The Good Life

Chapter 15

Marla rolled over and hit a body. She opened her eyes and saw the darkest brown eyes she had ever seen in her life. She smiled and then remembered what she was doing.

“Oh. I’m so sorry….”

“It’s quite alright…” he responded in the same way she did the night before. He wrapped his arms around her bringing her closer to him.

“Oh no, I haven’t brushed my teeth…an…I don’t have….”

He shook his head at her…”Stop thinking so much. I have a tooth brush in there. My baby sister and boyfriend were here for the Grammy’s…she left an unopened toothbrush. It’s even pink.” She pinched his side and went to brush her teeth. “I’m dying.” he whined. She took longer than the required 2 minutes to brush teeth. What is she doing?

Marla walked into the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. Really? No make-up? I have red spotty skin, and my hair is…oh…so greasy. I need to wash it…or run. Or both…maybe both. I need to get out of here…breakfast and then go…breakfast and go…that’s it. And then we’ll do this again when he’s here again. And then again and again and again…but now I’ll forget about the hair. She came out of the bathroom with fresh breath and gritty hair.

“What’s wrong?” He was sitting up with his phone in his hand checking text messages.

“My hair is gross.” she obviously couldn’t hide her emotions from him. She made an obvious sad face and slunk down onto the unmade bed next to him.

“Really? That’s it?”

“Maybe.” she responded, suddenly reminded that she actually liked being around him and the way he made her feel, the way her hair, lack of make-up and even slight hair stubble didn’t seem to even matter. “How long are you here for?” she asked now able to wrap her head around the emotions.

“4 days. I have a video shoot for the next three days and interviews later this morning.” Marla grabbed his phone to check to see what time it was. She was sure it had to be about 6 o’clock since that was when she usually woke up. She was right 6:19. “What are you looking at?”

“I just wanted to see what time it was.” she glanced back up at him. “Oh…okay…” he was still so confused by her over reliance on time, schedules, plans and life. He didn’t understand why she couldn’t just be. But it intrigued him to no end. He was going to make her just live. What he didn’t know what that she was going to do the opposite to him.

 

“You have no food. What in the world am I going to do with you, Bruno?” Marla looked at him with a serious face.

“I’m trying!” he laughed at her. “I just unpacked my kitchen.

“Get in the car. We’re going to my house. I’ll make you breakfast.” she demanded.

They had each taken quick showers and gotten dressed. She put on an old white shirt of his and her shorts and he let his hair air dry which made it look even more desirable in its curly state. He wore skinny jeans, converse and a red and purple plaid shirt to her house.

“Watch this….” he followed her to the kitchen. She pulled out a handf0ul of tortillas, corn and flour. “Corn or flour?” she asked.

“Which one am I supposed to choose?” he wondered out loud as he sat down watching her crack eggs, cut peppers and then grab onions from the fridge, all at once.

“Corn.” she told him. “I’m making you Migas. It’s not Puerto-Rican, but it’s equally as amazing.” She continued to explain to him what she was doing, mixing, dicing, and completing the dish. “Final touch….” she ran to the cabinet farthest away from everything and grabbed a small frying pan. Grabbing the vegetable oil that was left, she sprinkled it on the pan, let it get so hot that it popped.

“Yikes!” he said from his distance. “Don’t burn yourself.

“No te preocupes, Bruno. Todo va a ser bien.” She turned around and smiled at him.

She dropped in several slices on the flour tortillas, flipping them over until they crunched like tortillas chips.

“We get tortilla chips too?” he asked.

“Almost…”she spooned a small amount of the egg dish onto a spoon and blew on it to cool it off for him. “Taste…”

“I want it all…” he told her with a smile.

Marla made them both plates and slid into the seat next to him. 0

“I’m taking you with me…” he said with his mouth full. “just to cook for me.”

“Sign me up.” she said.

“Really, though, Marley, you impress me every time I’m with you. You know so much about things I never even considered thinking about….”

Her phone, which was sitting in between them started to vibrate and then ring.

“Oh, oh, ohhhh! I have to answer this. Give me two seconds!”

Marla had been going to school full time, but with the summer just starting, just was looking for a job to hold her over through the summer. Adding to her resume and to keep her busy until the next semester started were so important. Her parents were helping her with her apartment, but she needed to help herself too. She had told Bruno all about this, so he smiled at her knowing it was an important phone call for her.

“Great! When do you want me to come in?”

She hung up the phone and smiled a big smile. “I got the jobbbbb! I got the jobbbbb!” She got up and jumped on the couch and did a little dance. Bruno knew he hadn’t known her very long, but he knew that this was the happiest he had seen her. He let her revel in her happiness because he knew she probably would have done the exact same thing even if she was by herself. After about thirty seconds of dancing she jumped over the edge of the couch near him and hugged him.“Thank you for being here for me. It was the one we talked about on the phone about a week ago.”

“Oh! The one for the Children’s Defense Fund?” he responded. He vaguely remembered who it was for, but he did remember her rambling about being nervous about one particular interview and the panel interview. He talked to her for nearly an hour about just being calm and impressing them with all the things she knew about children and connecting with the community. He was impressed with himself when he hung up. “I told you you’d get it! When do you start?”

“Next weeeeek!” she did another little dance. He now knew what drove her…her work. Now he just had to connect to it.