I drove to the practice facility, pretending that I needed to observe for my new job but really just so I could watch César. I saw that giant jerk Davis Blake and I gave him the finger from afar—it would have to do until we were close enough that I could say it to his face. César had refused to talk to me about Davis and about their argument at the party, but I’d heard from Lindy that they weren’t getting along, and it made me furious. Clearly, the guy didn’t like me, and he didn’t like César standing up for me. I could privately think that Davis was a hatchet-faced douche, but I also knew that they were friends as well as teammates. I didn’t want to be a wedge between César and his quarterback.
We went home briefly before César left to go pick up his family at the airport. Unlike them, he didn’t bring a sign and balloons. I knew that he was excited to see everyone—but he was acting strangely, like not really talking too much, not really smiling. I primed up the house as best I could for visitors, and in not too long, I heard the garage door close, the sound of multiple voices, and then César’s mom call, “Hello? Camdyn, come here!”
Ok, time to do this. “Hi, Ana!” I told her, and then we were all hugging and talking in the kitchen. I ended up showing them their rooms and around the house, then entertaining the crowd while César cooked alone, working on the ambitious dinner he had told me about.
“This is wonderful,” Ana said, when we were finally seated around the shiny, gold table on the bubblegum-pink, brocade chairs. The dining room always weirded me out, because the entire ceiling was mirrored.
“Very good,” César’s dad Gael agreed. I could see both his face and the reflection of the top of his head, which felt strange at a meal.
César was still not talking very much, so I tried to carry the conversation. I even tried out some of my newly-acquired Spanish on them, like when César finally opened his mouth and started to argue with his sister about who was going to host Christmas. He told her that the last time she had done it, she had almost killed them all with bad mushrooms.
“You just have a sensitive stomach,” Valeria countered, and he shook his head at her. “If you’re going to insult my hospitality…”
“Píntalo de amarillo,” I advised her.
“What?” Gael asked. He started to laugh. “You want her to give him a yellow card?”
“I’ve been learning Spanish by watching a lot of soccer,” I explained.
“That’s why you’ve been watching all those games?” César stared at me, a funny look on his face. “I had no idea that was why you suddenly turned into a fan.”
“It’s a really fun way to learn,” I told him. “Plus, I’ve gotten into some of the teams, in several different countries.” Gael asked me which ones, and we started an involved discussion.
Ana beamed at me. “César, she’s a keeper,” she told her son. “I knew it, didn’t I, mamá?” she asked Miriam. “I knew that she was different from all the other women.” Now she rolled her eyes. “Too many women.”
I glanced over at the thermostat, because it suddenly seemed much warmer in this room.
“Remember Ysabel?” Valeria snorted. “She was his girlfriend in high school,” she explained to me. “We would wake up with her waiting for him on the porch. She might have been there all night, she was so crazy about you,” she teased her brother. “Or maybe just crazy, because something had to be wrong for her to love you so much.”
“Ha,” César told her.
“And then after Ysabel—”
“Val, shh. He wasn’t really that bad,” Ana assured me, and Miriam spoke up. “That’s right, he’s been somewhere in between Hugh Hefner and a priest,” Ana translated.
“Aren’t we all?” I asked. “Gael, what do you know about the Bundesliga? I was thinking I might want to learn German…”
“And I’m sure that Camdyn was no nun,” Ana continued, laughing. “I mean that as a compliment,” she assured me. “With your beautiful face, you must have had men panting after you all the time!”
“It’s true,” César agreed, his voice flat. “Every time she steps out of the house, she has a small parade behind her.”
I turned to look at him. “No, that’s not true, and I’m not interested in anyone else,” I said. “In anyone, I meant to say.”
“All the more reason to put a ring on it,” Gael told him, and Valeria turned to teasing her dad instead about his dated slang. César looked furious, and this conversation wasn’t funny at all. I bit my lip so I wouldn’t say anything and I physically held the bubblegum brocade so I wouldn’t bolt out of the room.
Hours later, I finally heard César come upstairs. His family had insisted on cleaning up from dinner without my help and I had wanted to give them some time together with César. When I heard his footsteps, I ran to my bedroom door. We collided as he stepped through it.
“Where are you going so fast?” he asked me. “Is there a soccer game starting?” He held me under my elbows, our bodies still flush.
“I wanted to talk to you.” I led him back into my bedroom. “Come sit.” I lay on the bed and curled
