Page 26 of Yours, For Now

"Mami." I bit the inside of my lip. "Gabe is my boyfriend, not my man."

"What's the difference?" She smiled and winked at me. With two firm hands, she guided me into my walk-in closet. "Now go. Get pretty."

She left me there alone; I heard my door close. I shook my head, but gazed through my collection of pretty dresses. It would be half an hour or so until Gabe arrived, so I had time to freshen up my look if I wanted to. The flutter of nerves in my stomach told me I wanted to; feeling attractive would give me a boost of confidence that would help relax me.

I put extra care into my eyeliner and winged it more than I did for my working look; I curled my long hair and even put on some perfume. The dress I chose to change into hugged my body, and its neckline drew the eye to my breasts, one of my favorite features of myself. In case there were any doubts as to where I wanted his eyes— rather, any date's eyes, real or fake— the geometric pattern printed on my clothes provided further guidance.

By the time Gabe was scheduled to arrive, I was ready to impress my fake boyfriend.

I came into the large living room just as Gabe offered a bouquet of white wildflowers to my mom, interspersed with baby eucalyptus leaves.

He gazed at me from the foyer, with another bunch of flowers still in his hand. With assured steps, I approached him and smiled.

"Are those for me?" I asked.

He didn't check my neckline; he looked me in the eyes. "Yes. I'm showing off."

The glint I could see there felt better than catching him admiring my chest. His hand closed around my waist, and that felt even better.

Gabe brought me close to him; my heart jumped to my throat and, when he kissed my cheek, my eyes fluttered close.

He held the flowers between us, our closeness threatening to squash them. I wrapped my hand around the stems and missed; I held his hand around them instead. The kiss lasted for a moment too long, or time had slowed down— one or the other or both. He finally pulled back and let me hold the flowers by myself.

A self-conscious edge hung in the air as we stared at each other, so I cast my eyes to the flowers in my hand instead. Orange and pink petals greeted me— dahlias, if my limited knowledge was correct. "Thanks. They're lovely."

They looked like they smelled divine and, for the show of it, I dug my nose between them.

"Come, come," my mom said. "We'll put the flowers in water and then we can sit and chat while we wait for Edgardo to come home. He's bringing Miguel tonight, too."

Gabe picked up a bottle of wine from the console table in the foyer, which I hadn't seen before. "I also brought this. I hope you like it."

He offered the drink to me with a smile.

I grinned back and shook my head. Checking that my mom wasn't looking at us, I tsked. "You're really laying it on thick, aren't you?"

"Of course. Both to make it believable and to leave a good impression."

The door unlocked behind Gabe, and my dad and Tío Miguel appeared through it.

"Lina! Hola, hija." Dad left his keys on the console table and walked to us. He pushed a hand forward and offered it to Gabe, who shook it. "Un gusto verte, Gabriel."

"Igual, gracias." Gabe shook Tío Miguel's hand and greeted him, too.

"I'm glad you came." Tío Miguel's smile was the same one he gave everyone, and it belied his high self-esteem. "We have lots to talk about… though you're likely here for my niece, too, huh?"

I didn't know if the man had ever had a single self-critical thought in his life, and it showed in his casual and confident style.

"I'm mostly here because of her." Gabe glanced around my home's living room, and settled on me with a slight arch to his eyebrow.

I understood what he implied and shook my head at his ridiculousness.

I sat next to Lina at the table, her family surrounding us. It had been a few years since I last had a first dinner with my girlfriend's family but, from the looks of it, things hadn't changed much in the Latine family dating scene.

They still asked a thousand questions of the new boyfriend, just like Lina and I had expected.

I just hadn't been prepared for the direct pressure of their interrogation.

"Well, it's clear you're a hard worker," Edgardo said. We'd been talking about some of my tasks and ongoing projects at the Sotomayor Group.