Page 40 of In a Perfect World

“Okay, well...since you’ve given this so much thought, where do I fit in?”I asked, though there was no way that I’d ever leave with only some two-day half-ass plan in place.

“Well, since you’re too dark to pass for Hispanic, I was...I was thinking that maybe I could pass for being a light-skinned Black female,” she hedged, and I could appreciate how she was trying to word her idea without being offensive.

Now, while she had a better chance of passing as Black than I did of passing as Hispanic, Triana could never pass as being a Black woman.Her hair was too straight, and her skin tone just wasn’t dark enough, no matter what she wanted to believe.She’d have to wear a disguise, and while that might work, getting into Mexico was just too damn dangerous.

I also couldn’t do that to my family.Did I love Triana?Yes, I did.However, causing my family a scandal that they’d never recover from was not how I wanted to repay them for everything that they’d done for me.I loved my family, and they’d be left holding the bag if I left like this.

So, that left me with only one choice.

Rather than try to talk her out of it, I was going to show her how difficult her plan really was.I was going to show her that running away wasn’t the answer.Yes, doing it legally might take years, but it was the right thing to do, and given who my father was, it was the only avenue available to us.

“Okay...but...but not today,” I told her.“Not this week.”

“But-”

“Just hear me out,” I said, interrupting her.“While you’ve had time to think about this, I haven’t been given any time to figure anything out on my end.I...I’m just asking for some time, baby.”

“How long?”she asked, and the hope in her voice was enough to make me feel like shit, but the end would definitely justify the means in this case.

“Give me a week,” I told her.“Give me a week, and then we can plan to leave the following weekend.Since I work Monday through Friday, it’ll give us a two-day head start before my family begins to worry or look for me.”

“Okay, okay, okay...”she chanted quietly.“That...that’ll give me some time, too.I...I still need to figure some things out myself.”

I let out a sigh of relief, hoping that the time would also give her a chance to calm down and see that her plan really wasn’t feasible.I could only hope that the time would help her see just how dangerous this was and that we really did have other options, though I wasn’t going to say any of that to her right now.

“Are you going to be okay?”I asked, seriously needing to know.I didn’t have Sonia’s phone number to ensure that someone checked on her, so I needed to make sure that she was okay.”

“I’m fine,” she semi-lied.“I’m...I’m okay.”

“Baby, I need to be sure,” I told her.“I’m worried about you.”

“No, I’m fine,” she insisted.“I promise.”

Given no choice but to believe her, I said, “Okay, but I want you to call me every night.I know that we already do that, but...but I need you to do this for me, okay?”

Triana nodded.“Okay...yeah, I can do that.”

After a few seconds, I asked, “Did you want to stay?Talk some more?”

She immediately shook her head.“No...I...no.”

“No?”

“Maybe we should...maybe we should stop meeting here,” she suggested, making my stomach sink.“We don’t want to...we don’t want to get caught now that we actually have a plan in place to finally be together.”

Yeah, I was an asshole, and the hope in her voice made it official.

“Call me when you get home, okay?”I ordered.“Please, baby.”

Triana nodded again.“Yes, of course.”

Per usual, I walked with her until I couldn’t go any further legally, but I didn’t immediately head back to my car.Instead, I walked back to the oak tree, then stared across the creek at the cherry blossom tree, and for the first time in my life, I found myself wishing that our nation had never been segregated in the first place.For the first time in my life, I was looking at life through the lens of someone who finally couldn’t have something that he’d wanted, and that was the very definition of an entitled asshole.

Truth be told, I didn’t deserve Triana Medina.