Page 106 of A Dish Best Served Hot

“Yes.”

“How do you think he would feel about owning the building you do the production in?”

“What?”

Saint rushed to explain. “There’s a building in the neighborhood that has a small theater on one side and an old clinic on the other. The clinic is a perfect base for a new shelter for unhoused teens, but it’s too expensive for the community center to buy and renovate the building. If your guy bought it and rented the other space to El Vecindario then we could fix it for the shelter. He could restore the theater at the same time under the guise of it being for the community center, but really it’s so that he doesn’t have to risk anyone finding out about his production.”

There was nothing but silence on the other side of the line.

“This guy, isn’t he from Chicago?” Saint continued.

“He is.”

“You don’t think he’d want to do something for his hometown?”

She sighed. “I honestly don’t know, Saint. I’ve known him for a while, but I still don’t really know him, you know what I mean? He’s very private.”

“I get it. I need to get the final okay anyway, but would you be willing to just reach out to him, see if he’d be up to meeting with us? Tell him that if he wants us to, we’ll sign NDAs.”

“Okay. I have a meeting with him later this week, so let me know ASAP if you want me to broach the subject. I’ll tell you what he says.”

“Thank you so much, Eva. You have no idea how much I appreciate it.”

“I’ve heard that this is what family is for, so I figured I might as well give it a try.”

They said their goodbyes and Saint hung up. He spun on his heel and rushed back into the building.

“Papi, what are you doing?” Rosie asked around a mouthful of candy. She was sitting on Teresa’s lap with a colored pencil in hand. Saint was still surprised by the change that had overcome his daughter the minute she’d been back in Lola’s presence. It was as if the lingering fear and uncertainty had fallen right off. As if she’d just needed Lola to tell her that everything was okay. The obvious love between them made Saint even more determined to do what he needed to.

“I’m being the kind of man I want to be, by keeping my promises.”

He practically ran down the short hall to the conference room. He threw open the door and was instantly relieved to see Lola still sitting there.

“What was that about?” Abuelo Papo asked.

Saint didn’t take his eyes from Lola. “I have an idea for El Hogar.”

She narrowed her eyes at him.

“I’m not trying to be the hero, I promise. I just wanted to talk to Eva to see if it was even a possibility before I told you and let you decide if we move forward. The ball is in your court.”

She still looked suspicious. “What’s your idea?”

Saint filled her in on everything he discussed with Eva. When he stopped talking, Lola just sat there.

He was moments from losing all hope.

Finally she opened her mouth. “I mean we’d definitely need to run this past Yara, who’d need to talk to Fonseca and I’m sure we’ll need a more formal plan with actual terms and stuff, but I think it could work.”

“Well, Eva has a meeting with him later this week, so, if we want her to talk to him about it, we better get working.”

“Why are you doing this, Saint?” she asked. It was clear from her tone that his answer would determine whether or not she gave him the chance to help.

“Because I said I would help you and I want to follow through, but this time there are no strings attached. As a matter of fact, after setting everything up with Eva, I’ll remove myself from the equation completely. This will be all you. Well, you and Yara.” He held his breath, willing her to tell him that she didn’t want that, she wanted him to do this with her.

Lola was once again quiet for a long stretch. “I should call Yara. If she agrees, I’ll let you know. Anything else we can discuss after.”

Saint’s shoulder dropped. “Yeah. Right. Okay. Just let me know.”

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