me when I realized that was the extent of her explanation. “He is that, but there are also a lot of Dominicans playing for the Mets.”
“My dad grew up in the BX and that’s where my mom lived when she first came from the DR. So we’re a Yankees household. Also, Cano is fine as hell with those lips and that ass. And he does a ton of work for immigrant families.”
Rationally I knew there was no reason for me to want to go looking for the man and punch him, but I really, really wanted to.
“I guess, if your thing is rich, hot and nice...” I said, deadpan, hoping to get another laugh out of her.
My chest puffed up when I heard her giggle as she looked through her bag. “You think you’re cute.”
I was not a man to waste an opportunity. “I’m not going to brag, but my niece has called me boo-tiful on more than one occasion.”
I knew I’d get her with that one. She actually paused from whatever she was looking at on her phone and looked up at me. “You’re playing dirty, but that’s sweet.”
I was going to say some more dumbass shit since so far I was two for two in getting more smiles than side-eye when her phone rang.
She was staring at it, looking a little embarrassed. “You can take it, no worries.”
“Do you mind if I FaceTime my family for a minute? It’s my sister’s birthday.”
That was really fucking cute, as if I needed any more excuses to be into this woman. “Sure, go ahead, I don’t mind.”
Within a few seconds, an explosion of voices speaking over each other in English and Spanish filled the space of my car. I looked over at Julia and saw her face light up at whomever she was looking at on the screen.
“Lita, we’ve been waiting for you, Mami! You know we can’t sing ‘Happy Birthday’ without you.”
She looked so damn happy. “Abuela, it’s like noon here. How come you haven’t sung to her yet?”
I heard the sound of someone clicking their tongue in disgust, and had to press my lips together not to laugh. “You know how your little sister is, she’s still sleeping, but it’s 1:00 p.m., we’re just going to wake her up. Did you get the cosita I sent you?”
From my periphery, I heard a huff that sounded a lot more like affection than exasperation, and saw she was grinning as she shook her head at the screen. “Abue, you and Mami need to stop sending me food and VapoRub. The postal service is going to start wondering what’s wrong with me!”
From the phone I heard a dismissive noise and a younger woman spoke up. “Lita mija, we just want to make sure you can eat like home over there. I talked to Yanel the other day and she said her daughter can find our food where she lives. I wrote down the name of the store for you.”
I was literally holding my breath trying not to laugh, because this was the most adorable conversation I’d ever heard.
When Julia spoke up next, I almost lost it. If someone could actually speak in eye roll, it was Julia. “Abue, Yanel’s daughter is in San Antonio. That’s really far from Dallas. I don’t know why I told you guys I couldn’t find guandules here. You’d think I’d said I couldn’t find water.”
The sounds coming from the phone confirmed that for her mom and grandma, lack of guandules was right up there with lethal levels of dehydration.
Julia was not having it though. “Okay, guys, let’s do this. I’m in a car with a friend going to a ball game, so I can’t be on the phone too long.”
Another voice all of a sudden broke out. This time it was a male. “Mija, you’re getting out there and making friends, that’s good. Who is it? What’s her name?”
Julia turned her head toward me and I winked at her, not sure why she was asking me for permission.
“He’s a friend from work. He’s from Queens.”
A lot of cooing and shouting ensued after, which all sounded positive, if extremely loud. My mom was Italian and my dad Irish, so I had not exactly grown up in a quiet household, but there had definitely not been this level of excitement.
“Is he Boricua?” Seems like Mom was back again, and yeah, witnessing this side of Julia was not going to make keeping my distance any easier.