I’ve known since orientation week that he’s planning on askinghis girlfriend to marry him. The ring hasn’t left his pocket for almost two entire months. When I asked him what the hell he was waiting for, he told me he was working on the perfect proposal with an honest-to-god event planner.
“It’s about damn time.”
“Patience, my man.” He points a fry at me. “It’s all coming together soon.”
“Take plenty of pictures. I want to see them.”
“Oh, I will,” he assures me. “If you’re still around. I hear you’re already beefing with the staff on your first day. What’d you do to piss Leti off?”
I nearly choke on an onion ring. After making a grab for my water bottle, I say, “It’s…a long story.”
“Clarissa said you guys dated.”
“Clarissa is a chismosa.” I take an angry bite of my burger. After a swallow, I add, “But, yeah. We did date…technically twice.”
“Twice?” His mouth pops open.
“And on top of working at the same school, we also live in the same apartment building. She thought I was following her home after our date ended and screamed at me in the middle of the parking lot.”
“Holy shit.” He holds in a laugh when I pin him with a look. “Yeah, that’s pretty bad. And that was after your second date with her?”
“Second first date, actually.” When he still looks confused, I figure I have nothing to lose by telling him the whole, embarrassing story. “We matched on a dating app last week. I thought…” Fuck, I don’t know what I thought. “That it would be different this second time around? Anyway, it turns out she didn’t even remember going on our first date.Ormeeting me again at Angela’s party a few months ago.”
“Angela’s been holding out on me and Marcela. I didn’t know any of this,” he says. As the boyfriend of my cousin’s best friend, his disappointment with the lack of gossip makes sense in a weird way. “How long ago was your first date with her?”
“Four years,” I say. “Which wasn’t that long ago. If I can still remember every single one of our encounters, why can’tshe?”
“Sounds like there’s a history there,” he says. “Is that why you swiped right on her?”
“To make my life more complicated? At this point, I have no idea.” I let out a sigh, picking at the remainder of my onion rings. Talking about Leti has my stomach in knots, effectively ruining my appetite. “I’m bound to run into her again, and I have no idea what I’m going to do when that happens.”
“I’d suggest keeping your head low,” he says after polishing off his burger. “The library is all the way across campus. There’s minimal chance of bumping into her again unless you go out of your way to. Plus, you can avoid her at your apartment by coming in early and staying late. You’ll probably be doing a lot of that anyway.”
“Right.” I nod, even as a disappointment I don’t understand settles in the pit of my stomach. “I’ll try and ignore her, then.”
Ignore the girl who speeds in school zones, chewed my head off twice, and for all intents and purposes wants nothing to do with me. That would certainly be the smart decision to make. And lord knows when it comes to Leti, I haven’t been making any of those lately.
8
Julian
By the end of the day, I’m exhausted when I finally arrive back at my apartment complex to a mysterious Grubhub order sitting outside my door. Whatever is inside smells delicious, but I know for a fact it’s not mine. As my stomach grumbles, I inwardly hope Andrew’s willing to share whatever he’s ordered.
I flip on the lights as I step into the apartment, but there’s no sign of my roommate. I set the food on the counter and pull out my sad sandwich from lunch as I wait for him to come home. Then I remember he said something about going to Kayla’s after work.
“What food?” Andrew asks when I call him. “I didn’t order anything.”
“You didn’t?” I frown harder at the tempting bag of takeout. “It says Maldonado on the receipt. But— Oh. The room number is wrong. Maybe there’s another Maldonado in the building?” One who won’t miss their dinner, god willing, because I’m this close to tearing through the packaging and gorging on whatever deliciousness is inside. I sniff the bag and my stomach rumbles in response.
“Oh, it’s probably my sister’s,” he says. “Our family shares an account. She must’ve accidentally clicked the wrong address. She lives upstairs in 213.”
“The one who hates you?” I smirk to myself as I grab the bag and head outside. “This will be fun. Any chance of me tricking her into an intervention?”
I don’t know much about Andrew’s second older sister, only that he can never seem to get on her good side. I didn’t get to meet her when we moved in, even though she lives in an apartment right upstairs. She was adamantly against Andrew moving into her complex, and as far as I know, she hasn’t come down for a visit yet. It’s almost like she’s content to ignore his existence.
I’d hate her on principle if I wasn’t a fixer. Families aren’t perfect, least of all mine, so I get it. I may never be able to fix my own, but I’m not above meddling in someone else’s for the sake of reconciliation, especially my best friend’s. Andrew won’t say it, but I know he wishes he had a better relationship with her. If I can help, even if he won’t ask for it, I’m going to try.
“Don’t bother,” Andrew says. “Knowing her, she’ll eat you alive if you try. Drop the bag outside the door, ring the bell, and run away as fast as you can.”
