Page 22 of The Score

He relents. "I know you think of me as family, but I can't let you do that. I'm a proud man, Leon. I know you have the money to pay out of pocket but can they really tell me something my doctors can't? I have a good medical team."

"I don't just think of you as family," I say. "Youarefamily. And didn't you just tell me yesterday I'm like a son to you? I know you feel the same way. Let me pay."

Tía Antonia shakes her head. "There are rules to these things. How do we make it make sense to insurance? They might decide we don't qualify ever again, just because someone paid out of pocket for us once. You may be like family to us, but we're not legally related. They could take advantage."

"I hate that so much," Pen says. "But if that's the case, then we have something to tell you."

She gazes at me. We're all eating our food slowly, making room for the conversation. Everything is rich in flavor, familiar in its own way, yet I lose track of it.

This is the moment we tell her parents we decided to get married. My stomach slows down and I have to put my fork down.

I put an arm around Pen's back and kiss her temple again. My heart skips a beat.

Think about this later, Leon.

Pen takes a deep breath. "Mom, Dad… Bear and I changed our minds."

Despite how often we swore there was nothing like that between us. Despite the evidence we have that we're not meant for romance. Despite how loyal we've been to our friendship above everything else. We're going to tell the world we found something new despite nothing else changing in nearing twenty years.

Good thing we have each other to rely on. And isn't that what the promise of an engagement is supposed to be truly about? That you want to go through everything together with this one person.

"I asked Pen to marry me," I say.

Her parents stop moving. Tía Antonia's fork hovers midway between her plate and her mouth. Tío Sergio's cup is stuck to his mouth. Both sets of eyes open wide.

For a moment I worry that this is it, this is when they decide they don't need to invite the kid neighbor into their family after all.

I package that old doubt into a hidden corner, cover it with layers of the darkest black paint, and look away.

They care about me, but that doesn't stop them from questioning everything.

"What?!"

"Since when?"

"Recently—" Pen starts.

"I knew this was going to happen! But I thought—" Tía starts.

"So sudden!" Tío exclaims.

"Don't you need to date first?!" Tía continues.

Pen glances at me. We only made loose plans about our backstory, but we're going to pull it off. The thing that bothers us is misleading them.

I take her hand on the table and act like a hero in one of my fanfics. I take charge. She squeezes my hand back, hard. I keep my eyes on her as I speak.

"A while ago," I say, "we decided to try. We didn't say anything because we didn't want to give you hope in case it didn't work."

"We know you've always wanted this to happen," Pen adds. "But for the longest while we didn't think romance was for us. Now we're ready to take this step."

"I never understood why you thought dating couldn't work for you." Tía makes a bewildered gesture. "How did you know? And what changed?"

We shift and gaze at her parents instead, fingers intertwined.

"We kissed when we were teens," Pen explains. "It didn't work then— atall."

My stomach drops. It never felt good to think of that moment. Too awkward, I think. Too delicate, for sure.