Much to my surprise, Alejandro and Maurice told everyone they knew. I was only except maybe forty people to be at my house, but there was more than a hundred. I didn’t mind though. I walked around the house, greeting people and pretending to care as they spoke; my mind was on Torian.

It had been almost two hours since everyone arrived, and still no sign of her yet. The team was all situated in front of the television, playing some game on the Xbox. Every five minutes, or so, they would cheer loudly and a new game would being. The staff was scattered throughout the house, chatting amongst themselves. I was kind of surprise how distant they were from the players. When I walked over and tried to join in, they almost all stopped talking and became nervous.

            “Well there you are.” I joked, Torian walked in. She offered a small smile and a one-armed hug. “That’s all I get? I’m inviting you into my home.” I joked. She rolled her eyes and shoved around me. “Wait,” I gently gripped her elbow, “you okay?” Her eyes were darting around the house, like she was looking for someone. “Torian?”

            “I’m fine, Carlos.” I let her arm go and walked to watch the guys play.

            For the rest of the night, Torian stayed as far away from me as possible. It started to piss me off. I tried to talk to her, multiple times, but nothing worked. She stayed off in the corner, either on her phone or talking to the other staff members. Watching the guys were distracting for a while, but eventually each of them turned their attention to other places. At one point I got up and saw her talking into her cellphone. She seemed upset; she covered her eyes with one hand and leaned against the walls. I let her have her privacy, even if the curiosity was driving me insane.

            “Have you had anything to drink?” Alejandro asked, throwing an arm over my shoulders. It was clear he had had a little too much to drink; he kept a drunken grin on his face and his words slurred together.

            “Nah, I’m not in the drinking mood.”

            “Ah, right.” Alejandro laughed and finished off his drink. I shrugged his arm off and when he got too loud, I moved him upstairs to the guest bedroom. One by one, I slowly convinced people to leave. I wanted this night to be great, I was going to get wasted with my teammates, have some drunk fun and pass out; not any more. Even drinking couldn’t take my mind off Torian, which was frustrating. And no one likes and angry done.

            “Are you seriously this upset about the other day?” I asked when mostly everyone was gone. Torian has isolated herself into the kitchen for the majority of the party. “I understand I crossed a line, but I understand—“

            “It’s not that.” She chuckled, but it was humorless. She swirled her drink and exhaled. I stepped closer to her, but no close enough to send any wrong messages. “It… I can’t.”

            “Something wrong?”

            “No, it’s nothing. There is nothing to talk about.” She smiled, but this time it was real. I couldn’t help but smile too. “I’m sorry if I seem off today, it’s just been a long day.” I nodded and rested back on the cabinets. She took a long taste of her drink and blinked as the alcohol burned.

            “Was it that bad of a day?” I joked. She laughed and nodded. I reached out and took the drink from her. “You need,” I sighed, “to go home and sleep it off then. She shook her head. “Torian.” She slouched a little and let her shoulders drop. “Do you want something to eat? You need to sober up before you drive.” She groaned and pouted. It was so hard to not laugh at her. I double-checked to make sure everyone was gone before I went back to take care of Torian.

            She had moved to sit at the table; her head was resting on the wooden table top, with her blonde curls falling all over the place. While she rested quietly to the side, I made her a quick grilled cheese sandwich and filled up two glasses of water. I rubbed her back to wake her up. She groaned and covered her face with her arms. I laughed a pulled up a chair. Before I sat down, I grabbed some Tylenol and shook the bottle by her ear.

            “Asshole.” She grumbled. The sound was irritating, even to sober ears. I fought back my smile, and shoved the food at her. Without hesitation, she grabbed the pills and swallowed them down with half a glass of water. As she ate her sandwich, I felt my eyelids growing heavy. I rested my elbow on the table and tried to focus on Torian. It wasn’t until she finished eating that a word was spoken.

            “What was the phone conversation about?” I asked. She looked at the empty plate and shook her head. “I’m not trying to be nosy, I just want to see if anything’s wrong.”

            “It was just a little argument with a…friend.” She explained vaguely. I nodded. I knew she was leaving out over half the story, but it wasn’t my place to question her.  “Thank you.” She said softly, wiping her mouth. I nodded and smiled. “You know,” She smirked but quickly shook her head, “never mind. I probably shouldn’t say that.”

            “What?” I pressed. She kept shaking her head and I kept asking what. Finally, she cracked.

            “I was just going to say, that if I was able to date you, I wouldn’t mind.” She smiled coyly and ran her finger over the condensation on the glass. Before she had a chance to register it, I kissed her. I place my hand on the back of her head and pulled her close to me. Without missing a beat, she parted her lips and deepened the kiss. She stood up and balled up my shirt. I pushed her against the side of the fridge. Somewhere upstairs, Alejandra made a loud bang.

