Then I looked in the mirror and allowed myself a moment to think about it in other words, I gave myself a pep talk.
“You can do this, Sadie,” I whispered in a barely-there voice so Hector couldn’t hear me talking to myself. He probably already thought I was totally crazy after my Ice Princess Diatribe that morning, I didn’t need him to hear me talking to myself, he’d have me committed.
I took a deep breath and continued my pep talk. “This is what normal girls do. They sleep with men. They enjoy it. Well, sometimes they enjoy it, if it’s good and the guy knows what he’s doing.”
I was getting off track so I blinked at myself in the mirror, shook my head and got back to the matter at hand. “Anyway, it’s natural, it’s right. And this is Hector and you’ve wanted this since the minute you saw him and I’m pretty certain sure he knows what he’s doing. At least I hope so.”
I stared at my image until I semi-believed myself. Then I pulled in my breath, straightened my spine, lifted my chin, turned out the light and went back to the bedroom.
Hector was stretched out on the bed on top of the covers, back up on all the pillows, legs out, ankles crossed. He was wearing his dark-gray thermal and plaid, cutoff pajama bottoms. The TV was on and a game was playing.
My heart skipped a beat at the sight of him relaxed on the bed. I decided not to think about it (again!) and took in the room.
The clothes hamper was now devoid of clothes. The bed was made and it looked like there were fresh sheets on it. Hector’s boots and shoes had disappeared. The closet door was closed.
He’d cleaned the room!
“You cleaned the room,” I blurted before I could stop myself.
Hector’s eyes moved from the TV to me. “No,” he replied. “This morning, when you and I left, we left my mother in the house.”
My eyes went wide. “Blanca cleaned your room?”
Hector’s gaze went back to the TV. “She meddles,” was all he said.
“But…” I started, stopped then finished, “you’re a grown man.”
He looked back to me and his mouth was doing that fighting-a-grin thing. “You wanna tell Mamá what to do? Tell her to mind her own business?” he asked.
I thought about telling Blanca what to do.
Then I thought about telling Blanca to mind her own business.
Then I shook my head fervently.
He let the grin loose then said softly, “Come here, Sadie.”
With nothing for it, regardless of my knotted belly, skipping heart and shaking legs, I went to the end of the bed and crawled up it, toward him.
When I got to within reaching distance, his hands were on me and he rolled me so my shoulder and head were resting on his chest again. He put his arm around my midriff this time and…
And…
And nothing.
I laid there. Hector laid there.
Still, nothing.
What was going on?
“Hector?” I called.
“Yeah?”
What did I say now?
Oh, blooming heck.