Page 22 of Bang Buddies With Benefits
My madre had the gall to look personally affronted. “Pfft. I never said criminal. You’re the one who’s always informing me that you represent a lot of innocent people, too.”
“And it’s not like we’d guess you were actually on a date,” Yolanda said. “Ever since you started your job, you’ve been all work and no play. Like that one loco guy in the movie with the axe who tries to kill his family. We don’t want you to snap.”
Wow. This was just getting better and better.
“Haven’t you heard, Catalina?” Zac draped his arm over my shoulders, and what the hell was he doing, digging both of our graves that much deeper? “That’ll make you a dull gal.”
“See, he gets it.” Mamá placed her hand over her heart, the dreamy expression on her face filled with a dangerous amount of hope. “It’s so nice our Catalina’s finally found someone who understands her.”
Yolanda placed a hand on her heart and aimed a consoling smile Zac’s way. “And puts up with her moods—they can be a lot, we know.”
The tinkling of my earrings filled the air. Great. I couldn’t even shake my head without recalling what Zac said about my jewelry, which was about as frustrating as he was, acting all calm and collected now that the spotlight had returned to me. “He doesn’t understand me, and you don’t understand what’s going on here.”
“I wouldn’t say that I don’t understand you,” Zac said, while at the same time, Mamá chided me with a cluck of her tongue.
“There’s no reason to deny it, Catalina. You two have a spark. I can see it plain as day.”
“Yeah, but only when it comes to se—” Shit, I so didn’t think that one through. I glanced at Zac for help, and the instigator just shrugged and casually reached for a chip. “Being simpatico, I mean. Yeah. We have a simpatico friendship. And I couldn’t snap and killmyentire family; there’s way too many of them.”
Mamá and Yolanda’s jaws both dropped at once, their matching expressions causing them to look more like identical twins than sisters separated by a little over a year. Abuela Flores
shot out kids every eighteen months for five years, and my mom had done similar, only she’d stopped at four. Still, the fact that I was thirty and unmarried with no prospects meant I was a good decade behind on their grandbaby-making plan.
“What are you doing here anyway?” My family members were about as easy to distract as hungry lions, but I had to try.
“Isn’t it a lovely restaurant? Penny told us about it, and we’ve been here several times since its opening.”
I was going to have to kill my best friend. For what, I wasn’t certain, as recommending yummy, authentic food wasn’t a crime, not to mention the reason I’d come here today as well. I should’ve requested we go somewhere more clandestine, where neither he nor I would run into anyone who’d expose our fraudulent plus-one scheme.
A waitress I didn’t recognize arrived with our food, and fortunately, Mamá and Tia took that as their cue to stand and prepare to take their leave.
“It was so nice to meet you, Zac,” Mamá said, extending her hand in the direction of my not-date.
He clasped her hand and shook it, and I could tell she was internally declaring it the perfect level of polite and firm. “You too…?”
“Rosa. And this is my sister, Yolanda. Her daughter’s quinceañera is this weekend, and we’d love for you to join us.” She rattled off the address while I continued to shake my head, and had I gone invisible? Why wasn’t anyone paying attention to me?
“Yes, please come. It’d be our honor to get to know the man who’s broken Catalina’s no dating rule,” Yolanda chimed in, and I wished the floor would open up and…well, not necessarily eat me whole. I’d be fine with just chilling in the dirt and roots for a while.
Under no circumstance was Zac meeting my entire family, not on my watch. Our parties were akin to visiting another country, one where they tortured you with lengthy, too-tight hugs and enough food you could hardly walk. That way, you didn’t even realize they were interrogating you for secret information until it was way too late.
“I’m sure Zac’s busy. Penny and Ellie are planning on coming with me, though. They can’t wait to see Mariana on her special day.”
Mamá’s cheery demeanor faded. She pursed her lips, made every inch of her tiny frame count, and pinned us with a glare that could—and had—leveled burly, rough-and-tumble dudes three times her size. “Perhaps Zac would better understand you if you gave him a chance to speak for himself.”
With her declaration hanging in the air, I turned to Zac to convey he should make up an excuse. Literallyanyexcuse. In order to save him from being thrown into an event that’d be more grandiose than any wedding, I’d even accept, “Sorry, but I’m actually planning on railing another woman that day.”
His fingers nudged mine, andthank God, he’d obviously seen my distress and did, in fact, understand me. He curled my hand in his, the comfort of his touch suffusing me with warmth, and said, “I’d be happy to attend. Is there anything I can bring?”
Naturally Mamá and Yolanda refused, insisting they’d have plenty to eat and drink, so to simply bring himself. Mamá added that he’d need to dress nice, as the first part of the ceremony would take place in a church, and then she and my aunt excused themselves, as our meal was going to get cold, and their table was ready anyway.
I reached for my margarita and gulped and gulped, until I’d drained most of the contents. As soon as my family was out of earshot, I twisted to Zac and expelled a long breath. “You seriously have no clue what you’ve just gotten yourself into.”
10
Zac
My stomach lifted along with the elevator as we soared toward the thirty-fourth floor of the downtown condominium where Catalina lived. Since she moved in a month or two before I started seeing Julia, I’d only been here once, and I’d been too focused on plundering Cat’s mouth and body to notice how nice it was. In the light of day, it was even more impressive.
