Chapters 7-9

CHAPTER 7

Some days after the train ride—and the rude awakening the girls had given him—Rico and Joey snuck away for a stroll at Young Park.

The girls had already graciously forgiven Rico’s conduct, so most of the tenseness when they interacted was gone. The fiery Tina took much more prodding than Rosangelica before agreeing to forgive. Vengeance was something she had more practice at; only now, through prayer and guidance, the child was slowly—agonizingly slow for Joey—learning not only to show mercy, but receive it.

Strolling on the sidewalk that circled the small, man-made pond, Rico was stuck as to how to broach the subject he needed to discuss with Joey. So he just dove right in, cannonball-like—no form, big splash.

“Joey, I have an obligation to something that’s probably going to dramatically affect our relationship,” Rico blurted out.

Young Park in the early-morning coolness, the leaves dancing on their branches, would normally soothe his soul. But right then he wasn’t enjoying it much, waiting for Joey’s response; he drew only silence. 

“Joey, it’s a rather complex set of …”

“If it means …” she began to say, looking at him with big blues that pierced into him like daggers, “… we can’t be together permanently … then I would prefer that you just leave quietly into the sunset one day … whenever a whim hits … and just leave me a note … okay?” She swallowed hard and nervously bit her lower lip. “I can’t believe you rented that place and are now considering bolting,” she blurted. “Or maybe you’ve run into a … woman you knew before, or reconnected with, and ….”

Her heart began to miss some beats as she imagined the courtship she longed for evaporate like a desert mirage. And there went the storybook wedding; her version at least, a small and intimate ceremony with just the girls. That had been her simple, wonderland script.  

Another woman? Where did that come from? She can’t mean Jennifer!  Rico was too stunned to answer. But Jennifer wasn’t around; not physically at least. Not to mention that there hadn’t been anything really serious between them. And he had been quite candid about her. He wondered if, even worse, she meant the woman in San Diego he had a one-week fling with. But she couldn’t know about that.

She tried reading his emotionally blank face. “Life’s funny … and cruel, like that … sometimes …” she continued. “I take it … she’s not someone who talks about … God or Jesus, like I do?”

Rico grimaced as he saw the effect he was already creating without even saying what he needed to. Sure enough no one he had met before referred to God with such passion and sincerity, let alone frequency.

“I promise … it’s not another woman. There is no one else in my life that I … this is going to sound real corny … that I would want in my life … enjoying the kind of relationship you … we … have.” He finally finished the flurry of stuttered words.

“You know, it’d be nice to define this relationship a little more precisely,” Joey said after regaining her composure and gathering her thoughts.

“Huh?” 

“Except for a time when you wouldn’t talk to me, my feelings for you have been the same. You know very well that I’m madly in love with you. The very rhythm of my heartbeat sounds out your name.”

Rico processed what she was saying. Women speak like this for real? Do they practice these things? He wondered.

“As for you, the most I can guess is that you are at least taken with me, perhaps infatuated. Or maybe more than interested, but you certainly don’t give much by way of verbal expression. You’re a … a closed diary … with … with … a double padlock, Jacob.” 

Joey looked at him inquisitively, yearning, waiting, for those words that make every woman’s face glow and heart pound. She waited for what seemed an eternity, burying her face in the crook of his neck. Love could be so exhausting at times.

“It is to my shame Joey, that for the longest time I haven’t spoken my heart. This Latino macho, man thing, just … You must have known.” He paused to measure his words, mushy as they felt. It was not a good time to put his foot in his mouth. “I ... thought … I didn’t have to say it with words.”

Her inklings were confirmed, yet she pressed for the words to flow from his lips so she could engrave them in her heart. With her broadest smile this morning, she playfully commanded him, “Come on Sergeant Rico, do your duty … please!”

“Oh, all right. You women are all the same. Joey, I love you. There … are you happy?”

Joey was too busy giggling and hanging on and kissing his neck to answer.

“Woman, get off of me! People are watching,” he teased. “There is something that might affect our … interactions,” he said, after a few moments. His expression plainly expressed that a serious matter was at hand, had she chosen to look.

“What new quirk would that be?” she asked, putting her head back on his shoulder. She hoped it was something that simple to deal with.

