Page 2 of Ignacio

“I did,” he admitted.

“You don’t sound like you enjoyed yourself.”

His reply was a noncommittal grunt. If he were being honest, the parties no longer brought him as much joy as they used to. He loved dancing and spending time with friends, but trashing his home in the name of a good time didn’t seem like the best idea.

“I think I’ll have to move these parties to another location in the future. Rent a club or something.” Sitting in one of his chairs, he lifted his feet onto the metal railing and crossed them at the ankles. “What’s up?”

“I have somewhat good news about your indie film.”

His heart jumped. “Go ahead,” he said, sipping his coffee.

His last foray into filmmaking hadn’t gone very well. The film flopped, and he wasn’t the only person who had lost money. His father had invested in the project along with a few other people. With a failure under his belt, he’d had a hard time convincing anyone that his latest project was worth the risk. He didn’t want to ask his father again, and though he could probably convince his siblings to loan him the money, he wanted to finance the project himself, the way any indie filmmaker would, by finding his own backers.

“I assume you’ve only just gotten up for the day?” Yvonne asked.

“Yes.”

“So you haven’t seen the news, but you will eventually. There’s a ton of publicity surrounding your meeting with Delta yesterday.”

At the mention of his ex’s name, the hairs rose on his skin, and his body stiffened. Earlier in the evening, before throwing the party, he had attended an event where Delta had also been present.

“I didn’t have a meeting with her,” he said coolly.

“Well, whatever you want to call it: a run-in, a get-together?—”

“We happened to be in the same place at the same time. That’s it.”

“Honey, listen to me. It doesn’t matter. A picture of the two of you together has gone viral and broken the internet, as the young people say. It’s a PR boon—for both you and Delta.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The world is excited by the idea of the two of you reconciling,” Yvonne explained, as if the answer was obvious.

“Reconciling?” Ignacio dropped his feet to the concrete slab beneath him. Yvonne was going too far. “We exchanged a sentence and then went on our way. We haven’t been a couple since I was twenty-one years old, when we were practically kids.”

Their breakup was as fresh as if it had happened the day before. He would never admit it, but the pain of Delta’s rejection had lingered for years.

“Ignacio,” Yvonne said, using her motherly voice, which she always pulled out whenever she wanted to convince him to go along with one of her ideas. “This is the opportunity you’ve been waiting for. Maybe not exactly how you wanted it, but it’s free publicity, honey, and almost every article or post I’ve seen mentions your movie. Folks are excited by the thought of two young lovers reuniting after all these years. It’s the kind of thing movies are made of. A real-life love story.”

“We’re not back together, Yvonne,” Ignacio said evenly. She must be hard of hearing.

“I know that. You know that. But the rest of the world doesn’t.”

“What are you saying?”

A brief pause. “Delta’s people reached out to me.”

“You mean her father,” Ignacio said, the left side of his lip curling up in displeasure.

“Yes, Delta’s father and her publicist. The publicity has been great for her too. Her music has seen a huge spike on the streaming platforms. They want to take full advantage of this opportunity.”

Delta’s parents had controlled her career since she blew judges away on a televised talent competition when she was ten years old, belting out the lyrics to “At Last” in a remarkably soulful voice for her age. Her father, especially, who was her manager, must be salivating at the thought of her songs climbing back up the charts.

“What are you not telling me, Yvonne?”

“Keep an open mind,” she said carefully.

“About what?” he asked through gritted teeth.

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