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His mouth gapes open for a second before he snaps it closed. Mission accomplished.

“Excuse us, Fabio.” Mama appears out of nowhere and puts her hands on my shoulders. “I need to have a word with my daughter.” She smiles politely at Fabio, then spins me in the kitchen's direction and basically pushes me the rest of the way.

We go through the double doors and she whirls around, her eyes wide in outrage. “What are you doing out there??”

I shrug. “Trying to be a good server?”

“By asking him about his digestion?!”

I hear Lily snicker behind us. Mama glares at her and she goes back to chopping vegetables.

Papa enters the room from the back door, probably coming from his office. He’s wearing a green polo with the Abuela’s logo on it and dress pants. His brown eyes go wide as he sees me and Mama arguing. He attempts to sneak back out until I narrow my eyes at him. He grimaces before cautiously walking up behind Mama and placing a hand on her back.

“Tranquila, mi amor. Let’s calm down,” he tells Mama in his soothing voice.

She snaps her head to look at him. “I am calm!” Then she turns her angry gaze back to me. “You’re ruining this on purpose, aren’t you?”

I bring my hand to my chest. “Whatever do you mean?”

“Don’t play dumb. It’s obvious Rosa told you. Fabio is a very nice man, Bella.” She takes a deep breath and gives Papa a pat on the cheek. “Give him a chance. I just want you to be happy like me and your Papa.”

“I know. But you’ve got to stop with the meddling.” I look between my parents and my father looks as guilty as my mother. “Both of you! I never know when some random guy is going to show up and try to marry me.”

“You’re being dramatic.” Mama rolls her eyes. “Go back out there and be your normal, charming self and we can forget this ever happened.”

I place a fist on my hip. “And then you’ll stop trying to set me up?”

“I was married and already had two children by the time I was twenty-eight, you know.”

“Mama…”

She crosses her arms. “Fine. I’ll stop trying to set you up. But no more talking about bodily functions to customers.”

“Deal.” I turn to leave the kitchen.

Papa calls out, “We love you, Bella!” as I’m leaving.

Chapter three

David

It’s Saturday, the day after my birthday, and I’m glad to have the party over with so I can get back to my normal routine.

I open my front door to retrieve my newspaper—yes, I still subscribe to a newspaper. Social media is the worst. I prefer getting my news the old-fashioned way—and, of course, Isabella’s cat is sitting on my porch.

I sigh, and he greets me with a meow. With a quick glance around the quiet neighborhood, I bend down and pat him on the head. He purrs and leans into my hand.

My lips quirk into a half-smile. He’s actually not too bad… for a cat.

Walking past him, I head to the bottom of my steps to pick up the paper. When I get back to the top of the steps, Mo is gone, but there’s a brochure or something in the spot where he sat.

Strange, he must’ve been sitting on it. I pick it up and see it’s a travel pamphlet for Peru. Interesting. I stick it under my arm along with my newspaper and head back inside.

I walk straight to the kitchen island, where I left my hot cup of coffee, and take a seat on one of the wooden barstools. Opening up the newspaper, I ‌take my time reading it from cover to cover, like I do every morning. The small words are becoming more difficult to see, which means it’s probably time for some new glasses.

It’s not typical for me to be easily distracted, but I keep looking over the top of my newspaper at the brochure. Finally, I can’t take it anymore and set the newspaper down and pick up the brochure.

It’s a tri-fold pamphlet detailing the Salkantay Trail to Machu Picchu. The brochure has colorful photos showing off the glorious views of the mountains and Machu Picchu itself. It looks like the travel company even sets up tents every night of the four-day hike.