“Come over here! Let me give you a hug. I heard about your library, and that the lady you helped yesterday turned out to be a big food critic fromNew York Magazine!”
Milo called out from the other end of the tent. “Congrats, Jude! Good work man.” Patrice, Juanpa, and Ari all called out some encouragements, too. I didn’t say a word and kept working. In my peripheral vision I could see Jude walking over to my mom. She gave him a one-armed hug as she took a card from a client.
“Thanks, Mrs. Maldonado.”
She shook her head clicking her tongue. “Nurys. Honey if you have to put up with that boy over there, you can at least call me by my first name.” She winked at me, but then frowned when she saw my face, but kept talking to Jude in a cheery voice. “Because I know what a nuisance you’re dealing with. Pobrecito,Jude,” she said, and he chuckled quietly.
“He’s not so bad.” He looked over at me for a second, then his eyes widened like he remembered something, and his face changed into an expression I’d never seen before.
He looked brittle.
When he realized I was staring, he shook himself and pasted on a smile which would not reach his eyes.
Moving away from my mom, he said, “Let me take over for you, Nurys, sorry I’m so late, you must need a break.”
“Oh, I’m fine, but if you come here, I’ll go back to help Nesto with the food. Thanks, sweetheart.” My mom came over to me and gave me a worried look.
I said nothing. I couldn’t be bothered to reassure anyone right now.
The afternoon moved fast but things were tense in the tent. Jude forgot to put in an order and a customer lost it because he’d already been waiting for ten minutes. We apologized and comped him an order of tostones, but he left unhappy, and that’s something a business starting out cannot afford to do.
Jude was flustered and apologetic, but he was more and more distracted as the afternoon went on. I was on edge already and started to feel guilty about how shitty I’d been to him all day. I was so distracted running scenarios in my head of how I’d fucked up everything, I burned my forearm on the grill.
“Dammit!”
“Ernesto!” My mom quickly grabbed the spatula I dropped. “¿Qué te pasa, m’ijo?”
She looked over at Jude who was once again looking at his phone. She grimaced and turned my arm to see how bad it was.
“This doesn’t look too bad. Go and clean it up and put a bandage on. There’s stuff in the truck.”
“I know, Mamí. It’s my truck. I put it there! Fuck!”
She put her hand on my chin, a worried look on her face.
“Ernesto, calmate. Go take a break and come back in five minutes, and then maybe you can start acting like a human being again. I know this day has been hard, but you’re not helping anything by acting like a jerk to people who love you and are here to help you. Go.” She waved her hand toward the water, the look on her face a mix of concern and disgust. “This tent can survive without you for that long.”
“Fine.” I walked out, convinced now I’d ruined things with Jude, too. What if he’d been late because he’d been reconsidering things with us? Maybe the comment from Patriceabout me leaving if things with the truck didn’t work out had turned him off?
I should have said something about it afterward, but I got too caught up in preparing food and then when we got to his place I’d been all over him. We barely talked last night, because I had my tongue down his throat practically the minute we got to his house.
I walked to the edge of the water trying to cool myself off when I checked the time. It was already five p.m. The festival only went until six today and cleanup would be fast. If I could keep my shit together for a couple more hours then I’d talk to Jude. This day literally could not get worse. Because no matter how many times I told myself OuNYe was the only reason I was here, I knew the truth. Jude was too important to me to just walk away from. But what did I do the moment things went awry? I’d acted like an asshole to him. If he ghosted me after today, I wouldn’t blame him.
I was walking back to the tent when I saw Carmen leaning over the counter talking with him, a worried look on her face. I came up to them and he stopped talking. Carmen turned to me with a forced smile. “¿Y que, Nesto? ¿Como estás?Sorry about Sheridan.”
I leaned over to give her a kiss hello.
“Thanks.” I shrugged, trying not to be too transparent about how fucked-up I felt. “Are you here for the festival? It’s kinda late.” My tone was a bit shorter than called for and from the look she gave me, she didn’t miss it. What the hell was wrong with me?
She looked at Jude again, he shook his head and she sighed.
“Oh um, yeah. Actually I’m here because Jude is giving me ride. Ted had to go back home early.”
I was starting to get pissed, because there was obviously a problem and Jude was just sitting there like he wasn’t part of the conversation.
I took a deep breath and looked from Jude to Carmen, then spoke. “Jude, if you have to drive Carmen back now you can take off. No worries.”
He nodded taking off his apron. “Yeah, okay. It’s not like I’ve been any help. I’ve been messing up all day.” His voice was completely flat, and he wouldn’t look at me.
