Her friends arrived shortly after and spent the rest of the afternoon in the kitchen, drinking entirely way too much, eating and talking all about me. Evita asked too many fucking questions about my childhood, from how I was raised, to what I loved doing the most, to God knows what else. Rosarío and her friends were all too delighted to oblige. I was waiting for Rosarío to pull out the album of baby pictures, but I think she knew better. I tuned them out after a while, aimlessly staring out at Amira’s garden as I leaned against the sliding glass door. All her Mariposa flowers were dead, withered away like no one had taken care of them for months.
“Babe… what are you doing all the way over here?” Evita slightly slurred, throwing her arms around my neck. “You look all Damien-like. Lost in thought.”
“You’re drunk,” I simply stated, grabbing ahold of her waist to help hold her up.
“I thought you liked it when I got drunk, so you can do naughty things to me.”
“I don’t need you drunk to do things to you, Evita.”
She smiled, loudly replying, “I want you to do things to me now!”
“Shhh, enough of that.”
“Oh, come on, babe. I love Rosarío! I love all her friends, and I love you so much!”
“Evita, I mean it. Enough.”
“Hey!” She stepped back, out of my arms. “Rosarío would be more than excited if we had babies!” She glanced back at her. “Wouldn’t you, Rosarío?”
Rosarío took one look at me and then back at her, narrowing her eyes at us. Waiting for the other fucking shoe to drop. As soon as I stepped toward Evita to shut her mouth for her, she drunkenly blurted what we weren’t going to announce yet.
“I’m your fiancée now! Everyone will want us to make babies!”
Before she even got the last word out, my eyes inadvertently shifted to Amira’s garden. Locking eyes with my Mu?eca. It was like she appeared out of thin air at the worse time possible. My heart fucking stopped from the expression on her face, rendering me fucking speechless. Knowing she’d just heard everything from the open slider door.
“Oh! We weren’t supposed to tell you yet! Shit!” Evita exclaimed, stepping into my arms again. Looking up at me through her long lashes, she said, “I’m sorry, babe. The wine, the excitement, and everyone got the best of me. How could I ever make this up to you?” She nervously laughed, trying to bring my attention back to her. Though it was solely focused on the girl frozen in place, a few steps in front of me.
“You’re engaged?” Rosarío called out, and even her voice couldn’t tear me away from Amira’s intense gaze.
“Yeah!” Evita replied, turning to face them. “He asked me to marry him a few weeks ago. I said yes! It was probably the only reason he finally let us meet.”
“Oh my God!” Rosarío excitedly screamed, and everyone followed suit. Uncorking bottles of champagne.
What happened next was one big blur. Everyone faded into the distance as they celebrated our engagement. No one noticed the tsunami of emotions drowning both Amira and me. My whole world seemed to come crashing down on me in a matter of seconds.
Everything I thought I knew, everything I wanted to believe in, all of it…
Gone.
We stayed there lost in time with each other for I don’t how long. I needed to snap out of it, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her. She had matured so much since the last time I saw her. She was almost unrecognizable. No longer a girl but a woman. My boots were cemented to the spot I was standing in while chaos erupted all around us.
And I wasn’t talking about the celebration.
My control…
Was long fucking gone.
“Amira!” Rosarío shouted, making everyone turn to look at her.
She was the first to break our trance-like state of mind, shaking her head as Rosarío rushed over to her. “Hi, Mama Rosa.”
“Mamita, are you okay—”
“Of course,” she breathed out, falsely smiling. “I just thought I’d stop in to say hello to everyone on my way to the movies. From the noise, I guess it’s a good thing I did.” She gazed back over at us, and it was only then I realized Evita was in my arms, looking over at Amira. Making the situation even more awkward.
“I hear congratulations is in order!” she coaxed, walking over to us.
I could see the distress written over her face and the change in her demeanor, as much as she tried to hide it. There was no way she could hide from me. She was still hopelessly in love with me, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t already know she never stopped.
“You’re Amira?” Evita asked, when she was standing in front of us.
“I am.”
“So nice to finally meet you! Damien told me you’re Rosarío’s niece.”
“Mmm hmm.”
“You’re beautiful! Oh my God, Damien, why didn’t you tell me she’s a knock out! I bet you make the boys crazy!”
“Not boys. Just a boy,” Amira retorted, almost knocking me on my ass.
“What boy? Rosarío never told me you were dating anyone,” I questioned, trying to conceal the hard edge in my voice.
“Oh, Damien,” Rosarío chimed in, moving to stand beside us. “He’s always been so protective over her. He still can’t see that our Amira isn’t a little girl anymore. I mean look at her, do you see? She’s a woman now.”
“Oh, I see,” I gritted out, seeing fucking red.
Amira cunningly grinned, aware of the sudden tension in my tone. “Actually, I don’t think he’s considered a boy anymore, Evita. He’s twenty-one, I think that makes him a man. He’s a soldier like you, Damien. Maybe you know him.”
“Who the fuck—”
“I’m supposed to be meeting him at the movies, and I don’t want to keep him waiting. So congratulations, and welcome to the family,” Amira interrupted me, pulling Evita into a hug and she happily returned the gesture. When they pulled away, Amira peered over at me, placing her hand over my heart. “You should probably start on that baby-making thing. You are getting kind of old.”
Everyone burst out laughing. Everyone but me.
“Anyway, congratulations, Damien. I’m sure you and Evita will be very happy. You have that effect on women,” she snidely spoke, hugging and kissing Rosarío next. Telling her she wouldn’t be home too late before leaving without so much as another glance my way.
I spent the rest of the evening with my blood boiling and my temper igniting. Neither of which were ever good when it came to Amira. I was a ticking fucking time bomb, about to explode with every second I had to sit there and pretend like I wasn’t plotting the murder of her goddamn boyfriend.
By the time we said our goodbyes and I dropped Evita off at her house, it was well past eleven o’clock at night. I lied to my fiancée, telling her I had an early morning meeting and needed to take off. She understood, not paying me any mind. It wasn’t the first time I couldn’t spend the night because of Emilio.
I drove back to Rosarío’s like a bat out of fucking hell; I couldn’t get to Amira fast enough. I parked my car on the street in front of the house. Right when I stepped out of my car, I heard a slight echo of what sounded like a moan. It was coming from the direction of the small park a few houses down. Putting a halt to everything in my crazed mind, I made my way over there on pure compulsion. Realizing very fucking quickly that the sounds were coming from the backseat of a piece of shit car.
Call it instinct.
Perception.
Fucking madness.
I knew it was Amira who was underneath the motherfucker who was about to die.