of them is no takeout.”

  I didn’t look at her like she was crazy. I didn’t look surprised because I wasn’t. It had Hector written all over it. He was good at everything, but if you asked him what the most important things to him were, he would say food and family. That’s where he put his heart and soul into. “Okay. I’ll just take a table, then.”

  I wasn’t sure if she hadn’t heard me with all the clinking of pans and the upbeat Spanish music filtering through the kitchen, but she still had a hold of my arm and didn’t let go.

  “Hey, Joseph,” she shouted over the music to a man who seemed to be floating around the kitchen. He paused and waved his hand at a kid who was drying dishes and the music lowered instantly.

  “What is it, Dominique?”

  “This is, uhh, Annie. She needs to put in an order for takeout.”

  With my one free hand, I covered my face, embarrassment washing over me. I felt the gaze of at least twenty employees on me and I wished the floor would open up and swallow me hole. “Dominique, I could have just gotten a table. It’s not that big of a deal,” I muttered.

  I looked from her to Joseph, gearing up to apologize but he was looking at me expectantly, a pen and pad in his hand. “I’m ready whenever you are.”

  I sputtered out my order of an entire platter of tacos because I didn’t see myself coming back any time soon.

  “I’ll have it done in twenty. Have a seat by the bar and one of us will bring it out to you, okay?”

  I nodded and followed Dominique back the way we came. “You didn’t have to do that, you know,” I told her as I sat at the bar. Her eyes bounced from me back to her empty hostess stand.

  “He likes his rules. And at the top of the list is, ‘what Annie wants, she gets.’ There are no rules when it comes to you.” She didn’t stick around to hear the air I had to suck in and the shaky breath that escaped me a second later.

  There are no rules when it comes to you. I mulled over Dominique’s words as I waited for my food. They followed me on the long bus ride back into the city until I was dropped off a few blocks from my apartment.

  Her words stuck with me because they were true. There had never been any rules where I was concerned. He might have kidnapped me, but he always gave me a choice. He always let me do whatever I wanted, be whoever I needed to be. He gave me the green light to find the girl I had been ignoring since my mother’s death. He breathed life back into a soul that had been dying. He was the sole reason that I now know who I am. And I wouldn’t be who I am if I didn’t fight for my happiness.

  I didn’t seek out my apartment when I reached my block. My eyes searched the street until that black car that held so many memories between the two of us came into view. Without a second thought, I trudged my way to the passenger side. I froze at the sight of him this up close. His eyes were closed, his hands folded over his stomach. He was the kind of beautiful that had nothing to do with appearance, but a connection that I felt every time I laid my eyes on him.

  I closed my own eyes and didn’t open them until I heard a click. My eyes snapped open at the sound of the door unlocking. My heart beating a mile a minute, I raised my gaze to the man inside who was now sitting up straight, my favorite pair of eyes focused on me. But they were different, they weren’t warm or teasing or loving. They were what I felt from the heels of my feet to the top of my head: sad.

  Somehow, my hand found the door handle and I pulled it open and hopped in the car silently, too afraid to even breathe, now deathly afraid of what he would say or what he wouldn’t. I unwrapped my takeout.

  “Are you hungry?” I whispered but those three words felt like I was screaming.

  Hector grunted. The simple sound, the familiar sound was almost enough to break my demeanor. I chanced a look over at him but he was looking at me so deeply, so intently, it felt like I was a glass of water and he was the most dehydrated man in the world.

  “Are you going to say something or are you just going to stare at me while I eat? I haven’t eaten all day, so if you’re going to eat, I would act soon before I devour all of this.” There was no way I could eat every single taco I ordered. There was enough to last me all week. But I had no control over my mouth, now that we were face to face. So, I stuffed it.

  As soon as the meat hit my taste buds, his whisper filled up the space between us. “Love. So easy to say, so hard to understand. Silent, but loud. Felt, but not seen.”

  My heart stopped as I registered his soft words, realizing he was reciting the last poem I left him.

  Love.

  So easy to say, so hard to understand.

  Silent, but loud.

  Felt, but not seen.

  Or so I thought.

  Until he took my hand.

  Until he gave me his smile.

  Until he held me at night.

  Until he pushed my boundaries.

  Until he broke rules.

  Until he invaded my body.

  Until he owned my heart.

  Until he conquered my soul.

  Love can be seen.

  And for me, it’s in a set of deep brown eyes that let me know I am seen.

  He read the entire poem aloud, word for word, from his memory. There was no way I could stop the tears that escaped by the time he whispered the last word.

  It had been enough that he cared about me making a mistake I would regret.

  It had been enough that he was the first man who had put butterflies in my stomach.

  It had been enough that I fell in love with him.

  It had been enough to share my body with him.

