Stay away? “But I wanna take care of you. Did you take something already?”
“Yeah, I took some flu medicine and,” she pointed at the water bottle on the nightstand. There was also a box of tissues. “I’m set.”
“You need to eat, too.”
“I’m not really feeling hungry.” She told him about her day and the rowdy ass kids who sometimes said the most disrespectful things. He swore if he ever got them in a room alone he’d show them a thing or two about disrespecting their teacher—his girl.
Then there was the moment he was wasn’t looking forward to. Isabel wasn’t like him. She’d likely not even care, but he hated that he’d stupidly open the door for her to think it okay to do things like that.
“So how was your day?”
“Same ole shit.”
She pointed to the swear jar they’d started the week prior. He took the walk of shame and dropped a quarter in it. He’d asked her before if he could just put a couple of dollars in there for the next times he flubbed. But she said taking the walk of shame was part of the punishment.
He got right to it. “I ran into an old… employee of my uncles at the mall and we had lunch.”
He had her attention immediately and she sat up. “One of the topless waitresses?”
Okay, maybe telling her she’d been an employee of his uncles was not the best idea but she wasn’t exactly a friend, and acquaintance sounded too suspicious. He should’ve put more thought into this on his way home, damn it. “Yeah, from a few years back. The last time I’d seen her, I was working the door at the bar, and her boyfriend showed up and slapped her around.” He thought about it again for a moment. “I’d never been so f**ki-… so mad in my life. She never came back after that and I always wondered what happened to her.”
Isabel eyed him. “Why?”
He was surprised she’d let him slide on the swearing but she seemed more interested in Cici now. “I dunno. I guess I just wondered if she was even alive. You know being in that kind of relationship, you never know. She looked real different. I didn’t even recognize her—works at Dan’s Jewels at the mall.”
“So you had lunch with her?”
Romero sat at the edge of the bed. “Yeah, it was her lunch hour and I hadn’t eaten since breakfast so we grabbed something together.”
Isabel’s expression was a strange one. He could usually read all her expressions but he couldn’t get a fix for this one. Maybe it was because she was sick. She did reach for a tissue and blew her nose.
Romero rubbed her leg. “You sure I can’t make you something to eat?”
“No, make yourself something. I really don’t have an appetite right now.”
“Me either. I’m still stuffed. It was a late lunch.”
She finished wiping her nose and threw the tissue in the wastebasket. “Whatcha have?”
He started taking his shoes off. “Frisco’s.” he kicked off his shoe.
She didn’t say anything for a moment, then finally in a tone so unlike Izzy she asked, “You took her to Frisco’s?”
He turned to her. Whoa—here he’d thought he’d seen all her expressions. He’d never seen this one, but it wasn’t good. Her eyebrows pinched tight and there was an almost incredulous glare in her eyes. “I didn’t take her there, Izzy. We were already at the mall. She said she was sick of the food court so I suggested—”
“You suggested it?”
“I like the food there. What’s the big deal?”
“I can’t believe you don’t know what the big deal is!” Her eyes began to well up and he felt a weird panic creep through him.
He tried leaning closer but she pushed him away. “Why are you getting so mad?” She started to get up. “No, Izzy. Stay in bed you’re not feeling well.”
“I need to go to the restroom.” She pushed his hand away again, walked out of the room and into the restroom, slamming the door behind her.
He waited and waited but after she’d been in there way too long, he knocked on the door. “Babe, you okay?”
“I’m fine.” She didn’t sound fine.
“Are you crying?”
She walked out and sure as shit her eyes were all red, making him feel that much worse. She tried walking past him but he pulled her to him. “Seriously? You’re that upset about this?”
That seemed to make her even angrier then she stopped and sniffed him. “Is that her perfume all over you? What else did you do with her?”
“Nothing! She hugged me goodbye.” Damn Cici and her strong ass perfume.
“Get away from me!” She tried squirming away but he leaned her against the wall with his body and held her tight. “I’m sorry. Okay? I swear to you, if I would’ve known you’d be this upset I would have never—”
“Never what?” She slipped out of his hold and he let her. Only because he’d never seen her this angry. “Gone to lunch with another girl or taken her to our place?”
He followed her back into the room. “No, I wasn’t even thinking about it like that.”
“The way you are, I was under the impression that things of this nature were out of the question.”
Romero felt himself heating up. “They are!”
She spun around. “Oh, really? But not for you?”
“No, it’s just that Cici, well… she’s different.” Her eyes grew even wider. “No. I don’t mean like—”