He elbowed her gently.

“There’s no other way to put it … I have a medical condition that doesn’t … uhhhm … let me perform … uhmmm … my manly … duties,” he finished in a mumble and looked away from her peering eyes processing what he meant.

“How long have you had this?” She made a face of surprise at her question. “Wait! I’m sorry, that came out terribly. I don’t care. I wasn’t thinking when I asked that.” She examined his eyes for the hurt she figured she had inflicted. She knew well that her macho Latino friend wasn’t so invulnerable.

But Rico had rehearsed that exact scenario and didn’t flinch—no open page there.

“Actually, there are numerous ways to deal with that issue. So if you don’t plan to dump me for a more complete, though not possibly better, model … I think I can in the future … when appropriate … make use of my brain to …”

There was that little tinge of suspense in the back of his mind; she just might decide on doing just that; move on that is.

Joey blushed, looking radiant. “Yes, I get the picture,” she answered with a half giggle.

He was really happy to be over with that chore, and needless to say, hear a positive response.

“I can tell you hang around those giggly girls a lot,” was the most intelligent thing he could muster to say after breathing again.

“Yep, they keep me going. And they were right too. They said that you loved me when I … read them one of … Oops!”

“I can’t believe you did that!” Rico said feigning anger. He mused for a moment about the awesome relationship Joey had with the two girls, and a tad of envy crept in. “They must be very intuitive.”    

“What a diplomatic way to say nosey. You’re good at spin, aren’t you? I’d better watch you closely.”

If she only knew how accurate she was.

A gentle breeze continued twirling the birch tree leaves above them. The dancing of the leaves was so soothing; the alternating green and silvery colors matched the cadence of the leaves rubbing each other. Soon more people were out and about enjoying the same.

“Joey, I hate to say this but … there’s another thing I wanted to bring up.”

“It’s okay … I always knew you were an alien.”

“Funnnny. Seriously, there is something that I feel I have to do that may or may not involve you. It is a highly dangerous endeavor,” Rico blurted. The impulse to just let it all hang out nearly caused him to burst.

Wow, his vocabulary has improved, Joey thought.

Thing, not endeavor, would have been his word choice in the past; the better to spin with maybe?

She figured nothing could top the other thing so she wasn’t too concerned. And more than likely it had a punch line.

Still, she didn’t venture looking at his face. “Look at the birds … and the bees. Isn’t that a Monarch Butterfly? I bet they …” Joey said.

Rico frowned.

“You mean financially or physically dangerous? Are we talking a crime kind of thing?” she asked after giving his strange statement a second thought.

Now she took a peek at his face. There’s a story here. Her head started to buzz. She couldn’t believe how quickly her former investigative reporter’s disconnected mindset had kicked into action. The impulse to pursue a story in the making startled her. She was perfectly happy at having moved on. Just then she recognized a suppressed, yet eager to surface cynicism that enduring good things were only meant for others. She would bring the matter up to God in her prayer closet, soon. 

“It is dangerous in many ways actually … and a few broken laws would be involved. Your involvement would be minimal. Of course, I can’t tell you a single thing for you to even consider, unless …” He stopped to think about the relationship and awesome person he was risking and involving in his crazy plan.

“Yea … go ahead, Jacob.”

“Well, you and I would have to be married.” He noticed a quivering half-smile. “That way, whatever I tell you can stay between us. Even if you decide not to know much about my plans, you could still be a witness against me. But, not if you’re my wife, ‘cause …”

“Yes, I know some law, Jacob. I feel slightly insulted. Is that the only reason for us to be married?”

“Actually, my plan is just a ploy to get you into bed. Plus, I couldn’t find anyone with more freckles than you. Did I ever tell you … freckles get me …?”

“No, not in so many words, but I remember back then in Iraq … I could sense …”

“Oh, what do we have here, a psychic?” Rico whispered, softly touching her cheeks with his finger tips.

“Stop teasing me you ugly man!”

At that moment Joey threw caution out the window. She had decided that she was thinking straight—at least about whether real love was to be the primary ingredient of this “arrangement.”

She waited until her thoughts were clear and no sign of having had any doubts would sully the glee in her voice. “So, when do you formally propose—cause I could still say no—and we get married?” she asked with a chirpy bounce in her normally brassy, sultry voice.

