See Me (19 page)

He grabbed the vase of flowers – remembering Lily and her phrase
certain expectations
– and then thought about Ken and the problems he was causing. He wondered if the guy would be around; he wanted to put a face to a name. As he locked his car, he suddenly saw the entire morning as a countdown to the time when he could finally see Maria again.

Surprising no one more than himself, he realized that he’d missed her.

W
ith Barney holed up in his office, readying himself for trial, Maria was on double duty. She spent the morning touching base with clients, doing her best to ensure that each one felt their case was still a priority. Every half hour or so, their paralegal, Lynn, would enter with even more documents or forms to be filed, and though it was all Maria could do to keep up, staying busy had the benefit of keeping her from fretting about her lunch date. Or, more accurately, how her parents were going to react when they met Colin. For starters – and unlike Luis – Colin was a gringo, and while it wasn’t that big of a deal for people in her generation, her parents were probably going to be surprised. Allowing them to meet Colin meant the relationship was getting serious, and they’d probably always assumed Maria would only seriously date someone who was Mexican. Everyone in her family – even relatives by marriage – was Mexican, and there were cultural differences. Her family celebrated every family get-together with a piñata for the kids, listened to mariachi music, watched telenovelas obsessively, and spoke only Spanish among themselves. Some of her aunts and uncles spoke no English at all. She knew it wouldn’t necessarily be a problem for her parents, but they’d probably wonder why Maria hadn’t mentioned Colin’s background. The rest of her family’s opinions about it would probably fall along generational lines, with the younger relatives more likely to shrug off the idea as inconsequential. Still, she had no doubt that it was going to be a topic of conversation among the family at the restaurant, one that would probably continue long after Maria and Colin said good-bye.

Those things she could deal with. What she wasn’t sure she could handle was any discussion concerning Colin’s past, which she knew was unavoidable. Ordinary conversation ensured it, and what was going to happen if either her mom or her dad started asking him questions today? She supposed she could head off the answers by stating that they were simply friends and steering the conversation in another direction, but how long could she keep that up? Unless their relationship petered out after Saturday – and Maria admitted that she hoped it wouldn’t – Colin’s past
was
going to come up. And what had Serena said about that?
I don’t even want to be in the same state when you drop that little bombshell.
To her parents, it wouldn’t matter that she was a grown woman; they’d make their displeasure known, assuring themselves that they were doing the right thing, since it was obvious that Maria had no idea what she was getting herself into.

And the crazy thing was, her parents were probably right.

 

 

“You have a visitor,” Jill said.

Maria was hanging up with Gwen, the receptionist, who’d just shared the same information when Jill appeared in her doorway, a handbag already over her shoulder.

“I just heard,” she answered, noting that it was a quarter past twelve. “I don’t know where the morning went. It feels like I just got here.”

Jill smiled. “I take it that you and Colin are going out?”

“Yeah, about that,” Maria said. “I’m sorry I didn’t have a chance to tell you earlier that I had plans, but I’ve been slammed all morning. I barely had a second to breathe.”

“No worries,” Jill said, waving it off. “I remember the whole work-till-you-drop drill when Barney’s getting ready for trial. Actually, I was coming by to tell you that I was planning to surprise Paul at his office and make him take me out.”

“Are you sure you don’t mind?”

“Not about lunch. But I do wish you had warned me that Colin was coming by. I would have had Paul come by here, too, so he could see for himself what eating right and working out will do for a man.”

“Paul’s fine.”

“Easy for you to say. Look at who’s waiting for you in the lobby. Paul, on the other hand, is getting a little soft and he doesn’t even care. And I know he doesn’t care, because I’ve been dropping little self-improvement hints. As in, ‘Put the cookie down and hop on the treadmill, for God’s sake.’ ”

“You don’t really say that.”

“No, but I
think
it. It’s the same thing.”

Maria laughed as she gathered her things and stood. “Do you want to walk with me?”

“That’s why I’m still waiting. I also want to see your face when you find out.”

“Find out what?”

“You’ll know soon enough.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Come on,” Jill said. “And make sure you introduce us. I want to tell Paul all about it, especially if your beau flirts with me.”

“Colin’s not really the flirting type.”

“Who cares? The truth is, I just want to get a closer peek at him. To make sure he’s good enough for you, of course.”

“That’s very kind of you.”

“What are friends for?”

As they started down the hallway, Maria took a deep breath, feeling her worries reassert themselves. Thankfully, Jill didn’t notice, her mind clearly elsewhere.

“Hold up a second,” she said. Maria watched as Jill reached into her handbag. Pulling out her lipstick, she applied some before dropping it back into her bag.

“Okay,” Jill said, “now we can go.”

Maria stared at her. “Really?”

Jill winked. “What can I say? First impressions matter.”

Up ahead, Maria watched as two paralegals suddenly rounded the corner from the lobby, whispering excitedly to each other like a couple of high schoolers. Jill nodded toward them.

“Now do you understand what I mean? You were definitely holding out on me. That is one gorgeous man.”

“He’s not
that
good-looking.”

“Uh… yeah. He is. Now come on. You’ve got a date and you shouldn’t be late.”

As soon as Maria spotted Colin in the lobby, her stomach did a little flip-flop. He was facing the opposite direction –
waiting for her
, she realized – and from the back he could have passed for a young lawyer, albeit an exceptionally fit one with visible tattoos. When Maria glanced toward the receptionist, she noted that Gwen was trying hard not to stare at Colin while she worked the phone.

