“WHERE’S MY BIRTHDAY BOY!?”
The door to The Pit burst open early on the morning of October twenty-first, and in blew a petite, gorgeous woman who I only had to glance at once to know was Leo’s mom.
She had warm brown skin and jet-black, shoulder-length hair that swung in silky strands around her face as she kicked the door closed behind her. She was holding a homemade something in her hands — perhaps a cake? — and her purse was nearly as big as she was as she adjusted it on her shoulder. It was her smile that gave her away, along with those golden eyes that were wide and bright.
They grew even wider at the sight of me.
“Oh,” she said, a little out of breath as she tried to cover her surprise. “Hello.”
I shook off my nerves, thankful I’d actually decided to get dressed this morning before coming downstairs. I didn’t usually, but maybe it was the universe’s way of showing me a small kindness, because for some reason I’d pulled on a hoodie and my leggings.
“Hi,” I said, matching her smile. “You must be Mrs. Hernandez. Here, let me take that,” I offered, reaching out to take the pan covered with Cling Wrap out of her hands.
“Please — call me Valentina,” she said, letting me take the dessert. Once I had it in my hands, I realized it wasn’t a cake, but rather several oversized pastries with a ruby-colored jam oozing out of them and powdered sugar dusting the top.
I looked back up to find Valentina studying me with an arched brow, like she was waiting for me to explain my presence. But before I could, a stampede of boys barreled down the stairs, Leo at the forefront.
“Mamá!” he said, and then he scooped his tiny mother into his arms and spun her around while she laughed and squeezed him just as tight.
“Feliz cumpleaños, mijo,” she said when he sat her feet back on the ground. She grabbed his face in her hands and kissed both his cheeks.
The rest of my roommates enveloped her next, and I used the distraction to slip away, quietly tucking myself into the corner. I was ready to make myself disappear completely, but Leo’s gaze snapped to me, and he smiled so wide and carefree that it felt like a blast from the past, like I was seeing him in high school again.
His hand shot out for mine, and I balanced the tray of pastries in one hand as I slipped my other into his.
“Mamá, this is Mary,” he said, pulling me close.
“Ah, so this is the girl who’s stolen my son’s heart,” she mused.
I flushed furiously, but Leo only kissed my temple and nodded. “The very one.”
Leo’s mom nodded, crossing her arms as she appraised me. Then, she clicked her tongue and shook her head. “She’s too pretty for you.”
I laughed, and Leo smiled like this was normal for them. “Lo sé.”
“Come on, Mary,” Valentina said next, looping her arm through mine and shooing Leo away. “Help me plate these pastelitos de guayaba and I’ll show you how to make coffee.”
“Oh, I know how to make coffee,” I said.
She arched that brow at me again, looking at Leo who held up his hands in surrender.
“Be easy on her, Mamá, I want to keep her.”
Valentina sucked her teeth, but then smiled up at me. “Trust me. You don’t know how to make it how I do. But I’ll show you. Come.”
The boys were in a tizzy at Mrs. Hernandez being at the house. They cleaned as quickly as they could as I joined her in the kitchen, and I chuckled to myself as I heard them fantasizing about the guava pastries she’d brought with her. I worked on plating one for each of us as Valentina pulled a can of coffee out of her purse and got to work at the coffee pot.
When Leo said he wanted me to meet his mom, I didn’t exactly have a surprise birthday meeting in mind.
But once I got past my nerves, it was so easy to talk to her that I felt like she was my own mother — you know, if I had a mother who actually talked to me, that is.
Valentina couldn’t ask enough about me, it seemed. She wanted the story behind each one of my tattoos, wanted me to show her my entire portfolio. Then she pleaded with me until I showed her pictures of me and my family and demanded that I come to the house next time Leo did so she could return the favor by blessing me with embarrassing baby pictures of Leo.
That I was excited for.
The boys stole most of her time at the table once we were seated, especially since they had to run out the door to practice soon. I watched Leo licking powdered sugar from his lips while laughing at a story his mom told us about how he’d gone around calling people bicho — which meant dick sucker — because he’d heard her say it under her breath after getting off the phone with his father so many times. It made my heart squeeze seeing him so happy, and I loved that I was a part of his birthday this year.
I wondered if, maybe, I’d be a part of it every year now.
When the boys had to run out the door to head to the stadium, Leo pulled me into his arms and melted me with a warm kiss.
“I can’t wait for my birthday present tonight,” he whispered in my ear low enough for only me to hear.
“Who said you’re getting one?”
He just smirked and made sure his mom wasn’t looking before he swatted my ass and skipped out the door.
When Valentina and I were alone, we cleaned up the coffee cups and plates from breakfast. I managed to ask her a few questions before she was desperate to know more about me, and she looked so sad when she told me she had to get going or she’d be late for work.
She wrapped me in a fierce hug when I walked her to the door, her eyes a bit glossy when she pulled back. She held me there in her hands, like she was debating her next words.
“He loves you, you know,” she said after a moment. “My son.”
Heat rushed over my neck, and I smiled, looking down at the floor as my hair fanned over my blushing cheeks. “I don’t know about that.”
“I do,” she said. “And I’m his mother, so I know better than anyone.”
I swallowed down the knot in my throat when she pulled her hands from me, adjusting her purse on her shoulder and opening the front door.
“Ten cuidado con su corazón, Mary,” she said with a smile. “Be careful with his heart.”
“I will,” I promised, all the while smoothing a hand over my own heart to soothe the way it was aching.
Valentina nodded like she knew I would even before I told her, and then she pressed up on her toes to kiss each of my cheeks and made me promise we would both come see her soon.
Later that night, after I was done at the shop and Leo was home from his evening classes, we sat in bed together while he unwrapped his present. He was silent when it was finally revealed, running his hand over the navy-blue velvet cover of a thick sketchbook.
His eyes found mine, and then he looked back to the book and opened to the first drawing.
It was a simple doodle, one of some of the flowers that bloomed in the garden over the summer before the weather had grown too cold. The next was of Palico, curled up in a blanket.
When he flipped the page, it was a scene — of that first morning where Kyle made pancakes. Leo stood in front of me, shirtless and hot as ever, one hand absentmindedly toying with his chains as I scowled at him over my plate that held that smiley-face chocolate chip pancake. Kyle and Braden laughed at the interaction between us.
Leo’s face split with a wide grin as he took it all in, and even more so as he flipped through and found more and more scenes waiting — everything from quiet mornings playing video games to sensual nights of us in the sheets. He stared particularly long at the one I’d drawn of us sitting on the roof, his letterman draped over my shoulders.
“This is incredible, Stig,” he breathed, finally looking up from the pages and finding my gaze.
“It’s not much,” I combatted. “But, as you know, things are kind of tight. I thought—”
“It’s better than anything money could buy,” he refuted before I could finish.
Then, the notebook was on the bedside table.
And Leo was laying me down in his sheets.
