Right Where I Belong (9 page)
“I just signed my contract,” Maureen spat out as she sat on the couch and placed a pillow on her lap. “I am getting paid about a third of what I made starting out in your father’s company. But there won’t be any raises here. No promotions. Nothing. All my education, all my experience, everything goes out the window.”
“Maureen.” Natalia sat next to her, wanting to scream at her for not seeing the opportunity she was being given but knowing that wouldn’t help the situation. “You are trading one set of gifts for another. And you’ve always told me how much you love the Spanish language and how terrible your high school Spanish teacher was. What was her name? Señora Manzeloswi?”
“Midzowanski.” Maureen smiled in spite of herself. “She
was
pretty bad. She couldn’t even pronounce half the words in our Spanish 2 textbook. ‘HO-la, chih-cahs,’ she’d say. She wouldn’t even try to speak with a Spanish accent. It was awful!”
“But you have been exposed to true Spanish.” Natalia grinned. “From the Mother country. You can teach these poor American kids correct pronunciation, proper grammar. You’re like a missionary to the monolingual!”
Maureen reached over and hugged her. “Oh, Natalia, I don’t know what I’d do without you here. I’m sorry I haven’t helped you very much. I feel like our roles have reversed. You’re the mother and I’m the child. I’ll get better. I promise. This is just so much harder than I thought it would be. All of it is so much harder.”
“We’ll get through this, Maureen. And I, for one, am quite relieved that you’ll be at school with me. You can protect me from awful things like chicken fried chicken.”
Both laughed. Natalia had not enjoyed the southern food, but, thankfully, Addy was very understanding. In fact, she had called later that night and offered to take Natalia to a local Spanish restaurant.
“It’s supposed to be the real thing,” Addy promised. “In
fact, it’s called a tapas bar. When I told that to my uncle, he thought I said ‘topless bar’ and got this shocked look on his face.” Even Maureen had chuckled at that.
“Tapas are very Spanish,” Natalia assured Addy. “They are similar to what you call appetizers, except you share them with a whole table and that is your meal. If this place is really authentic, we can even get some chorizo. That’s my favorite!”
“What’s chorizo?” Addy asked.
“Just wait and see.”
“Oh, Natalia,” Maureen said, snapping Natalia out of her reverie. “I almost forgot. When I was in the meeting with Mr. Lawrence, he asked me about your community-service hours.”
“My what?”
“Students are required to have a certain number of community-service hours in order to graduate.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Anything that benefits the community,” Maureen replied.
“Well, that clears it all up.” Natalia raised her arms in surrender. “I don’t litter and I go shopping. Isn’t that beneficial? I can go shopping a little more if that would help.”
“Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. It has to be a service, like tutoring kids or volunteering at a community center. Oh, I know.” Maureen placed a hand on Natalia’s knee. “Little Brian said he runs an ESL program here. That’s English as a Second Language. He offers classes at the church. Most of them are Spanish speakers. You could help with that.”
The thought of working with Brian was not unpleasant. But Natalia feared that working so closely with him every week might be difficult.
“Well?” Maureen asked.
“I don’t know. Let’s keep looking for other options. If I can’t find anything else, I’ll do that.”
“Hmmm, where have I heard that before?” Maureen laughed.
Natalia was so happy to hear her laughing, she didn’t stop to wonder if God was using her stepmother to guide her to this ESL ministry. She was sure God wouldn’t want her to be around a guy she was attracted to.
Why purposefully court temptation? I’m sure there will be some other community service I can do. Preferably with a woman. Or an ugly old man.
A
h yes.” Natalia leaned back in her chair. “
This
is good food!”
Addy had picked up Natalia from her house that evening to take her to the Spanish restaurant. Natalia quickly discovered that the food was, in fact, quite authentic. The owners were from Salamanca, as were their chefs. Upon hearing they had an actual Spaniard in the restaurant, two of the chefs came out to personally greet her.
Natalia was thrilled to speak to someone in her native language, talking about places they knew in Spain and things they missed here in the States. Both men had lived in Tampa for over a decade, and their accents sounded more Latin American than Spanish. But it was Spanish. And for that, she was grateful.
Once the men excused themselves, Natalia looked at Addy. She had been sitting quietly during the entire conversation.
“I’m sorry for taking so long. I was just so excited.”
“Don’t apologize.” Addy shrugged. “That was great. I
know a little Spanish, so I could pick up on some of your conversation. But your accent is different. It almost sounds like you lisp when you speak.”
“Lisp? What does that mean?”
“Like when you said
gracias
,” Addy said. “You pronounced it
gra-th-ias
.”
“Of course. It’s the Latin Americans who have a different accent.
Ours
is the mother tongue. Just like British is the mother tongue of English.”
Addy laughed. “So since you learned English from your British teachers, does that mean you speak better Spanish
and
English than we do?”
“I guess so.” Natalia winked. “But since you’re in Spanish 3 this year and Maureen will be teaching you, you’ll be able to learn from the best.”
The conversation continued to be light and fun as the waiters brought out the different appetizers, called tapas
.
Addy confessed that she wasn’t sure she liked the chorizo.
“Properly pronounced
chori-tho,
” Natalia had corrected. The sausage-like links were a little spicier than what Addy was used to. Natalia was happy that Addy liked the octopus.
