Her mother shouts our names from downstairs, reminding us that her family awaits us. “Okay, this one’s also for you only,” I say, pulling out an envelope from my back pocket.
She’s quick to open it, and when she pulls out the picture I slipped in there before we left Seattle, her jaw drops. “Oh. My. God,” she practically shouts. “Look at this little slice of adorableness! How old were you?”
“Ten.”
“And what’s the trophy for?”
“State chess tournament.”
“Wow…” She turns suspicious as she asks, “You’ve been letting my dad win, haven’t you?
“Yes. He’s good, but notthatgood.”
“That’s what I thought…” She looks again at the picture and sighs. “Ugh, you were so fucking cute, baby!”
“I’m still cute.”
“No, you’re not. You’re hot, like, insanely hot. And sometimes you do adorable things. But you’re not ‘cute.’”
“I am. You just don’t see it.”
“All right, I’ll ask downstairs, and they’ll settle this and tell us if you’re still this cute.”
I’m eighty percent sure she’s joking, but those twenty percent tug at my guts. She might find me cute in that picture, all I can see is the kid who used to be called Colefatman during recess. “This is for your eyes only.”
“My family and I have no secrets,” she playfully counters.
When she tries to walk past me to exit her room, I step to the side to stop her. Then again, on the other side. “Ugh, okay,” she gives up, rolling her eyes. “Let me put on another layer of mascara and we can join them.”
Something doesn’t feel right about her giving up that easily. That’s why I keep my eyes on her while she enters her bathroom. It’s only when she rushes to come out through the other door, the one that opens to her brother’s old bedroom, that I understand she didn’t give up. She merely changed strategies.Fuck.
“Andrea,” I threaten with a groan.
I’m out in the hallway at the same moment she exits her brother’s room, closer to the stairs. She races there with the same determination I have as I run after her. Excitement has her giggling as she hurries down the steps while I chase her. “Andrea, Iwillpunish you for this,” I try, almost caught up.
But that doesn’t work. Not even a little. And when I finally grab a fistful of her ugly sweater, we’re at the bottom of the stairs. She squeals,keeping the picture away from me, and before I can take it, her mother appears with a tray with glasses of what looks like eggnog.
I immediately let go of her daughter before she gets the wrong impression, and Andrea gives me an impish look as she hurries to her mother’s side. “Mom, look at how cute Lex was as a kid,” she explains, bringing the photo in front of her.
Isabella squints and extends her neck back to see the picture better, and a genuine smile claims her lips. “What a handsome boy you were! Not that I’m surprised.”
My determination not to let anyone else see the picture melts away as I understand that Andrea never meant it mockingly. She wholeheartedly finds me cute there and knows her family will agree. Had there been a chance of them making fun of my chubby past, she’d have kept it to herself.
Maria arrives with a pitcher that contains more eggnog, also coming from the kitchen. Accepting my defeat, I join them as she looks at the picture. “Where did those little cheeks go,” Maria says, reaching up to pinch my cheek.
“He got a lot less cute, didn’t he?” Andrea mischievously asks.
“No, he’s still very cute,” they counter together before walking to the living room.
“I told you,” I proudly say to Andrea.
“That’s because they only know the perfect son-in-law side of you,” she argues, still refusing to admit her defeat. “I know the one who fucks me into the mattress until I forget my own name.”
“That might be why. Now, let’s go join your family, freckles. The perfect son-in-law wouldn’t make them wait.”
She giggles as I pull her against me. “You’re so full of yourself.”
“Well, you refuse to be full of me, so that’s the next best thing.”
