Before I opened it, I looked at my mom and grandma, who were ready to go, their bags perched on their shoulders, full hair and makeup on fleek. They were dressed in matching track suits, like a pair of pink and yellow highlighters in head-to-toe neon. I looked down and saw they were sporting matching Nikes to finish off the look. Their endurance shopping footwear. I almost took a photo to send to Rocco, knowing he’d find them adorable and hilarious in the same way I did.
Because I never fucking learned.
I shook my head at their eagerness, and smiled as I opened my phone to look at the message. “I’ll be ready to go in a second, guys.” When I tapped on the app and saw a selfie of Rocco with his hair muzzled and wearing the gray Columbia sweatshirt he’d had on this morning, holding a very harried-looking Pulga in one hand, my heart did a summersault.
Rocco: Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Julia and her family were gracious enough to have me over. I’m still recovering from the feast. Also wanted to introduce you guys my new roommate. Her name is Pulga (Julia’s fault). She’s only tried to scratch my eyes out twice this morning, so we’re making progress.
José: OMG! She’s so cute. Where did you get her?
Rocco: I found her under the car at the gym. Julia helped me get her to the vet. She saved my ass and helped me name Pulga.
My heart squeezed in my chest and I could hear his low, raspy voice saying those things. His earnest eyes telling me how grateful he was for my help. Salome was the next to respond, but I was already swimming in regret for how I’d left his place.
Salome: That’s really sweet, Rocco.
The others commented too, and then I saw a notification pop up for a message from José just to me.
José: I’m gonna need all the details as soon as my plane touches down in our fair city. Juhurd?
He put an emoji of a face shouting, and I had to laugh.
Julia: Fine. Chismoso.
I ruthlessly closed out of the app without responding to Rocco after answering José, and glanced up to find two pairs of curious, if somewhat impatient, brown eyes staring at me. I remembered my fretting was getting between two Dominican women and a day of Black Friday sales. It was only a matter of time before their patience evaporated.
“Sorry,” I said, putting my phone in my pocket, and gestured to the door. We passed my dad on the way out, who was focused on whatever was happening on the TV screen and didn’t see my sister, who was probably hiding in a bedroom somewhere to avoid going with us.
We all waved goodbye to my dad and left the apartment. I took a deep breath and vowed to focus on my family for the duration of the weekend.
“Vamonos, mujeres. Black Friday deals wait for no woman.”
They both gave me a funny look, and before I got into another round of “What’s wrong?” questions, I got my ass moving.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Rocco
So I made the woman of my dreams come in my living room after the hottest make-out session of my life, then she ran out of my house like it was on fire, and I hadn’t heard from her since.
It would not be easy to walk that one off.
I sighed, closing the Exiles chat group, where everyone was still texting about their post-Thanksgiving activities, and tried to get my bearings. I was currently hiding in a corner of the Sturm twins’ impressive backyard, which at the moment was lit by what seemed like thousands of little lights.
I made a move to get another beer from the fully stocked bar, complete with five selections of local beer on tap. But, of course, all I could think was how I wished I was at Julia’s having Presidente with her dad. As I walked to the tent where the food and drink were, I tried to think of something, anything, else. But my mind went right back to Julia.
She had not responded to any of the many messages the group has posted, not even the ones from José and Salome asking her about her family’s surprise visit. I was trying hard not to make her unusual radio silence on our chat about what happened between us. But every other message that went unanswered was another confirmation that I had pushed too far. That