“I don’t understand,” Anna says, ignoring her sister-in-law to implore her daughter. “Did you bring home a man you met on the streets just to make me think you’re okay? What on God’s green earth is going on?”
“Listen, it’s not her fault,” I say, clearing my throat. “I can explain.”
Just not in front of them.
I glance at Victoria, checking on how she’s handling the entire situation. She’s my priority and always will be.
Her face is pale, and she’s curled in on herself slightly, shoulders hiked up around her ears. The weight of humiliation is pressing down on her, and I hate that any of that might’ve been tied to or caused by me. “Mom, it’s all my fault.”
She’s holding it together, likely on my behalf, and she shouldn’t have to.
Nobody should.
“No, ma’am,” I step in. “This was all my idea. Don’t blame Victoria. And?-“
“Enough,” Anna shouts, her frustrations rushing forward and overwhelming her. Not that I blame her one bit. “I’m too disappointed to continue this meal, let’s go.”
While I’m tempted to drag my feet and give the plan I set into motion a few more minutes to come to fruition, I can tell she’s upset and hit her limit. Cursing myself for being too damn slow on the timing, I place my hand on the small of Victoria’s back.
Gently, I nudge her out of the booth while maintaining close contact.
We’re only a few steps out from behind the table, my hand extended to Anna to assist her out of the booth, when the unmistakable growl of a souped-up, twin-turbo engine eclipses all other sounds.
Inside I’m pumping my fist, but outwardly, I remain calm and composed.
Heads whip toward the large windows that overlook the street as a cherry red Ferrari glides into a parking spot up front. In view of the entire restaurant. Glossy surface gleaming in the bright Texas sun, the engine slows to an idling purr before it gets cut altogether.
“O-M-G,” Jade says, her high-pitched voice more of a screech. “A Ferrari!”
The driver’s side door cranes open, twisting up at an angle most cars can’t pull off. And out steps Luis with exaggerated badassery. It’s why I hired him, after all.
Perfectly tailored suit, black tie, crisp, blindingly white shirt, and sunglasses that emphasize his muscular stature and bulletproof jaw. Along with his loyalty and work ethic, there was no one better at making an entrance.
At least until the company charity event, when the truth about my circumstances would be revealed. But that’s neither here nor there.
Luis spots me through the window, lifting the keys and giving me a sharp nod.
Thanks to Linda, Jade, and Carl not bothering to move aside in the name of being decent or polite, we form a jumble of people in a tiny aisle.
With great amusement, I take in the bafflement, creased brows, and dropped jaws of the naysayers. As they’d been flapping their gums only moments ago, I barely stifle a chuckle.
It’s even more satisfying than expected, as the laughter from the trio of jackals sputters up and dies.
Since they’re preoccupied-not to mention still rudely standing in our way-I keep my voice low and address Anna. Hopefully I can repair some of the damage and confusion with a brief explanation.
“Although I was once homeless, a situation I now have more empathy for than ever…” I incline my head, indicating the flashy, high-performance sports car that showed up in the nick of time and say, “The Ferrari I’m gifting you is very real.”
That suffocating, heavy energy from earlier dissipates, the winds finally shifting in our favor.
Anna looks at me in a whole new light. Eyebrows arched sky-high, her previous disappointment over my and Victoria’s fib gets wiped clean. “Oh my God! Simon, you’re?-“
“Simon, I don’t understand,” Victoria says at the same time, snagging hold of my elbow and keeping her voice low. “How did you manage to pull this off?”
Victoria
Simon squeezes my hand and tells me, “You’ll find out soon enough.”
Soon enough isn’t soon enough, but it’s hard to focus on anything around Linda and Jade as it is. Now that Carl’s joined their side, it’s downright torturous.
Jade’s shaking her head, her face red like she’s about to throw one of her childhood tantrums. Come to think of it, she never did truly stop. If I had anything she didn’t, she tormented me, alternating between trying to convince me to give it to her and making me think it-and I-were worthless.
All at once her features smooth, as though she’s realized something I’m instinctively scared to find out. “I bet that guy’s here to meet my fiancé
! Carl, this Ferrari owner must be your friend, right?”
I can’t fathom the leap in logic, yet Simon having access to a Ferrari is an even bigger jump. Honestly, the majority of this bizarre situation confuses me, although I’d given up on trying to understand why my aunt and cousin hate my mother and I so much.
I’ve done my best to let it go, but now they’ve made it their mission to embarrass us in front of the whole town.
Rather than attempt to find meaning where I’ve ceaselessly failed, I watch Carl’s face, noting the flicker of his confidence and the way he sputters out his words. “Y-yeah, that’s right. As if a vagrant like him could afford a Ferrari like that, nice try.”
He squares his shoulders and lifts his sniveling nose higher, like he thinks he’s a king addressing his lowly subjects. “That guy outside is an old friend who’s just here to pick us up.”
Carl’s always been a liar, so desperate to prove he’s better than everyone else but refusing to improve himself. Silly me, I’d stuck by his side and poured confidence into him as he made a hobby out of chipping away my self-esteem.
I don’t know why I’m surprised-I shouldn’t be.
Given the fact that he practically shouted the words at us, despite being so closely crammed in the aisle, means he’s determined to convince the entire restaurant as well.
Linda’s all too quick to accept it, snobbery her go-to. “I knew it. My son-in-law is clearly the best. There’ll be no embarrassment on this end.”
For years and years that smug superiority of her and her daughter’s would get under my skin. I hated the way they made my mother and I feel lesser than, like we were the ones who didn’t belong.
“Your friend drove a Ferrari to pick up the three of you?” Simon asks, the doubtful tone suggesting he’s not letting him get away with it.
Challenging him and the women flanking him had always been difficult for me. As I watch them squirm and conjure lies they can’t possibly sustain, something within me shifts.
I don’t need their approval.
I never did.
At the chime of the bell over the front door, we all automatically glance in that direction.
A tall man in a suit as lavish as the car scans the room, not bothering to remove his dark glasses.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.