Page 18 of Friendly Skies
“Both my parents work for Microsoft. They weren’t happy when I wasn’t interested in a tech career. Among other things.”
Luis looked over at Darius, wanting to know if they should prod for more details now that Ricky was starting to open up or if they should leave well enough alone. Darius shrugged and shook his head just as Ricky looked up.
“Go on and ask,” he said. “I know I’ve been pretty much a ghost since I moved in. I’ve been…dealing with some stuff.”
“Not really our business,” Darius said. “Unless you want to tell us.”
While Luis admired his friend’s tact and consideration, it frustrated him because all he wanted to do was fire off questions. They were interrupted by Luis’ mother bringing out the food: picadillo con papas with arroz rojo and beans, along with her tortillas and spicy salsa. His mom hustled back and forth from the kitchen, declining all offers of help because “her boys” needed to concentrate on eating.
“You’re all too thin,” she said as Darius chuckled.
“Lucky for you, I don’t have to fit into my uniform for another couple of days, Mrs. Herrera,” he said.
“What is this ‘Mrs. Herrera’ today?” Luis’ mom asked as she came around the table and pulled Darius into a hug. “You’re family. You always call me Tía Rosa. And you, too,” she said to Ricky. “You call me Tía Rosa as well.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Ricky mumbled as he scooped picadillo and rice up with a piece of tortilla and shoved it into his mouth. “This is so good.”
“Hm. I’ll forgive the ‘ma’am’ since you like my food.”
“Yes, ma—. Tía Rosa.”
She gave them all a satisfied smile. “Anyone want anything else?”
“We’re fine, Ma,” Luis told her. “Sit down and eat with us.”
With a wave of her hand, she bustled about filling their glasses with sweet horchata. As she filled Luis’ glass, she chatted away, filling him in on the family gossip while Darius and Ricky grinned at him.
“Marissa has a new boyfriend,” she said with a dramatic sigh. “I swear, she has a new one every week, but at least this one has a good job.”“Probably means he won’t last long at all,” Luis said, and his mother batted the back of his head with her palm.
“Don’t talk about your sister that way.”
“But, Ma, you taught me not to lie.” Luis grinned at her.
“And I also taught you to keep silent if you don’t have anything good to say about someone. Speaking of… Andrés got out of jail…”
“I know. He came to visit me,” Luis said. He looked over at Darius, silently asking his best friend not to say a word about how he’d reacted.
“That was nice of him. He always did like you.”
Luis shrugged and looked at the food on his plate, his appetite suddenly gone. For reasons he’d never been able to understand, his entire family loved Andrés and thought his conviction was the result of corrupt police and a bad lawyer. Luis had long ago stopped trying to convince them otherwise and kept his mouth shut whenever his name came up.
“I don’t know why you two don’t get along. He always asks about you, wants to know how you’re doing.”
Without warning, Luis’ stomach heaved, and he stumbled to his feet, mumbled something about needing the bathroom, and took off for the house. Unfortunately, his mother followed right after him.
Chapter four
Darius
Darius watched his bestfriend disappear into the house, worry making him want to follow even though he knew Luis wouldn’t want that, especially with Rosa hot on his heels.
Fucking Andrés.Whenever his name came up, Luis got weird. Even when Gabriella first brought Andrés around, Luis had been wary of the guy, but after the incident with the X, he refused to be anywhere near him. Darius supposed that made sense, especially since he still wanted to hit Andrés in his perfectly cut jaw for what he’d pulled back then and for all the times he’d tried to corner Luis since then. And showing up at the condo in,what?hours after he got out of jail? He always seemed to be playing some kind of game with Luis, but Darius had no clue what it was. Just Andrés being a dick, most likely, and using Luis’ discomfort as a way to get money out of him.
Beside him, Ricky let out a frustrated breath. “Fuck,” he said and put his phone facedown on the picnic table when Darius turned to look at him.
“Anything wrong?”
Shaking his head, Ricky scooped up some more of the picadillo with a bit of tortilla and popped it into his mouth. “This is so good. Seriously, why isn’t Rosa running a restaurant? This is better than any of the taquerias I’ve eaten at.”
