They had agreed to date for now, but they still hadn’t smoothed out the details. They didn’t live in the same place. Hell, Carolina currently didn’t liveanywhereif she wasn’t allowed to return home.
How would this ever work?
After relaxing by the fire for a bit, Carolina had said she was tired. She had seemed to shut down after her conversation with her father. Enrique didn’t want to further pressure her or add to the intensity of the night, so they settled in for a quiet evening. Enrique wrapped his arms around her and stroked her hair as she stared at the fire. They finally retired to bed, where she fell asleep in his arms.
•••
Enrique woke early the next morning. Carolina was still asleep, so he snuck into the bathroom, took a quick shower. Then he went on the deck, did a few sun salutations to ground himself, and called Tiburón, who picked up on the first ring.
“Homie, you done fucked up. Her dad is livid. He won’t even speak her name in the house. Blanca is so upset.”
“I know. Carolina is upset, too. She thinks he’s seriously not going to let her back in the house.”
“He’s not.”
Ugh. This was really bad. “At least you’re making headway with Blanca.”
“Yeah, I’m courting her. Respectfully. It’s not that hard, man. All you had to do was have a civil dinner with her family and ask to date her. And not spend the night with her. Why couldn’t you do that? If she were my daughter, I’d knock you out.”
Great to know that Tiburón was on his side.
“Because I wasn’t even trying to date her in the first place. And those archaic rules are stupid and misogynistic. Even so, I showed up when she lied and said I was her boyfriend, and gladly met her parents. But you were there. Carolina’s a firecracker. I hadn’t even asked her out, and she didn’t want to go through with that charade, either. But she’s the one who left home and blew off her family and their rules. Granted, I did invite her to Carmel and probably should’ve planned a date closer to her home. It was a totally messed-up situation. And she’s great. I’m crazy about her. And if she really wanted me to, maybe I would’ve eventually played her dad’s games despite my feelings about them, but she didn’t want to be held to his standards anymore. Not just in dating, but inallaspects of her life. She doesn’t want to feel like she has to marry me because we go out on a couple of dates.”
“Whatever, bro.” Tiburón sighed. “You didn’t just go on a few dates with her. You spent the night with her.”
“Come on—now you’re defending him?”
“No, I’m just saying that you didn’t take her to Starbucks or a movie, man—you spent the night with a woman from a supertraditional Mexican Catholic family. I just want you to understand exactly what happened. She’s not one of the girls you meet on Tinder.”
Enrique sighed. “I know that. But we were in a storm. It wasn’t safe to drive back. I offered.”
“I get it. I do. Butyoudon’t. To her dad, it’s all about honor. He feels like you disrespected him.”
Enrique could not understand it no matter how hard he tried. He wasn’t trying to disrespect anyone. Not Carolina, not her father—no one. He just wanted to take a day trip with a girl he liked. Wasn’t it that simple? “I don’t know what I can do.”
“Marry her.” Tiburón laughed.
Enrique gulped. “Not that.”
“Well, all of this made it easier for me. They love me compared to you. They don’t even care that I did time.”
Great. This was the first instance in Enrique’s life when a woman’s family despised him. “Well, I’m happy for you.”
“You do realize that we came up to Santa Barbara foryou, and you ghosted us this whole trip. Everyone else is still back in your house. It’s the holidays. Where are you, anyway?”
“Carmel-by-the-Sea. But we’re coming back today. We will spend Christmas Eve together, I promise.” Enrique paused. “I don’t know if she’s going to try to go back home. She may come with me.”
What would Christmas Eve be like with Carolina and his family? It would be his first holiday season with Julieta’s family, so Enrique didn’t even know what to expect. Carolina didn’t cook, so he would be the one assisting Julieta and Linda in the kitchen, which was fine by him. Maybe Carolina could hang out with Rosa. And then Enrique and Carolina could take a romantic walk on the beach and snuggle by the firepit.
“Can’t say that I blame her. I’ll catch you later, dude.”
“Bye, Tiburón.”
Enrique ended the call. He walked back into the bedroom and sat by Carolina, who was now awake. She curled up by his side. “Morning.”
“Morning, sunshine. So, I’m going to check out in a bit and then we’ll start driving back to Santa Maria.” He kissed her forehead.
Her face paled.
