Another Lifetime

Chapter 64:

*** one week later ***
Monse's POV:
"Monse, I need a huge favor." Paula runs up to me. "What's up?" I ask while I finish serving my table. "Can you cover for me? I'm supposed to close later but my little brother has a parent teacher thing and I'm the only one who can go." She explains. "I gotta make sure someone can watch Mona." I remind her. "You know I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important." She follows me back to the kitchen. "Fine, if  I can find someone to watch her I'll do it." I give in. "Thank you!" She hugs me. "You owe me." I laugh. "Literally anything." Paula says. She doesn't know about the shooting or how happy I am to not have to be back at the house for a few more hours. "Who are am I closing with?" I ask. "Don't kill me." She says and I know it's gonna be bad. "Vero." She says and I walk away. "It's not gonna be that bad!" Paula says. "If it wasn't gonna be that bad you would've told me." I point out. "I literally don't have anyone else to ask." She begs. "I'm still gonna do it but you can't do shit like that. You're basically my only friend here." I know I should've told her I changed my mind. "For real?! Ok, I'm giving you all my tips from today." She goes back to her tables and I roll my eyes.

Even though Odessa's mad at me for asking her to get her own place, she agreed to watch Mona for free. Cesar wouldn't tell me where he is or what he's doing but it's been like this since the shooting. He loves pushing me away. Vero got here a few hours ago but we haven't talked. Everyone clocks out and now we're forced to work together. "So I can just-" I stop her. "You should go. I can do this alone." I say. "I'm good." She smiles sarcastically. "I was trying to be nice but whatever." I push a mop into her hand. "What the hell is your problem?" She asks. "I don't have one." I leave to finish cleaning outside. "I know you think you're smarter than everyone but I'm not that dumb." She yells. There's a gunshot not too far from us and Vero pulls her gun out before I can even blink. She pushes me behind her and I don't know how to feel. "I thought you hated me." I tell her. "What?" She asks. "You know... 'cause of Cesar." I remind her. "Come on." We go back in the Joint and lock the door. "Cesar cheated me, not you. It took me a long time to realize that whatever bull shit he put me through had nothing to do with me, and it wasn't on you. Plus, I probably shouldn't have got with him in the first place. I knew how he felt about you." She explains. I don't say anything. "You've been treating me like shit and I don't get it. I was happy and you came back and... my life changed in a few days and you took most of it." I'm the bitch. "I just-" What the hell am I gonna say to her? "I thought things would be the same when I got back. I don't know why but I just thought I would come home and Cesar would be exactly the same just waiting for me." I admit. "Yeah, well I thought Cesar was the guy I had a crush on and then I blinked and he was just a dad. He was great when you were gone but he chose a life with you over the Santos." She's the first person to tell me anything about Cesar during those months I was gone. "You don't get to be mad at me after you stole my boyfriend just like I don't get to be mad at you for something he did to me." Vero's way nicer than I thought she was. "Damn, it was so much easier to just hate you." I accidentally say out loud. "I get that a lot." She smiles. "So, since we already had an emotional talk and I pulled out a gun we should probably just screw over the morning shift and leave." Vero suggests. "I think Paula's opening so it's only fair." I laugh. "Oh, and you probably shouldn't bring a gun to work." I point out. "I promised my boss I would." She says. "One of the managers told you to bring a gun?" I ask. "No, my other boss... lil Spooky." She acts like it's obvious. "Did he tell you to work here so he could check up on me?" I'm gonna kill him. "No, he wanted me go check on Paula." She admits. "Why?" I ask. "Because She might be why someone tried to kill Cesar last week." Vero says before she walks out.

I end up staying at the Joint for a minute just so I have a quiet place to think. Why wouldn't Cesar tell me about Paula? Once I'm feeling better about the whole thing I get in my car. I drive past my dad's house and I see Ray knocking on his door. I slow down but instead of seeing a fight I see my dad invite him in. They've both been acting weird and now only I know why.

Cesar's POV:
"Hey." I say when Monse walks in. "Mona and Ky just went to sleep." I tell her. She lays with me on the couch. "Are you ok?" I pull her to my chest and run my hand up and down her arm. "I love you." She looks up and kisses me. "I love you too." I sound confused but I am. "Can you tell me what's going on so I can fix it?" I ask. "I'm a bad person. Vero was telling me how she doesn't blame me for what happened and all I could think was how lucky I was that you chose me. I love that you keep choosing me." Monse explains.