Non-Stop || Lin-Manuel Miranda

Chapter 23

"Okay so let me get this straight. We have Luz and Luis and Luz and Luis." I laughed pointing to the separate couples.

"That was a happy coincidence. It makes occasions like these that much more complicated! You can call me Lucecita or Cita." Lin's sister said, "And call my husband Crespo."

I smiled, "Okay got that one down. And we have Hunter. Alejandro. Alex and Dylan." I said pointing to each of them as we were sitting around the dinner table.

"You got that freakishly fast." Cita laughed, "Like that was impressive."

"What can I say?" I laughed and we all dug into our meals.

We sat there, ate and talked for about an hour. The adults had a few glasses of wine with their meals. The kids were hilarious and so much fun to talk to. This family was so loving and so welcoming it blew me away. I had hardly known the Crespo's for a few hours and I've felt like I've known them for my entire life. As dinner came to a close the boys continued to play with one another. Hunter and I did the dishes and talked for a while more while the others went into the living room to talk.

"Can I tell you a secret?" Hunter asked me while she was clearing the table.

I smiled, "Go for it."

"This is so embarrassing for me! But it's super cute for you so I thought I'd tell you."

"It can't be that embarrassing."

She laughed, "As soon as I heard you were going to be on The Late Show with my tio I dropped everything, called him and begged him to get your autograph for me. Like I'm talking about begging!"

I laughed with her, "He didn't ask me for one! That little shit."

She smiled, "He told me he was definitely going to until he saw your face."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" I laughed.

"He said that he got 'way to nervous to ask you for one.' " Hunter said in air quotes.

"Are you serious?"

She nodded and smiled, "He called me literally right after you left and apologized profusely and told me everything. Oh Lena it was so romantic."

I went over and hugged her, "I love him."

"You do?" She smiled and hugged me back; we were nearly the same height even though she was considerably younger than me.

"I love him so much."

"Consider him lucky." She smiled, "But seriously Lena, you're so beautiful and so accomplished already. How did you do it?"

"Don't tell me you're having a crisis already." I laughed at her.

"Only a mini crisis! I start high school soon and I'm so overwhelmed."

I hugged her again and looked her in the eyes, "Don't freak out Hunter. You have a lot of life left to live freaked out. I can promise you right now that you will figure it out. You have an amazing support system around you. You're parents, grandparents, uncle and even me. Okay?"

She nodded her head, "Thanks. I needed to hear that."

"Anytime." I winked at her, "Now let's finish this thing."

After we finished we made our way to the dining room and sat down with everybody and talked it out for a couple more hours. We all got to know each other a little bit more. Not even for a second did I ever feel uncomfortable these people were truly remarkable. After a while the boys started nodding off.