Page 62 of Dead Set on You
“She’s your girlfriend?” The words fly out before I can stop them. My hand jumps to my mouth.
Rafael’s head snaps in my direction, his expression shifting to one of horror. “Fuck no.”
Her brows jump at the same time as his, only her horror is directed at him. “Who are you talking to?” she asks, narrowing her eyes.
“Um. Myself.” His answer sounds more like a question. If this non-girlfriend knows him like I do, she can detect the lie from a mile away.
“It didn’tsoundlike you were talking to yourself.” She dips under the bar and emerges on the other side, beside him. Her eyes scan the restaurant. “Are you seeing something?”
Rafael chuckles like she’s told him a joke. “Nothing more than what you’d get with good old twenty-twenty vision.”
She doesn’t return his smile. “Is that why you need a medium? Because you’re seeing something that’s not there?”
“Shit. I told you it’s for a friend, Lupe,” he says.
Lupe.
She has a name.
Lupedoesn’t seem appeased. Her gaze is fixated on Rafael like she’s about to dissect him.
“Anyway, I should get going. I’m tired.” Rafael stretches his arms over his head and feigns a yawn. The movement hikes his shirt, revealing the waistband of his briefs and the strip of skin above it. I snap my gaze away, feeling several degrees warmer.
“Tired, huh? That must be why you’re talking to yourself,” she says, cutting off his escape.
“I think she might want to kill you,” I whisper, because I’m not sure what she is to him, butdangerousis coming to mind.
“Sí,” Rafael agrees. I’m not sure if he’s talking to her or me.
She’s close now, her eyes sharp and hawklike and not at all like the doe-eyed women he usually goes for. I don’t know if I should be impressed or scared.
Lupe crosses her arms. “Are you drunk?”
“Surprisingly, no.” The words slip out of my lips. Rafael repeats this. I groan beside him.
He shakes his head quickly. “No! I meant no. I haven’t had a drink in … days.”
“You’re acting very strange, Raffi.”
“Like I said, super tired. Should be getting home.” He leans in, closing the distance between them. My chest feels suddenly too tight, but I can’t look away—not as his arms wrap around her, his mouth moving toward her.
He kisses her.
On the cheek.
“I’ll call you later, cuz.”
Cuz?
They’re cousins.
The tightness doesn’t loosen up as I look between them. I’m not sure how I didn’t see the similarities before. The same full lips. The intense eyes. The confident stance. Oblivious me.
Rafael steps around Lupe. I follow, torn between feeling a strange sense of relief but also concern because she has the same expression Rafael gets when he’s up to something … and I’ve sat across from him long enough to feel uneasy.
He takes three steps.
“We don’t lie to each other. Ever,” Lupe says, voice cool.
