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SORRY for making you wait so long (3 months?!) but I was plagued by schoolwork and had horrible writer's block.
Thank you Alessandra Thornbird, Menadoa, and Melisa Massacre for reviewing!
I'll go ahead and tell you the majority of this chapter is flashback, and Alejandro and Julia have sort of skipped that 'official girlfriend/boyfriend' stage for one of those understood relationships (based on what my parents told me about theirs). There's very little Alejandro/Julia, but there is another implied relationship.
Leila shook her head and sighed, “Julia, look once into Enrique's eyes and say he's not yours.”
Julia scoffed. “He can't possibly be m-” Enrique's deep blue eyes stared into her own, cutting her off.
“So what? It’s just his eyes. I’m not the only person in the world who has blue eyes.”
Leila sighed and turned to Alejandro, “Would you say he’s your son?”
“No, he’s the twin my mother didn’t tell me about,” Alejandro responded childishly. People tend to revert to childish behavior when they’re unable to explain something.
Enrique interrupted, “Dad, you’re being irrational.”
“Why do you keep on insisting I’m your father?” questioned an exasperated Alejandro.
“Because you are,” Enrique answered cheekily.
Julia chose now to point out, “He even looks like you. You said so yourself. I, on the other hand, have a completely valid reason for not understanding why he keeps calling me Mama.”
The Malhotras sat back and watched the family drama unfold, feeling very much like they were viewing a soap opera minus the sound effects and three-sixties.
Alejandro glared at Julia, and she glared back, starting a glaring contest much like children’s when their friends have upset them.
Sanjana’s eyes met Enrique’s, and she sent him a small smile. His eyes glowed with mirth as well. He, unlike most children with this predicament, found his parents’ fighting immensely amusing. Armaan, while glancing around, caught this exchange; any older brother would.
Laila sighed and asked, “Who’s hungry?”
Enrique responded, “Who did the cooking?” while Alejandro’s stomach let out a loud roar.
Laila joked, “Julia, you been feeding your boys?”
Julia growled and averred, “They’re not my boys!”
One of Alejandro’s other friends, Jared, was bemoaning prom expenses while poking at his rubbery pizza when Alejandro asked, “What is prom?”
His English was astonishingly better, but it mimicked Julia’s to the point that only the tonal quality differentiated between the two.
Jared asked, “You don’t have prom in Spain?” Alejandro shook his head.
“Why don’t you go ask Julia to go with you?” he asked, to a cacophony of laughter from the others at the table.
“Why don’t you first tell me what it is before I decide to gamble my dignity?” Alejandro retorted, accompanied by a chorus of ooh’s. Julia tended to become dramatic whenever her emotions ran high and that was one of her favorite phrases.
Jared squirmed and said, “I can't answer you." Prom was a girls’ event; the boys were only props. Such was the consensus of the school.
Another youth, Riley, spoke up and replied, “It’s a dance for which the girls spend hundreds on their dresses and hair and make up, and expect us boys to spend another couple hundreds on our suit and some kind of ride. It’s mostly a fundraiser.”
“What’s a fundraiser?” Alejandro was fairly sure this was a relatively common term, but he couldn’t recall what it meant.
Riley kindly explained, “It’s where the school tries to get money from the students.” Alejandro nodded his head in understanding.
“So why am I asking Julia again?” Alejandro felt very stupid asking that question; he instinctively knew it was an obvious answer.
His question set off another round of raucous laughter, but Jared eventually responded, in the little Spanish he did know, “Enamorados van juntos,” his eyebrows wiggling suggestively. Sweethearts go together.
“And?”Alejandro asked just for the sake of it; he knew exactly what his friends were hinting at.
“You’re not actually trying to make us believe you’re not in love with Julia.”
“And if I were to say that is the truth?”
“Lying’s a sin.”
---
Alejandro asked his mother about the whole deal, which turned out to be a mistake. He had to call his father in to get her to be quiet.
Alejandro asked his brother Rafael, “Should I ask Julia?”
Rafael looked at him strangely and inquired, “Why are you asking me? You know the answer. And quit making it sound like you’re proposing to her. It’s just a school dance.”
Enrique suddenly looked up at him. “Cuanto cuesta un anillo?” How much does a ring cost?
Rafael’s eyes widened in shock. “No. No. No. Tú no vas a casarte cuando tengo solo dieciocho años.” No. No. No. You are not going to get married when you’re only eighteen.
“¿Por qué no?” Why not?
Rafael shook his head as if he had encountered an insane person, which may not have not been entirely wrong.
---
Of course, Julia had agreed. She’d gone with a friend at her junior prom, but there had been no romantic attachment, like she clearly felt with Alejandro.
Besides, Alejandro’s smile was contagious, and his excitement was tangible.
“¿Por qué estás tan emocionado?”Julia asked, giggling. Why are you so excited?
“Porque tengo la muchacha más bonita del mundo conmigo,”he said while fingering the sky blue satin of her floor length gown. Because I have the world’s prettiest girl with me.
“Adulador.” Flatterer.
“Digo la verdad.” I speak the truth.
“Aún eres un adulador.” You’re still a flatterer. Alejandro chuckled at Julia’s assertion.
“Pero aún me amas.” But you still love me. Julia blushed and buried her head into Alejandro’s tuxedo, proving herself guilty.
He gently pulled her off him and pulled a small box covered in black velvet from his pocket.
“Tú te me casas?” Will you marry me?
He opened the box to reveal a simple silver band with a small diamond in it.
He knew she would have liked a fancier engagement ring, but he also knew she loved him enough to marry him with those plastic rings that had candy “gems” on them, not that he’d ever make her do that.
Her eyes flickered from the ring to Alejandro’s face and back a few times before she understood the question.
“Yes, I will,” she said right before he slid the ring on her ring finger, the finger whose blood vessels led directly to the heart.
Alejandro bent down and kissed his fiancée. Julia’s lips morphed into a content smile against his lips.
She whined to Enrique, “How come you can cook perfect food and you’re a guy, but I can’t even though I’m a girl?”
Enrique chuckled and answered, “Because I spend more time in the kitchen then you ever did.”
“I’m already jealous of the girl you’re going to marry. I wish I could have a husband who could cook better than I can.”
“No, you don’t. You’d hate it, Miss Overcompetitive.” Enrique knew exactly how much Sanjana hated being second best: It killed her.
---
At the table, Alejandro and Julia alternately glared and averte their eyes from each other, as anger made them wont to do ever since they had become friends.
The Argents quickly consumed the meal, exchanged farewells with the Malhotras, and left for the home Enrique lived in and Alejandro and Julia were sharing with him and each other for the time being.
I'm wondering how long Julia and Alejandro plan on denying their marriage and kid, but it is fun to write and I hope it's fun for you to read. I should know, but I'm one of those authors to whom the characters tell the story I promise the pacing will pick up a little as Julia and Alejandro quit being perfect angels to each other. That was so boring, was it not?
Anyway, please review and tell me any questions, comments, and suggestions! Thanks!
