I can’t bear someone I admire as much as I admire you thinking so little of me.
Blame my arrogance.
Respectfully,
Will
Lizzie read it twice.
Then a third time.
Thecoladawent cold beside her.
Everything she thought she knew cracked wide open.
Chapter 10- Bésame Mucho
Lizzie didn’t know what to do with the bomb Will had just dropped in her inbox.
So she did what any self-respecting Miami girl does in a crisis: she went straight to Abuela.
She sat on the plastic-covered couch while Abuela read the email, hand dramatically pressed to her mouth, computer screen glowing in her thick bifocals. Abuela might dodge English for bills or doctor forms, but forchismethis juicy? She was fluent.
“¡Lo sabía!” she finally exploded, whipping off her glasses. (I knew it!)
“That’s it? That’s all you’ve got?”
“Lizzie,¿tú me quieres decir que este hombre estaba enamorado de ti y lo rechazaste… por ese George?”(You mean to tell me that this man was in love with you and you rejected him for that George guy?)
“No! That’s not—” Lizzie flailed. “There was more to it… I thought…”
Abuela raised one perfectly drawn eyebrow and waited. The silence was devastating.
“Fine,” Lizzie muttered. “What do I do? Do I tell Lidia?”
“¿Estás loca?” Abuela hissed. “Esa niña no piensa cuando está enamorada.”(Are you Crazy? That girl doesn’t think when she’s in love.)
Lizzie winced at the wordenamorada. She knew they had gotten close, but she didn’t think her sister was quite in love yet. But she shouldn’t be surprised, Lidia fell “in love” the way other people changed handbags.
“So we just let her stay with a creep?”
“Creepnicreep. His advances aren’t being rejected, are they? She’s grown. She’ll learn.”
Lizzie groaned and dropped her face into her hands. “Okay, but… should I answer Will?”
Abuela looked at her like she’d suggested streaking through Sunday Mass. “¿No te da pena? The man said he wants to forget the whole thing!”
The shame hit Lizzie like acafecitosugar crash. She—who prided herself on never being swayed by pretty faces or pretty money—had let George play her like a dollar-store guiro. And she’d thrown Will’s words back in his face because of what George had told her.
Lizzie dropped her face into her hands. “I was harsh. I know I was. But he’s been cold to me from day one. He never thanked me for anything. He just… dismissed me.”
Abuela’s eyebrow arched higher. “And you dismissed him right back. Two fools throwing hearts at each other like they’re trash.”
Lizzie winced. “It’s not the same.”
“Niña, it’s exactly the same. You both think you know the other one so well,y mira lo que pasa.” Abuela patted her knee. (Look what happens.) “Now you need to give him space. You rejected him, so you have to live with that for now.”
“Maybe I can respond and explain it wasn’t my fault…”
