[ nineteen ]
When we arrived at the door to Toni's place, he had the most unusual request for me. "Close your eyes." He said with a nervous smile.
I eyed him suspiciously. "Why?" But a smile broke out onto my lips.
"Please, just do it." He practically begged.
And I closed my eyes without prying any further. From beside me, I could hear him grabbing his keys from his jeans pocket. I giggled when I heard his keys hit the cement as they fell clumsily out of his hands.
"Don't laugh." He said in a whiney voice which I found adorable.
"Hurry." I tapped my foot on the ground impatiently, though still laughing.
After fidgeting with his keys for a couple of minutes, he finally got the door open and said to me, "Just give me a moment." With that, I heard his hurried footsteps as he ran around his house, doing god-knows-what.
The curiosity was too much for me to bear and I opened my eyes. From the doorway, I could see into the house, past the livingroom, and into the kitchen where he was putting things away furiously. I picked up my luggage in my hand and stepped into his home. It was simple, but nice. There weren't very many things that could give the notion that he was rich, but he didn't seem greedy either. It was a nice place that was oddly already feeling like home.
When he saw me standing in the livingroom, he frowned. "Arista...I asked you to wait for me outside. Now you ruined the surprise."
"What surprise?" I eyed him, confused. "All I saw was you running around your kitchen como loco." Like a madman.
"I only understood loco." He admitted with a smile. As we spoke, I could see that he was still moving things around and putting things away in the kitchen.
I cut the distance between us, and passed a wall that blocked out half of the kitchen. There, on the counter and on the kitchen island were trays of burnt food. Next to those were restaurant bags with delicious smelling foood. I raised an eyebrow at Toni. "What were you trying to do, eh?"
He slumped his shoulders in defeat and admitted with a sigh. "I tried to cook you an authentic Colombian meal...but I burnt it. I also burned my hand." He showed me the back of his left hand and there was a bright red burn mark across it. "When I stuck my hand in the oven to get the food out, my hand accidentally touched the rack. And since I nearly burned my house down too, I decided not to put my life at risk and I went out and got some food instead. It was supposed to be a nice welcoming gift and you weren't supposed to know I cheated by buying the food."
Though I tried to contain it, a huge smile spread across my lips. "You know, Toni, there's a magical thing called an oven mit and you use it precisely to avoid accidents like these."
"Oven mits are for babies." He said with a laugh.
With a smile still visible on my face, I told him, "That's a hell of an interesting story. But you really didn't have to do that for me."
"I want to." He insisted.
"Ay Toni." I rolled my eyes at him playfully. I reached to grab one of the bags on the table as I said to him, "You sit down and I'll serve the food. I wouldn't want you to have another life threatening accident."
He only smiled, but didn't complain.
It was after dinner and after Toni showed me to my temporary bedroom when I got a phone call from James. From the moment I hit the answer button, he began with his long list of things he wanted to say to me. "I talked to Giselle about what she did. She's not sorry, and I wish I could do more about it. She thinks you want to take me from her."
I snorted. "She's daft."
James chuckled. "She won't understand we're friends, just like we were when we were children."
"If anything, you want to take me from Toni." I joked.
"So you two are already going out?" He asked, trying to sound casual. But I knew James and he was hoping that Toni and I were just friends.
I shook my head as though he could see me through the phone. "Not officially. But we really like each other and I have a lot of fun with Toni. He's a nice guy."
"That's not love." He pointed out.
"You don't know that." I argued. "James, lets not have this conversation again."
"Sorry." He apologized.
"What else were you going to tell me?" I steered the conversation in a different direction.
"Oh," He recalled, "I already have the job and apartment thing sorted out for you. I talked to the public relations people at the club and recommended you. I had to call in a few favors, but you're as good as in. And I found you an apartment, already paid for the first few months while you get back on your feet." As he spoke, I could hear the smile in his voice. He was more than glad to be helping me, but I hoped he wasn't going to want something in return.
Sighing, I said, "Thank you for the job, Jamesito. But I can't accept the apartment."
"Why not?" He whined. Knowing James, he was probably pouting as well. He knew I couldn't resist him when he did that to me. It was too bad for him that it couldn't work over the phone.
"Because renting an apartment is too much money for you to spend on me." I explained.
"I want to help you." James said. "I really care about you and I wouldn't want you to be homeless on the streets or something. Arista, don't doubt me when I say that I would do anything for you."
"Actually, I already found a place to stay." I bit down on my lip nervously.
"Really? Where?" He wondered.
"I'm staying with Toni." I replied.
And in that moment, the other end of the phone went silent.
-
dun dun dun...
drama.
what will james do? what will happen? where did toni get those colombian food recipes? and why didn't arista take up james offer about having an apartment? find out in the next thrilling episode of 'the dream is real'!
bahaha. thank you so much for reading and supporting. i feel like this story is maybe halfway of seventy five percent done. so there might be about ten, maybe fifteen chapters left at the most. maybe even less. it depends on how inspired i am.
so give this a nice vote and comment!
mexico draws to peru, which is saying a lot bc that peru team was supposedly the cream of the crop while mexico was using the B team's bench. great job boys.
but still, gotta put more effort into it.
anyway, thank you for reading.
-clary xx
