“Maybe he likes his daughter’s speech therapist?” Gianna said, eyes sparkling with mischief.
“That’s not funny.”
“Little bit funny.”
“Gianna.”
“Okay, okay.” She held up her hands. “But hear me out here—you are the only staff he’s shown this much interest in.”
“That’s because I work closely with Lily.” I lowered my voice and glanced toward Hector’s office to make sure he couldn’t hear. “Do you want to know what happened a few days ago?” I didn’t wait for her to respond, “I was working overtime in a restaurant and my manager was being rude. Hector walked in and bought the place, fired my boss, dragged me outside, and then lectured me about being reckless and setting bad examples for Lily. He made it very clear that the only reason he helped was to protect his investment in his daughter’s therapy. I’m just the help who needs to stay in line.”
Gianna’s smile faded slightly. “He said that?”
“Not in those exact words, but yes. He was very specific about how my behavior was unsustainable and I needed to stop destroying myself around his daughter.”
“Okay, but,” Gianna said, incredulous, “he did buy an entire restaurant because your boss grabbed you?”
“To protect Lily’s therapy, not to protect me.”
“Still seems like a pretty extreme reaction for someone who doesn’t care.”
The look I gave her should have communicated exactly how done I was with this conversation. “Did you hear anything I just said? The man rescheduled that meeting so he could superviseme directly and make sure I don’t corrupt his daughter with my terrible life choices.”
“Or,” Gianna said, breezing right past my very valid points, “maybe he doesn’t know how to show he cares without being all stiff and business-y about it. Some people are like that. They care but they’re terrible at expressing it.”
“You cannot be serious right now.”
“I’m just saying?—”
“No. Stop saying. There’s nothing to say.” I adjusted my bag on my shoulder. “Just do me a favor and schedule better next time. Make absolutely sure he’s at a meeting or in another country or abducted by aliens. Anything that keeps him far away from these sessions.”
Gianna laughed and headed back toward the kitchen, leaving me alone with my frustration and the extremely awkward awareness that Hector was probably watching this entire conversation through his office monitor.
I took a breath, straightened my shoulders, and headed toward the therapy room where Lily was already waiting.
The second I walked in, my irritation evaporated. Lily sat on the floor surrounded by papers and crayons, but her math workbook was open in her lap. When she saw me, she held it up with both hands, pointing at the circled problems on the page.
“Let me see.” I settled down next to her.
She’d gotten most of them right. Actually, almost all of them are right. The tutor must have been working with her on multiplication this week.
“Lily, this is amazing.” I smiled. “You got so many correct. Look at this one, and this one. You’re really understanding this.”
She ducked her head, but I caught the small smile before she hid it. That smile was worth every awkward encounter with her father.
“I’m so proud of you.” Her eyes lifted to mine, big and dark and so much like Hector’s it was almost unsettling.
Focus on Lily, I told myself. Not on her controlling father. Just focus on this sweet kid who needed someone to care.
But my mind had other ideas. It kept spiraling back to the restaurant, to the news I’d heard through the grapevine. Hector hadn’t just bought Aurelio’s—he’d fired most of the old staff and was apparently renovating the whole place. Which meant Greg was gone, but so was everyone else I’d worked with. So was that potential income I’d desperately needed.
Three months. That’s what the loan sharks had given me. They’d show up every month for installment payments, each visit a reminder that Colin’s safety hung in the balance.
My fingers trembled slightly as I reached for a crayon. I pressed them flat against my thigh until they stopped.
Maybe I could ask Hector for an advance. Like a year’s salary up front, or even just six months. That would give me something to work with, to show the loan sharks I was serious about paying.
Asking him for money made my stomach twist, especially after the restaurant fight, but what choice did I have? I couldn’t exactly explain why I needed it without revealing the whole mess with my father’s debts, and that was a level of vulnerability I absolutely was not ready for.
