Page 105 of Cartel Rose (Jorge)

“Baby girl, I’m here.”

“You’re not hurt, are you?” She tries to pull away.

“Don’t you dare move, or else everyone here will see how hard my girlfriend makes me.”

“Girlfriend?”

“Soon-to-be fiancée, not-too-far-in-the-future wife. Is that better?”

“Infinitely.”

Gretel and Gunter finish their kiss with a gentle peck. Then Gunter looks at the rest of us.

“I’ll explain everything, just let me catch my breath.” He kisses Gretel’s forehead.

Leisel and I hang back for a moment as my body calms enough to be presentable. We continue to whisper.

“I want you by my side,chiquita. Always. We’ll figure out what that looks like, but I won’t let you go.”

By my side.

I mean that to the bottom of my heart. I’ve never meant anything more. I can’t imagine letting Leisel go now that I’ve found her.

“I don’t know what’ll happen with our work or our families in the days to come, Jorge. I don’t know when I’ll go to New York, but to the very depths of my soul, I know I’ll follow you wherever you go.”

We gaze into each other’s eyes, and I see the depth of my feelings mirrored in hers.

“You ready to let me lead because you know I want you as an equal—a partner.”

“You’ve guided me through all of this, been at my side the entire time. You could’ve commandeered it all and told me nothing. But you haven’t. You’re dominant with every breath, but you’re not domineering. You may exert that dominance during sex, but it’s confidence and steadfastness outside of sex. It’s what I need.”

As I stare down at her, I know I’m falling in love. I’m not convinced I’m there yet, but I think that’s merely a matter of time. It’s like the foundation is in place, and the walls are nearly built. It just needs the roof on top. Then we can make that house into a home—together.

It’s not until Joaquin leaves the kitchen with a silver tray holding a silver teapot and traditional small Moroccan glasses, and Alejandro follows with a tray with heaping plates of cookies and pastries, that I remember there are other people here. I even forgot her family despite hearing their voices.

As we walk into the living room, she stretches to whisper to me some more. “It’s sweet to watch Joaquin and Alejandro wait for Noor to tell them where to put the trays. I’m certain I heard one of them say, ‘Sí,Tía.’”

“Don’t tell anyone, but the men in my family are just giant teddy bears.” I wink at her.

The living room furniture is a combination of European and Moroccan. There are armchairs, but there are also banquette sofas that line three walls with vibrant, beautifully embroidered pillows.

“Now that Papa’s back, the colors seem so much richer in here. Everything was a haze before that. I didn’t notice it until now.”

“I take it for granted since I’ve been here so many times, but I get what you mean.”

Alejandro and Joaquin take the armchairs while the couples sit close together but on separate sections of the sofa. Leisel and I share one with Noor and Hisham, with her parents sandwiched between Heidi and Friedrich and Liesel and me.

Liesel’s arm’s wrapped around mine, and our hands are clasped together. It doesn’t go unnoticed by her father. I breathe easier when he doesn’t look surprised. Just the opposite—it’s like he expected it. He’s aged significantly in the past week, but he still looks so much like he used to. He has his arm around his wife, who has her hand resting on his knee.

“I can’t get over the fact you have both hands! I’m struggling to understand.” Leisel leans forward as she stares at her father’s undamaged hands.

“Papa, what happened?” Heidi asks the million-dollar question.

“I believed I was meeting Clyde for lunch, but I discovered these men spoofed his number and used some tech program to mimic his voice. When I left the office, they grabbed me.”

“No one noticed you trying to avoid getting in their vehicle?” Heidi’s got plenty of questions, so everyone lets her ask the same ones we all have.

“No one noticed the gun they had to my kidney. I didn’t go willingly, but neither did I want to anger them enough for them to kill me at the destination. There were four of them who encircled me, so I wasn’t breaking free. They were going to force me into the vehicle whether I wanted to go or not. Once they had me in there, they put a sack over my head and zip tied my hands. I’m not a small guy and neither were they, but somehow they crammed three of us in the backseat of the car. There wasn’t enough room for me to struggle against them.”