The-Spanish-Love-Deception-www.indianpdf

“Y qué intenciones tiene este chico con nuestra Linita?” Tía Carmen
asked my cousin as she snatched a slice of bread off the tray. What intentions
does he have with our little Lina?
My jaw fell to the floor.
Charo seemed to think about it for a moment. “No lo sé, Mamá.” Her eyes
zeroed in on the man behind—or rather beneath—me. “Aaron, what are your
intentions with Lina? You are not just fooling around, are you? What do you
think about marriage? Because Lina is about to turn thirty and—”
“Charo,” I interrupted her. “Ya basta,” I hissed. “And I’m only twentyeight.
Jesus.”
Aaron chuckled behind me. “Marriage is one of my favorite institutions.”
My jaw hit the floor.
“I’ve always wanted to get married.”
My breath hitched, my mouth still hanging open.
“Have a bunch of kids. A dog too.”
Swallowing hard, I tried my best to conceal my pure shock. I tried to take
ahold of my mind, which had wandered away with dangerous rose-tainted
images, born of Aaron’s words.
Fake. He’s only saying what every family wants to hear.
And then he really went for it. “We love dogs, don’t we, bollito?”
Managing to pick up my jaw from the floor, I answered with a weak,
“Yeah.” Then, I shook my head and somehow recovered. “That’s why we’ll
have a bunch of them. Instead of kids.”
His chuckle tickled my ear.
“But there’s plenty of time to talk about that,” I gritted out with a fake
smile.
“Ay que bien! Dogs, babies, true love. Just in time before you are a little
too old.” Charo clapped, and I shot her a look. “Mujer, no te pongas así.”
Don’t be like that, she said. “Did you try that jamón, Aaron? If you ever get
married and move to Spain, you’ll have all the jamón you’d ever want.”
Move to Spain? Jesus, what did she want? To make me lose my shit?
My cousin continued, “You see, Lina had to leave to America all those
years ago because of everything that happened and—”
“Charo,” I cut her off, my breathing growing heavy. “Déjalo ya, por
favor,” I begged her to drop it.
The doorbell rang again. And I muttered a not-so-quiet curse under my
breath.