Part 32 (2/2)
I turned to face the water. It was the deepest shade of amethyst; the sun cast the thick line of its golden shadow toward us. Thunderheads grew in the distance. ”I don't know what's worse. Learning that my childhood friend betrayed me or that you did.”
Steven scooted to the edge of his chair. I looked at him; he looked desperate and a little angry. ”Kim, you have to believe me. I promise you, I never once laid a hand on her. Not in that way.”
”Did you kiss her?” I held my breath and waited for the answer.
”No,” it finally came.
I exhaled.
”But she kissed me.”
I inhaled again. ”What's the difference, Steven?”
”I never once came on to her, Kim. Yes, she kissed me and yes I kissed her back. I'm human, you know . . . But I promise you . . .” He took my face in his hands. ”I promise you, Kim.” Steven pulled me toward him, pressed his forehead against mine. ”Don't do this,” he whispered. ”Don't let her do this. Not now. Not to us.”
I shook my head. ”Let it go,” I whispered back.
He pulled away, but his hands rested on my shoulders. ”What?”
”I can't control this. Can't control the past, can I?”
Steven smiled weakly. ”No,” he sighed.
”What happened, happened.”
”But not because I wanted it.”
Afraid to speak, I could only look at him. If one word left my mouth or one movement s.h.i.+fted my body, I knew I would fall apart. The thought of Rosa kissing Steven when we were younger sickened me. I couldn't let my mind go there or I'd explode with a hurt born more than twenty years earlier.
I turned again toward the sunset. The sky now exploded in shades of gold; the sun had disappeared behind the tree line on the side of the island farthest west. Steven resumed his earlier position and I relaxed into my chair. I felt his hand brush mine, and I closed my eyes to wait for what I instinctively knew would come next.
”I love you, Kimberly-Boo,” he said, once again linking our fingers. ”Do you hear me? I love you.”
I squeezed his fingers with mine. ”I love you too, Steven Granger.”
Another few gulls flew nearby, soaring near the pier running into the water to our left. My heart wanted to take flight with them, but it hurt too much right then. Even with our words of love, my heart hurt. Rosa had betrayed me, not just once, but twice.
Tomorrow, I decided, for the sake of my own sanity, I'd have to resume a semblance of control. For my sake. For Steven's and mine.
Tomorrow I'd find out why.
31.
1990.
Rosa Rivera had no plans for college, but her mother did.
”You're going. And that's final!” With one hand Eliana pushed the swinging door leading from their kitchen into the dining room. The other cradled two china plates and enough flatware for their dinner meal.
Rosa was right behind her. ”But, Mom. Just listen to me for a minute. Hear me out, okay?”
Eliana gingerly placed the plates at the head of the table, and with both hands gripping the sides of the stack, she looked up and said, ”I did not work my fingers to the bone all these years, Rosalita, for you to come to me and tell me you will not go to college. I gave you a year to work and to find yourself as you asked and now it is time. Besides, it's been decided already.”
”By who? Because it certainly wasn't me who decided.”
Rosa watched her mother as she straightened inch by inch as though in pain. She planted both fists on her lean hips. ”It was decided long ago. That's all you need to know.”
”By you and my father?”
”Get the gla.s.ses, Rosa.”
Rosa went to the corner china cabinet, brought out two pretty crystal gla.s.ses, and set them at the right of each plate her mother had arranged. ”So? Am I right? He got to decide what I would do with my life and then he just took off? He's dead to me but I have to live by his rules?”
Her mother slammed a fork beside one of the plates. ”Respeteme!”
”I do respect you, Mom. But I don't want to live by the rules you and Hector somehow managed to conjure up for me, okay?”
”I will not argue this point with you,” she said. ”You are going to college and that is that. No more discussion on this tonight.”
A month later, Ross Claybourne came into the little restaurant where Rosa worked three nights a week and on weekends. ”Hey, Dr. Claybourne,” she said. ”What brings you here? And alone.”
”Oh, I just thought I'd come in and have a cup of coffee. Maybe take in the scenery.”
Rosa showed him to a table near the water. ”So a cup of coffee? Black, right?”
Ross Claybourne smiled at her. ”And how about a piece of key lime pie.”
She smiled back. ”You've got it, Dr. Claybourne.”
When she'd placed his order before him he looked up at her and said, ”Sit down for a minute, Rosa. Let's talk.”
Rosa looked over her shoulder and back to the man who had been almost like a father to her, at least when he came to the island. ”My mother sent you to talk to me, didn't she?”
He laughed but didn't answer. ”Sit down,” he said. ”I'll cover for you if the boss gets upset.”
Rosa sat. ”Well, it's not too busy right now . . .”
Dr. Claybourne took a sip of his coffee and, placing the mug back on the table, said, ”Yes, your mother did talk to me. She was out at the house today.”
Rosa sighed. ”It's all about getting her way, Dr. Claybourne. She doesn't even want to know what I want to do.”
”What do you want to do?”
She shrugged. ”I don't know.”
<script>