Resplendent (26 page)

“That lazy little -”

I pointed my finger at him and got in his face. “Hey, he’s a cool guy. NOT lazy, we clear?”

He lowered his eyes and nodded. “Yes, sir.”

I grabbed my keys and walked with Eddy outside.

“Damn, look at the boss man getting all directive and shit.” He gave me his lopsided grin and pointed to his car, which was blocking mine. “I’ll drive.”

I shook my head and put on my aviator sunglasses. “Asshole.” Eddy liked to think he was funny.

“I’m serious though. You’ve really stepped it up over the years,” he continued, taking on a serious tone as we got in the car.

I shrugged. “He’s still a kid. I’m trying to show him the ropes.”

“Yeah, take him under your wing?” he asked as he reached a stop sign.

I tapped my fingers on my knee to the beat of the radio. “I guess.”

“That’s good practice if you have a boy.”

I froze and looked at him, which caused him to laugh. “You find out soon, right?”

“In four weeks.”

He nodded. “Well, if it’s a boy, he can work for you in 18 years and you can teach
him
the ropes.”

My boy working side by side with me. Like my dad and me. I liked the sound of that.

“What’s around here to eat?” Eddy asked, breaking the silence. I almost forgot we hadn’t decided yet.

“Sarussi,” I answered. Immediately my stomach growled.

“Hell yeah, I haven’t been there in
years
.” He got in the left lane to make a U-turn.

I was already thinking about what to order. Probably what I always got: a Cuban sandwich of smoked ham, baked pork, mozzarella cheese, and a fucking awesome sauce. Hell,
fuck
yeah. I couldn’t wait to dig into that 8” bit of heaven.

“I know what I want already,” I announced. Like saying it out loud would make a difference. Eddy laughed and we both answered at the same time. “Sarussi Original!”

I was still grinning about it when we parked and walked inside the restaurant.

We were probably the fastest customers they had that day as we sat down and ordered without even looking at the menu. We talked about the last Marlins game, we talked about Angela falling down and busting her lip, we talked about some other shit that I can’t even remember now because he decided to wait till our food came to drop the biggest bomb on me that day.

“Veronica finally got a hold of Savannah -”

I almost spit out my soda. “What! When? Where is she?”

Eddy held up his hands. “Whoa, it was via email. She -”

He wasn’t talking fast enough. “Which email? I sent her an email and it got returned!”

Eddy sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. “Are you going to let me talk?”

Now it was my turn to sit back, leaving my sandwich — which I had been thoroughly enjoying, might I add — behind. He decided to lean forward and take a mouthful of his.

“Mmmm,” he pointed to his sandwich. “This is some good grub.”
Fucker.

I glared at him and fisted my hands. “Eddy, I swear to God, if you don’t start talking right about now, I’m going to kick your ass.” He smiled and dropped the sandwich. “All right, lover boy, calm the fuck down.”

He wiped his mouth with his napkin. I tapped my finger on the table. I was ready to punch him in the face. Hard.

“She sent it to her school email — it was the only one Vero had actually.”

I didn’t even know about that one. Of course. Leave it to Savannah to still use a school email. I found myself smiling.

“Well, where is she?”

Eddy shook his head. “I wish I could tell you what you want to hear, bro, but really, that’s all I’ve got.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Please just tell me something. Anything.”

“I’m serious, what I have isn’t important. Veronica wanted to have lunch with her. Savannah said she was busy, but she’d get back to her when she was free.”

I opened up my hands and laid them palm up. Being Latin, you use a lot of hand gestures. “Busy doing what, exactly?”

“She mentioned taking shots for her studio, and she was starting to book over the weekends. She said she was doing well. She said that it was nice to hear from Vero and she’d love to have lunch one day. The usual girl shit they talk about.”

He sighed and I stayed quiet. Was she dating anyone? At least I knew she was ‘well’ — whatever that meant.

“Did she mention another guy? Girls talk about that, don’t they?” I probed.

Eddy shook his head. “Sorry man, I don’t think they talked about that and it was just one email. I should have waited to see if there would be more than one before telling you this.”

I placed my elbows on the table and rubbed my stubble. “Nah, don’t worry. It’s fine.”

I thought about what he said for a moment. Replaying the conversation in my mind, I wanted to memorize it in case something came back to me later.

“What’s her school email?” I asked suddenly. I could try to send her an email again.

Eddy groaned. “Don’t do this shit to me, come on.”

I feigned innocence. “What?”

“You know if you email her then she’ll complain about it to Veronica and Veronica will know that I told you. Come on, dude.”

I laughed but shook my head. “Peach isn’t like that.”

Eddy rolled his eyes and scoffed.

“I’m serious. She’s cool. She’ll know that if she tells Veronica that, Veronica will get mad at you so she won’t do it.”

He still didn’t answer me so I raised my eyebrow.

“Trust me,” I said and prayed he would.

“I don’t want to hear shit later -”

I leaned back on my seat and exhaled. “Her family hasn’t heard from her, and they’re worried. We’re
all
worried,” I insisted.
Didn’t he understand? Fuck.

“What family?” Eddy argued and his comment made me frown, but he continued speaking before I could answer. “The only person she’d probably talk to is Lola, and she knows Lola would report back to Carmin.”

“And then Carmin would tell me.”

