During the four-hour ride home from Dallas, she catches me up on the local gossip of Patterson. “Maria Solis’s daughter is home from UT. She gets her hair cut in Austin now, but she still has the nicest manners. She stopped in the other day just to say hi.”
I nod absently, wondering if I had invited Sabrina to come home with me for the holidays if she would have said yes. I figured the invitation would be unwelcome, not just because she’d view it as a sign we were moving too fast, but because she needs the money from work. Before I left, she was nearly beside herself with happiness about the time and a half she was going to be making.
“You should ask her out.” Mom’s voice penetrates my daydreams again.
“Who?” I ask.
“Maria Solis’s daughter,” she replies impatiently.
I glance away from the road to give her an incredulous stare. “You want me to date Daniela Solis?”
“Why not? She’s gorgeous and smart.” Mom sits back in her seat and crosses her arms.
“She’s also gay.”
Her mouth falls open. “Dani Solis is gay?”
“I guess the appropriate term is lesbian,” I say, remembering my gender studies course.
“No,” my mother protests. “She’s far too beautiful.”
“Mom, beautiful girls can be lesbians.”
“Are you sure? Maybe she’s bi. I know they say kids experiment in college.”
“She took Cassie Carter to prom! You did both their hair.”
“I thought they were friends.”
“They had to go as friends because the prom folks wouldn’t let them attend as a couple.”
The small West Texas town I grew up in is a tad on the conservative side. Dani and Cassie were friends, only ones that kissed and felt each other up in the hallway. And drove every teenage boy in eyeballing distance right out of their ever loving minds. I’d spent many a teenage night fantasizing about the things those two girls did in private. It was probably inappropriate, but the majority of my thoughts from about age ten to seventeen fell into the inappropriate category.
Mom slumps in her seat. She’d obviously worked out an elaborate plan in her mind about Dani and me getting together.
“Remember when I told you that I met a girl?” I say slowly, deciding that I better get this out there now before she starts trying to pair me off with every single girl in Patterson.
“Oh?” Her voice is guarded. “I thought it wasn’t a thing?”
“It is now. Look, you’d like her. She’s got perfect grades, works two jobs, and just got accepted into Harvard Law.”
“Harvard? Isn’t that in Boston?”
The worry is heavy in her voice. I get it. She’s concerned that if I fall for a girl in Boston, I won’t move back home, which is why she sprang the Dani Solis thing on me before we even finished the drive home.
“Yeah. Cambridge.” I can’t even give her assurances, because at this point, I don’t know what I’m doing about Boston, Patterson, or any of it. The only thing I’m sure of is that I want to be with Sabrina.
“How long is law school?”
“Three years.” AKA too long to be separated.
“Your plan is still to come home and buy a business, right? I was talking with Stewart Randolph the other day. You remember him? He owns the real estate business over on Pleasant. He’s thinking of retiring, and that kid of his doesn’t want to move from Austin. It sounds like Randy would be interested in entertaining offers.”
I grip the steering wheel a little tighter. Sabrina asked if anything got to me. Well, making my mom unhappy is on the top of that list. But the idea of buying Stewart Randolph’s real estate business might be a close second. In fact, the actual idea of sitting in Randolph’s office, wearing a tie every day, makes my skin itch. I’ve got some ideas about what I’m going to do when I graduate and being a realtor isn’t one of them, particularly in Patterson, population 10,000.
“I’ll talk to him,” I hear myself saying.
“Good.” At least someone’s satisfied. “Oh, by the way, the Solises are coming to dinner tonight.”
“Jesus Christ, Mom.”
“Don’t curse, John.”
I drag in a deep breath and pray for patience, wondering when I’ll be able to text Sabrina.
*
“My mom has officially dubbed you a ‘good catch.’” Dani takes a seat next to me on the back steps of the small two-story house where I’ve lived all my life.
I tap my glass of sangria against hers. “That’s solid. I’m going to put that on my Tinder profile.”
“She also says that you have a secret cache of money that you’ll shower on me when I provide you the requisite firstborn.” Dani’s grin stretches from ear to ear. She’s clearly loving this.
“My mother told me you were gorgeous and smart.” I stifle a sigh, thinking of the other gorgeous and smart girl who I haven’t gotten to text since I sent her the I landed hours ago.
Her response of Yay! Glad to hear it isn’t providing me with my necessary Sabrina daily intake. I guess absence does make the heart grow fonder, because I miss the shit out of her.
“And you said?”