“What’s this?” I say, startled. “That’s not my bag.”
Because, instead of my bright pink suitcase, there’s a sturdy-looking black one resting on the ground next to the car. I can see mine still in the trunk when I look, Enrique reaching to pull it out next.
“No,” he agrees. “That one is mine.”
It takes me a moment, and I still don’t think I understand. “Are you going on a business trip today as well?”
“Not a business trip,” Enrique says. He’s wearing a funny smile like he’s just told a joke, but I don’t get the punchline.
“Then?” I shake my head, uncomprehending, as I take my suitcase from his hands and pull out the handle to wheel it around. I don’t get what he’s doing. Is he going to visit family or something?
“I thought I might take a little trip,” he says. “I haven’t seen my old friend Rob in such a long time.”
It doesn’t even click right away. I gape at him. “My father, Rob?”
“That’s him.” Enrique laughs at the look on my face. “Lilita, you don’t understand it yet? I’m coming with you.”
“But…” I start and stare as he pulls a ticket out of his pocket. A ticket that matches my own. “When did you…?”
Enrique chuckles. “I booked a ticket yesterday. I was lucky that they had some left.”
“Why?” I blurt out, even though I feel like I shouldn’t. Isn’t this like looking a gift horse in the mouth? But I need to know. I can’t just wonder. Why would he want to come with me?
In answer, Enrique bends down and kisses me, claiming my mouth with a heat and a fervency that makes me feel dizzy. “That’s why,” he says. “I couldn’t let you fly away from me. I have to come with you to speak with your father. To get his blessing for the two of us to be together.”
“What about…” I shake my head, blinking. “I’m not coming back to Madrid. Don’t you remember? My plans fell through.”
Enrique ghosts the rough pad of his thumb along my lower lip. “So, we can make new plans,” he says. “Now, come on. You don’t want us to miss our flight, do you?”
I wordlessly following after him, my heart aching with the joy of him coming with me, the fact that this isn’t over. And as the surprise begins to wear off, I feel more and more my heart soaring in my chest, just as the plane will in the sky.
He’s coming with me. And that means this is real.
But it also means we have to face my dad.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Enrique
As soon as we land in the US, I can feel the tension. The drive from the airport only serves to build it higher and higher, and I know that it’s only going to get worse. But I also know that there’s no other option. Not once do I think about backing out, turning around and leaving, or just pretending to be here coincidentally for business.
I want to be with Lily for the rest of my life, and that means we have to face her father. There just isn’t any other way to go about this.
When the taxi pulls up outside Robert’s front door, I sit for just a moment, looking at the house and feeling that fear, the dread that he might be angry, might tell me to stay away from his daughter. Even if he does, I can’t do that, I won’t.
Time to get this over with. I get out of the car and help Lily with her bags, taking mine out as well, though, for the sake of propriety, I’m planning on getting a hotel room later. I can arrange that when it comes to it. My first and most important priority is to get this done.
“Lily!” I hear Robert’s joyful shout as he comes out of the front door, rushing towards his daughter where she stands on the sidewalk. “Why didn’t you tell me to come and get you from the airport? You didn’t have to get a taxi.”
“I know, Dad,” Lily says, giving in to his fatherly embrace for a moment. “But I didn’t come alone. We wanted to meet you here, at home.”
In private, I hear her mentally add. Because the last thing we wanted was for there to be a public scene and we have good reason to believe there might be one.
“We?” Robert asks. His eyes go to me and I have a feeling that until now he saw someone at the back of the taxi and just assumed it was the driver. “Enrique?”
“Hola, old friend,” I tell him, closing the trunk of the car. I signal to the driver in his mirror and he sets off, leaving us alone in the street.
“What are you doing here?” Robert asks, looking puzzled. “You didn’t need to chaperone her, unless, you happened to be coming here as well for business?”
“Can’t a man visit his old friend without ulterior motives?” I joke. “Let’s go inside.” Truly, I just want to get us out of the public view. I know that Lily has been dreading the idea that her father might get angry and shout and yell with everyone watching. I don’t want her to be embarrassed, so I have to wait before giving him my big revelation.
We head inside with our bags, me quickly explaining that I don’t intend to stay overnight, Robert telling me to forget about a hotel. I’m sure he will take that back later, so I don’t say anything at all. Before long we file into the living room and sit, looking at each other for the most part, and the awkward tension builds and builds.
“So, how long are you here for, Enrique?” Robert asks. I note the formality of his use of my name. He hasn’t even asked his daughter about her trip. He must be picking up on the tension too, feeling at a loss.
“Not for as long as I would like,” I say, glancing at Lily. “I was able to take some time off work, but eventually I have to return.”
“Oh, so this really isn’t a business trip?” Robert is starting to frown, looking between the two of us. I’m surprised he can’t see the desire, the red string linking our souls together. It’s there, like a physical thing between us. Just sitting here beside her, not reaching out to take her hand or kiss her feels strange to me already even after such a short time.
