The Firefighter Who Rescues Me

Chapter 10 ♚ Party Pooper

The weekend arrived not with a bang, but with a whisper. An early morning workout didn't energize me as I hoped and afterwards, I just lay under the blankets in Margaret's son's bed.

Occasionally I lifted the sheets to renew the air under the blanket fort, but otherwise lacked the energy to do any of the things I had to do. Talk to the car insurance company, the bank, actually check out rooms for rent with Margaret that weren't at her place.

I just wanted to close my eyes and... not be. For a little bit. It wasn't like I wanted to die. I just wanted to stop feeling what I felt in my skin for a minute. Was that too much to ask?

The answer—spoiler alert: it was yes—presented itself through a video call from mami.

Her face appeared on screen in totally the wrong angle. I'd tried to explain to her before to hold the phone from up high, but she always kept it against her chest and showed me a whole lot of chin.

Aside from that, she had bright red lipstick on and sunglasses, which struck me as too much effort for a conversation with me.

"Bendición," I said and after she blessed me I asked her, "Dónde estás?"

"La piscina," she said, flipping the camera to show me that in fact, it wasn't just her at the pool but the whole family.

The three brats wore floaties of different colors in their arms as they paddled around in the crystal blue water. Papi hung out behind them closely, though judging by the beer in his hand I wasn't sure he could keep them out of trouble.

Mami continued panning the camera around and settled it on Cata and her husband. Gabe was sprawled on a pool chair, tanning freely since he had only his wife beside him to ogle his beauty. And damn, he was fine. The only issue was that Cata wasn't paying any attention to him, as she was engrossed in typing on her laptop something that could be anywhere between an email or a dissertation.

"Ugh, dile a Cata que se relaje por favor," I told mami.

"Dile tú, a mi no me hace caso." Next thing, mami walked over to my twin and passed her phone over to her. "Cora dice que dejes de trabajar."

"Ya casi termino," was all my sister said.

There were a few awkward seconds where mami kept the camera on Cata until it was clear she wouldn't pay attention to us. Honestly, if she wasn't in the least distracted by the gorgeous boricuan beside her, we had no hope.

"Y tú cómo estás?" mami asked me.

The million dollar question I had no pleasant answer to.

So I lied with a smile. "Muy bien, todo perfecto por aquí."

Mierda, I shouldn't have been so emphatic. Mami lowered her sunglasses to give me one of those looks that said she could smell the bullshit all the way from Florida.

There was a knock on my door and Margaret popped her head in. She'd been about to say something when she realized I was on the phone. She mumbled an apology and gave me the perfect excuse.

"Mami, me tengo que ir. La señora que me alquila el cuarto me necesita." I wasn't excited about lying to her so much, but I looked forward to telling her the truth even less.

I promised to call her back before the weekend was done and told her to kidnap Cata's laptop if she had to.

Just in case she decided to call me back, which I wouldn't put past her, I buried my cellphone under the pillow and ran out of the room like I had anywhere to be. Margaret was in the kitchen, setting out ingredients to bake something.