Christmas lights strung around the porch even though it’s not December.
I knocked.
Rain started coming down in sheets.
Her mother answered.
“Mrs. Cortez.” She looks at me once and knows. “I’m here to see Stella.”
Her eyes hardened.
“No.”
“I just need to explain?—”
“I know what a pretty boy like you wants with my daughter,Mi hija.”
She said it sharply.
“You already caused too much damage just by looking.”
“I didn’t?—”
“Go away, Look elsewhere. Leave her heart alone.”
The rain soaked through my jacket.
Cold runs down my spine.
“I care about her.”
She laughs without smiling.
“Boys like you care about yourselves.”
She stepped back inside while I stood there.
Drenched.
Helpless.
Because for the first time in my life?—
Money and status couldn’t fix this. And the worst part?
She thinks it was a bet.
When it was the most real thing I’d ever felt.
