Justin

Justin

The twins were running around the house taking care of the detail work for tomorrow. You know, making sure there was toilet paper in the bathrooms, the candy in the candy dish was edible and that there wasn't anything that could terrify someone hiding in the closet. Dad was with Jackie in the kitchen. It was just like him to get a chef as a girlfriend the month before Thanksgiving. I shouldn't say that. Jackie was actually pretty decent, and Dad liked her. She wasn't clingy and she could cook like a god. Dad said she was a lot of fun, and since she owned her restaurant they could talk business kind of stuff together and be interested in each other.

I poked my head in the kitchen. I was going to help, but I needed a few minutes to clear my head. All I could think about was how stupid I was for leaving. I could be there right now with Jhondie curled up against me and instead I was home. Whatever Jackie was cooking smelled nothing short of divine, but it didn't compare to Jhondie's scent…damn it, get your mind off that subject!

"I'm home," I said evenly. I didn't want anyone to notice that there was anything different. Dad didn't give me a weird look so I was pretty safe. Jackie glanced up at me and said hello before turning back to the pots and pans and something I couldn't identify.

"Have a good day?" he asked. I may have blanched a little. He had no idea how good it was.

"Yeah," I replied, still being cool. "I've just got to run to my room for a minute, and I'll be down in a few." I got out of there, and ran up to my room, glad that I didn't run into a twin. I was not in the mood for one of them today.

I opened my window and sat down on the sill, hoping the fresh air would clear my head a little. All it did was make me think of Jhondie being in there. I could easily see her perched on the edge of my bed or sitting with me by the computer, or sprawled out on my floor surrounded by paperwork. I had to smile a little. I could be a little obsessed with her. I loved the girl.

My door was half-open, but there was a light attention-getting knock and then dad walked in. Dad grabbed a chair and pulled it up, plopping down casually. That's when I noticed he was carrying something. He handed me an ice-cold bottle of beer, and I took it gratefully. Dad didn't care if I drank, so long as it was light and I didn't take his stuff. For him to share his imported beer, he must really have something on his mind.

We both sat there for a minute drinking in silence. I like my beer cold, and this was very refreshing. Finally dad broke the silence. "You serious or just messing around?" he asked. Most people would be shocked that my dad would be so blunt, and expect me to lie immediately, but we had an agreement. I'd always be honest with him and he would do the same for me. It sounds a little cheesy, but it worked for us. Dad knew he could trust me, even if a lie seemed better, like the time he flat out asked me if I had snuck out and gone to a party he didn't want me to go to. I told him I had. He knew there were drugs there and asked me if I took any. I hadn't and told him so. He believed me. I could ask him anything, and when I was younger had asked him some damn embarrassing questions about things he was doing then, or had done and he always was honest with me. It worked for us.

I didn't have to mince words with him at least. "I love her," I replied simply. Dad knew I had told Denise I loved her, but I had never admitted it to him. There was a big difference. I smiled, knowing I was looking like a total dope. "She's incredible, and…and I love her."

Dad smiled. I knew full well that he had a pretty good idea how Jhondie and I spent the day. "Jhondie okay with that?" he asked. I grinned wider. I couldn't help it.

"Very okay with that," I replied with emphasis. Dad understood what I was saying. I leaned back, thinking for a minute. "I never realized how different it could be," I said, more to myself than him. Telling my father this might seem strange to some people, but we had a very different relationship than most fathers and sons. "It's…it's…and she's so…damn, why didn't you ever tell me it was so different?"

He was grinning rather superiorly at me. "Would you have believed me?" I laughed. It wasn't belief; I just wouldn't have understood it. Not until now. There was something I was curious about, and I thought that maybe now I could get it when dad answered.

"I know this is a little inappropriate to ask considering Jackie is downstairs and everything, but…" Dad snorted. Appropriate questions and me were not well acquainted. Well, I am an investigative journalist. "But how did you know? With Mom I mean. How did you know that she…" I wasn't sure how to finish.

"Was the love of my life?" he finished for me. I nodded, and he sighed, looking almost sad as he thought about her. Happy and sad at the same time. It was a strange expression. Then he smiled. I was taking a drink when he answered. "It was technically the morning after we met when she broke through the door of my hotel room, said "Excuse me senor," yanked off her dress, and jumped right under the blanket with me in bed."

I choked. I had a mouthful of beer that ended up half on my shirt, and half in my lungs. That was not a mental image you wanted of your mother. Under no circumstances did you want to think of your mother acting like that. Dad was laughing at me now as I coughed and sputtered. That was not funny. Oh God, he may have just ruined my love life there.