“Funnnny. Un dia señorita,” he said trying to be charming.

Before he knew it, Joey’s countenance dropped.

 This was not the response Rico expected.  Then he quickly realized that once again he had put foot in mouth. Before he could embrace her and say something else, she turned and pulled away.

Joey was more surprised than he was at her reaction. The vividness of one certain memory, one that had haunted her to no end for so many years, gave her another shock. Not an inkling or thought about it had surfaced for more than three years. She thought the torment was over. Shameful feelings of that day she suffered a sexual assault made her body tremble—as if it had occurred only yesterday. 

Will that horrible voice that whispers in my ear ever leave? She asked herself for the millionth time. No, those animals had no right! I fought them the best I could. Her head spun and her knees buckled. 

Rico embraced her and walked her gently toward the grass to help her sit, but she stopped him. She wiped her tears and looked him in the eye.

“I wish … for you … that I was still a señorita,” she murmured. The odd thought that she had not suffered any flashbacks the one time her and Jacob had slept together came to mind. She had been with no other man since that day of horror.

Rico suddenly realized exactly what she was alluding to. A pang of anguish gnarled his stomach.

“Joey, remember this, you are not what people do to you, but what you decide to do with the events that transpire in your life. Define yourself and learn to live with the consequences. Good things and bad, Joey. I want you to know for you … that you are a señorita … in every way. To me, especially … you are a señorita of the highest caliber.”

He couldn’t read her face to tell whether he was reaching her. “And a lassie any leprechaun would yearn to hold, and he’d forget the gold!” he added with compassion and a gentle bit of wisdom.

They sat quietly for several minutes, her back still to him, but now their faces touching cheek-to-cheek. He gently caressed her hand and arm. She reciprocated in kind.

“I guess …” She paused to let Rico wipe a remaining tear and land a kiss on her cheek.

“You guess…?” he said quickly to interrupt her thoughts, trying to prevent another digression.
        “I guess … you’re not a poet, and the only one that doesn’t know it.” She smiled as she tried to escape his grasp.

“You Irish … Mexican … whatever … brat!” He wrestled her to the ground. They lay side-by-side on the grass, catching their breath, observing the people that had been curiously observing them.

“So, we get married when?” She pointed to a bald eagle soaring above—a rare sight. “That’s how I feel right now, Jacob,” she added when he didn’t respond.

Thanks Joey, no pressure there! Rico was trying to figure out a safe answer on the spot—winging it some would say—as was his tendency. 

“Come on, don’t be evasive. It’s elementary, my dear boy. When do we get married?” she said in Spanglish.

“When … I’m able to do things the right way. That’s when. Trust me, mujer.”

The firmness and finality of his response seemed to satisfy her. He gave her one last firm squeeze and stood, offering a hand to help her up.

“Why, thank you handsome, gracious, caballero.”

CHAPTER 8

 The two lovers were still so absorbed in each other that they didn’t notice a stranger approaching. A homeless man, who had been sleeping under some blankets about thirty yards from them, was now right up near them. The muscle-shirt-clad, ragged, scraggly-looking man was quite tall—and seemingly absent any body fat. Rico deduced that he was, or had been, into serious weight training due to the bulging muscular forearms and biceps—not someone he would want to annoy.

Rico tried to remember how much spare change he had as the man approached with an obvious intent. Instead, the man demanded Rico’s wallet. He must have noticed that Joey didn’t have her purse because he didn’t ask for that. Rico was about to let loose some stern words when he noticed a reflection of light from the polished blade of a sizable dagger the man was partially concealing.

Joey was closest to the stranger and off to Rico’s side. She didn’t move.

Rico tried to will her behind him. For some reason she didn’t appear to be planning to subdue the stranger, or move behind her man and protector. She just stood there, no fear registering on her face. Obviously, she hadn’t seen the knife, Rico was sure.

But then again, Rico wasn’t planning any heroics either—though every fiber in his body wanted to grab the man by the neck and break it. Nobody threatened people he cared for. But he wouldn’t risk that this might be one of those days—occurring more and more frequently—when his reflexes were as nimble as a ninety-year-old man’s. He was not about to be the cause of the love of his life getting stabbed because of money.

