“That’d make for a cool movie.”
“My sister has always said the same thing.”
I park outside of Jay’s building and bring the food with me when we get out of the car. They buzz us into the building. In the elevator, I look over at Dee. Her face is radiant from the day in the sun, but her eyes are tired. We both need some sleep before too much longer. “Don’t let Carmen talk you out of this.” After spending today “all in” with her, I’m terrified of her changing her mind. I’ve had a taste of what it would be like to be in love, and I’m already addicted.
She looks me square in the eyes. “No chance of that.”
Carmen is waiting in the doorway of their condo when we come off the elevator. I don’t know her very well, but even I can see she looks worried and stressed. That’s probably my fault. I hope Dee meant it when she said no one could talk her out of being with me. I have a feeling if anyone could, it’s probably Carmen or Maria.
Dee kisses Carmen’s cheek. “Cut it out. Everything is fine. Stop doing that thing with your eyebrows.”
“What’s wrong with my eyebrows?”
“They’re all furrowy.”
“That’s not a word.”
“And yet, you know what I mean.”
“Where’s Jay?” I ask her.
“Out for a run. He should be back soon.”
“Come on, Wyatt. Let’s eat.” Dee grabs silverware and a wineglass from Carmen’s kitchen and leads me to the patio. “Come hang with us, Car, but no furrowing.”
I love the way she’s right at home in her cousin’s place and that they speak so freely to each other. I’ve never achieved that easy closeness with my siblings—or anyone. Probably because I was absent for big chunks of our childhood, and when I was home, I sucked up all the parental attention. I don’t know if either of them resents me for the chaos my illness caused for all of us, but how can they not? I probably would if I were them.
Carmen pours herself a glass of wine from a bottle she already had going and comes out to sit with us.
“Let’s air it out,” I say to her between bites of the best-tasting chicken I’ve ever had.
Dee’s eyes widen as she looks at me as if I’m crazy. Maybe I am, but I can’t bear for my friend’s wife to think I’m going to hurt her precious cousin. She needs to know that’s the last thing I’d ever want.
“I understand you’re worried about Dee getting involved with me in light of what you now know about me.”
Carmen wasn’t expecting me to put it right out there, but I figure I have everything to gain and nothing to lose by confronting the elephant in the room. Dee wasn’t expecting it, either, but that’s okay. I want her to relax and enjoy what’s happening between us and not be upset by her family’s concerns.
“I, uh…” Carmen takes a sip of her wine. “I don’t want Dee to get hurt again. The first time was more than enough.”
“I’m fine.” Dee spins pasta like a pro. “Nothing to see here.”
Carmen’s brow goes from furrowed to raised. “Really?”
“As Jason has told you, I had a heart transplant seventeen years ago. I’m six years past the average life expectancy, but you should know I’m perfectly healthy. I undergo regular checkups, and I take fanatically good care of myself. All that said, I tried to tell Dee I’m a bad bet, but she refuses to listen to reason.” I glance her way and find her smiling like a fool. God, I already love her. How can I not?
“I want Wyatt to know what it’s like to be in love. I want to spend the rest of his life with him, and there’s nothing anyone can say to talk me out of that, so let’s not waste our time going on about all the ways this can go wrong and focus on the many ways it’s so, so right.”
“But you only met at the wedding… How can you know this is what you want?”
“We slept together after the wedding,” Dee says matter-of-factly. “It was the best night of my life.”
Carmen chokes on her wine.
I pat her on the back until she catches her breath.
“What the hell, Delores? Why didn’t you tell us?”
“Tell us what?” Jason asks when he joins us on the patio, sweaty from his run.
“They slept together after the wedding!” Carmen tells her husband.
“And it was the best night of my life,” Dee says.
I lean in to kiss her. “And mine.”
Jason seems as stunned by this news as Carmen was. “Wow, how’d you keep that secret in this family?”
Dee shrugs and continues to spin her pasta as if nothing special is happening. “I just didn’t tell anyone.”
“So you’ve been, like, talking all this time?”
“We’ve kept in touch,” Dee says.
I can tell her nonchalance is driving Carmen crazy. She turns her laser beam focus on me. “That’s why you’re interviewing for a job at Miami-Dade. You came back for Dee.”
“I wanted to see her again, but I didn’t come here thinking any of this was going to happen.”
“He told me he couldn’t get involved, and when I found out why, I told him that’s bullshit, and here we are. Involved.”
“Dee…” The single word from Carmen drips with agonized concern.
I don’t blame her. I really don’t. Didn’t I have the same concerns twenty-four hours ago, before Dee blew my mind with her courage and her determination? That seems like a lifetime ago after the day we’ve spent together, in which everything changed.
“I know what you’re going to say, Car, and I fully understand what I’m getting into. I know Wyatt may not live to be an old man, and I’m choosing to care about him anyway.” She pauses before she adds, “Wait. That’s not exactly true.”
“It’s not?” I ask her, surprised.
“I’m choosing to love you, not just care about you.”
Carmen gasps. “But you… you’ve seen him twice.”
“How soon did you know that Jason was going to change your life?” Dee asks her cousin.
“I… uh…”
“You told me you knew the day you met him that he was different from everyone else. I knew at your rehearsal dinner that Wyatt was special, and I wanted to spend more time with him. We were together all day at your wedding. He never left my side except to get me another drink. We had the best time I’ve ever had with any man. And when he asked me to come back to his hotel room, I never hesitated. Did I suspect then that it was going to be more than one night? Nope, but then he texted me, and I texted him, and he came back, and here we are.”
“Yesterday, you were crying over Marcus,” Carmen says.
Oh, low blow.
“I was crying because I thought he tried to take his own life because of me, not because I still love him. Any love I felt for him died the day he married the skank.”
“So, what’s the plan?” Jason asks, drinking from a bottle of water.
“We’re hoping I get the job at Miami-Dade.” I reach for Dee’s hand, and she links her fingers with mine. “And if I do, I’m going to move here and live happily ever after with Dee.”