“Believe me. I was as surprised as you. But then, get this. Guess who we bump into at the grocery store?”
“Who?”
“Ethan!”
“Ethan? I knew he’d change his mind and come see you before you leave—”
“But guess who he was with?”
“Who?” Ileana asks.
“Megan,” I say casually.
“Who is Megan?”
“His girlfriend.”
“Shut up! That little weasel is cheating on you?” Ileana hisses the question.
God, I can’t believe this story myself, so I’m not surprised at Ileana’s shock as it unfolds, but her reactions are rather comical.
“Yep. He wasn’t even going to tell me he was in town,” I say, my blood boiling all over again.
Ileana’s brows furrow with concern, her face twisting in anger as I keep telling the story. “What did you do?” she asks.
“I was so shocked, I froze. But then Karl came to the rescue. He pretended to be my boyfriend, like I’d been cheating on Ethan too.”
“What?” Ileana nearly spits her tea out.
“Yeah, he wrapped his arm around me, and Megan went berserk when she realized who he was. The worst part, though, was that for a moment, Ethan actually looked like he was angry I was with someone else. I don’t know what bothered him more, if it was the fact that he thought I cheated too—which, what a hypocrite—or if it was that he thinks I cheated with a celebrity.”
“Who cares!” Ileana says. “And way to go, Karl. I would have paid to see the look on Ethan’s face.”
“It was pretty epic. It gets better.” I pause. “He kissed me—” I whisper, “Well, my forehead, but still.”
“What?!” Ileana really shouts that time.
“Yeah. In front of Ethan.”
“Shut up! What did he do?”
“What could he do? Megan would have slaughtered him if he’d acted jealous, so he just...stewed.”
Isael walks into the living room, his blankie trailing behind him, his thumb in his mouth. His harsh brows draw together in anger. I have to bite back my smile. He’s always so grumpy when he wakes up. He needs to be eased awake, or the day goes to hell.
“Morning,mi terremoto,” I say softly and outstretch my arms. Wordlessly, Isael crawls onto my lap and wraps around my torso, resting his cheek on my chest. With his thumb in his mouth, his eyes drift closed again, and I rub his back, making me think of Karl and how he comforted me after the Ethan debacle.
Ileana and I whisper the rest of our conversation. “He was wonderful, Ileana. I had a breakdown at his place after we got back from the store. He comforted me and spent the entire day trying to either cheer me up or distract me from thinking about it.”
“This is unreal,” Ileana says dreamily. “From what Sofia has said, he’s super famous, isn’t he?”
I snort. Ileana doesn’t follow pop culture, and she enjoys rock and metal even less. She listens to pop, country, or Spanish pop mostly. I envied her so much for how normal she was when Sofia first introduced her to Bren. I wish I’d been that cool. “Yeah, he is super famous,” I say, though even that is an understatement.
“Anyway, I came home to change and grabbed some board games. I went back to his place, and we played a long while—”
“You didn’t . . .”
I shake my head. “No. We didn’t have sex.”To my annoyance, I think.