“Listen, mister,” Rico said, trying for a voice soothing and yet firm. “I have $300 in my wallet. You can have $200 of it without any trouble.”

The man seemed momentarily distracted by something behind Rico. Using some nasty expletives and a threat to cause Joey harm, the man again demanded the wallet. And he wanted it now, of course.

“Ok! Here, just give me my wallet back.”

“Mister…” Joey said. She ignored Rico’s look to hush up. He knew Joey less than he thought. “God doesn’t like what you’re doing. I can offer you work so you can earn it,” Joey said firmly, but kindly. And she wasn’t kidding. Her personal network was extensive enough to help, a fact she had not exactly been very upfront with Rico about, yet.

“Yea, right!” the man said while turning to run with Rico’s wallet firmly in his grasp.

Rico felt stupid. For a second he wondered whether the man had responded to his remark or Joey’s stranger one. God doesn’t like?

For a split second he considered a pursuit. Then four other men sprinted from behind Rico and Joey, apparently joining their buddy. Rico figured that he had made a good move to appease the guy and let him go so that he and his cronies wouldn’t slice them to pieces. He didn’t feel so stupid anymore; or invalid as it were.

Nevertheless, each one wondered about the other’s inaction. It seemed to Joey that Rico apparently had turned over a pacifist leaf somehow … but, more likely something was wrong. He wondered why the fourth degree blackbelt let the guy off … or if something was wrong; maybe the religion thing was for real. Would he come clean about the brain-cancer, and how, even dormant, it intermittently wreaked havoc with his reflexes and thinking processes? Would she come clean about having known what was going to happen to the hold-up man and the full meaning of her born-again life?

Rico and Joey watched with curiosity as the four other men corralled the assailant and attempted to coerce him to hand over the wallet. Their arms flailed in argumentative gestures. Their words were too muddled to be understood by the two interrupted lovebirds.

Rico could only conclude that it was an argument about the spoils. He was puzzled when Joey urged him to put away the cell phone; he had already keyed in 911.

The four strangers looked at each other and shrugged as they finished dialoging with the suspected gang member. To Rico it looked as if the thief was refusing to share, so they pounced on him. Rico became saddened by what his former little town had been reduced to. Even to the battle-hardened vet, the violence inflicted on the one that had taken the wallet was appalling and disheartening … and it was by the guy’s own partners in crime.

Before Rico knew it, the men were headed back toward them. And he was now high and dry on cold cash. How would he appease them if they wanted more? If only he could get used to toting a gun again. He had every state’s conceivable concealed weapon license imaginable; and an odd aversion to the things.

Joey wouldn’t heed his budging, even when Rico—not feeling exactly like a knight just then—tried a harder push toward their car. He was stuck—no police, no running away, no fighting back, just standing. It was a strange state of affairs for him.

Joey, what the …? He was surprised to see the men strolling back with odd looking grins on their faces, fixing themselves up as they approached. They want to be tidy for the next holdup. If we had three hundred, they figure we have more.

“Hi, folks, top of the morning!” one of the men said.

Rico didn’t know what to say. What was it with the Irish lingo? It was a long shot to have another Irish in Las Cruces.

Joey didn’t let out a peep.

When is the full gang going to issue the threat, he wondered. Just drop the hammer man.

Joey didn’t seem scared or even apprehensive; she just took it all in. She smiled a resistive smile and offered a nod in acknowledgment instead.

“Sir, I believe this is yours, courtesy of your local homeless safety patrol!”

 “Safety patrol?” Rico finally muttered. Just then he noticed the group’s racial mixture—a skin tone rainbow, white, black, brown, and light brown.

“We’re not official or anything, but the cops respond fast when we call.”

“Seems to me like you don’t need them for much,” Rico said, figuring he’d play along until the sucker punch.

“Sometimes strung out druggies or other unsavory types try to move in on our safety areas to peddle their stuff. We’re poor and homeless, but not because of vices or lack of effort. This guy just rolled in from out of town—apparently hold ups is what he did in Seattle to get by.”

