the negative range, but I didn’t want to say it out loud and offend anyone. Meanwhile, I’m sure they were putting your threat potential in the upper levels. It was a vibe you gave off in times like this. Fucking lethal.
“All right,” you said after a small hesitation.
“Cool.” I patted you on the back, more to show everyone else you were harmless. “How’d you know I was here?”
“You told me.”
“Oh… right.” Details, Vincent. I turned toward everyone else. “Guys, this is my… Henri.”
You offered your hand, and they all went from hard, wannabe thug types to proper Catholic school boys with their “yes, sirs” and firm handshakes. Junior was literally holding a blunt in his other hand when he shook yours. It was kind of hilarious the respect you commanded.
“You want to smoke?” I asked. I sensed you were uneasy about what my parents might have to say about it. “It’s fine. We’re not going to tell them, right?”
“Right,” you said and glanced around again to make sure everyone was on board with that plan. We nodded vigorously.
If I were all sexy and experienced, I’d offer to shotgun you, but I’d only smoked a couple other times, and I’d probably cough up a lung if I tried, so I just took a small puff and handed the blunt over to you. It was kind of hot watching you smoke, the way your eyebrows drew together, lips puckered, cheeks pulled in, like you were sucking a…
Fuck. What the ever-loving fuck was wrong with me?
And then my phone started vibrating. My dad was calling me. I hadn’t realized how late it was—half an hour past my curfew already. While I panicked about what I would say to him, you calmly took the phone from my shaking hands and answered.
“Hello, Santiago, it’s Henri… Yes, I’m here with Vincent… I’m picking him up to spend the night. We have plans tomorrow… He forgot to tell you?” At this you raised an eyebrow in mock disappointment. “Yes, he is very forgetful sometimes… Okay, sounds good… Yes, you too. Goodnight.”
You handed the phone back to me, all cool and collected. It was kind of scary how smooth you were. There was complete silence for, like, three seconds, then Junior exclaimed, “Shit, bro, I need a Henri.”
The look of admiration in Junior’s eyes triggered something irrational inside me.
“He’s mine,” I said like a lunatic and grabbed your arm. Valentina’s eyebrows shot up, telling me to be cool.
“I mean…” I stepped away, not at all gracefully, and nearly tripped over a tree root. I was too high, too tipsy, and too confused. “I’m tired. We should go.”
“You don’t want to finish this?” Junior asked, holding up the half-smoked blunt to admire his handiwork.
“Nah, I’m toast.” I gave the boys a nod and kissed Valentina’s cheek. She whispered, “Te amo mucho,” in my ear like a witchy spell. Then I grabbed your arm and dragged you away like a caveman.
“So, those are your friends,” you said when we were sitting in your car and on our way to your condo.
“They’re good people,” I said. Much nicer than some of the assholes I went to school with. “Down-to-earth. Loyal.”
“That’s a relief.”
I glanced at you sideways. “You were ready to beat some ass back there, weren’t you, Henri?” The way you’d looked when you thought some shady shit was going down had my adrenaline pumping. My knight in shining armor.
“Only in defense of your virtue,” you said with a smile.
I laughed. “My virtue. Shit, I wish someone would try to claim it.”
The car got really quiet then. Awkwardly so. Why had I said that out loud? I studied your profile. Were you only concentrating on the road?
“If we go to the beach in the morning, I think we’ll miss most of the rain,” you said. Your segue was not at all subtle. It seemed we were back to talking about the weather.
“Do you have a boyfriend?” I asked impulsively. “Or a situationship?”
“What’s a situationship?”
“Like a friends-with-benefits but more.” Your clueless expression told me I’d need to break it down for you. “It’s like you smash, and you might, like, grab something to eat from time to time, but it’s not a thing.”
“I see,” you said. “Then, no. I have none of those things.”
“But you had that with Orlando?”
That name was like a silencing seduction. You were completely speechless.
“Yes, I did,” you said at last.
“Why don’t you have that now? With someone else, I mean.”