  But to recite words that I wrote for him, word for word, almost a month after I left him was one thing I had never expected. I thought he would read them. I thought he would like them. Never in my wildest dreams, did I imagine that he would treat them like a bible, reading the same lines over and over until he could reel them off.

  I set my food to the side, my hunger forgotten. “Hector,” I shakily whispered.

  “Bonita,” he whispered back, his voice just as weak.

  I swallowed past the lump in my throat, past the fear. “Te quiero, Hector. Mi corazón es tuyo y no quiero de vuelta. Está incompleto sin ti.” Translation: I love you, Hector. My heart is yours and I don’t want it back. It’s i
ncomplete without you, anyway.

  His eyes widened in surprise but he didn’t comment on my use of his mother tongue but his eyes softened and his shoulder dropped against the seat. “I see you. I love you. If you will still have me, I’m yours.”

  I didn’t know which one of us moved first, but his hands grabbed at my hips and my hands raced their way to find the skin at the back of his neck. Electricity filtered between our limbs. I felt the racing of our hearts as our chests slammed together. “It’s been hell without you, Hector Rivera. I will kill you if you do that to me again.”

  He planted the softest kiss in the middle of my forehead as his fingers wove through my hair. “Threatening my life already, bonita?”

  I knocked my knuckles against his chin as I looked into his eyes. “You love it,” I whispered.

  His answer was the softest press of his lips against mine.

  I relished in the feel of his lips. Every press felt like opening up a tailor-made gift. This is what I wanted. This is what made me happy.

  Sitting on top of his lap, want crashed through me. I wanted to crash my lips against him. I wanted to remember the taste of his mouth, of his skin. I wanted to shed each of us of our clothes. I wanted him inside of my body. I wanted to not know where I ended and he began. But I didn’t feed into the lust because I was thankful for the love.

  Samuel told me to give him hell. A big part of me wanted to give him hell. But I couldn’t put up a fight. I knew his soul. I knew what kind of man he was.

  I parted my lips and he took advantage of them, pressing soft pecks on my skin. I pressed my hands against his chest and looked him in the eye, forcing the words out. “How do I know that you won’t do that to me again? How do I know that I’ll never wake up one morning and you’ll just be gone?”

  “Oh, bonita,” he whispered, his hands rising and taking my cheeks in his palm. His thumbs swiped softly against my cheeks. “You don’t. I have to prove it.”

  “And you’re willing to do that?” Please say yes. Life is too cruel to love someone and not be with them.

  “I’m willing to do anything for you, Annie.”

  I framed his face and looked into his soft eyes. “Come in.”

  He tilted his head and my hands to the side. “Is that a good idea?”

  I shrugged. “It’s what I want.”

  He lifted me from his lap, grabbed the food, and opened his car door. I guess my wish really was his command. I shuffled out of the car and he held his hand out for me to take. It took some serious resistance to not start dancing in the middle of the street. Once I unlocked the apartment, I flipped on two of the lamps, kicked off my shoes, grabbed a tall glass of water and hopped in bed. Hector was still standing just inside of the door, bag of food still in his hand. I patted the space beside me.

  “Come eat with me.”

  He took a step, discarding his shoes where I toed mine off. “Come lay with me.”

  Just as he knelt down on the edge of the bed, I whispered, “Come stay with me.”

  I was afraid to go to sleep. Afraid that this was all a dream. Afraid that if I closed my eyes, when I opened them again, Hector would be gone.

  I stayed up, wrapped in his arms, way past two o’clock in the morning because I was so afraid. But Hector’s warmth was better than any blanket and his voice reciting his favorite poems I’d written him verbatim lulled me into the best sleep I’ve had in weeks.

  I woke up with his name on my lips. “Hector.”

  “I’m right here, bonita.” To prove his words, two arms snaked around me, dragging me into his body.

  He held me as I held him, and I never wanted to let go. “What took you so long?” I whispered.

  He unwrapped himself from me and climbed out of bed. I sat up straighter, my mind running a mile a minute. “Technically, I would have taken longer but you hijacked my plans.”

  Despite my heart racing, a smile formed on my lips. “I know the feeling.”

  Hector grabbed a manila folder on the table that wasn’t there when we climbed into bed. He walked back over to me and kneeled on the floor next to me, handing the folder over to me.

  I opened it and Cameron’s face met me. It didn’t take me long to realize these were my mother’s case details. How he even had access to these was beyond me.

  Hector lifted his hand, nudging my chin with his knuckles until I met his gaze. “I tried, Annie. Me and my lawyer, we searched every option but it’s not plausible. I’m so sorry. If there was anything I’d want to give you, it would be justice for your mom.”

  I melted into his touch. “Thank you for trying, sweet man, but your love is the only thing I want from you. It’s enough for me.”

  I brushed the papers aside and pulled the love of my life underneath the sheets and showed him how much I meant those words.

