Page 69 of Love or Leave

"Hello," he said, begrudgingly.

"Heyyyy…" she said, drawing it out.

Antonio raised an eyebrow. That was an odd response. He'd never heard his sister draw out a single vowel for so long.

"Uh, hi. Everything okay?"

Maria's heavy sigh barreled through the call. "No," she said. "I have bad news."

Antonio braced himself.

"I don't know how to tell you this… I actually hate what I'm about to tell you…"

Another pause.

"Just say it," he said, forcing himself to breathe in and out. What the hell was going on?

"Blake is living with Fran," she said.

Oh.

Antonio relaxed back into his chair.

"I'm so sorry, Tonio. I wasn't sure if I should tell you, but Mom saw them leaving your house and she's freaking out and saying she's going to march down there and kick 'that man out of her son's house.’"

"Wow, okay." Antonio tried to take it all in and shift gears from his Cara problem. Fran sleeping with Blake was the least of his worries. "She said he just spends the night sometimes."

"Wait," Maria said, followed by a way-too-long pause. "You knew about this?"

"Yeah."

"And you still want her back?!" Maria screamed at him.

Antonio pulled the phone away from his ear to protect his ear drum from her shrillness. "You're yelling."

Maria ignored him and went off on a rant, but he barely heard any of what she said because his phone pinged with a new text.

He turned the volume down on his sister and let her continue to go off while he opened the text from Cara.

Cara: We're fine.

His heart stopped.

That's it? Those two little words?

And what the hell did “fine” mean?

Fineas in I hate you? Orfineas in let's be friends? Orfineas in come over later and spoon me all night?

He needed way more information than that.

Maria hadn't yet come up for air, so he typed out a reply before he talked himself out of it.

Antonio: Do you want to get together and talk? I'm free tonight after ten.

He only had to wait fifteen seconds for a reply this time.

Cara: Can't. Going out with Jalen tonight.

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