Page 49 of The Crowned Garza

She scoffs and splutters, rightfully so. “I highly doubt that. He can’t stand me.”

“Yeah. That’s why I said if I didn’t know any better.”

~

SUNNY KEEPS MEcompany over the phone for hours while I unpack. Such a gem, letting me talk her ear off about nothing.

I’m almost through with the containers in my bedroom when the doorbell echoes throughout the house. Not expecting anyone, I get up and head to the bay windows that overlook the front yard. A delivery van is parked at the gate.

“Ooooh, packages!”

Sunny laughs. “Your childish excitement for packages kills me every time. Are you doing that little hip-thrust, shoulder-shimmy dance?”

“You bet your sweet tits I am.”

I run downstairs and sign for the package.

Not just a package, apparently, seeing as it’s gift-wrapped. There’s also a gift basket.

After I’ve tipped the deliveryman for lifting in the package since it has a bit of weight to it, I pluck the little card from the gift basket and read aloud for Sunny, “‘Congrats on the house. Please accept this housewarming gift.’”

“Who’s it from?”

“There’s no name.”

“So it’s from X, then,” she guesses.

Most likely. This is his MO. “Babe, I’m gonna switch back to video and stick you in my boobs for a little bit while I unwrap this.”

“My favorite place to be.”

Once the phone is tucked firmly inside my cleavage, I ungracefully rip off the gold foil wrapper from the package, revealing several wooden boxes bound neatly together. An excited squeal flies out of me at the sight of the Amoretti Brothers branding on the boxes. “It’s the Amoretti Brothers Copper Cookware set!”

“I…don’t know what that is,” Sunny says. “But if it gets you this excited, then homeboy knows exactly what he’s doing.”

“Girl, for so long this cookware set has been on my list of things I’d buy for myself once I got my own house.”

“You told him about that list?”

“Nope.”

“Then how does he know?”

“Because he knows everything.”

“Creepy.”

“Hot.”

“Really? Wow. Me and you, we’re two very different people.”

Laughing, I wrap my arms—unsuccessfully—around my housewarming gift, grinning like a loon.

See how confusing he is? He tries to scare me away, treats me like the world’s biggest nuisance, and then he does stuff like this.

Makes me wonder if he even really wants me to leave him alone.

Or ifhe’sthe one who’s been chasing me all this time.