“I have a date,” Alejandro said with an annoyed sigh. He had to whisper those words just in case he passed someone he knew. He worked hard to keep his personal life away from his professional life, and even though Deja was firmly in the latter, he wanted her in the former enough to blur a few lines to make it happen; but everyone didn’t need to know that.

“And you’re cooking? Do you not like her?”

“Shut up, I can cook,” Alejandro exclaimed, even though they both knew that was true only in the most basic sense.

“I mean…you get by,” Angel conceded. “You haven’t killed yourself, at least. But cooking for someone else is a…step.”

“Right. That’s why I’m calling you. I need you to suggest something I can cook in like an hour or less that I can absolutely make and is going to impress her.”

“I’m not your personal chef,” Angel said. Alejandro could imagine him rolling his eyes because being mildly annoyed with each other was the bedrock of their relationship.

“But you are a personal chef.”

“Yeah, and people pay me to do this. They also give me more than half a second’s notice to plan.”

“I actually have about three hours before she comes over, but I need to clean my apartment and shower and all that. Also, I don’t want to waste time cooking on our date.”

“When you could be sexing,” Angel added. “Got it. Smart.”

“Shut up and help me,” he spat as he threw his bags into a shopping cart and maneuvered inside the grocery store.

“Strange way to ask for help.”

“This has been the longest week, Angel. I’m tired. Please, just help me,” Alejandro said in a weary voice.

There were a few seconds of silence on the line before Angel spoke again. “So, you like her like her,” he exclaimed. “Does mami know?”

He sighed. “Kind of.”

“Need more information.”

“I might have told her that I had a crush on someone, but not that we’ve gone out.”

“Ooooh, ‘cause you really like her,” Angel teased. “This is cute. Okay, I’m emailing you a recipe now.”

“Thank you,” Alejandro said, his shoulders slumping in relief.

“Yeah, whatever, no big deal. But if it gets you head, consider that when you get my Christmas present.”

Alejandro hung up on Angel without another word.

Deja wasn’t so much nervous as petrified, which kind of didn’t make any sense since she’d already been over to Alejandro’s place and had dropped her panties for him embarrassingly easily. What did she have to be nervous about now? Probably nothing. But she was, nonetheless.

“I don’t know if I can do this,” she said to Toni, clutching the microphone part of her headphones in her hand and holding it up to her mouth.

“Yeah, you can,” Toni replied nonchalantly.