“Thank you for helping me,” I said when we pulled up to the hacienda.
We put the top back up.
“You did great. I imagine you are quite a good student, Delia. Your teachers must enjoy having you.”
“Thank you, Adan.”
“Can I dominate your weekend this weekend?” he asked before opening the car door.
“Dominate? What does this mean?”
“Well, we’re going to dinner Friday night, right?”
“Yes.”
“I’d like to take you to Newport Beach on Saturday and give you a ride on my boat.”
“You have a boat, too?”
“Yes,” he said, laughing. “It’s not a big yacht, but the weather is supposed to be perfect, and we can go to Catalina Island for a nice lunch. We’ll have dinner on the way home from Newport.”
“This is so much,” I said. “I cannot imagine it all.”
“Don’t. No need to imagine it. We’ll do it,” he said. “Okay?”
I hesitated.
“Do you think I should go in and ask your aunt’s permission?” he asked, thinking that was the reason I had not yet replied.
“No,” I said. It almost made me laugh. She would probably leap at saying yes.
“Then I can make plans for Saturday?”
“I have not gone in anything but a rowboat,” I said.
“You’re in for a great time, Delia. You know,” he said, reaching over to take my hand, “when you can enjoy the things you have with someone who really appreciates them, you really appreciate them, too. You become grateful, and that’s a good thing, no?”
“Sí.”
“Then you’ll be doing me a big favor by coming with me,” he said.
He was either very sincere or very clever, I thought, but at the moment, I didn’t want to work too hard at figuring it out. He leaned closer to kiss me, and then we got out of my car. We walked hand in hand to his.
“It was a great afternoon,” he said. “Thank you, Delia.”
“No, thank you for helping me.”
“Don’t go rushing off to pick up some new guy in this car,” he warned playfully. “I don’t want to be responsible for driving you off, too.”
“I wouldn’t do such a thing,” I said.
“I’m just kidding, Delia. You’re fantastic,” he said, and kissed me again.
Then he got into his car, smiled at me, and drove away. I stood watching him disappear around the gate before turning to go inside. When I closed the door behind me, Tía Isabela appeared so quickly I had the sense she had been watching us from some window.
“What a beautiful pair of sunglasses,” she said, walking over to me. She plucked them off my head and looked at them. “I imagine Adan gave them to you.”
“Yes.”