“Far from it, in fact,” I tell him, bracing myself. This is the moment. I have to dive in with both feet, because Lily is mine, and I won’t let anyone change that. Not even her father. “Actually, it’s a personal trip. I’m here because I thought it was important we get your blessing. Not only that but after a week together, I already can’t bear to leave Lily behind.”
Robert blinks at me slowly. “What are you talking about? My blessing for what?”
Lily reaches over and takes my hand, obviously feeling that this is her moment to take the lead. “For our relationship, Dad.”
Robert takes another long moment to react. He stares down at our hands entwined together like he’s seeing a new creature that’s never before been observed on this planet. Not even a creature, an alien, something speaking a different language that he can’t possibly comprehend.
“Is this a prank?” he asks. “Ricky, you’ve roped Lily into a prank, haven’t you? You want to get me to start shouting and then you’ll laugh and tell me it was all a joke.”
“It’s not a joke,” I assure him. “This is very real. In Madrid, Lily and I… we connected. We found each other, and it’s a miraculous thing.”
“Miraculous?” Robert frowns and scoffs. I can see that he’s starting to get angry. “I wouldn’t call it miraculous when a man takes up with a woman half his age.”
I almost want to smile at that. He wouldn’t? I would. I would call it a blessing from God. But we can argue about that particular point later. “It’s not like that,” I say. “Not how you think. You know I’ve never married, never started a family. It’s not that I was playing the field, or enjoying my freedom. I was waiting.”
“Waiting,” Robert intones. “What for? My daughter, to grow up?”
“For someone to come into my life that would make it better,” I correct him calmly. “Someone I didn’t know yet, who would change everything. Someone worthy of being my wife. And I didn’t even know I would ever find that person, especially after I started to grow the business and make money, and I never knew if a woman was talking to me only for that reason. The shall
ow girls I meet, Lily is nothing like that.”
For some reason, Robert acts as though that is an insult. “Of course not. I raised her better than that.”
“Dad, what he’s saying is that it’s mutual,” Lily interrupts. “We both want to be together.”
“I know you think you do, honey, but you’re so young,” Robert argues. “He should know better. You can’t make decisions like this at your age.”
“At her age?” I interrupt. “Tell me, Robert, how old was your wife when you met?”
He splutters for a moment. Here, I have an advantage. I know that he and his wife were high school sweethearts. They met long before they were as old as Lily, and by the time they went to college, they were already engaged. And their love was real, it lasted. So, I can’t see any way that he can use Lily’s young age as a reason why we can’t be together. She’s an adult. A woman. She can make her own choices.
“That’s different,” Robert says. He’s red in the face now, looking for any way to vent his anger about this. “Besides, it’s so soon. You’ve known each other a week, as adults. Less than a week. How can you know a thing about her?”
“I know plenty,” I say. I know that I could try to impress him, reel off my list of Lily’s favorite foods, her favorite color, the career she wants to have, how many pets she’s owned. All of the things that we’ve talked about this past week. But that’s not what’s important here. What’s important is the depth of the feelings we share, not simple trivia that anyone could learn. “I know how much I love her.”
There’s a short silence in the room. I feel Lily turn to look at me. I haven’t said it yet, but now the words are in the air. She squeezes my hand tightly.
“And I love him,” she says, turning back to her father. “Please, Dad. He makes me happy.”
“And for how long?” Robert snaps. “How long until he changes his mind or gets bored with you? Will he replace you with a twenty year old when you hit twenty-five?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Robert,” I say. “You’re going too far.”
“Too far? Ridiculous?” Robert throws my words back at me like knives. “You’re the one who is going too far with this ridiculous declaration. Just – just get out of my house. Go back to Spain, and leave my daughter alone!”
“Dad, no!” Lily bursts out, springing to her feet in my defense. “Please, hear us out!”
“I’ve heard enough.” Robert is shaking with rage now, extending a finger towards the door that wavers in the air. “Get out. You heard me!”
“I can’t do that,” I say, getting to my own feet as calmly as I can manage. “The thing is, Rob, your daughter is the one for me. The only one. And I can’t let her go without fighting for her. In fact, I can’t let her go at all. I won’t.”
“You will,” Robert says. “I want you out and you’re not ever to come back. You won’t see her ever again.”
“Then I’m sorry my friend. I can’t lose her. I won’t,” I tell him, reaching into my pocket for what I’ve been keeping there.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Lily
I look at Enrique with trepidation, unsure of what he has planned. Are they going to come to blows? It’s an impossible situation – the man I love and my father, two people I can’t be without in my life. But if they can’t see eye to eye on this, then what am I going to do? Will I have to lose one of them?
“Lilita,” Enrique says, reaching into his pocket. He squares up to me as if my father isn’t even in the room anymore. My breath catches in my throat as he drops before me, going down on one knee.
“Enrique?” I ask my voice barely a whisper, unable to believe what I’m seeing. Could it really be? Is this what I think it is? What I’ve been dreaming of?
“Lilita,” he says again. “I need you to know. There is no space for any other in my heart. Since we met on that street, I haven’t been able to think about anyone else. You are mine, and I’m yours, and I know that you feel this as deeply as I do. It’s fact, the only fact. The most sincere truth. The house that I showed you, reserved for my family, it waits only for you to fill it. Come back with me to Madrid when you’ve finished your semester and your degree. Come to Madrid, and be my wife.”