Eddy huffed. “Come on, get real. Carmin wouldn’t tell you jack shit.” He leaned forward and lowered his voice. “What kind of
sister
,” he said using air quotes, “sleeps with the man they know their sister is in love with? I remember Carmin being all up in your shit since high school.”

This time I leaned forward. “You think she’s lying about the baby being mine?” My chest tightened at the possibility. I’d have no ties to her.

“I’m just saying, man, I’d get him or her tested as soon as it’s born and find out.” He took a bite of his sandwich while I pondered. If the baby wasn’t mine, Peach would have to take me back. She’d see that I wasn’t lying about not remembering that night. If the baby
was
mine, I might never get to see her again.

“I need this chance, Eddy,” I pleaded with him. Knowing there was a way to contact her and not being able to, was killing me.

He exhaled and pulled out his phone. Score one for Dre.

He scrolled, thought about it and stopped. “I’ll text it to you.”

I smiled. “Thanks, bro.”

I held up my sandwich again. This was probably the greasiest sandwich on Earth. So fucking good.

“What if she doesn’t respond?” he asked and started eating. The asshole practically
wanted
my lunch to be ruined.

“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “I
need
to find her. What else can I do?” I looked up at him and he was thoughtful for a moment.

“You know, Tony’s P.I. business isn’t a bad start,” he started.

Shit, that wasn’t a bad idea.

“You think he’d be able to find her?”

“I don’t think he’s cheap…”

I waved my hands at him. “I don’t care.
Could he find her
?”

“Give me any info you might have on her, including old addresses and he’ll see what he can do.”

“Done.”

“Can he start now?” I asked.

Eddy laughed. Apparently, he thought
I
was a funny guy. “You’re so fucking persistent!”

I smiled. For my Peach, I sure as fuck was.

I told him
do it
in Spanish slang, “
Dale
.” I grinned.

Finally, I could eat in peace.

When I got home that night, I opened up my email account and began to write my email to Peach.

I thought about what to say. Should I ask her general questions — make small talk? I shook my head. No, that wouldn’t be real. I gave up over thinking and decided to just write what came to me.

To:
[email protected]

Subject: Please don’t delete this.

Peach,

I’ll make it quick, I promise. Just hear me out. I would have sent you this email sooner if I’d known it existed and you still checked it. I miss you. I went to Starbucks this morning and heard a song that makes me think of you. “Mirrors” by Justin Timberlake. You know I’m not as much of a fan of his as you are, but the lyrics actually made sense and it stuck out to me. The song is about seeing yourself in someone else even when times are hard. We can overcome anything because you are my other half. I hope wherever you are, you understand how much I miss you.

I wish that I could see you again and that you’d give me a chance to work this all out. Just say the word, Peach, and I’ll meet you wherever you want. I just want ten minutes so I can see your beautiful face again.

JT has one thing right: You’re my mirror.

Dre

A clear gel was squirted over Carmin’s belly and I watched closely, wondering what she felt.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“It’s just ultrasound gel,” the technician answered.

The last time I came here with her, they inserted a thick vibrator-looking instrument up her you-know-what. I inwardly shuddered. Thank God dudes didn’t have to go through
that.

“Does it tickle?” I glanced at Carmin.

“No, it’s just cold.” She smiled at me and reached for my hand. I looked down at our fingers but didn’t let go. I figured she was nervous. I was bouncing on the heels of my feet myself. What if there was something wrong or they couldn’t see anything at all?

“Okay, let’s see what we have here,” the technician said and placed a contraption over the gel.

“What’s that?” I must have sounded like a first grader asking fifty questions but I didn’t care. That was my kid in there and I wanted to know.

“It’s called a transducer probe,” she said and smiled gently at me. “It’s what we need to produce the sound waves used in ultrasounds…” her voice faded out for me as soon as I heard the heartbeat. A fast bumping sound that echoed in my ears and down into my soul. It opened up something new inside of me I didn’t know existed. Something alive and joyful, just like my child.
It’s amazing. There’s a little human inside of Carmin that belongs to me!

Our eyes were glued to the TV hanging up on the wall.

“It’s a boy!” the technician announced proudly. I was speechless. Holy shit. This was real.

“Are you sure?” Carmin asked and I saw she had tears in her eyes. I squeezed her hand. I was feeling all kinds of emotions myself. This was crazy! A boy!

“Oh yeah, it’s pretty clear.” I could see a little cursor over the screen as she pointed to what was his wee-wee. “You see here? That’s the proof.” She moved the cursor around and pointed out each body part. I was floored. My son! I was going to sign him up for t-ball as soon as we left this room.
By the time he’s four he’ll have practiced with me a few times, and he’ll be a pro.
Unless he fell in love with a different sport. I frowned. Nah, I’d teach him baseball and that’s what he’d grow up knowing.

Carmin squeezed my hand and I glanced back down at her. She was wiping away happy tears. “How do you feel, Dad?”

There wasn’t an easy answer. I felt too many things. Excited, relieved, nervous.

“Proud,” I finished and she beamed.

“Well, everything else looks great and you’re measuring at nineteen weeks.” The technician, whose name tag said Amanda, printed out pictures of our boy.

“Can I have a copy too?” I asked eagerly. I’d seen them all, but Carmin always kept the copies. I wanted this one for my own.