Oranges & Roses

If You Dare Come A Little Closer

Unedited.

Chapter Forty-Two

“Más adelante,” Lan snapped and filled my hands with a pan of tamales. “Ahora tenemos que conseguir el alimento fuera antes de que hay un motín.” Later. Now we have to get the food out before there's a riot.

“Bossy, ¿no?” Aunt Paulita said with a sassy smile.

“Exactamente como Rey.” Exactly like Rey.

“Ha. Ha,” Lan joked. “Let’s go. After you, Crista.”

Crista winked at me before following Lan out. Aunt Paulita beckoned me forward and the pair of us followed the other two out. Surprisingly, she had an arm wrapped around my shoulders and was rubbing my arm.

Damn these people were going to be friendly.

I was definitely in trouble.

There were enough people to fill up all the chairs I’d sprayed down plus two of the dining room chairs. That equaled about four long tables and that didn’t include the picnic table where the kids were eating.

The food coming outside apparently meant everyone was to flock to the tables, the kids running way faster than the adults. Ravenous little buggers, let me tell you. JJ happily introduced me to half of his cousins before his mother shooed both him and them off to sit down.

Most of the adults were already seated and the arrangement at first glance seemed random. You sat where you could find a seat but it wasn’t until I looked closer that I realized they purposefully separated Rey and I. Rey was at one end of the table while I was at the other, surrounded by people who were doing rapid introductions that I barely caught any of them.

“You only sit together if you’re married,” Crista said as she sat down next to me. “And even then, you don’t always sit together.”

She indicated Aunt Paulita who was sitting down at Rey’s end of the table and the older gentleman who was to my left at the head of the table. He looked ancient but the twinkle in his eye would tell anyone that his mind was as sharp now as it was when he was younger.

“Abuelo,” Crista said to him as she passed him a plate with two tamales on it. “Se trata de Em, amigo de Rey.” They both looked at me and smiled. I couldn’t help but feel like I was being appraised like a cow going to market. Crista leaned in and whispered in my ear, “He doesn’t speak much English so I hope you’re fluent in Spanish.”

Well shit.

And just like that I was tossed into the water without any lifesavers. Questions were thrown at me, so many in fact that I probably looked like a deer in the headlights as I took them all in and looked from one person to the other before looking at Rey. I didn’t know how much of it was I was supposed to answer.

Just as he opened his mouth to answer for me, a woman to his left slapped him on the arm.

“La niña puede hablar por sí misma.” She can speak for herself.

Before I could answer any of them, however, the old man next to me cleared his throat and stood. Everyone went quiet and looked at him, all but me. I was still looking at Rey, who just smiled at me softly and then winked.

“Para obtener las bendiciones que has derramado sobre esta casa y en esta familia,

Para todos los días que hemos pasado juntos y todos los días por venir,

En las alegrías y tristezas que nos unen cada vez más estrecha,

Para las pruebas que hemos superado,