“I see,” Rico said, still only half believing. He decided to be courteous, nonetheless. It wouldn’t be wise to antagonize the group for sure. “I believe what you said about not being homeless for lack of effort. Would I offend you guys if I offered you the only cash I have that’s in my wallet—for helping out … I mean?”

At least one of men caught Rico’s gist. The man’s face registered a dislike for the insinuation. Rico realized by then that the real bad guy might have tried to make a point with a stab of the knife, if these men had not been closing in. The man had been antsy enough—juiced up on something.

The men looked at each other. A different one of the four spoke up. “We sure could use anything you offered, but we wouldn’t want to make you think we do this for cash. This is our town too.”

One of the men looked at Joey strangely. Rico found it suspicious—very. At first she was smiling in general, now there was this, this something.

“Hi, Robert,” Joey said softly, looking sheepish all of a sudden.

Now what? He wondered.

“I knew that was you. You look a little different … uh, lost a few pounds, and … new do.”

She did lose a few, Rico thought. But that isn’t any of your bee’s wax, guy.

Joey nodded ever so slightly in agreement to the man’s comment.

“But, why didn’t you kick that guy’s … Sorry, I almost cussed.”

Joey just shrugged.

Rico’s mouth hung open a little. Tell me she doesn’t personally know this guy!

“Jacob, here’s your wallet,” she whispered.

Rico didn’t even blink. The wallet felt two Franklins lighter.

“Here’s my card and here’s a couple of bills. Say hi to the wives and kids, all right?” she said to Robert. She stepped forward slightly and reached out with the money and card.

Up to then everything was kind of kosher with Rico. But he started to get dizzy when she put her hand to the man’s face and caressed his very bushy bearded cheek, then kissed it. He felt very awkward and glued his eyes to the ground.

In contrast, Robert’s face lit up, a noticeable sparkle shown in his eyes.

Another man in the group yanked the card from the other and read it in haste. “You gone done yourself good, Joey!”

“Joey, we can’t take this kind of money from you!” the main man murmured politely, eyeing one of the hundred dollar bills Robert was handing him. He didn’t sound very convincing.

The guy’s a con, Rico thought. A good one, too.

“Yes, you can. And if things get really bad, call me. Even if they don’t get bad, just call … promise?”

The four men nodded as they walked away shaking their heads. One turned and yelled, “Mister, you got a gold mine there with that woman! You’d better treat her well. We’ll be watching!”

She is … but, mind your own business. “Apparently, you have a fan club,” Rico said to Joey, tugging at her arm to get going. “I … take it you served them at the soup kitchen or somewhere?”  

Joey walked along, but her head was turned, apparently trying to spot where her buddies were camping out. She nearly tripped. She stalled taking baby steps while the four moved well past earshot distance.

“So?” Rico persisted.

“It’s a long story and not very interesting at all. Besides …”

“Well, lassie, I have plenty of tiempo right now.”

She cleared her throat to keep from laughing, and to stall some more. Maybe Rico would drop it. “Have I ever told you, what a nice behind you have? And your biceps are oh, so…” she said in Spanish.

His serious face told her there was no chance of distraction.

Joey gave up and continued in Spanish. “Hum … well it’s more like … we ate and slept at the same shelter for a little bit.”

Rico frowned at her. Slept, a little bit of …? Sure. The punch line he waited for didn’t come.

“Then, I met this pastor couple that helped me on my feet.”

Rico was floored when he realized she was serious; then anger quickly reared its head. “You needed money and never bothered to call me! Gee whiz, Joey! What got into you? What am I … a second rate boyfriend?”

The acidy tone almost raised her ire; and they weren’t even husband and wife.

“Look, it's water under the bridge. Let the dead bury the dead,” she said matter-of-factly. She would not listen to another word. She wanted to make sure she lived up to the same saying by not bursting out in anger that he had the audacity to question her silence when for almost three years he had kept her at a distance. She didn’t know that he had expected to be dead.

Let the dead bury the dead? He missed the irony. I don’t need idioms, Joey. Soup kitchen? Shelter? His head spun. The love of his life had been homeless and he hadn’t known? What did that say about their relationship? Why did she keep it from him? They had talked on the phone during that exact time frame.

