“Dating anyone?”
I peer up at him in surprise. He doesn’t usually talk about relationships. He and Aunt Delilah have been married for twenty years, and just like my parents, they’re crazy about each other.
“No. Single as the day I was born.”
“Shame,” he mutters as he moves the food around on his plate like he’s searching for the right bite. “Are you taking a break?”
“No, Unc, but I’m not scouring the dating apps to find someone either.”
“It’ll happen when you least expect,” he says.
And I wonder if it already has. I shake my head, knowing I’m being an idiot. My dream girl didn’t walk into the bar last night and then I let her leave without getting at least her basic contact information. All I know is her face, her name, and how she feels curled against my side.
“Delilah wandered into the bar with Lulu in her arms. I never thought I’d be sitting here with her decades later. Life is funny like that somehow.”
“Can I sit here?” Lulu asks, holding two plates. One is loaded with salad, and the other has nothing except dessert.
“Yeah, sweetheart. Sit. Sit.”
I stare at her plate in confusion. “What’s that?” I point to her plates with my fork.
“I’m saving the main-course calories for my dessert.” She doesn’t even look at me when she answers. She’s too focused on the chocolate cake and cupcakes she grabbed from the far end of the bar. “These hips didn’t make themselves.”
“That’s not healthy, baby girl,” Lucio, her dad for all intents and purposes, says to her.
“Salad’s very healthy,” she tells him before she shoves a big forkful of vegetables into her mouth.
Lucio shakes his head but lets the conversation drop.
“What are you looking at?” she asks me.
“Nothing,” I tell her. I mean, I was looking at herfood, but I wasn’t thinking anything except I hope there’s some cake left by the time I’m done eating. “Just that you were smart to grab the cake before everyone else.”
“Thanks, cuz. I’m not a dummy, but from what I hear, you are,” she says with a smile as her eyes flit toward my sister.
“What happened?” Lucio asks her.
“Nothing, Unc.” I glare at my cousin, wanting to let the conversation die off as quickly as her dessert in place of a meal did. “How’s college?”
Lulu groans. “Last semester and it’s killing me.”
“But think, you’ll be done soon, and then you’ll be making bank.”
She snorts and shakes her head. “Hopefully the business degree will be worth it.”
“I’m sure you’ve learned tons of useful stuff,” I tell her. “You’re going to be your own boss.”
“Your lips to God’s ears,” she mumbles. “Too bad the startup didn’t pan out, but I have a few other ideas I’m working out in my head to start my own business.”
“There’s always a spot for you here,” I say, earning a smile from her.
“I’m so proud of you,” Uncle Lucio says to Lulu. “You’ve worked so hard for this.”
And she has. Lulu was never the best student. Math wasn’t an easy subject for her, and she spent hours every week going to tutoring so she could passher math requirements in high school and then did it again for college.
“Thanks, Dad. I’m just ready to get out there and start my own business.”
Lulu isn’t much younger than me, but she took some time off after high school to backpack around Europe. She said she wanted to see the world because she hadn’t been out of Chicago much in her life. She came back an entirely different person, one who seemed more content with who she was and where she was headed in life.
