She couldn't believe she was coming back. Maria de Laura collected her bags from the luggage carousel and as she walked toward the exit, she wished there was someone outside those glass doors waiting with her name on a piece of paper, and a fancy car, to take her to her destination.
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Her face lightened with a smile when she saw a familiar face. There was Ginnie of course, but she was driving an old model Corolla, one that coughed and sputtered spontaneously in the middle of the road.
“Well if it isn't my soul sister!”
Maria laughed. The fact that her baby cousin thought of her as a soul sister really amused her. She didn't believe in those sorts of things; infinite bonds with other people who you could rely on or be solely dependent on. The first time she tried it in the name of marriage, she got used, dumped, and reused. She had to leave before she got dumped again. That was what put her in all of this mess in the first place.
“Hi Ginnie. It's good to see you”
“I’ve missed you so much Maria” She pulled the car keys from her pocket and threw it over to Maria.
“What?”
“Let’s take a ride home with you behind the wheel, just like old times”
“Ginnie I don't remember the last time I drove a car. Besides, have you forgotten that this car disgraced us on the highway?”
“Come on, that was an eternity ago. I still remember it was the first day you met that sweet gentleman, What was his name again?...”
Maria opened the front passenger seat and got in praying that Ginnie wouldn't remember the name of the incredibly hot stranger who walked over to their car with a bottle of water, opened the car's hood, and worked some magic, releasing them from another hour's worth of embarrassment.
“Vincent! Yes.” She got in behind the wheel, “That man's name was Vincent. So how are you two?”
Maria turned her face away. Even if she was getting into another relationship it wasn't going to be with a man from New York city. She was going to probably travel to Mexico, or France, and find one of those romantic Spanish or French men, exactly like the ones in the soap operas, and start up a love story with them.
And since she knew that was the next event to impossible, she wasn't even thinking of a relationship. Never again.
“Ginnie, can you just mind your business and drive me home?”
Ginnie was always up and down like a bumblebee but this time, she got the message. They didn't say a word to each other until they were at the house and Maria alighted from the car and his eyes met hers.
She thought her eyes were mistaken but it was him, in flesh and blood, staring back at her. And for God's sake he was shirtless.
Maria swallowed hard and kept her eyes in front of her then grabbed the bags from Ginnie and marched into the old house.
“Hey, what's the matter with you?”
Maria knew Ginnie was in on whatever was going on with that man just outside their house.
“I didn't know he was your neighbor”
“You asked me to mind my business and drive you home”
Since Maria left, Vincent had looked for her everywhere. Ginnie didn't know if there was a thing like love at first sight but for Vincent to move in next to her three months ago because she told him Maria was coming back, it definitely had to be something close. The man had done nothing but want her.
“You know what? I'll move out once I get a good place to stay. I cannot stay in a house directly opposite the man who has been following me around since three years ago”.
“Oh? And why is that?”
“Because I came here for peace!”
Ginnie poured two mugs of tea and handed one to Maria. If they were not in the middle of a serious argument she would have considered laughing. The only thing Maria came back for was to deceive herself. Yes, her ex husband cheated on her, but that was five years ago. It was okay to let those things go and love again.
“Do whatever you want, Maria” Ginnie told her and walked away, tea in hand.
Maria stayed at the window staring at him for a long time.
There was nothing he wouldn't do for her, she knew it, but she was scared. If Joseph, who had been so sweet and loving, could make her go through such pain, she didn't know about this man.
Later that evening, he stopped at the house to say hello to her.
“Hey, Maria de Laura. I brought you lilies. You said you liked them”
He remembered. She told him three years ago and he remembered. When he asked her to dinner, she didn't say no.
“I told myself I was never going to go out with a man from New York again, I can't believe I'm doing this”
Vincent smiled and took her hand across from his on the dinner table, “You must learn, sweetheart, to never say never”
She didn't know if it was butterflies but her stomach was certainly flipping over and leading her straight to the path of this man's heart.