“He’s a good athlete,” I said. “And a good student. He plays an instrument in the band, too.
Trumpet.”
“That’s what you know about him?”
“He just asked me today, Tía Isabela. I didn’t have time to learn a great deal.”
Sophia and she both laughed at me.
“No time to learn a great deal? You’ve been at the school almost a year and a half, Delia.”
I shrugged. How was I to explain my deliberate indifference to boys while Ignacio remained in my heart and mind?
“Maybe you aren’t as sophisticated as I thought,” she said. “I don’t know why I ever thought it, now that I consider what has happened to you when it comes to men.”
“That’s for sure,” Sophia said.
“I wouldn’t pat myself on the back just yet, Sophia,” Tía Isabela snapped at her. “Your relationships with boys have been nothing to brag about. Do I have to remind you about some of the situations you got yourself into, situations that could have been very embarrassing for me?”
“It’s always you, isn’t it, Mother?”
“If you had half a brain, you’d realize it’s both of us, Sophia. You can’t live in a bubble.”
“I’m not the one living in a bubble, Mother. I’m not trying to be eighteen again.”
“That’s enough,” Tía Isabela said sharply. She glared at Sophia who just calmly continued to eat. “Disregard any advice she gives you,” she told me.
“She doesn’t listen to my advice,” Sophia complained. “She’s a big expert when it comes to boys now. Haven’t you heard?”
Tía Isabela thought for a moment. “Maybe she is,” she said. “Christian Taylor’s father was my husband’s heart doctor. Finally, you’re socializing with the right sort of people,” she told me. “Don’t do anything to embarrass me.”
“I wouldn’t do anything to embarrass you or myself.”
“We’ll see,” she said.
I said nothing more. As usual, we finished our dinner in silence, the air so thick with tension around us it could be cut with a knife.
To my surprise, a little after nine o’clock, my phone rang. It was Christian.
“I’m just calling to see if you rethought your decision,” he said. He made it sound like a business decision. “Girls can be impetuous. Maybe you were just in the wrong mood.”
It would be like him to find a way to blame me, I thought.
“I do not mean to be disrespectful of your invitation,” I said.
He laughed. “I’m not your teacher or your father, Delia. I’m not worried about respect.”
“But you should worry about that,” I countered quickly. “We must first respect each other. We must always respect each other’s feelings.”
He was quiet a moment, and then he said, “Maybe you are cut out to be a nun.”
“It is not a bad thing to be.”
“Hey, it’s nun thing to me,” he said, laughing. “Let me know if you have a change of heart,” he added, and said good-bye.
I suspected that, as usual, Sophia had kept one ear out for the sound of my phone ringing. Almost the moment I hung up, she was in my room.
“So?” she asked. “Where’s he taking you Friday night? If he told you he’s taking you to a drive-in, that’s bull. There’s no drive-in. He just means he’s taking you parking and pretending you’re watching a movie. That’s his big joke he pulls on innocent, stupid girls.”