“
Pulpo,
we call it,” Natalia had said. “It’s one of my favorites too.”
Addy put her napkin down and looked at Natalia. “If you don’t mind my prying, how are you doing? I understood enough of your conversation with the chefs to know you miss Spain. I know you must miss your family and friends. I’ve seen how upset Maureen is. You seem fine with all this change, but I don’t think I would be. Are you really all right?”
Natalia took a sip of her water and thought about Addy’s question. Natalia had plenty of friends in Spain, but she rarely talked with any of them about how she was feeling. In fact, she couldn’t remember any of them asking how she was feeling. They’d argue and debate and joke, of course. But Natalia had spent too many years guarding herself from hurts that she wasn’t even sure she knew how she really felt about most things.
“I’m okay,” Natalia said quietly, cautiously. “I miss it, yes, but I know this is where God wants me. And to get to go to a Christian school . . . I can’t even tell you how exciting that is.”
“I take so much for granted.” Addy tilted her head. “Wasn’t there anyone in your school who was a Christian?”
“Not that I knew of. Some of my friends believed in God, but not a personal God. They certainly didn’t see any need to study the Bible or pray. My closest friend is an atheist, and she would argue with me all the time about why my faith is silly and I need to give it up.”
“Wow. What did you say to her?”
“I defended my faith the best I could and shared the gospel with her every chance I got.”
“I admire that.” Addy took another bite of the
pulpo
. “I was around people for a whole month this spring who didn’t know Christ, and I was scared to death to even let them know I was a Christian. God had to really shake me up to make me share my faith.”
“Maureen told me about that. You talked to the producer of your reality TV show on air, right? That’s bold.”
“It wasn’t easy, but God used my weakness. And now
Jonathon, the president’s son, is really growing. We talk about our Bible studies and share prayer requests. It’s exciting.”
“So is there really a romance there? Or is that just rumor?”
Addy’s face turned a bright shade of red, and Natalia knew she had touched on a sensitive spot. “I’m sorry. You don’t have to answer that.” Brian Younger’s face suddenly popped into Natalia’s mind.
I can’t even go to dinner with a friend without thinking of him. What is wrong with me?
“No, it’s all right. Actually, we are still praying about that.”
“You’re praying about a boy?” Natalia’s glass clinked against the tiles on the table. “What do you mean?”
“We are definitely interested in each other, but we want to take things slow and make sure God is honored in our relationship. We’ve got plenty of time to get serious down the road.”
Natalia smiled. This was the kind of friend she had been praying for. She told Addy as much.
“I’m glad God brought you here, Natalia.” Addy returned her smile.
“Me too,” a familiar voice said. Natalia turned to see Brian Younger the younger standing behind her. She strained her neck to look up at his bright red head and smiling face.
“What, no kiss for an old friend?” He laughed, pulling a chair out to sit beside Natalia.
“Do Americans not ask permission before invading a dinner table?” Natalia peered at Addy.
Addy, obviously unsure whether or not Natalia was serious, looked to Brian.
“I was invited by your stepmother, thank you very
much.” Brian grabbed a slice of bread and placed chorizo, cheese, and a tomato on top.
“What?” Natalia asked, still in shock. Her heart raced as he sat down. What excuse could she invent to leave the restaurant as soon as possible?
I am not interested. No boys, no dating, no romance. God! Help me. Surely you don’t want me tempted like this.
“As I was saying,” Brian mumbled as he swallowed the last of his food, “Maureen called to ask me about the ESL program. She said you needed some community-service hours.” Brian paused to take a sip of Natalia’s water. She blinked in surprise. “I told her that was amazing because just this morning I was praying that God would bring someone who is bilingual along who could help me. So many folks come in speaking no English at all.” Brian helped himself to some
pulpo.
“And all I can say is,
Hola, me llamo Brian, y tu
?”
Natalia wasn’t sure which was worse—Brian’s manners or his accent.
“So.” Brian forced Natalia to look him in the eye.
“
Que pasa
?”
“What?” His blue eyes momentarily distracted her.
“I don’t know. That’s all I remember from Spanish class.”
“I’m not sure.” Natalia stared down at the table—anywhere to avoid his eyes. “Let me think it over a little more. When do you need to know?”
“We meet every Thursday. So how’s tomorrow sound? That enough time?”
“No. I’ll see you Sunday at church. I might have an answer then.”
Brian’s eyes registered shock, and then something else.
Natalia thought he seemed intrigued. But that couldn’t be the case. She looked away from Brian’s eyes to her half-eaten chorizo.
Brian cleared his throat, reached in his pocket, and pulled out a ten-dollar bill. His relaxed demeanor returned. “Thanks for the food, ladies. It was
muy bueno
!” He winked.
Natalia sat, her back straight and eyes forward, refusing to watch the young man leave.
“Interesting,” Addy said as the bell above the door signaled Brian had left the restaurant.
“What’s interesting?”
Addy smiled and took a sip of her soda. “That was interesting.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I think Brian Younger may have just met his match.”
Natalia folded her arms. “I am no one’s match.”
I
s there any problem a good day of shopping can’t fix?
Addy picked Natalia up from her town house at ten the next morning. With school starting the next week, Natalia had lots of shopping to do. Maureen was busy with her lesson planning so Addy volunteered to help.