Izan and Mist

Chapter 12 (Mist): Even Worse

I am not confrontational. 

I prefer peace to being at war with someone.

I like harmony in my life.

I am not a petty person.

Yet all that went out the window when I saw Yvette getting out of her '69 Z28 in the parking lot as Izan and I were pulling in. His father had called an emergency meeting at the family's restaurant and he wanted everyone there. Everyone, including me. I wondered if it was related to the financials Izan and his father had been working on. His father had contacted him and asked for help hunting down some discrepancies Izan had recently discovered before he quit, and instead of saying yes right away, Izan had talked to me first.

"My dad asked me for some help with the restaurant's books. There's some...discrepancies that I'd been noticing but couldn't account for, and he asked for my help straightening it out."

"So help him," I'd said.

"If I do, I told him we wouldn't be meeting at the restaurant or the house."

"Do you want to meet him at my place? Since I'm not there right now." I was still staying at the commune's cabin.

He'd looked thoughtful. "Actually, that'd be great. Do you mind?"

I shook my head. "You still have the key."

Izan had pulled me close. "I don't want you to think I'm getting drawn back in, Mist. I promise I'm not. This is a limited project and the only reason I'm doing it is because it might implicate someone who works in the restaurant. But if you have even the slightest hesitation, I won't do it."

He meant what he said, so I threw a little LEGO block of trust his way and told him to go ahead. He'd either leave it on the ground for me to step on, or he'd add it to the other blocks I'd given him in our trust rebuild.

Seven weeks later, Izan and his father must have figured out what was going on because they were calling a meeting.

"You're family, so Dad and I want you there," Izan had said simply to me. "And I'm sorry to ask you to be there around some people you're uncomfortable with, but this is important, and I want you to be there. You won't be alone. I won't leave you. Dad won't. Mom won't. Abuela won't. Yvette and her family will also be there, but...do you think you can trust me, Mist?"

Looking at Izan sharply, I realized that there must be a very good reason he wanted me to attend this meeting. This family meeting. Could I trust him to have my back? I decided this was a good time to decide if trusting him was the right thing to do. His behavior toward me would be a test of sorts, to see if he kept his promise to protect and defend me. The past seven weeks since he'd quit his job had been nothing but encouraging, but we also hadn't spent any time with his family. 

He'd begun working for Sullivan Motors and there was a lightness about him that I could see and feel. He loved the job, and he was excited to go to work every day. The man loved all things cars and the job seemed a perfect fit for him. It certainly brought him more satisfaction than handling the accounting for the restaurant. He came by the commune at least four nights a week, and I always looked forward to the throaty growl of his 1969 Nova SS coming up the road, an audible signal of his impatience to be with me.

"I have to do some bread and butter work at the garage, obviously, but as RJ's seeing more and more of what I'm capable of, he's giving me some harder jobs," Izan said, smile flashing as he spoke. "I like that I'm not sitting behind a desk, stuck inside every day doing basically the same thing. I'm working with my hands and every day's something different."