Dad decided to let me off the hook and explain what had happened. "Right after I graduated from college, my roommate Adam and I decided to go to Tijuana to celebrate. We flipped a coin, and he won. He got to have the first night to get totally drunk off his ass, waking up in a pool of vomit kind of drunk, and I had to stay mostly sober to make sure he got back to the hotel, and the next night he would return the favor."

"So we were at this bar and he was getting drunk beyond drunk. He was drinking everything but the water that night. Anyways, there were these two lovely senoritas at one table, and one of them was just as determined as Adam to get just as wasted. She started dancing with him, well, more like drunken stumbling and pawing on the dance floor, and I ended up sitting with the one who was still sipping her first beer of the night. So that's how I met your mother. We sat there talking while we watched Adam and your future aunt Maria Theresa make jackasses out of themselves. We probably would have dragged them off earlier, but we were enjoying talking and they were just too funny to watch."

"We got a little engrossed in each other, and the next thing I know, Maria Theresa is stumbling out of the bathroom, and Adam is missing. I have to excuse myself and go look for the idiot. Constanza said that she would be at the bar the next night, and I had told her where we were staying, so I knew there was a good chance I would get to see her again. I really wanted to. She was different from anyone I had ever met before."

"Adam had said he wanted to go to another club. It was a few blocks away, and I went there to look for him, but he wasn't there. After about an hour I decided to go back to the hotel to see if he went there before I started poking through the alleys of Tijuana. I go back to our room, and when I went into the bedroom, there was Adam and Maria Theresa, both butt-naked and passed out. Maria Theresa was on the bed, but Adam was on the floor beside the bed."

Dad glared at me for a second while I tried to get my laughter under some kind of control. I knew that Aunt Maria Theresa had been a hell-raiser when she was younger, but I had no idea how bad she really was. She had gotten pregnant seventeen and married Uncle Hector, but it seemed now like that didn't calm her down in the slightest. I was starting to understand why her daughter Marta had come to live with us for about a year when I was a kid. Dad continued his story.

"We had rented a two-room suite. There was a living room, and a separate bedroom. The living room had a foldout couch and that's where I was sleeping. I lay down, and about an hour or so later the door to my room flies open and Constanza comes running in. She slams the door, looks around, then says, "Excuse me Senor," yanks off her dress, and jumps into bed with me. I had talked with her enough to know she wasn't exactly that forward of a girl, but before I could find out what the hell was going on, the door crashes open again."

"This huge hulking brute comes lumbering into my room, and Constanza starts shrieking at him. My Spanish was pretty good, but it was still hard to follow."

"How dare you come in here!" she yelled. He blinked looking more than a little confused. He was pretty well plastered himself and you know Hector. He's not the sharpest knife in the drawer to begin with."

"Where's Maria Theresa?" he demanded. "I want my wife!" Now I was starting to get it. If he saw Adam and Maria Theresa, they were both dead."

"Do you see her?" she yelled back at him. "I was the one that went to the hotel with my lover, not your wife. You go back to your hotel and leave us be!" She grabbed my arm, and pressed herself against me, glaring at him. I knew that I better play along or I was going to be able to take Adam home in a laundry basket."

"Senor," I said very firmly, standing up with the blanket around me. Hector could see that Constanza wasn't wearing anything under the sheets, and I was acting like I wasn't wearing anything, so it made the story look good. "Your wife is not here. I did see her in the bar with Constanza and she said she was going back to her hotel. Now if you don't mind, you may leave now." He glared at me, but I didn't back down. He was big, but he was drunk and I thought I had a good chance at taking him."

"You're hiding her," he accused Constanza. "I'm going to sit right outside this door until she has to come out." Then he stumbled out, and we heard him plop down on the floor."

"Constanza collapsed onto the bed, letting out a big sigh of relief. "I am very sorry," she said quickly. "I would have explained, but there was no time, and if Hector caught Maria Theresa cheating on him again, he would have killed her and your friend." She sat up, keeping herself covered. "I am very sorry," she said again.

"I smiled, and laughed a little. Hell, Adam and I wanted a little adventure when we went to Mexico. "Your sister is here," I told her. "They both passed out in the bedroom." I handed her her dress and went to the bathroom for a minute to get my jeans and give her some privacy to get dressed. She appreciated me being polite. When I emerged, she was dressed, standing in the doorway of the bedroom, one hand on her hip and the other on her forehead, and she was muttering some rather creative things she was going to do to her sister."

"She looked up at me and smiled weakly. "Hector is still there, and she's too drunk to move," she said."

