Page 9 of Raspados & Regret

My tía is off somewhere talking to another vendor about buying some tamales. My uncle has texted her about them close to fifty times. Señora Cárdenas is sitting behind the booth fanning herself with a paper plate.

Elías leans beside me against the back table, shoulder almost touching mine.

Almost.

Enough for me to notice the heat coming off him. He takes off his glasses, wipes them on the bottom of his shirt, and puts them back on. The movement lifts the hem enough to show a strip of stomach.

I swallow and look down at the payment screen.

Very hard.

“You survived day one,” he says.

“It’s still not over,” I mumble.

“You worried you’ll snap before closing?” He laughs, and I hate to admit that he has a nice-sounding laugh.

Deep, but not too deep.

“I’ve shown restraint.”

He snaps his head back and glares. “You call that restraint?”

“I haven’t murdered you and put you in a cooler.” I shrug.

He laughs again. “You’ve thought about it?”

“Oh, several times.”

“Mmm, kinky.”

I turn my head, and he looks at me over the top of his glasses, mouth curved around the word like he knows exactly where he put it. My pulse does something stupid.

“You always gotta make everything weird?” I ask.

“Nah.” He leans closer, voice dropping. “Only when you make that face.”

“What face?”

Elías grabs a towel, moves to the spare cooler that’s just ice water now, and dunks it. “The one like you’re trying to decide if you wanna fight me or bite me.”

My body goes still, and I watch him wring the towel out and drape it across the back of his neck. The booth noise fades for one second—no music, screaming kids, or the hiss of the fryer from the food truck next to us—all of it dulls behind the sudden rush of blood in my ears.

His eyes hold mine.

The air between us feels too small, and then, as if the universe wanted to save me… my cousin Junior appears out of nowhere on crutches, because of course he does.

“Damn,” he says, looking between us. “Why does it smell like sexual tension and tamarindo over here?”

Elías chokes on a laugh.

I turn on Junior. “Go limp somewhere else, pendejo.”

“Why? So you can continue whatever the fuck I just walked into?”

I roll my eyes. “Why are you so annoying?”

“I came to support the family,” he says, acting offended.