20

Ramirez Gonzales.

Like an i***t. I came like a damn i***t.

I’d imagined it before, for weeks now—that her fingers would wrap and encircle my hardened length. Yesterday, she watched me. Those bloody innocent eyes on her face watched me as I was spent like naive virgin. The memory still clings to me, hot and humiliating, as I take the stairs two at a time.

Lucia is at my side before I even hit the ground floor, all bubbly energy.

“Have breakfast with us!” she nudges my arm, cheerful, completely unaware of the curse sitting in my gut. My eyes dart around the space, already searching for Ariel without thinking.

I grunt, trying to brush her off. "Yeah, so your father can gawk at me again?" My voice is a low hiss.

Lucia’s laugh is too light, too easy. “He’s not home. They went to a garage sale. You……