I cover my mouth in joy and shock, tears already running from my eyes. I don’t look at my father for his reaction. It doesn’t matter. Whether he approves or not, I know there’s only one answer I can give. One answer that my heart will allow. The only thing that matters. In this room, at this moment, there is only me and Enrique, and the entire rest of the world is gone.
“Yes,” I tell him before he even finishes opening the ring box. Whether it’s a priceless heirloom with the biggest diamond in the world or made of candy, the ring wouldn’t make a bit of difference. “Yes, Enrique, oh, yes!”
Enrique grins as he takes the ring from the box, it turns out to be somewhere in-between, elegant and simple with a row of diamonds between twisted knots of silver. He slides it onto my ring finger, which it fits perfectly. I can’t imagine how he managed to find out my ring size, but he did.
He gets to his feet and pulls me close into an embrace, the two of us laughing and kissing and crying with happiness. I wipe at my wet face and kiss him again, and admire my ring over his shoulder, and for that moment everything in the world is beautiful and right and perfect.
“I can’t believe this.”
My father’s voice brings me back to reality. Reluctantly, I pull myself away from my new fiancé and turn to him again. “Dad,” I begin, but he cuts me off.
“What kind of stunt do you think you are playing?” he demands of Enrique. “Trying to wow her with some flashy ring so that she’ll leave me behind?”
“Not at all,” Enrique protests. “Rob, you gave me no choice. I had to prove to you how much I love her. How committed I am. And look, see? See how happy she is. Don’t you want this for her?”
“He’s right, Dad,” I say. “I am happy. Happier than I’ve ever been. I feel like I’m finally where I’m meant to be.”
“You aren’t even going back to Spain,” Robert protests. “You didn’t get the placement. You’ve got to find another one. You...you might end up staying here all summer.”
“No, she has a placement,” Enrique says casually, making me stare at him. “I wanted it to be a surprise. Lilita, I don’t want you to stop following your dreams just because we’re married. I’ve arranged a work placement for you at my hotel. The luxury hotel I own in the center of Madrid.”
At those words, said with emphasis to impart meaning, my eyes widen. When I asked him what he did, he never told me before. He just said it was business, never that it was the business I wanted to go into.
And I understand perfectly now. If I’d known about his hotel, then he might not have been able to tell if my feelings were genuine or if I was like all of those other girls he mentioned, the ones who have thrown themselves at him in the past to no success. When he realized I didn’t know what kind of business he was in, he must have seen it as an opportunity both to give me everything I wanted and to make sure that this was real before giving it to me.
“You’d do that for me?” I say because I want him to know how much I really appreciate it. Even though he has the opportunity, he’s a businessman and I can’t imagine he’s been so successful by simply doing favors for others. He’s taking a risk, and also giving me everything I want. A home, a husband, a family, a career.
“I’d do anything for you,” he says. “Don’t you know that by now?”
“Dad, I’m going to Madrid,” I say, turning towards my father. “I am. And I’m happy. I have everything I want. Can’t you see that?”
I can already recognize the defeated expression on my Dad’s face. It’s the same look he wore when I was twelve and presented a detailed breakdown of all of the reasons why I absolutely had to have a pet bunny, and couldn’t accept any compromise.
He didn’t want me to have a pet at first because it would be a responsibility o
n top of my schoolwork. But he gave in, and he loved that bunny as much as I did.
It became a happy part of our family, something that not a single person regretted. And I know that this will be the same.
“I don’t have a choice here, do I?” my Dad asks glumly. “If I want to keep my daughter.”
“I’ll always be your daughter, Dad,” I say, going to him and taking his hand in mine. “I’ll always love you. But I’d like it if my father and my husband could be in the same room without wanting to fight. I’d like it if you gave us your blessing.”
Dad sags, then drops down into an armchair that has always been his favorite place to sit. “Then you have it,” he says. “I can see how happy you are. But Ricky, if you ever…”
“If I ever hurt her,” Enrique says, grinning. “I will personally disembowel myself and throw myself out of a glass window seventeen stories up. Is that satisfying?”
“That might be enough for the minimum level of punishment required,” Dad says, straight faced. He looks tired, but no longer unhappy.
I take my fiancé’s hand and look at my dad, and smile.
Everything I wanted and here it is, right within my grasp.
EPILOGUE
Enrique
I walk through the front door of my home and am greeted by the same sight, sound, and smell that always waits for me. Toys strewed across the floor, a children’s TV character babbling on in a cheerful voice somewhere, and the smell of my wife’s cooking.
It might not be the carefully programmed routine that I had when I was a bachelor but that’s what makes it so much better.
“I’m home!” I call from the doorway, taking off my shoes and slipping into the entertainment room. There I find more toys and the television playing but I hear Lily’s voice coming from the kitchen and follow it to its source.
“Hola, Papi,” Lily calls, bouncing our daughter on her hip. In response, Roberta burbles happily and opens and closes her tiny fist at me, her approximation of a wave.
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