Paola, the bartender, pours with a heavy hand, and her generosity has miraculously dislodged the stick from my cousin’s ass. Really, it’s about time. Maddie was uptight before her father died, and since then, she’s elevated the roleof buzzkill from a hobby to an art.
Fortunately, I don’t have to watch out for Maddie like I do Neda, because her brother, Ryan, would never let anything happen to her.
“You’re bored,” Nico says, drawing me out of my thoughts.
I cross my arms and lean back in my chair. “Is that your best guess?”
His gaze narrows as he studies me, trying to read my mood. “Is this a game?”
“Isn’t everything?” My glass is empty, so I take a sip from his, watching him over the rim as he tries to make sense of the puzzle that is me and my friends dropping cash in his neighborhood dive bar.
He nods at the dance floor, where Neda and Maddie are now dancing in a sloppy group with three guys. “I thought your friend and your cousin didn’t get along.”
“They don’t.” I raise his glass. “This particular social discrepancy is brought to you by the miracle of tequila.”
“And that one?” His focus settles on the end of the bar, where Ryan and Holden are laughing at some story the bartender is telling them, as she refills my cousin’s glass with straight soda. Every time Paola bends over to grab a glass, they look down her shirt. My cousin is subtle. My boyfriend is not. “Is that also the tequila?”
I watch for a minute. Then I look away.That’s nothing. That’s Holden. I stand and take Nico’s hand. “That’s ... not what I came here to see.”
MADDIE
The fast, heavy rhythm of the cumbia beat pounds through me, driving every spin and little kick, and each connection with Sebastián. His hands find my waist and I smile at the reckless thrill his touch sends through me.
The floor swells around me, then it begins to spin. I stumble. Sebastián laughs and pulls me in closer. Then we’re dancing again.
I am drunk for the second time in my life.
The first time, I almost died.
This bar isn’t the kind of place I expected Genesis to drag us to. There are no bright lights or throngs of international tourists. The bartender isn’t swamped and the local crowd doesn’t care what I’m wearing or how well I move. They just want to have a good time.
For the first time in nearly a year, I’m actually having fun. But Genesis doesn’t get credit for that.
In the pause between songs, I catch my breath, and movement from one of the tables catches my eye. My cousin tugs Nico out of his chair, her predatory gaze locked onto him like some kind of laser target.
He probably doesn’t even know he’s caught.
My phone buzzes, and I pull it from my pocket, but Genesis plucks it from my hand on her way past with Nico. “Do you really think you should be drunk-texting your mommy? I promise she’ll survive without hearing from you for a few hours.”
She drops my phone into her purse, and as the next song begins, I frown as I watch Genesis and Nico disappear into the back of the bar. But I can’t really say I’m surprised. The problem with being given everything in life is that you grow up thinking you can take whatever you want, whenever you want it. Even if your boyfriend is sitting half a room away.
Holden looks from me to Genesis’s empty table, and his jaw clenches. He slides off his stool.
It’spossiblethat my staring wasn’t as subtle as I thought.
“¿Qué pasa, hermosa?” Sebastián runs one warm hand up my arm.
“Nada. Lo siento,” I tell him.
“¿Quieres otra copa?”
“No, gracias.”I wouldloveanother drink. But unlike my cousin, I know better than to take something just because it’s offered.
Sebastián shrugs as the music changes. This is a slower song, without the familiar cumbia moves.
I must look lost, because he smiles and dances closer. His hands find my hips, and I’m moving again. Then he kisses me, right there on the dance floor, and suddenly I’m kissing and dancing simultaneously. Even though mybrother thinks I can’t walk and chew gum at the same time.
My head feels light. The rest of the bar has lost focus, and I don’t even care. I feel like anything could happen here, and all I have to do is let it.
