I was just trying to go along with it, but, so if you don’t want to do this, we don’t have to.”
Her mouth, she managed to keep shut. Her eyes, however, fixed on him in a stare so hot he should have burst into flames. He glanced at her and a shadow of fear crossed his features. The door to the restaurant opened and an older man dressed properly in a suit walked out. He smiled at Lena.
“Excuse me, sir,” Lena said to him. She motioned at Eduardo. “This gentleman doesn’t want to go on the date he asked me out on. What do you think about that?”
The man stopped and, with a slow up-and-down look, smiled. “I think he’s a damned fool.”
“Hey. I didn’t say I didn’t want to. I said if you didn’t want to,” Eduardo protested.
Lena lifted a finger. “Dude. We are going on this date. I shaved my legs and put on a bra. We will each pay our own way. We can talk or not. Then we can each go tell our families that, oh well, didn’t work out. Okay?”
The frightened look returned. “Okay,” he said.
Lena smiled. “Okay.”
As they were seated, Lena asked for a chardonnay. She tried to hide her irritation because Eduardo was staring at her like she was going to gut him. She didn’t mean to be a bitch. She simply could not stand a wishy-washy man. Made her teeth itch.
“So, you’re a software engineer?” See, I’m being nice.
“Yes.”
Silence. For the love of God.
“What sort of software do you engineer?” Come on, man. Give me something here.
“Mostly design-and-build commercial websites.”
Lena nodded. She had no idea what that even meant. “I understand Charleston has a thriving technology community.”
He fiddled with his napkin. “Yeah.”
Lena eyed the steak knife. This was going to be a long night.
“So,” Eduardo said. “How many kids do you want to have?”
Lena froze. Stared. Gave him a long, slow blink. “Um. I don’t know?”
“Oh. Because I come from a large family. Very traditional.”
Lena raised her eyebrow in a perfect arch. Traditional. Didn’t teach you any machismo, that’s for sure. “Honestly, Ed, I think I’d like to shelve the topic of children until after my wine arrives at least.”
“I think it’s important. At your age, you can’t afford to wait, you know. Your aunt said you wanted to settle down and start a family. Me too.”
The waiter appeared with her wine and she practically snatched the glass from his hand. “Thank you. Go ahead and bring me another one, please.”
She took several steadying sips. Let out a long breath and looked back up at Eduardo. “So, you think we should just go ahead and get married? Twenty-four-hour wait on the marriage license. We could go get it Monday and be married by Tuesday. Maybe I could be pregnant by this time next week. Unless my withering eggs are too old and feeble to crawl out of my ovaries.”
His face went dark. “No wonder you have to have your family out hunting men for you. You’re mean.”
“And you’re insulting.”
“Actually, I’m leaving.”
Lena shrugged and took another sip of wine. “Bye.”
The waiter came over as Eduardo left. “Everything all right here, ma’am?”
She gave him her brightest smile and was rewarded by the pure male appreciation in his eyes. “Everything is perfect. I’m ready to order. I’ll have a cup of She Crab soup to begin. The petit filet mignon, medium well, with the parmesan truffle fries, thank you.”
She discreetly kicked her heels off and took her phone out of her purse. She was going to have her favorite meal and finish the book she’d started last weekend. Eduardo could scamper back home and tell his mommy how mean she was.
* * *
“SO, HOW’D THE date go last night?”
Lena groaned and rolled over in bed. “It’s not even nine o’clock yet, Sadie. Ugh.” Sass hopped on the bed and stomped across Lena’s stomach to stand on her chest, singing the song of her people. The song of long suffering, slow starvation and the horror of a half-empty bowl of dry food.
“Are you murdering your cat?” Sadie asked.
“Not yet,” Lena muttered, pushing Sass aside and rolling out of bed. “I haven’t even had coffee yet.”
“So, how was the date?”
“He got up and walked out on me.”
“Ha! Wyatt! You owe me twenty dollars.”
“Are you betting on my dates? You bet against me? Bitch.”
“I know you. You are mean.”
“I’m not mean. I just don’t take bullshit.”
“What’d he do?”
“Literally, Sadie, the second question out of his mouth was how many kids did I want? Then he said I’d better hurry up before I got too old.”
“Tell me you only verbally emasculated him.”
“Yes. He called me a meanie and ran away.”
“Lena. You have to know that you can be a bit...ah...intimidating when you get angry.”
“Weeds out the weak.”
“Well maybe just give them a chance to see the nice you before you unleash your inner Latina guerrera once in a while.”
“Next time. Right now, I want coffee. Goodbye and don’t call me on a weekend before noon again unless it’s an emergency. Bruja.”
Ending the call, she tossed the phone on the counter. “Don’t even try tripping me this morning, feline.”
Ten minutes later, Sass loved her again and she was stretched out on the couch with a large, steaming cup of coffee warming her hands. Maybe Sadie was right. Maybe she was mean. Maybe she could have handled that whole situation more graciously. “You know what, Sass? Maybe he should have not asked that. Maybe he shouldn’t have brought up my age. Maybe I’m not mean but he’s a rude dork. Do they ever think that?”
No, they didn’t. It was always her fault. She eyed the clock. At some point she was going to get a phone call from her mother. The way Estrella and Eduardo’s mother had planned this, there was no doubt a full report would be made. The only question was: before or after mass? Probably after.
By one that afternoon, she started to think that maybe she’d