Colin must have sensed their presence, and when he turned, Maria caught sight of a lovely assortment of flowers; oranges and yellows, with a burst of red in the center. Her mouth dropped open slightly.

“Surprise,” Jill whispered, but Maria was too shocked to hear it.

“Oh,” she finally said. “Hi.” Beginning to approach, she was only vaguely aware that Jill had remained behind. Up close, his clean scent mingled with that of the flowers. “New clothes?”

“Freedom clothes,” he answered. “They probably kept me out of prison.”

She smiled, amused. And in the next instant, she thought,
And I can’t believe his answer doesn’t worry me.
But she didn’t want to think about that. Instead, she nodded at the flowers. “For me?”

“Yes,” he said, handing them over. “It’s an autumn bouquet.”

“They’re beautiful. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Let me put them in my office. I’ll be right back and then we can go.”

“Okay.”

Behind her, she heard Jill clear her throat and she turned. “Oh, this is my friend Jill. She’s an attorney here, too.”

Jill approached and he offered his hand. “Hi, Jill.”

“Hi, Colin.” She took his hand, her demeanor friendly yet professional. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Leaving them to chat, Maria hurried back to her office, noticing the two paralegals who eyed her with a touch of envy as she passed them. She tried to remember the last time someone had bought her flowers. Aside from a single rose that Luis had given her on Valentine’s Day after they’d been dating for a year, she couldn’t remember a single instance.

Setting the vase in a prominent place in her office, she returned to the lobby just in time to catch the tail end of Jill and Colin’s conversation.

Jill turned. “I hear you’re a much better photographer than you let on. Colin says you took an amazing shot of some porpoises?”

“He’s being overly kind,” Maria said. “I get lucky every now and then.”

“I’d still like to see it.”

“I’ll e-mail it,” she said. Then, to Colin: “Are you ready?”

Colin nodded, and after saying good-bye to Jill, they headed down to the parking lot.

“Your friend is nice,” Colin remarked.

“She’s great,” Maria agreed. “If it wasn’t for her, I would have eaten alone at my desk since I’ve been here.”

“Until today,” Colin said with a smile. “How are things at work?”

“I’m buried,” she admitted. “But I’m hoping things will slow down. My boss is going to be out of the office this afternoon and tomorrow”

“If that’s the case, I wouldn’t recommend throwing a massive party and trashing the office in his absence. I’ve learned that it tends to irritate people.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she said as he opened the car door for her.

She slid into the Camaro. Once Colin was behind the wheel, he leaned toward her, keys in hand. “I was thinking we could head over to one of the restaurants downtown? We’d probably be able to get a table outside with a great view.”

Oh yeah
, she thought.
About that.
Maria fiddled with the seatbelt, wondering how best to explain it.

“It sounds wonderful,” she ventured, “and ordinarily, I’d love to go. But the thing is, I was over at my parents’ house last night when you called, and I happened to mention that we were going to lunch, and…” She exhaled, deciding to simply come out with it. “They’re expecting us to have lunch at the restaurant.”

Colin tapped his car key on the seat. “You want me to meet your parents?”

Not really. Not yet, anyway. But
…
She wrinkled her nose, unsure how he would react, hoping he wouldn’t be angry. “Kind of.”

He slipped the keys into the ignition. “Okay,” he said.

“Really? It doesn’t bother you? Even though we just met?”

“No.”

“Just so you know, it would bother a lot of guys.”

“Okay.”

“Well… good,” she said.

He said nothing right away. Finally: “You’re nervous.”

“They don’t know you like I do.” She inhaled slowly, thinking,
Now for the hard part
. “When you meet them, you have to understand that they’re old-fashioned. My dad has always been protective and my mom worries, and I’m afraid that if they start asking questions…”

When she trailed off, Colin finished for her.

“You’re worried what I’ll say to them. And how they’ll react.”

Though she didn’t answer, she suspected that he already knew what she was thinking.

“I won’t lie to them,” he said.

“I know,” she said.
That’s the problem.
“And I won’t ask you to lie. I don’t want you to lie, but it still makes me nervous.”

“Because of my past,” he said.

“I wish I wouldn’t have had to say anything to you, and I’m sorry. Logically, I know that I’m an adult and I should be able to date whomever I want and it shouldn’t matter what they think. But it does. Because I still want their approval. And believe me, I know how awful that sounds.”

“It doesn’t sound awful. It sounds normal.”

“You don’t need approval.”

“Evan would probably say that I’m not normal.”

Despite the tension, she laughed before getting quiet again. “Are you mad at me?”

“No,” he answered.

“But you’re probably offended.”

“No,” he said again.

“What are you feeling, then?”

He didn’t answer right away. “I feel… flattered,” he finally offered.

She blinked. “Flattered? How on earth could you feel flattered?”

“It’s complicated.”

“I’d still like to hear it.”

He shrugged. “Because you told me how you were feeling, even though you suspected it might hurt my feelings. And you told the truth. And you did both those things from a place of vulnerability and concern, because you want them to like me. Because you care about me. That’s flattering.”

She smiled, half from surprise and half because he was right. “I think I’m going to give up trying to predict anything about you ever again.”