“We were looking at reception sites with Teresa,” Lilly explained, as she grabbed my arm and yanked me toward the hotel room door.
“I think it’s time for us to go,” Lilly said under her breath.
“I’m sorry you aren’t able to stay longer. Maybe we can set something up for next time,” Emily said as she hurried us to the door.
I stopped abruptly and stared at her. “Do I want to know who’s in that bathroom?”
“There’s no one in there,” she lied. “Seriously, there’s nothing going on.”
“You know you’re getting really good at that,” I noted, my tone flat.
“At what?”
“At lying.”
Chapter 9
After we got home, Lilly and I decided to forget about Emily. While we had waited for Teresa’s return, we sat in the hotel lobby for nearly thirty minutes theorizing that our friend was hiding everyone from a secret lover to Jimmy Hoffa. By the end of the talk, we still had no real answers. If Emily insisted on keeping her new boyfriend a secret, so be it. It’s not as if I were going to strap her to a water board and torture the truth out of her. I’d already learned from experience that she’d tell us when she was ready. I just hoped that it wouldn’t be after her whole world was shattered and she was left sobbing in a puddle of desperation like she was at Cornell.
The car ride home with my tía was devoted entirely to discussing which shade of flowers best matched the carpeting in her reception site and whether it was possible to get spring flowers in January. My brain was on overload. From Emily’s drama to Teresa’s wedding, I was ready to shut down the minute I walked through the door. Only that wasn’t an option. As soon as I got home, I received a group e-mail from Bobby reminding everyone to have their festival “tasks” completed by Monday.
So, with barely a brain cell functioning, Lilly and I switched gears. We were currently spending our Saturday night designing posters and editing photos from Alex’s digital camera. Not exactly a wild evening of booze and salsa like Alex was used to in Puerto Rico, but he said he didn’t mind.
“So you think I should design it with the school colors?” I asked as I stared blankly at the layout on my screen.
I was utterly void of inspiration.
“I think you should go with shades of green,” Lilly pointed out as she scanned the photos in Alex’s camera. “That’s what I think of when I think ‘Ireland.’”
“Good point.”
“Wow, these photos are amazing,” Lilly whispered.
“Gracias.”
Alex was seated on the floor at the foot of my chair, his hand resting in my lap as he watched me design text boxes and word art.
“So do you just take photos of birds and frogs? Or do you have any of us?” Lilly asked as she clicked through the images.
Alex’s eyes suddenly shot toward her with a glint of panic. “Ay, Dios mio. Lemme see the camera,” he ordered.
A smile quickly spread across Lilly’s freckled face.
“You do have photos of us, don’t you?” She laughed, darting toward the bathroom, the camera in her hands.
Alex chased after her, reaching desperately, but she swiftly slammed the door shut and locked him out.
“Lilly! Por favor!”
I swung around and saw him pounding on the solid wood panels. Lilly was silent on the other side. I had no idea what was on that camera, but I was suddenly very intrigued.
Then, I heard her gasp through the wood. “Caray,” she cursed.
Alex slumped against the wall and slid down to a seated position. He rested his head in his hands and folded his knees to his chest in an act of defeat.
Slowly, the doorknob turned and out walked Lilly, beaming from ear to ear.
“Are you ready for your close-ups, Mariana?” she teased.
I popped up and snatched the camera from her hand. As soon as my eyes met the digital two-inch screen, I sucked in a quick breath. There I was—a tight shot of my brown eyes, a stray lock of hair dripping in front of them. I flicked to the next image; it was me standing in front of my uncle’s hotel in Utuado. I moved to the next photo, and it was me looking over my shoulder, not realizing a camera was present. There had to be at least a dozen more images like this. All when I wasn’t looking.
“But I don’t even remember you having your camera out,” I said, my forehead wrinkled with confusion.
Alex sighed, closing his dark eyes tightly.
“When could you’ve possibly?” I murmured, shaking my head.
I flicked to the last image. It was taken through a pane of glass. The image was blurry, but almost artistically so. My eyes appeared focused and serious. Behind my left shoulder, I caught a fragment of a familiar sign.
My fingers immediately flew to my lips. It was the Internet café at UPR. I stared at the tiny patch of T shirt exposed in the frame. It was exactly what I was wearing the day Alex found me in the Internet café with Javier. When we hadn’t spoken for two weeks. When Lilly had manipulated us to stay apart.
“Oh, my God,” I whispered, blinking at the screen. “You took these when we weren’t together…”
“It’s not how it seems,” he said quickly, rising to his feet.
“Were you…”
“I think the word you’re looking for is ‘stalking,’” Lilly joked.
I glared at her, not finding any of this nearly as funny as she was. She immediately wiped the grin from her face.
“No, I wasn’t. It was just, I don’t know. I wanted to see you…. But Lilly told me to back off.” He snapped his eyes toward her. She quickly looked away, flushed with guilt.
“So why didn’t you say ‘hi’? Why didn’t you call? You just followed me…”
My mind was whirling. On some level, I was flattered. To think that he liked me so much after knowing me for such a short period definitely filled me with a surge of confidence. The idea, however, that I was being watched and I hadn’t noticed, scared the breath out of me. I watched enough Law & Order to know those stories don’t usually end well.
“I wanted to talk to you. I wanted to go up to you. But I thought it wasn’t what you wanted…. And, sometimes, I would just see you around…”
“And take my picture!”
Lilly closed my bedroom door quietly so my parents wouldn’t hear. Thankfully, she had the good sense to realize that if my father heard a word of this conversation, he would lose it in a way that made Uncle Diego seem passive.
“I missed you, and I wanted to see you. And I was too scared to tell you how I felt.”
I paused, bewildered, staring at the photo of me in the café one more time. I remembered how I felt at that moment. I was consumed with sadness over the fact that I hadn’t seen Alex, that he had possibly lost interest. My mind was crammed with constant images of him, never-ending questions about what had happened between us. It took every ounce of self-control I had not to talk about him every second of the day.
“I shouldn’t have invaded your privacy. I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable—”
“No, I understand…sort of,” I interrupted. “I missed you too. Not enough to stalk you like the paparazzi, but still…”
Alex rushed over and hugged me tight.