  I woke up in a dream. Or at least that’s what it felt like.

  Warmth radiated through my entire body. My legs were tangled up in a stronger pair. Two possessive hands pressed against my lower back. My hands were feeling up Hector Rivera under his t-shirt.

  “You’re not going to make it to work on time if you keep that up,” he murmured, his voice groggy with sleep.

  I was caught in between wanting to squeal that this wasn’t a dream or cry because he was real and he was here.

  Peeling my eyes open, I saw a pair of smoldering, brown eyes zoned in on my face. I snuck my hands out of his shirt and reached for his face. His disheveled face. It looked like he hadn’t taken a razor to his face once in the past month. “Are you real?” I whispered, my fingers moving delicately over the stubble.

  “As real as you want me to be,” he whispered back to me, his teeth darting out to nip the edge of my palm.

  I tried to hold back my I’m-so-fucking-in-love smile but failed. I wanted to always feel like this with him. I wanted to wake up tangled up with him every morning. I wanted us to share every single meal together. He was the sun and I wanted to be anywhere and everywhere he decided to shine on. I bit my lip, still unsure of where we stood.

  He untucked my bottom lip and caressed it with the edge of his fingertips. “What is it, bonita?”

  I took a deep breath, dread, hope, and the uncertainty of our future pressing down on my chest. “What happens now? Now that we no longer have an expiration date?”

  He let out a ragged sigh and let his eyes fall shut, his fingers and his body separating from mine in an instant.

  My own body sagged against the bed, the fear of losing him again shaking every single bone in my body.

  “That’s up to you, bonita.”

  My eyes snapped open but he remained quiet, still distant. “What do you mean?” I demanded.

  He didn’t say anything for a long moment. It’s almost like he didn’t know that my heart was hanging on by its last thread. His brown eyes finally found mine and they melted me on the spot.

  “Are you sure this is what you want? This” —he pointed at himself— “wasn’t even on your radar four months ago. You deserve so much more.” He didn’t say the words but I heard his meaning in his silence. I deserved much more than him.

  It took everything in me to not reach for him, to not fold into his arms and threaten bodily harm if he ever tried to leave me. Instead, I looked into eyes that had become my favorite thing and I spoke from the heart. “I deserve what I want and what I want is you.”

  “Then, you have me. You have me for as long as you want me, Annie.”

  “And what if I want you forever,” I mused, reaching for him and bringing him closer until I was wrapped in his warmth once more.

  He swiped my hair from my face and tucked the strands behind my ear. “I can’t promise you forever but I can promise to be yours until my last breath.”

  “I’ll hold you to that promise, mi amor.”

  A grin split over his face. “You knew what I have been saying all of this time?”

  I shrugged. “I took four years in high school and then a few classes in college.
I figured it would come in handy with social work. Or you know, my move to Mexico.”

  He lifted his eyebrows in a question.

  “That was the plan. Kill Cameron, bury Annie as I knew her, and start over in Mexico.”

  “Mexico, of all places.”

  “Yup,” I confirmed, smiling. “I was going to cash in on revenge and move to Mexico. Instead, I fell in love and that love saved my life.”

  Hector crashed his lips down on mine, all of the softness from this morning and last night nowhere to be found. His hands pushed me down until I was lying flat on my back, his lips bruising against mine. When I couldn’t hold back a moan, his tongue slipped inside my mouth and I instantly dissolved.

  I didn’t know my name. I didn’t know where I was. All I knew was him. His hands. His tongue. His body. My hands reached out blindly, not knowing what to do but knowing I needed more. I managed to pull him into me until his weight pressed down on me.

  A spark shot down my groin and I didn’t even try to hold back my moan. “Hector,” came my ragged plea when he came up for air.

  He moved in between my hips, wrapping my legs around his waist. I reached for his shirt. “Off,” I demanded gruffly. He trailed his fingertips up my jean-clad legs and I clenched my legs around his body.

  “The way you react to me, bonita.” Hector shook his head, dazed. “You are my dream.”

  His fingers gripped the top of my thighs, right where I needed him the most.

  “I’m,” I breathed out. His fingers undid the button of my jeans and the sound of my zipper being pulled sent my body into havoc. “Yours.”

  In one swift movement, my jeans and panties were ripped away and tossed over his shoulder. He locked eyes with me, that smoldering look from earlier back with a vengeance. “Out of all the Spanish endearments I know, I stuck to bonita because it means something precious, something beautiful. If I’m being honest, all I wanted to call you was one I’d hoped you always would be: Mía.”

  Mine.

  I loved the sound of that. He pressed a soft kiss against my lips before pulling away. Then, he slid down the bed and wrapped his arms around my bare ass, pulling me toward his face. He never took his eyes off me. Not when he blew on my bare sex. Not when he swiped his tongue through my folds. Not when his expert tongue hit my sweet spot.