Hector
Smiling about what he just wrote,
Hector hit send then slid the keyboard on his phone shut. Just as he glanced
out the window, he remembered something. “Shit!” He slid phone open as fast as
he could.
“What?” His brother, Abel, glanced
at him from the driver’s seat, a look of concern already on his face.
Relief set in as soon as he
confirmed he’d sent the text to the right person and he chuckled. “Nah, I just
thought I sent that last text to the wrong girl.”
Abel shook his head, the concern
now replaced with a disapproving smirk. “It’d serve you right if you had.”
“Oh, I have,” Hector laughed.
“That’s why I had to double check just now. Not that it really matters. I don’t
owe any of them explanations, but they get all bent and crap.” He shrugged.
“Girls are funny that way.”
“Yeah, funny how they’re like
that.” Abel’s sarcasm only made Hector laugh more.
They got to Noah’s house and hauled
out the basket of tamales and empanadas their mom had sent for their
Christmas potluck. This was a first for all of them, but it was in honor of
Jack, the only father figure any of them had ever had. This year was their
first Christmas since he passed away. It was bittersweet, but they were the
only family Jack ever had, and they all knew this is how he would’ve wanted
them to spend at least one night during the holidays—celebrating together.
Once inside, they began setting
everything up for their feast. As was the case anytime this group got together,
they had way too much food.
“Wow,” Noah’s very pregnant wife, Roni,
said as she sat down at the heavily stocked table. “Nellie, maybe you should’ve
invited your friend, Leo. We certainly have enough food.”
Hector glanced at Roni’s best
friend, Nellie, then back at the overabundance of food on the table. There was
still plenty more on the kitchen counters that hadn’t fit on the table.
Noah chuckled as he grabbed a roll.
“No kidding,” he said. “You all could’ve brought dates.”
Hector shook his head adamantly as
he reached for the rice dish “Hell no,” he said as he spooned a big scoop of
rice onto his plate. “I don’t bring dates to meet family and friends.”
“What do you mean?” Roni asked.
“What about Irma? You introduced her to us last week at Rio’s.”
Hector grabbed a tamale and began unwrapping it. “That
doesn’t count. She was already there. I didn’t bring her, and she introduced
herself to you guys. I didn’t do the introducing.”
Gio, his other friend and latest
victim of the commitment trap, eyed him with a smirk. “What about the other
chick? The one you’ve brought down to 5th Street a few times?”
“Same thing,” Hector dug into his tamale with his fork shaking his head
again. “I don’t invite anyone down there. If they show up unannounced and then
introduce themselves as my friend,
that can’t be helped. Not my doing.”
“So they’re not your friends. They
just say they are?” Noah laughed. “You and that girl certainly look friendly in
the parking lot every time I’ve seen you out there with her.”
Abel turned and gave Hector a
disapproving glare. Hector shrugged, chewing his food then wiped his mouth with
a napkin. “They’re all friendly,” he
smirked. “I’ll give you that, and you can call them whatever you want, as long
you don’t call any of them my girlfriend. So, nope, don’t be expecting me to be
giving them any ideas by inviting them to something like tonight.”
Surprisingly, his brother agreed
but then added. “Yeah, he’s too young for that anyway. He needs to stay focused
on school.”
Gio’s girl, Bianca, picked up her
glass of wine with a smile. “Oh, I’d say it’s pretty obvious where his focus is
already—girls, just not any one in
particular.”
Hector wouldn’t argue there. With a
nod and wink at Bianca, he continued to plow though his food. He glanced up in
time to see Bianca turn to Nellie. “But tell me about Leo? How come I hadn’t
heard anything about this new friend
of yours?”
“Oh God,” Nellie rolled her eyes,
picking up her own glass of wine. “He’s just a guy I met a few weeks ago at the
grocery store of all places. A friend—nothing
more.” She turned to Roni. “I told you. I’m done
with relationships.”
The girls got into their girl talk
while Noah and Gio took off to the kitchen for seconds, no doubt. Just as
Hector polished off his plate, both Gio and Noah returned to the table with
steaming bowls of menudo.
“Damn, that looks good.” Hector
said as they both sat down.
“It is,” Gio said, setting his bowl
down.
Hector got up. “I gotta try some
now.”
The girls were still completely
immersed in Nellie’s story about her new guy friend when Hector got back with
his almost overflowing bowl of menudo.
It smelled too damn good to not fill his bowl to the rim. Only during the
holidays did they all allow themselves to indulge like this. Tomorrow they’d
all be back in the gym, working all this stuff off.
“Hey,” Noah whispered.
Hector looked up, but it wasn’t him
Noah was glaring at. Confused at Noah’s sudden change in mood, he turned
in
Abel’s direction. Even though the girls weren’t talking to him, he was
completely engrossed in what Nellie was saying. Curious now, Hector
nudged Abel.
Abel turned to Hector a little
bewildered until Hector motioned in Noah’s direction. As soon as Noah had his
attention, he glanced at Nellie then back at Abel, giving him a weird look. Then
almost through his teeth said, “Try the menudo
will you?” He motioned with a subtle head movement toward the kitchen.
Hector refrained from laughing now
as understanding set in. This wouldn’t be the first time Noah had warned any of
them not to get any funny ideas about Nellie, his wife’s recently divorced but
still very “emotionally fragile” best friend.
He turned to his brother with a
smirk and a knowing roll of the eyes. “Yeah, go try the menudo, Abel, it’s good.”
That got Nellie and the other girls’
attention. “Oh, yeah,” Nellie said. “Roni’s menudo
is always to die for.”
Roni beamed as Nellie stood up.
Abel’s eyes were immediately on Nellie again with a smirk. Hector knew his
brother well enough to know he was probably doing this now to mess with Noah’s head.
Abel turned back to Noah with a playful
grin. “I think I will try some,” he
said, standing up and following Nellie into the kitchen.”
Yep, Hector knew it. Once again,
just looking at Noah’s annoyed expression, Hector had to refrain from laughing.
He didn’t want Roni to ask what was so funny because he didn’t want either one
of them in on Abel’s head games and ruin Hector’s fun.
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