            Patricia had been trying to ignore Claudia’s words and for the most part, she had pushed them to the back of her mind. But some days were tougher than others. Like now. Today, Fernando Torres and his family showed up at the door. Tricia almost spit her drink. Olalla, her closest friend, hugged her tightly, while Fernando ushered Nora inside. David came downstairs, yelling happily. Instantly, he tossed Nora in the air and shook Fernando’s hand.

            “I’m sorry for just showing up. I thought Nando had told you.” Olalla apologized in a low voice. “But we got all the way here before I found out.” She shrugged.

            “It’s fine.” Patricia breathed. There was so much going on around her. She felt the room spinning. She tried to focus on Nora and Zaida running around the sofa, but the movement was too much. Olalla sensed something and quietly moved the pair into the guest bedroom. “Thanks.”

            “Is everything okay?” Olalla gently smoothed Patricia’s hair.

            “No, I…I don’t know.” Patricia told Olalla the full story, starting with the fighting. Olalla was stunned to find out that the two had been sleeping in separate spaces, but that was nothing compared to when she found out Claudia’s words. Olalla knew that Claudia wasn’t that fond of David, but never did she expect her to recommend divorce.

            “Are things between you and David still that bad?”

            “They are better...” She started, “We are sleeping in the same room.” She tried to joke. “We talk more, but I feel like once we have this baby and things will go back to the old ways; the constant fighting and crying. I can’t do it, Ola. I can’t go back to questioning my love for my husband. I can’t put Zaida through that, not again. She knew something was wrong, I could tell.”

            “Relax. Things will only get better once the little one is here.” Gently, Olalla patted Tricia’s belly. “Just relax and think about the present.” Tricia sighed and tried to listen to Olalla’s advice. She wanted to believe, but she knew better.

            Once Patricia and Olalla were out of sight, the guys headed outside with their daughters. Zaida and Nora ran around the grassy yard, not paying one bite of attention to their fathers. Fernando squinted his eyes from the sun and waited for David to explain himself. A little over a month ago, David had called him, almost in tears. David only gave him enough information to guess that things were right in their marriage anymore.

            “What had happened?”

            “We drifted apart. I was sleeping down the hall while she stayed in the master. We didn’t speak. We didn’t have dinner together. It was like, we just lived in the house together, but that was it.” He shrugged as he watched Zaida fall onto the grass. He waited until she got back up to finish. “Claudia put the idea of divorce in her head.” Fernando’s head jerked to face David. “Yeah, I know.” He shook his head, expressing his feelings.

            “You’re having a baby so things are better, no?”

            “Somewhat. Things are probably only better because of this baby.” Fernando’s brows furrowed. “If she wasn’t pregnant, I doubt we would have made up. Things were never solved between us, we just pushed them aside when we found out. We were—are so happy about this child that everything else faded away. But what happens if she has the baby, and we grow apart again?”

            “You can’t think like that.”

            “I can’t help but think about that!” David admitted, furiously. Nora and Zaida froze, fearing they were in trouble. Fernando smiled and waved for them to continue playing. Hesitatnly, they went back to chasing each other. When he calmed down a little, David rubbed his neck with his hands. “I wont leave her.”

            “Good.” Fernando commented sternly.

            “I couldn’t do that to her, or Zaida, or the baby.” David knew that much was true. Fernando nodded. “But I also can’t live like that. Not talking to my own wife? It’s crazy…”

            “Then make things right.” Fernando suggested. “Take her to dinner, take her to your practices, spend as much time as possible. Soon, all the bad will fade away and hopefully by then, the baby will be born and nothing else will matter.”

            Neither David nor Patricia wants to talk anymore. They had gotten almost everything of their chests. Fernando and Olalla looked exhausted when they left. Zaida begged for Nora to stay longer, but none of the adults wanted to see each other anymore. Patricia just wanted to sleep. David wanted food. Fernando wanted to leave. Olalla wanted to make everything right. Everyone said their goodbyes and made empty promises to see each other tomorrow.

            Patricia padded over into the kitchen and began making dinner without even thinking. Zaida sulked as David walked her to her room and put her to bed. When she was alone, Patricia gently patted her belly and replayed Olalla’s words; think about the present.

            When Zaida had fallen asleep, David sighed and watched her. He had never told anyone a thing about his personal life. But then again, nothing like this had ever happened before. His marriage was still hanging in the air, but that would have to wait until tomorrow. He flipped off the light and closed the door behind him. As he walked into the dining room, Patricia walked in with plates of steamy food. They smiled at each other, but it was only for a second. David slid into a chair next to his wife. Patricia poked her dinner with her fork and tried to conjure up something to talk about.

            She didn’t want to admit her conversation with Olalla. David didn’t want to confess to his with Fernando. They ate in silence. Patricia loaded the dishwasher and walked into the bedroom. David was sitting on the edge of the bed, taking off his socks. She ignored him and stripped out of her jeans and tee shirt. No words had been exchanged yet. And it continued that way until David crawled beside Patricia and the lights were turned off. Fernando was right; David needed make things right again. Even though things were tense, he needed to show Patricia that he still loved her as much as he did the day he married her.