Birthday Surprise

Chapter 3

Josh
I pull up to Carmen's house at a little after one. Her mom opens the door and smiles at me.
"Hi, Josh."
"Hey, Ms. Lopez."
"Please, call me Maria. Come in."
"Thank you, Maria."
"Carmen is almost ready. She said she just needed to get her shoes."
"That's okay. I'll just wait here with you."
She smiles.
"So, where are you going to have lunch?" She ask.
"It's going to be a nice day. I thought we could have a picnic."
"That's a good idea. Carmen used to love going on a picnic."
Her tone makes it sound like there was a big reason she said used to.
"What happened?"
"She..." She begins before checking to see if the coast is clear.
"She used to go with her dad and Isaac a lot. You probably know that I'm divorced from her dad but I never keep the kids from him. It was his own decision to stop coming by. I would take her but I knew it was her and her dad's thing."
"Do you think I should change the plan?"
"No, no, no. I think it's nice. She might still like it."
"Okay."
Eventually, Carmen comes out of her room. She's wearing a pink V-neck and denim capris with classic Vans.
"Lo siento, mamá. Tuve que cambiar mi ropa."
She notices that I'm there.
"Oh, hi."
"Hey. Are you ready?"
"Yeah."
She hugs her mom and leaves the house with me.
"You know, I wouldn't say this in front of her, but it was kind of sexy to hear you speak Spanish."
"Shut up," she says with a laugh.
"I'm serious."
"Well, thank you. I've never received that compliment. Of course to me, it's just second nature."
I smile.
"So, what did my mom tell you when I was getting ready?" She asks when we're in the car.
"Um, kind of some deep stuff. She brought up your dad."
"Why were you talking about my dad?"
"Well, she asked where we were going for lunch. You'll find out anyway but we're going on a picnic. Your mom brought up the fact that you used to go on picnics with your dad."
"Oh. Yeah."
I watch her expression.
"It's just an idea. We don't have to go through with it."
"I'm sorry. It's a beautiful day for it. I would just prefer if we went to a restaurant."
"I get it. We can do that instead."
"You hate me now, don't you?"
"No. Once again, I'm glad that you were honest."
"I like you too much to lie."
I smile.
"Yeah, me too."
She smiles a little. I drive to an Italian restaurant that's near a shopping center and park near the front . We get out of the car and head inside. When I'm not looking at the menu, I look up at her. She still has the same expression.
"Are you still thinking about the picnic thing?"
"Yeah, I am. I feel bad that I made you go somewhere else."
"Don't. I promise that I'm not mad."
She sighs.
"Since you already know half of it, I might as well tell you the other half. I haven't seen my dad in almost three years. I guess I'm hoping that I would see him again and get to go on another picnic. I'm sort of saving it for him, which I clearly shouldn't have."
"I'm sorry."
"No. I am. It's only the next day and you're already starting to find out about my family drama."
"It's okay. I was hoping to eventually find out at some point anyway."
This seems to cheer her up.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
"Okay," she says, sitting up straighter in her seat.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah. I'm fine. Thanks."
"Of course."
She returns to her bubbly self as soon as she gets some food in her. I'm honestly relieved because I was starting to worry that she was going to call it off. I didn't take my relationships seriously before but something about Carmen is different. It makes me want to take a genuine approach.
"Are you full or do you have room for tiramisu?" I ask after we ate what we could.
"Mmm... I'm pretty full. I wouldn't mind taking it to go though."
"Okay good. I'm full too. I was just wondering because I would've ordered it for you."
"Thank you but no. I'll save it for dessert later, assuming that Isaac doesn't get to it," she jokes.
"Does he like tiramisu?"
"Pfft. He likes anything that's sweet."
"We'll stop at a bakery after this and get something for him and your mom."
She seems genuinely happy by this.
"Sure. There's a place nearby that we go for pan de dulce sometimes. I'll show you where it is."
"Okay cool."
We finish up at the restaurant and carefully put our tiramisu in the back. Carmen gives me directions to the small bakery. It gives me the excuse to hear her speak Spanish again as she tells the female employee what to get. I took French as my foreign language credit in school, so I'm completely lost here. The only terms I catch were hello when we walk in, thank you when Carmen grabs the bag of sweets, and goodbye when we leave.
"How do you do that?" I ask in the car.
"Do what?"
"Have a whole conversation in Spanish. I barely passed French and can't hold a conversation."
"Here we go again with the Spanish thing," she says with a grin.
"Well, it's interesting to me."
"A lot of people speak Spanish. Why is it interesting when I do it?"
"I don't know. Because I like you."
"Well, I don't know what to say. My parents are also Mexican obviously and taught me from an early age. I became fluent in both English and Spanish. My mom told me that English was my first language. That's kind of it."
"Was it hard to learn?"
"No. There were some things that took more time but I learned them eventually."
"Like what?"
She goes on about it in specific detail. I don't know why I enjoyed it so much but I do. We arrive at her house and I park in the driveway.
"Thank you for today. I had a good time," she says.
I chuckle.
"You make it sound like this was a blind date."
"You know what I mean."
"Yeah. I'm glad. I had a good time too."
She smiles and leans over to kiss me sweetly. I want more so I kiss her slowly until I finally pull away. It feels like I've never kissed someone like that. She gets out of the car and leaves after grabbing the food.