Tito’s Call

ALEJANDRO

I drove home, even though I should have gone right back to the event like I said I would. My father had wanted me to talk to his friend, and I should have been able to keep myself together and handle that. Don Horacio had loaned our company a lot of money, and he probably wanted to talk about when the loan was going to start getting paid back.

But after driving Tina home, I knew that I wasn’t going back to the charity event. I didn’t feel like myself. I was pissed at Natalie for making a scene. I didn’t have an answer for Don Horacio about when we were going to pay him back. And somehow, all I could think about was what Tina looked like in that white dress. She had smelled amazing, too.

My phone buzzed on the passenger seat, and the call came through the speakers of the car as well. I refused to look at the screen in the car that would tell me who was calling. It would either be my father or Natalie. Either way, it could wait.

It had been a mistake to bring her. I should have called someone else. My father had demanded I bring a date, and after Natalie and I had our romp in the hotel room, I figured she’d be the easiest person to ask. I knew my judgment was bad after I had sex. But I thought she at least knew how to act in public.

The phone rang again. Finally, I looked at the screen. It was Tito.

“Hello?”

“Where’d you go, hermano?”

I saw the light turn red ahead, and I slowed down. Traffic wasn’t too heavy. “I had to take her home after Natalie embarrassed me like that.”

He laughed. “You had to go take her home. Why are you answering my call, then? Shouldn’t you be upstairs with her?”

I made myself count to ten before I said anything. Tito knew me, sometimes too well. “It’s not like that between us. Tina—um, I mean Miss Campbell—works for me. I put her with Kelly in the marketing department. She’s doing fantastic work. We need the business she’s bringing in.”

“Sure. Excuses. Anyway, your father was looking for you. What do you want me to tell him?”

“I’ll call him later,” I said. I didn’t want Tito to know we owed Don Horacio money. Not that I couldn’t trust him. I’d known him since we were both seven years old, and we talked about everything. We met to play chess most Sunday afternoons. With his business running strip clubs, I knew he’d have to take out loans sometimes as well. But I was feeling the need to be guarded.

I didn’t want him to know that I was worried about the company, and if I said anything, he’d probably hear it in my voice. The company was fine, as long as the stock prices stayed up, and my father was able to handle our creditors like Don Horacio. We’d weathered other problems, so we’d deal with this one too. Appearances mattered, and we had to look strong. I could do that.

My father wanted me to find a woman to settle down with, the business had problems I couldn’t share with anyone, and worst of all, I think I liked Tina Campbell. And I wasn’t in the business of liking women. I’d date them, I enjoyed them, but I didn’t let myself care about them. Not after what had happened to my father.

This red light had been taking forever. Finally, the green light came on, and I hit the gas.

“What about Natalie?” Tito asked. “What do you want me to tell her?”

“She’s still there?” I was so angry with her, but she had connections with a lot of men with money. I didn’t want to be on her bad side. “Tell her I’ll call her.”

I didn’t want to call her. The truth was, I wanted to call Tina. I knew she would have slipped out of that stained dress by now. Maybe she was hand-washing the dress, wearing only her bra and panties. I didn’t want to think about her like that. What was happening to me?