I glanced to the side, and found Cruz looking down at me. “If you’re here for a second chance,” he said low enough so that Rina couldn’t hear, “then you’re in luck, because Rina is the kind of person who doesn’t hold grudges. She may be upset or angry with you, but she’ll never resent you for what you did. You’re also lucky that you didn’t do much of anything, otherwise you’d be rocking a nice shiner on that pretty little face of yours right about now.” When I awkwardly cleared my throat, he continued by saying, “I’m not going to act like an overbearing asshole, but I care about that girl like I do my own daughter. She’s already been through so much, and the last thing she needs is to get her hopes wounded by someone she genuinely wants to get to know. I’m pretty sure you can do better than that, Myles, for her sake, if nothing else.”
“You think I haven’t thought about any of that?” I told him. “You don’t know me, sure, but Cruz, I’m not dense. I’ve taken every consequence of my decision to heart and considered it seriously. There’s a part of me that’s so disappointed in myself right now, especially after seeing all you guys’ support towards her, but if I keep dwelling on that, then I’ll never be able to rectify my mistake. And Iwillrectify it, I promise. I wanna do this for myself just as much as I wanna do it for Rina.”
Cruz scanned my face for a moment, and then slightly inclined his head at me. “That remains to be seen, doesn’t it? But I’m glad you’re at leastwillingto step up and do the right thing.” He slapped my back good-naturedly, and then walked away from me and towards the kitchen.
Alone, I shoved my hands into the pockets of my jeans and looked at Rina. She was standing behind the counter, looking back at me with curiosity on her face.
I rocked on my feet for a second, and then made my way over to her.
“Hey,” I said.
Someone please applaud me on my conversation-starter skills. Where was my medal? My trophy? A damn hole so that I could fall into it?
Rina showed me a piece of paper with two words written on it.
Fuck you.
I put my tongue to my cheek. I didn’t know when she’d written that, but she clearly wanted to say it to me for a while because she had that paper right on top of the stack – ready to shove it in my mouth if she could.
“I deserve that,” I told to her. “That, and so much more.”
You hurt me.
I flinched a little. “Believe me, I know, and I’m really,really, sorry for behaving that way, Rina. There is an explanation for it, but at this point, it’ll only be an excuse to mask my error.”
So now I’m Rina again.
“You’ve been Rina since the moment I asked to call you that,” I said honestly.
Her eyes flashed.
Am I?
“I wouldn’t lie about something like this.”
Why aren’t you at home working on the kitchen?
“Because I wanted to see you and talk to you, so I asked Taron to take over today,” I told her.
I’d come straight toVila do Açaíafter my client meeting. I’d hardly paid any attention to it, because for more than half of it, I’d been busy thinking of the things I’d tell Rina, all of which I ended up forgetting the moment I saw her, of course.
I know why you did what you did, but it still doesn’t make it right. You shouldn’t have kept it from me. As much as Ilove my avô, he isn’t the one who dictates my life, Myles. He shouldn’t dictate yours, either, directly or otherwise.
“Wait, how did you know?” Her and I hadn’t exactly spoken much since my fuckup, so how would she know?
She rolled her eyes and began writing something.
You aren’t as smooth as you might think yourself to be. You’ve been acting like a scared hyena in front of my avô for the last two weeks. It’d be clear to anyone with eyes that you were trying not to get on his bad side, or piss him off by even breathing the wrong way.
“Hey, now.” I arched a brow. “Ahyena, seriously?”
She scowled at me.
I’m being serious, Myles.
I sighed. “Right, sorry.” I scratched my jaw. “Look, you’re right about everything; I did push you away because of your grandfather. But I also did it because I thought I owed it to him, especially since he’d trusted me enough to tell me about your parents and grandma, and I just…disregarded that and gave into my impulse. I thought that maybe I was disrespecting him somehow, and I was right.” I placed both my hands on the counter and leaned in a bit. “That first night, after you went up to your room, your avô told me that I’d disappointed him. He knew, Rina, and he was hurt.”
I noticed that some of the color had drained from Rina’s face.
