Sincerely, Dr. Cruz

Eleven: Tacos con Coffee

Chapter Eleven: Tacos con Coffee
Neal’s House: East Providence, Rhode Island

“Are you hungry?”

Even though I didn’t feel hungry, I hadn’t eaten all day. I knew Neal would want me to eat, so I said yes.

“Do you want to sit down and eat or just something fast?”

“Heck, I don’t even want to get up. Can you maybe call in food please?”

Neal’s eyes sparkled as he laughed. “Sure, that doesn’t seem to be a big deal. What do you want to call in?”

“I really don’t care.” I paused and then said, “As long as it isn’t too heavy.”

“Well then why not order in a few tacos from that one place downtown?”

“Sure.”

I had been here for about three hours before Neal declared that he was hungry. On the bright side, we were 10 slides into our presentation that had sick effects, thanks to yours truly.

As Neal made the phone call, I gazed around the living room, and suddenly felt my stomach tie itself into knots. It wasn’t the thought of food, but it was all of these pictures he had holding a little boy on his living room wall. The little boy had the same facial features as Neal, but with darker, almost black hair.

I decided against asking him about it. It’s not like it should matter to me anyways. This presentation needed to be finished, and I could always ask him later.

“Hey Reina, what do you want on your taco?”

“Uh, you pick. I really don’t care.”

“Okay.” Neal said, directing his attention to the phone again.

I continued to analyze Neal’s house. The walls in the living room were this neutral grey color that surprisingly wasn’t dull. It went along with the color scheme in the house and allowed the pops of steel blue to work nicely.

His dining room was a low key yellow cream color, and his kitchen was the same as the living room, but lighter.

At least he wasn’t afraid of color.

“Okay, the food should be here soon. You want anything to drink?”

I smiled and said sheepishly, “Coffee?”

Neal chuckled at my order and said he would go make some, uttering something about my awkward choice of coffee and tacos.

What can I say?

When Neal came back, I had finished another slide and decided that I was done. I mean my brain was going to explode. There were too many details about bones and surgical procedures and ugh.

“Neal my brain is fried.”

He laughed at my comment. “Drink the coffee.” He said gently.

How did he know how I wanted my coffee?

“We have five more days. There’s no need to rush this right now.” He said.

“I know, but I just want it to be perfect and—“

“It will be perfect. No one can outdo Reina Cruz.”

“Haha, very funny.” I said taking another sip of the coffee, hoping it would kick in soon. “Is it okay if I awkwardly walk around your living room? My legs are stiff.”

“Knock yourself out.”

And so I did, coffee in hand. So, I know I meant to walk around but I stopped when I saw the almighty power of video games.

“You have an x-box!?” I asked, a little too excited.

“Yeah.”

I jumped because I hadn’t realized Neal was standing next to me now.

“I haven’t seen one of these since junior year in college!”

“Really?” He asked, clearly surprised.

“Yes really!”

“Want to play?”

“Uh… sure? I might totally suck though, just letting you know.”

“I’m not any good either.”

“Then we shall fail together.”

_____

An hour later, I was totally getting my butt beat at Black Ops by Neal, and even finished a taco.

Somehow, I was more pleased with the fact that even after an hour of playing Neal hadn’t purposely let me win.

I hated when guys did that.

“I didn’t want to believe you when you said you sucked, but man you were serious.” Neal said as he won. Again.

“I told you!” I said as I placed the remote controller down. “I think that I seriously need to work on my gaming skills.”

“That, I won’t deny.” Neal said.

It was silent for a second, and then we both burst out laughing.

After I gathered my stuff and fought with Neal over who got to clean up after the tacos, I stepped outside his house and walked towards my car, opening the door. Neal had followed me out, hands in his pockets.

 “Neal?”

“Yeah?”

“I really hope this goes well.”

Neal smiled nodded as I got into my car and drove home.

It was a good day.

AN:

School starts in two weeks! I'll be posting as much as I can before school starts, that way there isn't too much waiting in between chapters. Thanks!