Joey wouldn’t bother to tell him that it was her mistake she ended up in the streets. She had plenty of cash initially when she made her move to New Mexico, but it had run out even as a major mix up occurred in the sale and cashing out of her stocks. On top of that, a denial of service attack—a computer-based virus used by hackers—had caused major confusion in bank transactions.

Even money wired to her account from friends disappeared. It seemed as though she was destined to learn first-hand what it meant to be in really dire straits … especially after losing her purse with the plethora of IDs, including the credentials that tended to open doors for her quite quickly. Humility had not been one of her traits, until after that first appointment with a new destiny.

It was a quiet ride back to the dojo. The girls were there waiting; full of energy as usual. Rico made no qualms about wanting to avoid them—as much as he was growing attached to them. He didn’t much feel like the knight they still believed him to be. He escaped to his place before they saw him and snuck into his bedroom sanctuary. They wouldn’t go there; it was off-limits. He flipped the air conditioner on full blast, popped a pill or two, and collapsed on the bed.

CHAPTER 9

Rico fretted about the heat as he walked across the street. The mercury was well above the 100-degree mark. He began to doubt that New Mexico, at least the south, was going to work anymore. The comfortable San Diego climate beckoned him back. But something more important quickly occupied his thoughts.

Rico got to Joey’s place and went in. He couldn’t find Joey, so he headed downstairs to chat with his new buddy, Michelle. Fortunately for him, the combination dojo-house had refrigerated air. At the time, higher than normal humidity levels had rendered the standard swamp coolers—like the one in his new place—useless. In fact, Joey’s two small downstairs bedrooms didn’t even need artificial cooling. Nonetheless, Rico was rather sweaty palmed … but not from the heat.

He edged into the room and tried not to rouse the sleeping Michelle.

“Is that the warrior I’ve heard of, walking to and fro all nervous for some reason?” Michelle asked sleepily. She was looking more like Joey every day as her body weight stabilized. She was nearing one hundred pounds. Her pallid and stark appearance was slowly giving way to a glow, so slight that a stranger wouldn’t notice. Her conversations were lasting longer and becoming more lucid.

He zoomed in on her eyes like when he first met her—then only because that was the only agreeable part of her face—but now he was getting as comfortable being himself with her as with Joey. He sensed that Michelle knew this and at some level drew comfort from it.

“Yep, Michelle, I just want to do things right. I was really lousy at this romantic stuff with my first wife. I want to give your awesome sister nice memories,” he said. He sat down next to her, some frustration showing on his face.

“May I share something?” Michelle politely asked, though she intended to share regardless.  “If the romance you and my sis …” she clearly loved the sound of that word sis and stopped to savor it before continuing, “… have shared these couple of years were to end this day, I know she would still cherish it the rest of her life.

“And you know what? So would I. To know that my long lost sister knows love at the level she does, gives me more strength to live another day than you’ll ever know, Jacob.” 

Rico tried to absorb the gentle, exhorting words of the person who only a month before was at death’s doorstep and considered insane. He wondered if by destiny this person lay before him.

He would learn much later how much in fact Michelle’s future was really tied to his.

“Well,” he said after some moments passed. “That’s laying it on heavy, Michelle. Thanks for making this easier, girl,” he teased.

“Hello, down there!” they heard Joey yell. “We’re here,” she added, forewarning she had company with her.

“Jacob, are you decent down there?” she asked to give her an added excuse to keep the downstairs off limits. Rico wondered when curiosity would get the best of the girls, or at least one of the many youngsters who used to have the run of the place. Perhaps a bathroom emergency would send one of an otherwise obedient group of youngsters downstairs and discover Joey’s secret, unwell visitor.

Rico wondered again why she had chosen not to reveal Michelle’s presence, or even existence, to the caring people in her life. Later, he would figure out that it wasn’t a secret Joey was keeping for secrecy itself, but initially to guard Michelle’s dignity and then later to respect Michelle’s odd wish to remain unknown.

“Yeah, Joey, I’m decent!” he said loudly to make sure all parties could hear him.       “Come in!” he said to her exaggerated knocking on the door.

“Are you coming up, Jacob,” she asked as she peeked into the room before walking in. The suspicious look Joey got from her sister, as she tried to shield the lower part of her face with the bed sheet, hinted that something was up.

