Telltale Tango | Complete

Four - Feliciano

The minute I walk into Guerrero's, I start questioning if I made the right call. Every barber chair has a guy sitting in it, looking in the wide mirrors while clippers hum around their heads. The benches on the side are packed tighter than a beer fridge. I exhale. This is going to take a minute, but it's worth the wait. Nobody can get you looking fresh like a Dominican barber can.

I go over to the corner, lean against the wall and bob my head to the Reggaeton beats coming from the speakers on the walls. The boys who run this joint love their baseball, which means I'll be ignoring the games playing on both flat screens. Thank God for cell phones.

Logan and Tyler aren't going to be pumped to hear I'm running late, but I don't have much of a choice this evening. I scan the room. Things appear to be moving at a decent pace. Promising. I fire a text over to the boys, letting them know what the situation is.

Running late atm.

Logan: typical. We're starting without you

Tyler: I love you, bro, but your planning skills need some tlc

They took that pretty well. Time to see what Giselle's socials look like.

A couple seconds later, I manage to track her down. When it comes to other things, I like to start at the top and slowly work my way down. But for social media, I prefer taking the opposite approach.

I scroll through pictures of prom, a semester abroad in Cuba during college, inspirational quotes and ski trips. Space opens up on the bench and I grab a seat. That's funny. I haven't found a picture of her with a guy yet. Those dudes are obviously just friends, but no boyfriend. Damn. She's doing that swimsuit all kinds of favours.

"Hey." The guy sitting to my right elbows me. Shit! I liked the swimsuit pic. "I can take your place if you don't wanna go," he says.

"Chill, man. I'm going." Thanks to your ass, I'll need an excuse for later. I stand up and shoot him a dirty look before hopping into the open seat.

"Long time no see." Manny wraps the hair cloth around me.

"Yeah, it's been a minute. How you been?"

"Good and getting by. You?"

"Same."

"Nice. The works?"

I nod. "Yup."

"I got you, fam." He adjusts the chair height and goes straight to work.

* * *

I arrive at the pub forty-five minutes behind schedule, and sigh. It's going to take me about twenty minutes to get from here to Casa Rosada. That's cutting things pretty tight for getting there by seven. I can't hang around here too long. The boys aren't going to appreciate me showing up late and leaving early. I need an excuse.

After giving my name to the cute server at the door, she takes me straight to the table where the boys are laying into their meals, and I order a beer as I slide into Logan's bench.

"Took you long enough," Tyler says.

Logan looks me up and down. "Did you get a haircut?"

"Yeah--thought it was getting a bit shaggy."

"It looked fine from here."

"Thanks, Ty."

"Wait a minute." Logan wrinkles his forehead. "You got a haircut last week."

I shrug. "And?"

"That's weird," he replies.

"No, what's weird is you making eye contact with me while licking your fingers." I flick a napkin at him.