"I shrugged. "You can just stay here and let her sleep it off," I suggested. She gave me a suspicious look. "No strings," I said quickly. I grinned at her. "I wanted to see you again, I just wasn't expecting it this soon."

"She smiled for real at me, and I almost fell over. She wasn't pretty. She was beautiful. "I wanted to see you again too," she admitted. After we were married, we told each other that by that point, we were both sunk. Somewhere hearts had become involved. We ended up staying up and talking, and got to know each other. I had no idea there could be someone so incredibly wonderful. We weren't ready to admit it, but we both knew we'd found our soul mate."

"Hector ended up falling asleep in the hallway, and about seven in the morning. Your mom practically dragged Maria Theresa out of the hotel. She was so hung over it wasn't funny, but when Constanza said Hector had found her, she sobered up pretty quick. The idiot didn't even stir when they walked right over him to get out."

"I asked Constanza if I could take her to breakfast. It was the least I could do since she saved Adam's life. She laughed and said that she had to accept. It was the least she could do since I helped save Maria Theresa's life. It was her last day in Tijuana. Maria Theresa had gotten into a fight with Hector and decided she needed a vacation. Constanza went with her to make sure she didn't get killed, especially when Hector followed his wife out there. We spent the morning together, and then I asked her if she would mind getting lunch with me and she agreed. But she couldn't have dinner because of her flight back home."

"I joked with her that she could make it up to me by having dinner with me that Saturday. She laughed and reminded me I was going to be back in LA. Then all of a sudden we both got serious, and I realized that I didn't want her to go. I had only held her hand that day, but I already couldn't stand the thought of being without her. I told her that I would leave Saturday open."

"She left, and my vacation wasn't that memorable from that point on. I missed her. I went back home, and your uncle Justin called and tried to get me to go out with him. Told me I needed to meet some other women. He reminded me that you can't fall in love in a day, and I was just infatuated. I told him to go to hell. Saturday I was depressed as hell and then about seven that night there was a knock on my door. I yanked it open ready to tell Justin that I didn't want to meet some surgically-enhanced bimbo, and there she was."

"Constanza smiled at me, looking more than a little nervous. "I'm sorry I'm late," she said. "Traffic was terrible." I couldn't say a thing. I swept her up in my arms and just kissed her. Three months later we were married."

I leaned back against the window and took another drink. So that's how my parents met. No wonder Dad waited until I was older to tell me. I hoped it was going to be a while before he told the twins. I could see Hector and Maria Theresa just like that though. They were Catholic so divorce was not an option, but at last count they'd separated seventeen times.

I understood how my dad felt. I couldn't imagine my life without Jhondie now. Even before today, I couldn't imagine trying to live without her. She was part of my life in ways I was just discovering, and I loved her being there. I had missed her so much when I was in New York. I thought about my parents, and knowing what they had, how had dad survived being without her? I didn't know if I would want to live in a Jhondie-free world.

"Do you still love her?" I asked before I realized I was going to.

Dad nodded slowly. "I am reminded of how much I still love her every time I see you smile, or Brian glares at someone, or Brittany laughs. I date other women because I like the company, but I have never been with one that made me feel anything like she did. Like she still does every time I think about her."

We both sat in silence for a few minutes. I finished my beer. Dad cleared his throat and looked very nervous. It was the bad news look and it meant there was something very bad happening. "Son, I need to tell you something," he said. Oh God, that sounded bad. I knew my grandmother was going to be here tomorrow. She was coming to meet Jhondie, tell me she was terrible and get me back with Denise. There was something worse coming.

"You know George is coming over for Thanksgiving," he began. I knew that. George was a partner of Dad's. Him and his wife had split up four years before and she had moved back to Boston. Two of George's kids were in high school when the divorce happened and they wanted to finish school with all of their friends. The kids went to their mom's for Thanksgiving, so George would have dinner with us. "George called me today and said that he had two unexpected visitors," Dad said the way a doctor would tell a patient bad news.

"Oh God, no," I groaned, seeing what was coming. "Tell me it's two of the boys, please?" I begged. George had five sons and a daughter. He had five sons and a psychotic nutcase of a daughter to be exact.

"It's Mitchell and Denise," Dad said.

The jerk that went through my body was actually an instinctive gesture to throw myself out the window before my conscious mind could stop my body. It would be better to die from flinging myself out the window than ever deal with the psycho hose beast ever again. The last few months of our relationship went through my head in a second. The graffiti on the sidewalk, the screams, the threats, the claw marks, the voodoo doll, the other things too frightening to think about. I groaned again, putting my head in my hands. Jhondie was going to be there. The psychotic versus the genetically engineered. I was so fucked.