“Need help?” Camila asks, hugging Valeria from the back, before placing a kiss on her shoulder.
Valeria shakes her head. “I’m almost done.” She turns and kisses Camila’s cheek. “Thank you.”
Camila’s phone rings. She ignores it at first, too focused on her girlfriend to care about anything else in the world, but when it rings again, Valeria says, “It’s probably your mom, you should pick up.”
Camila has to force herself to peel away from Valeria, lingering a second longer before she reaches for her phone. The screen confirms what she already suspects—Mom. Every Saturday evening for the past month, her mom has called like clockwork. To “catch up.”
It’s still weird, this new closeness, this slow rebuilding of their relationship. One that used to seem shattered beyond repair, but they’re trying. Camila’s mom seems to havesmoothed over the past entirely, as if there had never been a time when her daughter loving a woman would have been anything but acceptable. However, Camila is still learning how to exist in this new reality, still untangling years of hurt, but she welcomes it. She holds on to it. For the first time, she can look forward to a future where she doesn’t have to hide from her mom, where she can show her the beautiful love she shares with Valeria, where it can simply exist in the open, honest and unashamed.
Camila is grateful for the baby steps, especially because her mom seems genuinely excited to learn more about Valeria. The sudden uptick in phone calls since she told her mom she had a girlfriend hasn’t gone unnoticed. Camila is sure they have less to do with her and more to do with the chance to talk to Valeria.
“Hey, Mom,” Camila answers.
“Hello, Camila. How are you?”
“Good. Valeria and I are organizing the house.”
“Oh, tell her I say hello,” her mother says, as she always does, before asking about the past week.
Camila shares about her work, and about Valeria’s, before telling her that Valeria is officially moving in, and the delighted squeal that bursts from her mother catches her off guard. Both Camila’s and Valeria’s eyebrows disappear into their hairlines.
“Oh, that’s good to hear. We can’t wait to meet her.”
“Tomorrow,” Camila assures her.
“Noon still works?”
“Noon still works.”
“Wonderful. Does Valeria have any allergies or food restrictions?”
“She can’t have gluten, but that’s it.”
Valeria gives Camila two thumbs-up.
“I’ll let the chef know. We’ll see you both tomorrow. Goodnight,” her mother says, hanging up before Camila can respond.
Camila exhales a small laugh. She’s probably worried they’ll change their mind and doesn’t want to give them the chance to take it back.
“I’m excited to meet her,” Valeria says, leaning in to rest against Camila’s shoulder.
“You’ll be the first of my girlfriends they’ll ever meet.”
Valeria straightens, eyes warm as she looks at her. “First and last,” she says with certainty, a smile curving at the corners of her mouth. “Just like your dates. Since I was your first ... and your last.”
Camila smiles at the promise in those words, at the idea of a lifetime with Valeria. It still doesn’t feel like it will ever be enough—but she thinks she could learn to settle for forever.
Camila’s tires crunch on the gravel as she pulls into her parents’ driveway, and she takes a deep breath. Her heart is pounding, and her hands feel cold and clammy.
“It will all be okay, baby,” Valeria says, lifting one of Camila’s hands and placing a tender kiss on her palm.
Camila nods, and before she can overthink it and drive them back to their house, she says, “Let’s go.”
From the moment Camila knocked on her parents’ door, everything Camila had imagined on her drive over fell painfully short of all the sincere excitement and affection thatwrapped around them the moment she and Valeria stepped into her parents’ house.
Camila expects tension somewhere—an awkward pause, a wave of hesitation—but it never comes. Instead, her mother welcomes Valeria with a glowing smile and open arms, her father pulls her into a massive bear hug, and Camila finally exhales.
All afternoon, Camila glows with disbelief, a living constellation of surprise—soft laughter and wide eyes—as her parents interact with Valeria with such ease that her eyes sting in a way she hadn’t anticipated.
