She was still in her uniform and white sneakers. Something about her was uncertain, just a tremor underneath her happy face. A glimmer of worry behind bright eyes.
“Hey,” she said as she sat next to me, setting her bag on the ground.
“Popcorn?” I tilted the striped paper bag in her direction.
“Thank you. I’m starving.” She shoved a handful of popcorn into her mouth.
“You work at Bettie’s—she’d let you eat anything on the menu except the T-bone.”
“Yeah, well,” she said around a mouthful, “Marnie was there.”
Just like that, the joy drained out of me. “What’d she do?”
Presley sighed and sat back in the bench. “Nothing. Sent her perfectly good pie back. Told me you were still married. You know, the usual.”
“I want to say I’m glad you didn’t scratch her eyes out, but I wouldn’t fault you.”
“Meh, I just got my nails done. She’s not worth ruining a perfectly good manicure.”
“That’s the spirit.”
Through a beat of silence, her smile fell. She was nervous.
I frowned. “Are you sure that’s all? You okay?”
“I … I’m glad you came today.”
“Of course I came. Although, I’ve gotta be honest—I was hoping for somewhere more private,” I joked.
Her cheeks flamed with a nervous chuckle. She changed the subject. “I tried to find you after you left for Zambia, did anyone tell you?”
“Your cousins mentioned it, but I thought they were just fucking with me.”
“Your phone, your email, your social … you disappeared.”
“I know. I’m sorry. If I’d known you were really looking for me, I would have found you. You know that, right?” I asked earnestly.
She smiled. It was thin, but I earned it.
“I know. And if I could have found you, I would have.”
My brows quirked as I tried to figure out if I missed something. “Sure. What’s this about, Pres?”
She looked down at her hands, her face tight. My heart rate doubled.
“It’s all right.” I covered her hands in her lap with one of mine. “You can tell me anything.”
When she met my eyes, I was struck stupid by the raw emotion I found.
“Sebastian, I—”
My phone rang in my pocket. I ignored it.
She glanced in the direction of the sound.
“Pres, what’s the matter?”
But the moment had paused, maybe passed.
“Answer it,” she said. “It could be important.”
I swore under my breath and pulled my phone out of my pocket, irritated to find my mother’s name on the screen.
With a huff, I flipped the phone open and put it to my ear. “Mom, I can’t talk right now—”
“Don’t panic, but Abuela fell.”
I panicked. “What? How? Where? Is she okay? Where are you?”
“At the restaurant, and I don’t know if she’s okay. The ambulance is on its way.”
I shot off the bench, forgetting about my popcorn, which ended up scattered in the grass. Immediately a squirrel darted out to take advantage of the spill.
“I’ll be there in a minute. We’ll follow them to the hospital.”
“All right, baby.”
I snapped my phone closed and looked down at Presley, forgetting for a second that she was about to tell me something that had shaken her.
“Abuela fell,” I said. “I’ve got to get to the restaurant. Come over tonight and we can talk, okay? I’m sorry.”
She put on a brave face. “Okay.”
I leaned in to kiss her swiftly. “Hold that thought for me.”
She nodded, and just like that, I was off in a charge for my truck with the sound of sirens in the distance.
I got to the restaurant to find Abuela on a gurney making jokes as EMTs prepared her for travel. Jokes or not, her face was gray, the busy restaurant still as everyone watched, holding their breaths.
Mom was at her side, her brows drawn together. They’d only just started growing back, her hair too. But she didn’t wear a scarf to cover it up, instead deciding to rock what looked like a buzz in a grand Fuck You to the universe. Abeula’s hand was in Mom’s, and I could tell by the white of Abuela’s knuckles that she was in more pain than she was letting on.
I strode to Mom’s side, fueled by worry.
They gave me wan smiles. Abuela reached out her free hand.
“Mijo, you didn’t have to come.”
“Nice try.” I bent to press a kiss to her hair as the EMTs made trips back and forth to the ambulance and filled out papers. “What hurts?”
“We think it’s her hip,” Mom answered gravely.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Abuela teased. “I’m old, but if you think I won’t be dancing in the kitchen again soon, you’re crazy.”
“You were dancing? In that kitchen?” I pointed to the back of house.
Abuela rolled her eyes. “‘Amor Mio’ came on, and next thing I knew, Alberto and I were dancing.”
“I’ll kill him.” I scanned the cluster of kitchen guys outside of the mouth of the kitchen until I locked eyes with Alberto.
He flushed and ducked back into the kitchen.
“No, you won’t,” Abuela said. “If you lay a finger on our best line cook, you’ll be in the ambulance next.” She winced, her face going gray. She swallowed hard.
“Have you given her anything for the pain?” I asked the paramedic with the clipboard.
“We’ve got morphine coming.”
“Good.”
“All right,” another paramedic said as she approached. “Ready to roll?”
“If there’s morphine in there like that one said, I was born ready.”
With a chuckle, she moved to the back of the gurney. Mom and I stepped back.
“We’ll be right behind you, Mama,” Mom said.
I turned for the kitchen crew and waiters. “Gina, can you work the door?” She nodded. “Good. Call me if you need anything. And tell Berto he should keep on hiding if he wants to keep his teeth.” A subdued chuckle across worried faces. “Don’t worry. A fall won’t stop Abuela. I’ll keep y’all posted, okay?”
They nodded and dispersed. I made my way around the dining room as quickly as I could, comforting anyone who was there while Mom waited for me in the front. And then I swept her off to my truck.
We’d been on our way for a few silent minutes before I glanced over at Mom.
Somehow, she was even prettier without hair. You couldn’t help but notice her eyes, big and dark and lined with thick black lashes, which had come back in force. Then it was her smile, which never seemed to be far away from her lips, even now with Abuela hurt. Even when she was hooked up to radiation, unable to eat, wasting away with sunken eyes and cheeks, that smile was always waiting to appear like sunshine from behind a cloud.
“You okay?”
She released a breath I suspected she’d been holding. “Mama’s indestructible. I shouldn’t be so scared, but I hate seeing her in pain.”
I nodded. “Plus, hospitals.”