They returned to eating, this time in silence, even though every now and again Kyle let out another little laugh. Drea assumed it was because he was still thinking about the old lady and the cats. When they were all finished eating, Drea cleared their trash.
“Can I show you something?” she asked Kyle.
“Anything.”
She grabbed his hand and took him up the hill headed inland from the plaza. After walking a couple of blocks, she stopped them in an open space in between an old church and a Burger King.
“I am aware of the sordid history of that BK, Drea. I hope you don’t think that I’m that much of a horndog that you had to show me a fast food joint that used to be a brothel back in the day.”
Drea looked at him incredulously. “No, the Church. Iglesia San Francisco. Can we go in?”
“Sure, if that’s what you wanna do,” he said, confused.
They walked into the church and took a moment to look around, making sure they weren’t disturbing Mass or confession. When they saw that no one was in the sanctuary, they went inside and sat down in the very last pew.
“This is where my parents got married,” she said quietly. “Uncle Miller and Aunt Marta too.”
“I thought they got married on the beach?”
“No, they met on the beach. They got married in the church. Although, only because my grandparents insisted. After all, if they were going to marry gringos, they were at least going to do it in front of God.” She giggled, thinking about the story Uncle Miller had always told her.
After the rushed courtship and less-than-traditional proposal, her grandparents on her mother’s side weren’t entirely thrilled with the way their daughters were willing to just up and marry the first strangers to come along. But Miller and her father had won them over quickly enough, and agreed to the church wedding if that’s what the girls’ parents really wanted. So the priest was called, and three weeks later the two couples were married. Three months after that, Drea’s mother woke up sick to her stomach and a doctor’s visit soon confirmed that she would be doing something major not in tandem with her sister since they first met their husbands.
“Were they buried here too?” Kyle asked cautiously.
“No, there wasn’t enough left to bury.”
“Can I ask what happened? All I know is there was a kitchen fire.”
“A kitchen fire is putting it nicely,” Drea smiled sadly. “The resort had always been a dream of my uncles and my dad. I don’t fully understand how they came to own the property—something about an old man their grandfather used to know or something. Well, when their dad passed from cancer, they bought the resort from this guy and they, along with my
dad, started to fix it up. So, everything is going along like it should and Miller is getting his ultimate kitchen, complete with some top of the line industrial stove. Install day comes and they are all so excited, because the oven that had been in there was sketchy at best. Well, short story long, the gas didn’t get shut off properly when switching out the equipment, so gas had been leaking into the kitchen the whole time.”
She paused, taking a long, slow breath. It had been a long time since she’d even thought about this story. She just wanted to get through it without crying. She told herself that she could cry afterward, once he knew the whole story. He reached over and grabbed her hand, squeezing it lightly in support. She took a deep breath to start again.
“Once it was totally installed, they went to turn on the gas range to make sure it all worked. Well, the kitchen had been filling with gas the whole time, so when they turned it on, the whole place just went whoosh,” she said, making an exploding motion with her free hand. “Everything went up in flames.”
“Where were you?” Kyle asked, squeezing her hand again.
“With Uncle Vaughn. It was during my naptime. I was only six months old, so I was old enough to be rolling around and sitting up but not quite old enough to crawl, and my Mom had worried that even napping I’d find a way to get myself into trouble. Sometimes I think that’s why he’s always so serious about me being safe, because in a way, he’s literally the reason I’m alive.” She sniffed, still trying to fight back the tears. “Uncle Miller had stepped out to grab some champagne he had squirrelled away in another refrigerator. He stepped back into the kitchen right as it exploded. He was far enough away that he only suffered some burns, whereas everyone else was so close that they were just gone. But that’s why he doesn’t ever wear short sleeves, even in the summer. His arms are all scars.”
With that last sentence, she lost all her resolve. She let out a quiet sob and the tears broke through. Kyle reached an arm around her, pulling her into him. She nuzzled her head into the crook of his neck, continuing to cry and sob. She couldn’t help herself. She wasn’t sure if it was the church, or being with Kyle, or just that she hadn’t taken the chance to miss them recently, but her emotions took over. Most days she was fine with the hand that she’d been dealt. It’s not as if she’d been unloved or had no family at all. It was a weird dynamic with her uncles, but they were still a family and made it work.
“I’m so, so sorry Drea. I don’t remember all that much of my dad, but I do still have a few memories. I can’t imagine what it must be like to have never known them.”
“Some days it’s fine. Others I feel cheated.” She sat back up and wiped furiously at her tears. She hated that she was bawling like this in front of Kyle. This hadn’t been her intent, to take this serious and dark turn; she had simply wanted to show him some place that made her feel close to her parents. “I’m a mess. I’m sorry, this wasn’t why I brought you here.”
“You’re a beautiful mess,” he said, bringing a hand to her face to wipe away her tears. “And I’ll gladly listen to you tell me whatever stories you want, happy or sad. And if they’re sad, I’ll sit here and hold you while you cry. I want all of you, Drea, that includes the tears.”
She laughed lightly at his perfect-boyfriend answer. She thought about giving him a hard time about it, asking if he’d read that line in one of her books or something, but then she thought better of it. She knew that it was just Kyle and that he’d always been there to support her through everything, even when they were just friends. She considered pinching herself to make sure it was all real, but his hand that had moved to squeezing her knee let her know it was.
“Can we go do something happy now?”
“Umbrellas?” he asked, optimistically.
“Yes, please.”
Their visit to the church had taken up more time than Kyle had expected, but they still had enough time to hit up Fortaleza Street before they needed to head to his surprise location. He hadn’t meant to open a can of worms by asking Drea about her parents, and part of him felt guilty for it. But he had meant what he told her while they were sitting there—he wanted all of her, and that included getting to know all the parts she didn’t like to show. Wiping away her tears was a small price to pay for being able to hold her in his arms and having her open up to him.
