SOUL TIES (The Sánchez Brothers Series, Book 1)

CHAPTER 14 : DEBBIE

"Nelly, you've gotta stop looking at me that way."

A chuckle pierced the air. "I don't know what you're talking about, ma'am."

I scoffed and started to peel the avocado I had earlier asked Nelly to wash. She had protested when I insisted she'd have to wash all the vegetables for me, I wasn't her maid and I had to make sure she was aware of that fact. I mashed the avocado in a bowl with a metal fork before adding the chopped vegetables.

"Can you get me one lime from the fridge?" She handed me the small fruit and i squeezed a little of its juice into the mashed combo. I added a pinch of salt and stirred the mix. I tasted it and nodded my head in satisfaction before putting it in the fridge. That lime juice was the real deal. My one-person audience watched me keenly as I wiped down the kitchen island.

"What are we supposed to eat with the guac dip?" I understood her underlying demand. She wanted me to make some chicken melts and I would have, if I wasn't so tired. It was the second day of staying late at work to write log-ins, exhausted didn't quite qualify how washed out I felt.

I glanced at her and shrugged. "Whatever you want to eat with it
There's wheat bread in the fridge, you can spread the guac on it."

"Wheat bread?" She gave me an incredulous stare. "So you not gon make us some toast with eggs, bacons, cheese and all that good stuff?"

"Nope."

She scowled at my deadpan expression and stared at the bowl of guacamole in the fridge. "Damn, I think there's a pressing need for me to learn how to cook." She closed the fridge door with an extra amount of force, then turned with that funny look on her face. "Anyways, back to what we have saying. Don't you think it's time you fessed up?"

I glared at her briefly before walking out of the kitchen. "Nelly, I don't want to talk about that."

"Too bad, I do. Now start, cos you're just wasting your time. Look at me." She pointed at herself and I raised my brows in question. "I don't have a job, I'm gainfully unemployed. I'll wake up by 8am to take Kayla to school, then come back and sleep or do whatever the fuck it is I want till 3pm when I'd have to pick her up. After that, I'll take her to her piano class and come home by 5pm. And that's the end of my day. I don't need to sleep a lot of hours at night cos I would have already slept multiple hours during the day." She pinched my cheeks. "But you? You're in a whole different ballgame. You need to go to work early and stay active till 10pm. So like I said before, you're wasting your time."

She was right. I really was wasting my time. "What the fuck do you want, Nelly?"

"You already know. Just tell me how it's been going?"

I groaned and slapped her hand away from my cheeks. "Girl, nothing's been going on. I've been saying it all night." She gave me a wary look and I knew she hadn't accepted my explanation.

"So you're trying to tell me that you've been with your boss all these days, all alone at late hours and nothing has happened?" I stared daggers at her, what did she mean? "That's so fucking boring."

My brows furrowed in mild annoyance. "Fuck you mean all these days?" I raised two fingers. "It's just been two days. Two fucking days. Monday and today. You're making it seem like we've been meeting all year."

Her lips twitched at the edges. "That's an invalid point cos you could literally meet someone at the bar by 8pm and get pregnant for them that same night." Perplexity flooded my countenance and she nodded solemnly. "I've seen it with my very eyes, mi amiga."

"Mujer estúpida." She laughed at the insult I hurled.

"I'd be devastated if I was in your position. Being alone with a man and he doesn't make any form of advances?"