Page 76 of A Lot Like Adiós
“Don’t worry.” Jasmine put her hands up, her tone all innocence. “We’re not gonna make a scene here, but wearegoing to discuss this later. Trust.”
Ava blinked. “We?”
Jasmine narrowed her eyes at their taller cousin, and then her mouth dropped open. “What the hell, Ava? You knew about this?”
Ava’s shoulders hunched with guilt and Jasmine rounded back on Michelle. “When I told you not to tell Ava about me and Ashton, you flat out refused.”
Affronted, Ava put a hand on her hip and turned to Jasmine. “You told Michelle not to tell me about you and Ashton?”
“I was in denial about my feelings,” Jasmine said with a shrug. Then she shook her head at Michelle. “I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed. But I’m also mad.”
Ashton Suarez, Jasmine’s boyfriend and an award-winning telenovela star, appeared over her shoulder. “Hola, primas,” he said, then extended a hand to Gabe. “¿Cómo estás? I’m Ashton Suarez.”
Gabe shook his hand. “Gabriel Aguilar.”
“Jasmine said you own a gym?”
“I do. Agility Gym in Los Angeles.”
Ashton nodded. “I’ve heard of it. If you ever open a location in New York, let me know. Vamos, Jasmine. I think your abuela is looking for us.”
As Ashton led Jasmine away, Michelle nudged Gabe and gave him a meaningful look. “Potential testimonial?” she whispered.
He had a speculative look on his face. “Maybe...”
They danced more together, and took turns dancing with Michelle’s niece and nephew, then found their seats once the festivities got underway. Michelle sat at a round table with Gabe and her parents, plus her older sister, Monica, Monica’s husband, and their three kids. Her brother, Junior, was out of town, so his family wasn’t there.
Monica was the only one who’d taken Gabe’s presence in stride.
“I always figured this would happen someday,” she’d said, but Michelle didn’t get to ask her why.
Ronnie’s stepdaughter looked beautiful in a hot-pink princess dress, but still so young, as she went through some choreographed dance routines with her friends. The kids were great, and you could hardly tell three of them had been crying not half an hour earlier—gossip courtesy of Michelle’s chismosa mother.
Michelle looked at Gabe seated next to her, remembering when they were fifteen. Back then, she’d felt like she knew it all, like she was practically a grown-up. But that was also the year they’d started writingCelestial Destiny, two kids still playing out their favorite stories. They’d been so young. And now here they were, playing out another story.
The food was good, the music was great, and Michelle found herself having a genuinely good time. But she’d underestimated the number of people who claimed to beso excitedthat shefinally had a boyfriend. It had never bothered her before that her family was obsessed with marriage and kids, or that they acted like she was weird because she’d never once brought a significant other to a family event. In fact, that was why she never toldanyone, not even Ava or Jasmine, when she was fooling around with someone. If you wanted to keep a secret in this family, you kept it to yourself.
As she’d planned to do with Gabe. Except now every-damn-body in her family knew about him. Which meant that after he left, every-damn-body would ask about him for the rest of her life. It had been bad enough when they’d been younger and her relatives inferred he was actually her boyfriend. She’d known the truth. And after he left and people still asked about him, her mother had intervened, warning all the tías not to mention his name.
This was going to be a hundred times worse.
By the end of the night, Michelle’s ability to maintain her good humor was being severely tested. After she said goodbye to everyone she was related to, and gave the birthday girl a hug, Gabe pulled her aside.
“Hey, are you okay?” His brows knit with concern. “You seem down.”
She let out a long sigh. “I feel like we just fucked this up more by involving all of them. It feels too real, Gabe.”
“It is real,” he murmured, pulling her into his arms. “Just for this weekend. Let it be real.”
How was she supposed to argue with that? Especially when he leaned down to kiss her deeply.
In the background, no less than three people whistled and someone else let out a grito. It was like the Latinx version of an audience reaction when the actors kissed on a sitcom.
Michelle broke away and grabbed Gabe’s hand. “Let’s get out of here. I’m tired of having an audience, and I have big plans for you tonight.”
Chapter 18
Gabe paused in the doorway of the hotel room. “There’s only one bed.”