“OK, what’s going on here?” she whispered, looking at her and then Rico. 

Rico’s forehead suddenly sported beads of sweat, which he wiped off with his palm as he gave Michelle a glance. She nodded, barely concealing a big grin under the sheet. Rico beckoned Joey closer to him, then stopped her at arm’s length.

“What?” Joey asked impatiently. It had better be something good, she hoped.

Rico got down on one knee and fumbled through his pocket. Joey’s hands covered her blushing cheeks.

“Joey,” he mumbled clumsily, as the little box decided to cling to its hideaway.

Joey bounced slightly as she looked at her sister, already teary-eyed.

“I would like to know if you ...” he gulped, “… will give me your hand in marriage.”

He didn’t know what else to say as she looked at the open ring box. Reaching for it with a trembling hand, he removed it from the box. In turn, she, with lightning fast speed, nabbed the ring from his skinny fingers and ran upstairs screaming. Rico got on both knees not knowing what to do. Puzzled, he looked at Michelle and shrugged.

“I think that’s a yes,” he said to her, blushing under his beard.

She didn’t answer because she was busy looking for a dry spot on the bed sheet to blow her nose. Rico dragged himself to a tissue box sitting on the floor and handed it to her.

Seconds later Joey came back into the room. She was rambling incomprehensibly.

Just like a woman, Rico thought.

Joey went over to Michelle. “You knew! You brat!” she whispered as she hugged her ever so gingerly and motioned to Rico that the girls wanted to see him put the ring on.

“You might want to tell him yes or no first,” Michelle whispered and pointed to Rico, still semi-kneeling on the carpet.

“Ay, tonta yo! (Oh, dummy me!) Of course! Yes, yes I’ll marry you!” she yelled as she ran and tackled him. 

“Well, can I put the ring on then?” he asked in Spanish, almost begging and trying to take a breath under the weight of her draped body.

“Yes! But the girls want to see you do it,” she added, nearly yanking his arm from its socket.

“No! Not in front of those giggly girls! I’ll never hear the end of it.”

Joey’s fake pout melted him.

Unfair manipulation! Rico looked at Michelle and frowned as Joey nearly dragged him up the stairs. The scene upstairs made him try to go back down. But he was way too slow for the jubilant girls who grabbed him firmly by both arms. Had he foreseen this, he would have proposed on a boat, somewhere in the middle of an ocean—water aversion or not.

“Hurry and get it over with,” he whispered to himself. He placed the one caret diamond ring on her trembling finger and gently kissed the back of her hand. The girls were momentarily speechless. Then Tina reverted to normal, bombarding them with questions about the wedding date and place. 

“When will you move into Joey’s bedroom?” Tina chirped, prompting waiting looks from the other two women.

“You’re too young to be asking that question girl,” Rico answered, wearing a sheepish grin. “Now about the wedding date.” He retrieved an envelope from his back pocket and waved it in the air. “What I have here, ladies … and girl … is a travel package for four people to …” he stopped to look at the glee in Tina’s and Rosangelica’s eyes, savoring the rare moment he was actually in control.

“Ow!” he yelped when Rosangelica slapped his upper arm.

The girl was stronger than she knew.

“You brat! As I was saying … to Las Vegas!” Before they had a chance to start screaming, he added, “We leave in two weeks.”

He noted Joey’s pensive look. The girls were busy giving each other high fives and talking about where Las Vegas was. They ran off to get a map.

Rico leaned over and whispered, “Haven’t I told you often to trust me?”

She gave him a puzzled look.

“My future sister-in-law will be in great hands. That embassy buddy of yours will be here that week … just for you,” he said, his tone comforting.

She didn’t have to say, but he could tell the weight was off her shoulders.

“If the guy wasn’t such an old guy and didn’t consider you like his daughter, I’d be jealous about how much he knows about your life. Including your homeless adv…”

“Only three years older than you, I’ll have you know.”

That was not what Rico had perceived from the man’s voice.

“Tell me how you got a hold of him without me getting wind of it?” she whispered.

The newly engaged pair hugged and kissed … until the girls peering in from the kitchen started giggling … again.  

“Tell me you bum … Ambassador Bailey is a very busy man.”

“I have my sources too, Ms. Reporter,” he offered.