Ride For Me (Tommy Egan)

Chapter Three

When Raquel woke up, it was with a pounding headache and a groan. Her phone was vibrating on her nightstand, and she blindly reached for it with a whine, before pressing it to her ear. "Hello?" She breathed, and Julio's chuckles filled her ear. "You still sleeping, Ra?"

"It's my day off, Julito." Raquel defended herself, running a hand through her tangle hair, and Julio snorted. "It's after 12 already, wake the fuck up." He ordered, and his sister cursed under her breath as she sat up. Her green eyes looked over her room, last night's dress and shoes thrown across a nearby chair, and Ra looked down to see herself dressed in panties with her brother's t-shirt.

"What do you want Julio?"

"I may be able to get out of work early, I wanted to ask if you would cook for me tonight? I've been craving some arroz con camarones." He asked, and Raquel looked at the phone in disbelief. "You called me so I can fucking cook for you?" She asked sarcastically, and Julio quickly countered.

"I wanted to make sure you had enough time to get what you needed!"

"Fuck you, Ju-Ju." His sister bit out, and Julio laughed as Raquel climbed out of bed. "Love you too, sis. I'll be by later, llama si me necesitas."

"Bueno." Raquel hung up, stretching with a groan, before leaving her room to bang on Maxine's door. "Max, get up!" She heard a grunt of annoyance from inside, and banged one more time before walking into the bathroom. Raquel quickly showered, wrapping herself in a towel as Max barged in.

"Why are you waking me when the sun is still up?"

Ra rolled her eyes, brushing past her best friend, as Max moved to brush her teeth. "It's already the afternoon." She pointed out, and Max gave her a look. "Exactly my point. With how much you drank last night, you should be dead to the world."

"Well, Ju-Ju wants me to cook tonight, so I gotta run to the supermarket. And I didn't drink that much." Raquel defended herself, slipping on her underwear in her room, and Max called out to her from the bathroom. "You're right, if you would have drank more, you would have brought that guy home. What was his name, again?"

"His name is Tommy." Ra stated loudly, pulling on a white Calvin Klein t-shirt and blue jeans, before moving back to the bathroom as Maxine got in the shower. "And, I'm not so sure about him."

"What do you mean, 'not sure'?" Max pulled her head out from behind the curtain, looking at her best friend in disbelief, as she pulled her curly hair into a messy bun. "He was feeling you! And, he clearly has money if he owns part of that club." She stated firmly, and Raquel shot her a look through the mirror. "There's no way a guy like him is just a club owner."

"And how do you know that?"

"The same way that we know my brother doesn't just fix washing machines." Ra spun around to look at her friend, who paused. "As much as I love Julito, I'm not stupid. I've been around it long enough to trust my instincts, and my instincts tell me that he's something else."