Maybe then it wouldn’t have taken me so long to realize that my passion was quite literally under my nose, on the cover of the hundreds of books that saved my soul at a time I never thought it would be salvageable.
Now that I have a real shot of making my dreams, not someone else’s, come true, I know I can’t fuck this up with Mateo. No matter how tempting it is to spar with the grump.
“Knock it off.” Mateo slightly shoves Anthony, his biting tone bringing me back to the present.
“I was just messing with you, Isa,” Anthony says, staring straight at Mateo. What the hell is going on with those two?
“No, Mateo. It’s fine,” I say, trying to bring down the tension on the call. “Anthony’s right. I’ve been a little MIA recently.”
“What’s MIA mean?” Anna pipes in.
“It means missing in action. It’s sometimes used as a figure of speech when you haven’t seen or heard from someone in awhile,” I explain as best as I can to the inquisitive five-year-old beside me.
“Have you been MIA because you’ve been hanging out with me?” she asks, worried she may be at fault.
I nudge her with my elbow. “Of course not. Besides, I love hanging out with you. I even get to make friendship bracelets with you and your friends. What’s not to love?” I ask, seemingly putting her at ease.
“Hey, that hasn’t been confirmed yet,” Mateo starts, but I continue as if I didn’t hear him.
“And yes, Anthony, I will be texting your lovely wife back. I haven’t seen her in a while, and I’m sure she could use help with the kiddos.”
Anthony takes the phone out of Mateo’s hand. I can’t make out whatever Mateo grumbled, but from the sounds of it, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t meant for Anna’s little ears. “Thanks, Isa, but don’t worry about the kids. My wife is literally Superwoman. Although I do think she could do with a little time away from them, actually.” He chuckles. “Her mom basically lives with us, and we have a nanny that travels with us when we do, but I’m sure she’d love some alone time with you.” He looks over to where I assume Mateo is standing and smiles naughtily. “Actually, if your boss here isn’t overworking you too much and lets you out of that ivory tower—”
“Jesus Christ,” Mateo mutters.
“I would love to treat you and Denise to a spa day.” He spares one more look at Mateo before he continues. “As a matter of fact, take the whole day and get pampered. Go shopping and head out to a girls’ dinner. Get white wine wasted while you’re at it, if that’s what you’re feeling up to. We’ll plan it on a day when I’m off and her mom and I can tag-team my little gremlins. What do you say?”
I huff out a laugh as Anthony moves the phone a bit to include a very unimpressed-looking Mateo. “Jeez, who knew a girl only had to do ignore her friend for a few weeks to get wined and dined. Just kidding,” I say quickly. “You really don’t have to do all of that. I don’t mind accompanying her to whatever she wants to do. We all know she more than deserves a break. But you absolutely do not have to pay for me. That’s going a bit overboard. Besides, your wife is more into chicken fingers and fries than Michelin restaurants, so I don’t think I’ll be breaking the bank.” I smirk.
Anthony being Anthony, opens his mouth, surely ready to insist, when Mateo says something to shock us both.
“I’ll be the one paying for Isabella.”
The call goes silent for a few moments as I try to figure out whether I heard him correctly.
Anthony clears that confusion right up. “Is that so? Well, looks like Isabella has quite the benefits package at this new gig. Who knew that spas, shopping, and dinners out were included.” His eyes shift to me on the screen. “Shit, if this baseball gig goes south for me, I might need to get on that—”
The screen suddenly points toward the ground, and I can tell someone is trying to muffle the microphone. Although a very gruff “that’s enough” makes it through the line.
Then Mateo is back on the screen, and I hear a faint “ouch” coming from somewhere behind him.
“We’ve arrived,” Hank announces. Only then do I realize the car is parked in the building’s underground garage, and all eyes are on me… including the very assessing eyes of Mateo’s mother.
Mateo must hear Hank clearly, because he asks to be taken off FaceTime so he can say good night to Anna privately, since we’re going to head upstairs and start her bedtime routine.
I hand my phone off to Anna after I help unbuckle her from her booster seat. Not like she needs it, but I guess I needed something to do with my clammy hands.
I round the vehicle to make sure Beth doesn’t need assistance getting out. She might proclaim to feel as good as new after her hip replacement, but I like to be near when she gets out of high stools or cars, just in case.
To my surprise, she’s already out of the vehicle and texting with a single digit. For someone who can only type one letter at a time, she surely is going at it.
But hey, better she be distracted by whatever’s on her phone than that weird phone call.
A moment later, Anna hops out and hands me my phone.
I’m not sure what to do with the slight disappointment that hits me when I realize that Mateo is no longer on the phone. So I shake it off and tuck that thought under the very lumpy imaginative rug in my mind, never to be sorted through again.
Hank wishes us a good night as Charlie walks us to the awaiting elevator.
