Page 17 of Wild Catch
I explain, “You’re not going up the stairs backwards.”
“Oh.” She glances over her shoulder. “Good point, thanks. Let’s finish this upstairs.”
I wrinkle my nose but nod.
“Beep beep,” an obnoxious voice says from behind me. “You’re blocking traffic.”
“Sorry, Cade!” Grinning, Mena twirls around to take the stairs.
“Well?” Starr asks behind me. “Aren’t you moving?”
I sigh in the most exaggerated way I can manage, but follow up the narrow stairs. I have to twist myself so that I’m basically climbing sideways, because this contraption wasn’t made for me in any sense.
I lift my eyes, trying to convince myself that I’m not willingly walking into a straitjacket—and come face to face with something worse.
Mena’s butt.
She has stopped near the top of the stairs, one foot much lower than the other. This is a cruel angle—for me, not for her—because I can now see that she has very shapely thighs. Not small at all, thick enough that I could wrap my hands around them and still have left over, just the way I like them.
I swallow hard and try to look away, but all that’s left to see is the metal walls enclosed around me with their chipped trims and edges from many bodies brushing against them over the years.
“Get out of the way, man,” her muffled voice is saying to Rivera, who as far as I know is the only one at the top so far.
My eyes rise again, hoping that Mena is finally clearing the obstacle. But she’s still planted in front of me.
My throat works with a heavy swallow because my traitorous eyes have now fallen on her butt again. Of freaking course it’s perfectly thick too, two round mounds that I could?—
Nope! Not going there. Not going thereat all.
I close my eyes. My teeth are gritted so tight that my voice sounds animalistic as I say, “Mena, tell Rivera that I will toss him into oncoming traffic if he doesn’t move away in thirty seconds.”
She dutifully repeats my words verbatim, and sure enough she finally emerges into the open air.
I gasp a lungful of it and claw my way the rest of the way up, making a point to look at anything but she of the perfect behind and thighs. Maybe I’m the one I should toss onto oncoming traffic.
This time I take a seat near the middle, which is the closest to the straitjacket stairs. The rest of them pile onto the front, except for Chen who scoots all the way to the back so that he can’t appear in Mena’s videos.
I’m glad I had enough presence of mind to bring sunglasses to this expedition. I pluck them from the pocket of my uniform pants and slide them on. And you know what? The day isn’t unbearably sunny and being early April, it’s still relatively cool and breezy. I should’ve brought a hair tie but I don’t mind it too bad that my hair whips around with the changes in the wind. I lean back and fold my arms, legs spread wide enough to fit between the seats and preventing anyone else from joining. This isn’t so bad after all.
At the front, the three stooges and camerawoman take in all the sights. Rivera makes big expressions that delight our social media manager. I don’t know if it’s because she has a particular affinity to the guy or purely from a professional perspective. She did forgive him quite easily after he nearly took her out yesterday.
Meanwhile, Starr is a notch or two more subdued, but just as excited to be here. And O’Brian is chatting up a storm, providing hours of content in a matter of seconds.
I wedge my elbow between the window and the seat in front of me, bending it so I can prop my chin against my hand. The bus rounds a plaza with a massive monument of an angel sprouting from it, and it paints some impressive perspective on a shockingly straight avenue flanked by buildings that look three hundred years old, with even older trees.
“So, what did you do in Mexico before?”
I lift my eyes from the street to the woman now sitting in front of me, her cellphone pointed at my face.
One of my eyebrows rises, debating what to say. I came once as a kid for one of my mother’s fashion events, and spent the whole stay at the hotel room. Another time, when Lewis and I were teens, we came to Acapulco to be seen in public as a happy and joyful family. That was right after my parents had such a huge fight, I thought they’d really divorce at last. I spent the whole time at the beach sitting under a shade with my clothes on, hiding the bandages that their fight left me with, after my mother threw a crystal vase on the ground and shards wedged in my skin.
But then there’s the time I came in the off season with someone I was dating. That one was supposed to be for fun, including things I wouldn’t share on social media, but also ended up in some kind of drama that resulted in a breakup.
Food was excellent each time, though.
With that, I straighten out and look right at the camera, “For the food. It truly is even better than everyone raves about.”
“Isn’t it?” Mena returns with excitement. “What is your favorite dish so far?”
