Page 10 of The Challenger

“Hi,” a female voice answers. “This is Domino’s Pizza.”

“Oh, uhm…” My heart sinks. After all that, he gave me a BS number?

“Just fooling with ya! This is Chavez Delgado’s answering service. He’s indisposed right now and—”

In the background, Chavez shouts, “Hey! Would you stop answering my phone? Goddamn, you are a pain in the ass.”

In a sing-song voice, she says, “Oh Cha-vez, it’s a wo-man.”

“Get outta here, mocosa.” After some heated Spanish between them, he says, “Hello?”

“Hi.” I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. “It’s Flynn.”

After a pause long enough to crush my remaining confidence, he says, “Hey.”

“Did I catch you at a bad time?”

“Nope. I’m just surprised to hear from you. Figured you’d make me wait at least a day.”

“I didn’t want your good money to go to waste.”

“Hold on a sec Miss Flynn.” The phone muffles as he says, “Back off, you barracuda! That’s my torta. Yours is in the kitchen.”

“I ate it already. I’m still hungry.”

“Make yourself another one.”

“I want you to do it,” she whines. “You’re so good at making at them.”

“Carmelita, por favor, vete!” he says, his voice a shade darker. “This is a personal call.”

“Fine. Let your sister starve,” she says, and finally, my chest opens up. They’re related. Nothing is more soul-crushing than calling up a guy only to find him getting his groove on with another woman. Been there, done that.

“Sorry about that," Chavez says, circling back to me. "I gotta lock my food down whenever she’s around.”

“Do you two live together?”

He laughs at the proposition. “If I was into bloodshed, maybe. My sister looks after my place when I’m on the road. I had to show her a few things today to bring her up to speed."

“That’s nice of her to offer.”

“Carmen’s great,” he admits. “She’s familia. I love her, and some days I want to kill her. Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

"No, I’m an only child.”

"I figured that. You give off that vibe.”

“What vibe?”

“Someone used to doing their own thing.”

My heart skips a beat. He said it so offhand, like I’m another overachieving LA superwoman not struggling with isolation wearing me thin. His voice shifts deeper after a shuffling sound, giving me the impression he is now lying down.

“You ever been married?” he asks.

Jeez. He’s hitting me from all sides. “No. You?”

“Almost. But I got out of that in the nick of time.”

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