Page 19 of Sucker Punch Drunk Love

“No, no, it's nothing like that. The person who trains me, he’s letting me stay with him while he mentors me.” She shrugged.

“I can't argue with that. You just getting off of work?” Looking down at my uniform, I teased.

“Geez, what gave me away?”

“Don't do that,” she shot back, telling me to be safe and to shoot her a text every once in a while. Taking the bus home,relief flooded me being able to put the keys in the door to a safer place, the smell from the kitchen a nice welcome home.

Making my way to my room, I passed the kitchen as Josue sat up from the table, his penetrating dark stare carrying his usual disdain.

“Hey, where you been? You texted and said you were getting off early. I cooked and this food's been sitting here. Been like an hour, just cold.” My brows rose at the gesture. Was this man actually doing somethingthoughtful? I didn't know he had it in him.

“I did actually. But I stopped by Rainbow on my way home to get some new clothes. I didn't know you would be waiting for me.”

“Well, you think next time, you could let me know? Thought something had happened to you. I don't need that kind of shit messing with my head,” he further explained. Mygawd, was this man worried about me, too? One minute he's grumpy, the next he's five seconds away from reporting my ass missing. Strange as it sounded, it felt good to be worried about. My whole existence was just coming and going. It was comforting to know one person in their day thought about me. Plus, he did go through a lot of effort. The least I could do was put on a clean shirt, reheat it, and join him.

“I'm sure it's okay to just reheat it in the microwave.” He cocked an eyebrow.

“Yeah, but it would have tasted betterfresh.”

“Maybe. But just let me go change, and when I come back, we can eat together.” Walking back to my room, I laid my bags on the bed, pulling out my new dresses and clothes, debating on what I should wear sharing a dinner with my trainer. Was a sundress too much? The last thing I needed was to give him another reason tonottake me seriously. He'd probably be distracted if I wore something too revealing. But thenagain,he saw me as a girl. Someone wet and inexperienced, not the woman I was forced to become.

In the end, I just went with something simple, a long-striped dress, topping it off with some sandals. Entering the dining room, from his judgmental stare I could sense that there was still a bit of tension as I fought off his attitude with a sweet smile.

“So, are you done being a grumpy meanie, or are you gonna try to be nice to me today?”

“Grumpy meanie?” he snapped. “Where do you kids come up with this shit? And what do you mean beniceto you? I'm always nice.” He finished off with a fake smile. Taking both our plates from the table, one by one I heated them in the microwave, and if I didn't know any better, he totally gave the sight of my ass a second take. Okay striped dress! Placing his plate in front of him, he thanked me as I returned the favor sitting down across from him.

“You know, I've been meaning to ask you something. Because you don't sound like you're from around here. Where are you from?” he asked, reaching for a glass of water he next took a gulp from.

“Hmmm…I suppose that's a good observation. I'm not from here, I'm from Philly.” At that he laughed, using his utensils to fork around the veggies on his plate.

“Don't take this the wrong way, kid. But you must have beendesperateto start over here. No one, and I mean noone, comes to Jersey tosolvetheir problems. If anything, the second you step foot on Jersey soil, you inherit a shit load of new ones.” He wasn’t wrong about that. But being back home, all it reminded me of was how much of a fuck up I was. At least being here, I could start fresh.

“Yeah, well, I needed a change. I think the question you really want to know is where my folks are from.”

“I was getting to that…”

“Let me save you the trouble. Originally, my mom’s family was from Loiza, and while I never met him, my mom told me my dad's family was from Carolina.” He shrugged, then nodded.

“When I look at your tattoo, I figured as much.” My neck snapped.

“And why is that?”

“Because,” he started, fixing his mouth to clear food from his teeth. “I never met a white Puerto Rican from Loiza. Plus, relax. Isn’t that where all the prettiest women hail from?” he admitted, his eyes meeting mine as he sipped from his glass.

“Wait, is that your sly way of saying I'm pretty?” Wearing a shit eating grin, he crossed his arms.

“I'm not saying you're not.”

“Boy, then what are you saying?”

“I mean youaight. Tienes un cuerpo muy lindo. Una cara fina?*. I know you're not struggling for attention,” he countered, as I rolled my eyes and slouched.

“Attention is probably thelastthing I need right now.” He smiled, pulling up his chair to scoot in closer.

“But you understood what I said, right?” Trying not to give him too much to work with, I replied with a simple, “Mmmhmm.” But that only forced him to keep pressing.

“So why do you understand so much, but don't speak it?” Releasing a heavy sigh, I struggled to answer.