Page 65 of The Broposal

“Ready, babe?”

I shook my head to get my foggy brain to focus. “For what?”

“We have to go to the immigration office, remember? It’s almost time for our appointment.”

Shit. How long had I been out of it? IfKennywas the one bringing it up, we had to be running late. I pulled out my phone to check the time. To my surprise, we still had plenty of time. I sighed in relief and nodded, glad Kenny was taking this seriously enough to break his late streak. “Yeah, let’s go. Bye, Mami, love you,” I said as I kissed her cheek, and we headed out.

Surprisingly enough, we didn’t have to sit in the waiting room for very long before Kenny’s name got called. But we did have to meet with the USCIS officer separately to answer questions. Kenny seemed pretty paranoid that they’d somehow know about the baby, but I wasn’t convinced, so I bet him ten bucks on it to try to lighten the mood. Still, I bounced my good leg while Kenny got up and left me alone to freak out about every way this could possibly end up going wrong. I felt like Dr. StrangeinInfinity War, watching millions of alternate futures playing out, with only one good outcome to latch on to. Sure, Kenny and I had practiced, but what if the officer threw us a curveball question we hadn’t thought of? What if we both gave different answers? Would we be accused of fraud right then? And if we were, what next? Would I simply be denied a green card, or would the whole thing be taken more seriously? Would I get deported? Would Kenny go to jail? I cursed myself for not worrying about all this sooner. My green card wasn’t worth Kenny’s freedom.

But before I knew it, Kenny walked back into the waiting room. He looked happy enough, but he didn’t have a chance to give me any indication of what happened in that interview. Did they know about the baby? If so, why did Kenny look so relaxed? He seemed way less nervous than he was before the interview, so maybe they didn’t know? The questions couldn’t have been that hard, right?

I got up on shaky legs and hobbled on my crutches through the door where the USCIS officer was waiting for me. The officer led me down a corridor into an office at the end of the hallway and sat down behind the desk.

“Have a seat.” She gestured for me to sit. Right. I sat in the chair on the other side of her desk, hoping she didn’t notice how shaky my hands were. I wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans.

“So, how long have you and Mr. Bautista been together?” she asked.

“Well, officially, since October, but we’ve been in love since high school. Well, I have. Kenny says he loved me since first grade, when I saved him from a bully by throwing a dodgeball at the kid’s crotch.” I chuckled nervously. I figured it’d be a good idea to give details. It was hard not to dread the whole babyquestion, but I forced myself to focus on what she was actually saying.

“Mm-hmm…” The woman typed something into her computer before flicking her eyes back to me. “You don’t think that’s a little fast to be getting married? You’ve only been dating a few weeks.”

I shook my head, wiping my palms on my thighs again. “Like I said, it’s been a long time in the making. We’ve been into each other longer than anyone either of us has ever dated. If anything, we should have gotten married a long time ago.”

“Mm-hmm…” she said, typing something again. “And how did you two meet?”

I went on to tell the story of how we met when we were six, and how I thought Kenny hated me when really he had a crush. Most of the questions went this way for a while. They were easy enough to answer, and I was confident my answers wouldn’t clash with Kenny’s since they were all true. But the officer’s expression never changed, and she kept typing things on her computer and “mm-hmm”ing at me. It was intimidating, and it did nothing to fix the clamminess in my hands. I had to force myself not to bounce my leg, because I didn’t want to seem as nervous as I was.

“And I’m sure you’re aware that we go through your social media… Do you do the same?” she asked, which threw me off a little bit until I remembered that the baby was all over Instagram. So she did know.

I nodded. “I know about the baby, if that’s what you’re asking,” I started. Finally, I let my answer differ from what Kenny’s had probably been. “Kenny might not have mentioned this, but the mom is extremely abusive. We’re going to try for custody, together. It’s gonna be my baby, too.” I tried not to sound asnervous about that as I was. I was sure I wanted to do this, but that didn’t mean it didn’t still scare the hell out of me.

“Getting someone else pregnant doesn’t really seem like something you do when you’re in love with your fiancé, does it?”

“We didn’t get engaged until after he broke up with her. Like I said, it wasn’t that long ago. The way I see it, his relationship with her was so toxic, and it was just hard for him to get out. When he finally did, we knew it was the right time for us.”

“Mm-hmm,” she said as she typed.

Then the questions continued like before. After what felt like ages, she finally let me go.

I made my way down the hall to meet back up with Kenny, feeling pretty confident. My phone buzzed in my pocket before I got to him, and I paused to take it out to see my dad calling.

I debated whether or not I should even answer it. I was still mad about how he’d reacted to the wedding. But then again, he could be calling to give an update about my mom…

“Hey, Papi…” I finally answered, scrunching the phone between my ear and shoulder. I hoped this would be quick if it wasn’t about my mom. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to talking to him.

“Como estás, mijo?”

I made my way through the door and into the waiting room, where Kenny was waiting. Kenny gave me a huge grin and a double thumbs-up, and I squeezed the crutch with my arm in order to give a reluctant thumbs-up back.

“I’m good. What’s up? Is Mami back? How is she?” I asked. Even if I’d tried not to think about it, I had to admit he’d really gotten me worried since that last conversation.

“Are you alone? Is this a good time?”

“Papi, what’s going on?”

“Maybe you should sit down, mijo.”

“Why? What’s going on? Is she okay?” Kenny gave me a concerned look then, but I ignored it.

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