I sat down by him on the bed, taking off my own work shoes. “Thanks for the surprise, Papi. I’m glad you guys are here. I was missing home,” I confessed, although the fact they were here told me they had suspected as much.
“We missed you too, mija. You look good though. How did the visit from the executives go?” My dad never ever forgot anything related to my work. Especially the stressful stuff. He knew how things were, being a social worker himself. Even though he’d been a professor for almost twenty years, he was always looking to get grants for his research.
“It was good and weird.” I hadn’t talked to my parents about the connection between Rocco—who I’d told them a lot about—and my program’s potential funding issues. They would worry and start pitching solutions or ways to deal, and things were confusing enough already. But now that I had my dad face-to-face, I was ready to crack.
“Aqui estan.” My mom’s voice snapped us out of our quiet chat. This was always the dynamic in my house—my dad the quiet, calming presence, and my mom the whirlwind who was always up to something.
“Mi vida.”
His life. That had always been what my dad called my mother, and the way he looked at her, even after thirty-five years together, showed that it was exactly how he saw her. He patted the empty spot next to him on the bed. “Ven, amor. Come sit with us for a minute. Julia was about to tell me about her job event.”
My mom perked up at that, walking over from where she stood in the doorway to my room. She kissed my forehead before getting in the bed with Dad. “I’m going to the store with your abuela and Paula.” I was about to protest about the lines, but she held her hand up like she knew exactly what I was about to say. “I know it’s going to be busy, but Paula called the Mexican market that’s just a couple of miles away and they have everything we need. Now give me a quick update.”
I smiled at her, knowing she was itching to go and get the stuff for her feast together, but also didn’t want to leave without hearing what I’d been doing first. I started to speak and stopped when I realized I was about to start with Rocco. If I did, they’d know that there was more to him than just the fact that he was part of my new group of friends. They’d know, because they knew me.
I breathed in and regrouped. I realized after a moment that I had so much to say. Rocco was a big part of it, but there was a lot more. I had been building a life here. I could tell my parents about Salome and her badass research all over the Caribbean and East Africa, Dani’s Instagram game, Tariq’s drive and his cute and obvious crush on José. I wanted to tell them about how much I’d enjoyed the academy today and the families and how far the kids had come even in the three and a half months since school started.
I’d been so preoccupied in keeping my head down and working, to prove to myself I was surviving without Matt, I’d forgotten to take stock of what I’d been actually doing. The pang I felt when I remembered that Rocco would only be part of it for a few more weeks was something I needed to work on, but there was a lot there to be glad for. My parents both looked at me curiously, like they could see my head was a jumble of thoughts.
My dad, who always had the uncanny ability to read my mind, reached over and squeezed my arm. “Cuéntanos.”
“Job’s actually going well, other than Vicki, of course. She’s a pain in the ass, but Gail’s well aware of that and I think she’s actively trying to find a way to let her go, before she does something that gets us shut down.” I pursed my lips thinking about how flaky she’d been today. “It sucks having someone in a leadership position that’s such a mess, but I get a lot of support from Gail.”
“That’s good. You need to be supported, so you can support your team.” That was my dad, always the social worker.
“Tell me about the families, baby, and your friends. They all sound so nice.” My mom, the people person.
“The families are awesome. The kids are doing so much better since the beginning of the year. Their grades have gone up and almost all of them are involved in one of the school’s extracurricular activities and adapting really well.” I could feel my cheeks popping as I talked. I felt proud of myself for having so much to report to my folks. “The attendance rate for the after-school program is over ninety percent. They love coming to the program.”
That got me a sound of approval from my dad. He loved a heartwarming update backed up with some numbers.
“Out of the juniors we’re working with, almost all of them are pretty serious about college, some community college to start, but they’re all interested in something after high school.” I shook my head thinking of all the adversity those kids came up against just to sit in the classroom and be ready to learn.
“We’re working with the families too, because there is a lot of trauma there. Almost every single one of our kids has at least one family member—in many cases a parent—who’s undocumented. A lot of our kids are undocumented themselves, and the uncertainty is putting them through hell. It’s hard to stay optimistic sometimes, but they’re working hard and so are we.”
“You’re doing such wonderful things, mija. We’re so proud of you.” My mom always got corny when I talked about job stuff.
“Thanks, Mami. Friends are good too.” My face felt hot just thinking about Rocco and how bad I wanted to talk about him to my parents, but I shutthatdown.
“Tell us about your friend Rocco.”
I should’ve known. It was like my parents could sniff this stuff out. “He’s good, I guess. Everyone’s good.” My parents shared a look and I kept rambling. “He’s working as a consultant for Sturm’s, so I’m trying to keep things professional and not hang out with him a lot.”
And before I could stop myself, more verbal vomit came out of my mouth.
“His family is kind of chaotic, but he has a younger sister he helps out a lot. He’s a good guy.”
More than. Rocco was an extremely decent human being and I liked him. But not for me and not that way.
My father was seeing a whole lot more than I wanted him to. “Is he in town? You should invite him over for dinner if he is.”
I shook my head hard because that was the worst idea possible. No way was I putting Rocco and my family together. My dad would figure out my crush within seconds.
“Uh, I think he’s in town, but I’m sure he has plans.” Yes, I was lying through my teeth, but I was not going there. Nope. I got up from the bed and looked around to try to spot my yoga pants and sweatshirt.
“Mami, let me change my clothes and I’ll go with you to the store.”
My dad smiled at me and it clearly said, “We know what you’re up to, and we’re leaving you alone...for now.”
