Street Love (An Interracial Love Story)

Chapter 50

Evie’s POV

“Okay.” I say to myself. “I can do this.” I’m preheating the oven to bake the lasagna I bought from the grocery store yesterday. Making dinner for Tony is hard since he’s such an amazing cook but I’m trying.

My mom and Donny are on a school field trip and won’t be back ‘til tomorrow. They’re spending the night at the aquarium.

There’s a knock on the door and I run to get it.

“Hey you.” Tony squeezes me and I squeeze back.

“Hey yourself,” I respond. He slips his backpack off and I close the door behind him.

“Donny and your mom home?” Tony asks.

“Nope.” I wrap my arms around his neck. “Just me and you. They won’t be back until tomorrow morning, around 10.”

Tony raises his eyebrows. “What does that mean?”

“It means.” I get closer to him. “I have to put the lasagna in the oven.” I laugh at Tony and let go of him. Sliding the lasagna box out of the freezer, I start unwrapping it. When I get it out of the box, I open the oven and start to put it in.

“Um.” Tony walks up next to me. “You didn’t thaw it?”

“Thaw the lasagna?” I ask.

“Yes.”

“I have to thaw it?” I ask again. Tony just laughs.

“Yes baby. You have to thaw it. Or it will take somewhere around five hours to cook.”

I look at my watch. “Well, it’s 5p.m. now so…” I look up at Tony. “It’ll be done around 10.”

Tony takes the lasagna out of my hands, wraps it back up and puts it in the freezer.

“How about I cook something Ev? I appreciate your effort though.”

I feel defeated. “Okay. We don’t have much though.”

Tony is already digging through the refrigerator and pulling a bunch of stuff out.

“What do you mean you don’t have a lot?” His head is in the back of the fridge. He pulls out a package of two pork chops, a pineapple, a jar of orange marmalade and some plain yogurt. He places it all on the counter then goes through the cabinets. A few seconds later, there’s black pepper, salt and cashews sitting on the counter. “We’re making pan grilled pork chops and pineapple. Sound good?”

“I’m not saying no to that.”

Tony laughs and washes his hands. I’m standing there awkwardly just watching him and after a few moments, he pulls me back into the kitchen with him.

“You gonna help me?” He smirks.

“I guess.”

When dinner is done, it’s absolutely incredible. The pork chops are so tender and the pineapple is perfect. Tony serves it over cashew rice. Every bite makes me melt a little on the inside.

“So Charleston was good,” Tony says from across the table.

“Sorry!” My mouth is full. I was too busy shoveling food in my mouth that I forgot to ask how the first day of school was. “Did you meet anyone new?”

Tony smiles. “Not really. There was this shy kid who kept sitting next to me. I didn’t talk to him though. He was pretty chill.”

“I’m sure you’ll meet more people as school goes on. And I’m really happy for you Tony.”

He blushes a little. “Thanks Ev. And how are your college apps going?”

“Oh! I forgot to tell you. I finished last weekend. So now comes the nervous wait. I should hear back from the CSUs within the next month or two but I won’t hear back from the UCs ‘til April.”

“I’m sure you’ll get in babe. I just hope you say here in SoCal.”

“Same here.” We finish eating and do the dishes.

“I guess I should head home,” Tony says after drying his hands.

I honestly don’t want him to go. “You don’t have to,” I say. “Do you want to spend the night?”

“I’d love to mamas but I don’t have any extra clothes and we have school tomorrow.”

“Please?” I give him puppy dog eyes.

“Fine, but I need to call my mom. I told her I was gonna run by the grocery store before coming home.”

“Yay!” I kiss him on the cheek then run down the hallway to clean up my bed. A couple minutes later, Tony is knocking at my door.

“Can I come in?”

I slip my pajamas on and pull the hair tie out of my hair. “Yeah.”

I crawl into bed while Tony slips his clothes off. He crawls in next to me and kisses my forehead.

“Can we talk?” He asks.

I’m automatically on guard. “What kind of question is that?”

Tony laughs. “You always assume the worst Evie.”

“Whenever someone asks, ‘can we talk,’ it’s usually a bad thing.”

“Well, I promise you it’s not a bad thing.” Tony drapes his hand around my waist. “I just want to formally say thank you for everything you’ve done for me so far. You got me to stop drinking and even when I relapsed, you gave me so many chances to make it right. No one has ever believed in me like you do Evie.”

“Tony, I—

Tony keeps going. “Let me finish babe. I can’t believe the things you’ve done for me. Especially when I joined Pandilla. Even when you found it, you genuinely wanted me to get out and I just love you so much for sticking by my side even through our ups and downs.”

I’m actually crying. “Why are you saying all this babe?”

“I don’t know. I guess as we get closer and closer to graduation, I’m starting to realize that real life is about to start and I want you to know how much I want you there with me.”

“I’m always going to be there with you Tony.”

He kisses me and I kiss him back.