“I have work to do.”

“I’ll help you catch up on work.”

“I fired you, asshole.” Isa’s words are harsh, but the way she’s cradling the huge bouquet, as if it’s her lifeline to happiness, shows her true feelings.

“You can fire me a thousand times, and I’ll still come back,” Bernie says. “You and I can make a great team. Just go out with me tonight. If you want me to leave you alone after tonight, well, I’ll consider it.”

“Do it,” Alex says. “Give the poor gringo a chance.”

Isa glares at him. “I didn’t ask your opinion, Fuentes.”

Alex shrugs.

I’m afraid to give Isa my own advice for fear she’ll yell at me or fire me on the spot. But I do it anyways. “He’s not going to give up,” I tell her. “And those flowers are gorgeous.”

Isa sighs loudly. It takes a long time for her to respond. Finally, she swallows and says in a weak voice. “Fine. Let me change first.”

“Don’t change,” Bernie says, taking her by the hand and stopping her. “I’ll take you just the way you are.”

“You’re a geek,” she says.

“I know. I’ll bet you never went out with a geek before, Isa. Let me give you a hint. Geeks make the best husbands.”

Isa rolls her eyes, then turns to me as Bernie leads her outside. “If you want to come by to talk to Vic tonight, you can. I’ll be back late, I guess.”

I bite my bottom lip nervously as she hands me a key to the shop. “You sure?”

“Hell, if anyone can pull him out of his darkness it’s you.”

“How do you know?”

Isa winks. “I don’t know a lot, but I do know you scare the shit out of him. And he ain’t afraid of anything.”

*

At eleven o’clock, I sneak out of my house with Isa and Alex’s words echoing in my head. My intent is to find Vic and challenge him, no matter what it takes. I’m going to make him see that there’s so much more to life that he’s missing.

I also need to find out if these feelings I have for him are real or imagined.

I drive to Fairfield, my heart pounding and my hands shaking. I hold onto the steering wheel tightly to mask my nervousness. My joints ache because I’ve been tense all night.

I park in front and enter the dark garage. There’s a small light leading upstairs to Isa’s apartment, which has become Vic’s cave.

I’m about to walk upstairs when a voice echoes through the darkness. “Monika?”

I turn to the sound of Vic’s voice. He’s leaning against the bumper of one of the cars.

“We need to talk, Vic.”

“What do you want to talk about?” he asks, walking up to me.

“Stuff. Important stuff.”

“I’m not going back to Fremont, so you might as well save your breath.”

“I know.” I glance at him. “We need to have a serious talk.”

I’m gathering enough courage to be honest with Vic about everything. I already feel like I’ve held too much back.

I’m going to put it all out there and tell Vic how I feel.

Even if it pushes him away.

Chapter Forty-five

VICTOR

The soft illumination from the streetlights streaming in through the frosted garage windows provides just enough light to make out what Monika’s wearing.

I’m trying to ignore the fact that we’re alone. I have no clue why she came here or what she wants. Whatever it is, I have to stay unemotional and detached. I’m not about to drag Monika into my fucked-up life.

She walks over to an old rusty truck on one of the racks. “I’ve been working on this car.”

“Cool,” I say, eyeing the truck. “I know it makes me feel useful when I can fix somethin’ that’s broken. I’m sure you feel the same way.”

“Speaking about something broken—I wanted to ask you something,” she says. “Did you know Trey was cheating on me?”

“No. There’s no way he’d cheat.” Trey was into Monika from day one. Hell, when they started dating our freshman year, we had to come up with rules on how many times he could say her name or bring her up. Jet used to laugh at how whipped he was.

“Then you didn’t know him very well.”

He was my best friend. Of course I knew him. There’s a bunch of chairs lined up in the waiting area of the garage. I sit on one, stretch my legs out, and watch Monika through lidded eyes as she explores the garage.