Page 44 of In a Perfect World

“Then let her!”he yelled.

“I can’t!”I yelled back.“I love her!”

“No, you don’t!”he thundered, the vein in his temple popping out.

“Do not tell me what I feel like I’m some child,” I told him, lowering my voice, making sure that he could hear how serious I was.

“You’ve known her for a matter of weeks, Kairo,” he said, lowering his voice as well.“You’ve known her for a few weeks, and so all you’re feeling right now is infatuation.You’re infatuated with something that you can’t have, and that’s all that this is.”

“I know what I feel.”

Winston shook his head.“Nah, man...that’s your dick talking.”

He was wrong, but I also wasn’t going to dignify that with an answer.I knew that he was worried for me, even if I disagreed with the way that he was showing it.Truth be told, I couldn’t say that I’d be acting any differently if the roles had been reversed.If this were Winston telling me that he was running off to Mexico with some woman that he’d just met, I’d probably be acting exactly the same.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything,” I remarked as I tried to put myself in Winston’s shoes.

At that, his eyes widened.“And just what?Disappear on us like we don’t deserve better?”

“I’m not disappearing on you,” I reminded him.“I’m just...I’ll be gone for the weekend.I plan on being back by Monday.”

Winston shook his head.“Kairo, if you get caught with this girl...fuck, man, you can’t tell me that you don’t see how dangerous this is.Even if you don’t plan on skipping over to Mexico, the risk that you’re taking by just having that girl with you...it’s...I just can’t believe that you’re willing to throw everything away for this woman.”

“I’m not stupid, Winston,” I assured him.“I know what I’m doing.’

“I don’t think that you do,” he retorted.“But if I can’t change your mind, I sure as hell am not going to keep arguing with you about it.”

“I’m fine with you arguing with me about it as long as you don’t tell my family about any of this,” I drawled out.

Winston immediately shot me a look.“I’m going to let that go because you’re obviously out of your goddamn mind, but don’t ever come at me like that again.You know better.”

“Which is why you’re the only person I’m telling,” I pointed out.“You’re the only person I can trust on this.”

My best friend let out a deep sigh, and if nothing else, it seemed as if he was calming down.“Can I ask you something without you going off the rails?”

I let out a deep breath of my own before I took a seat on his couch.“Shoot.”

“What if it doesn’t work?”he asked.“Have you thought about that?”

“That’s not an option,” I answered, and it really wasn’t.

It really fucking wasn’t.

While it wasn’t against the law to hang out or even live near the border of Mexico, not many people did.No one wanted to accidentally get shot by a happy-trigger border patrol agent, nor did anyone want to accidentally end up where they shouldn’t be.Still, we could get close enough to satisfy Triana and still make it back unscathed.

“That’s not an option?”Winston echoed.“That’s your plan?No plan-B is your damn plan?”

“She just needs to try,” I assured him.“Right now, she’s in a place where she needs to feel like she’s back in control of her life, and that’s what I’m trying to do for her.”

“What if it doesn’t work?”he repeated.“What if she doesn’t change her mind?”

“It’ll work,” I insisted.“Ithasto work.”

“Kairo, listen to me,” he said as he finally took a seat himself.“If you really love this woman like you claim, if she doesn’t change her mind and it comes out that you were never serious about following her to Mexico, you’re going to lose her.”

“I run the risk of losing her anyway,” I pointed out.“She’s determined to try, and I can either go with her and do my best to bring her back, or I can let her go on her own, leaving her to her own devices, and I can’t do that, Winston.If something were to happen to her because I cared more about my father’s political career than what happens to her...how am I supposed to live with myself?”

“I just don’t want to see this all blow up in your face, Kairo,” he said, and I loved him for it.“There is just too much that can go wrong, and...and I know that your family loves you, but you’d be asking so much of them if this goes public.”