His neck smells warm and spicy. I feel my body move, so I’m straddling him, giving me better access. The groan beneath me affirms that Dream Ben is just as into this as I am. Suddenly, I’m so hot it feels like flames are licking at me. Reaching down, I grab the hem of my nightgown and pull it over my head. Woohoo, I am about to have the most realistic sex dream ever!
That is until somewhere in the deep recesses of my brain, I hear, “Ride that bull!”
Is that my abuela? Gah, the craziness of dreams never ceases to amaze me. As I try to ignore the cheers from the peanut gallery, I hear my grandfather scream, “Dios mio! I’m blind!”
The body I’m pinning to the ground jolts upright and I’m thrown to the side with a sharp thud. Ow, I don’t like this dream anymore. I force my eyes open, hoping the pain in my elbow will stop once I’m awake.
I am a person of many words. I’m a talker, an engager of people. As a rule, I love to be the center of attention. That all changes as soon as I see Ben and both of my grandparents staring at me. Holy hell, I wasn’t dreaming, I was in fact in the process of “tapping that” with an audience. There are no words. None.
Yet, when no one says anything, I feel the need to explain, “I was dreaming.”
Abuela is nodding her head, shrugging her eyebrows, and winking all at the same time. If I didn’t know her better, I would guess she was having a stroke. “I’ll move in with your abuelo tonight and you two can have a real bed.”
“Abuela, I was dreaming.”
My grandfather makes the sign of the cross and mutters, “Jesus, Maria, and José! What is this world coming to?”
Ben is oddly quiet next to me. I turn to him as the heat of extreme embarrassment consumes me. “I’m sorry, I was dreaming,” I repeat again like this will somehow magically make the whole scene less embarrassing.
It doesn’t.
With a blanket clutched to my chest, I turn to my grandparents and suggest, “If you could leave for a minute, I’ll put myself together here.”
“We’ll go down for breakfast,” Abuela says. Then she grabs my grandfather’s hand and drags him away.
Once they’re gone, I repeat, “I am so sorry.”
Instead of accepting my apology, and pretending this horrible thing never happened, Ben merely says, “I’m not.”
Wait, what?
“In fact,” he continues, “Now that your grandparents are gone, I’d be happy to let you go back to sleep and continue your fantasy.”
Is Ben Williams flirting with me? “I, um, well …”
He takes me off the hook. “I’m just kidding. Why don’t we get up and grab breakfast ourselves? I’d love to have some time at the Space Center before my first meeting starts.”
With the blanket still wrapped around me, I answer, “Oh, yeah, sure …” It’s like the articulation police have come and revoked my use of the English language.
“Go on,” he says.
“You go first,” I tell him. “I’m a little, you know, naked.”
“I’m not really in any shape to be walking around myself.” His eyes roam to his lower half.
“Oh!” This could not be any more awkward. “Close your eyes,” I tell him, “and I’ll make a run for it.”
“You don’t have to run.” Is he being funny or flirty?
“Close your eyes,” I repeat. Then I jump up and dash down the hall to the room I was supposed to be sharing with my grandmother. Once I’m safely inside with the door closed, I let myself relive what almost took place. While horribly embarrassed that my grandparents walked in on us, I’m not in the least bit upset by what almost happened.
While taking a shower, I let myself peruse the idea of me and Ben as a couple. Clearly, we like each other and are attracted to each other. The only problem on my end is that he thinks astrology is a complete hoax. And being that astrology is what I do, can I really be with someone who thinks I’m a charlatan?
My grandparents come back to the room before Ben and I are ready to leave. I’m in the kitchen drinking a cup of coffee when they walk in. I offer, “Again, I’m so sorry about this morning,” I start to say when my grandmother waves me off.
“Please. I’m sorry we disturbed you.”
“Do you guys want to go to NASA with us today?” I ask, thinking that the best way to move on from this is to pretend it never happened.
“Not even a little bit,” Abuela says. “Renzo and I will just stay here at the hotel and wait for you kids to come back.”
“I don’t know when that will be,” I tell her. “Are you sure?”
“As long as they have cable, I’ll watch my telenovelas while Abuelo watches midget tag team wrestling or whatever nonsense he’s into these days.”
My grandfather grumbles, “I need a nap first.”
“Do you mind if we take your car?” I ask my grandmother after he leaves. “Ben and I were thinking of renting one, but if you’re not using yours, we might as well use that.”
Grabbing the keys out of her purse, Abuela hands them to me with a wink. “You know your grandfather and I had sex before we were married.”
I have no words.
“It’s a natural part of life, nieta. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about.”
Ben walks in at that moment, so Abuela turns her attention to him. “I was just telling Sera that I support the two of you having relations before you’re married.”
His gaze shifts nervously between her and me before saying, “Uh … thank you?”
Abuela walks up to him, stands on her tippy toes and kisses him on the cheek before adding, “Welcome to the family, Ben.” Then she walks down the hall to join Abuelo.
I have no idea in this world how to make things normal between me and Ben again. Not only did I literally jump the man’s bones, but my grandmother has pretty much insinuated that we’ll be announcing our engagement soon.
Ben says, “I suppose after we leave the Space Center today, we should go pick out rings.”
What?!?
His eyes twinkle with merriment as he adds, “I assume the scene this morning was your way of proposing?” He stares at me in earnest for a moment, then finally lets me off the hook by laughing.
“Oh, ha ha!” I grab a handful of napkins from the counter and throw them at him. “This morning was the singular most embarrassing moment of my entire life.”
He forces his features into an exaggerated frown. “That’s too bad. I was going to say it was a highpoint in mine.” He picks the napkins up off the floor. “You ready to go?”
I dangle the car keys in front of him. “I figured we’d take my grandparents’ car. That way they won’t be driving around today.”
“Do you mind grabbing breakfast there? I want to spend as much time as I can at the mothership.”
Smiling at him, I say, “You’re like a little boy in a candy shop there, huh?”
“It’s pretty much my everything,” he says, sounding like a starstruck teenage girl talking about her favorite rock star.
We don’t say much on the drive to Cape Canaveral, but it’s not a weird silence like you might expect after I threw myself at him this morning. Instead, it’s a pleasant quiet, like we’re simply enjoying being together.