Max and Diego were still trying to get accustomed to the Encanto. It was way different than where they were originally from, which was a town about an hour away. They loved it, though. Everyone he met was super nice and very welcoming when he told them he had just moved there. They were at the village market one afternoon getting groceries for their grandparents.
"Oh, look, new people,"
Mirabel turned to look at Dolores. She looked around to try and figure out who Dolores was talking about. "Who?"
"Over there."
Mirabel looked to where she was pointing and she saw a guy, roughly her age, and a younger boy, roughly around Antonio's age. She looked back at Dolores. "Okay, and?"
"We just don't get very many new people in town. We should go introduce ourselves!"
Dolores started to walk their way, but Mirabel grabbed her arm. "Stop getting distracted. We are here for one thing for Abuela and that's it. I'm sure we'll see them around, but we need to get going."
"Fine," said Dolores while rolling her eyes and they continued looking for their item.
Max turned to tell Diego something when something caught his eye. He looked to the right of him and saw the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen. "Whoa," he said. She had long, curly hair that was currently in a side braid and green glasses. She was talking with another woman and laughing about something. She had the cutest smile. He was mesmerized by her. He knew he had to get to know her, but he didn't want to come off too desperate or too strong, so he thought he could just introduce himself. As he walked up to the 2 women, he got very nervous. He didn't usually get nervous around women, but today, he was.
Mirabel and Dolores were shocked to see the guy they had observed before walking straight up to them. "What's he doing?" whispered Mirabel.
"I don't know."
"Hi ladies." He smiled at them. "I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm new in town and don't know a lot of people here. I'm Max."
"Well, hi Max." said Dolores. "I'm Dolores and this is my cousin, Mirabel."
He smiled at Dolores and then looked at Mirabel. She smiled an awkward smile, but he thought it was the cutest thing in the world. She looked down at her feet and wrung her hands together. She was suddenly very anxious and her heart was beating fast. She managed to get out a quiet, "Hi Max."
"So, when did you move here?" asked Dolores.
"Oh, just a few weeks ago. We came…to be near my grandparents." He didn't want to rattle off that his parents were dead. He had told so many people that at this point and was tired of the looks of pity. "So far, we are loving it. Everyone here is super nice. A couple of days ago, my brother broke his ankle and someone told us about the Madrigal family and how there was this woman in the family that heals people with her food. I just think that's amazing that this woman spends so much of her time healing people."
"That's our family." said Dolores. "Julieta is Mirabel's mom."
"No kidding?" Max said with a chuckle. "What a small world!"
Dolores could see what was happening. Max clearly had a thing for Mirabel. His heart had picked up speed and he couldn't stop smiling at her. Mirabel was being so closed off and would barely look at him. It wasn't a surprise, though. She had barely even talked to a man in a year and a half. Dolores could also hear Mirabel's heart pick up speed, but for an obvious different reason than his did, and she looked very uncomfortable, so she said, "Yeah, it's a very small world. Well, it was nice to meet you, but we really should get going. I bet we'll see you around."
"Okay. Bye." He waved and walked off.
Mirabel had to take deep breaths to calm her racing heart. They had the thing they were looking for, so they quickly checked out and left the store. Dolores looked to Mirabel once they got outside. "Are you okay?"
She nodded. "Yes. I just…he was just staring at me like…I don't know…but I didn't like it."
Dolores raised her eyebrows. "He wasn't looking at you in any weird way. He just seemed to like you. Is that a bad thing? I know you may not be ready to meet someone new, but there was nothing wrong with him."
"Yes, it's a bad thing!" Mirabel practically yelled that, causing Dolores to flinch. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell. It's just…he can't like me. He just can't."
"Why not? He seems nice." she said with a shrug.
"Are you really asking why not? Dolores, the last man that I met also seemed very nice. And we see how that turned out. He destroyed me! He left me to raise our daughter by myself. I will never date someone ever again. I can never trust that another man won't do the same thing."
"What he did was horrible and should never have happened to you." agreed Dolores. "But, I promise you, not every man is like that. Mariano isn't like that. Luis isn't like that. Our dads aren't like that and I'm pretty sure our Abuelo wasn't like that, either. I'm not saying you should date him, I'm just saying…be open to the idea of meeting someone new. Even if you are just friends. Like I said, he seems nice and he's new in town. He's only been here for a few weeks, so I'm sure he could use some friends. Also, you literally just met him. Let's not jump to any conclusions."
Mirabel took a deep breath and crossed her arms. "Just the thought of being with someone makes my skin crawl."
"That's fine. Just please try and be nice. I'm sure he's nervous to be here, too. Okay, let's get this item to Abuela."
Mirabel nodded and they headed back to Casita.
That evening, as Julieta was getting dinner started, Mirabel came into the kitchen. "Hi, Mama."
Julieta turned and smiled at Mirabel. "Hi, mija. How has your day been?"
"Fine. Um…I wanted to ask you about something."
"Okay."
"Dolores and I met this man at the store today. He said he visited you a few days with his brother who broke his ankle. Do you remember him?"
"Yeah, I remember him. He seemed sweet. His brother and Antonio went off playing with each other." She looked at her daughter. "Why do you ask? What did you think of him?" She was slightly smiling at Mirabel.
"Mom, please don't." She rubbed her face. "I think he likes me, but I can't handle even the idea of someone liking me. Why does everyone think I should be with a man now? My life is already crazy enough with a baby. And I can't bring a man into my life with a baby. What if I start dating a man and I introduce him to Rosa, but then he leaves and hurts her?" Her eyes filled with tears. "I could never live with myself. I told myself I would never date someone ever again. I just can't deal with it ever again. It was too much." Rosa was 10 months old and Mirabel was past her postpartum depression. Her only lingering symptom was occasional anxiety and this situation was causing her major anxiety.
"Whoa, whoa, calm down, honey." said Julieta. "No one said you had to date anyone new right now and I'm not saying you need to date Max. You literally just met him. Just because he might like you doesn't mean you have to like him back. But you do have to be nice to him. I raised you to be a kind human being and that's what you are. So, please, just be kind to him."
"What if he tells me he likes me and wants to date me? What do I tell him?"
Julieta smiled. "Baby, you are getting way ahead of yourself. Like I already said, you just barely met him. But if he does tell you that and you don't feel the same way, just tell him you don't like him like that. Not a big deal." She walked up to Mirabel and grabbed her hands. "Let's take some deep breaths, okay? I can see your anxiety getting bad, so let's bring it down."
Mirabel nodded and took deep breaths with her mom. She finally calmed down and realized she had freaked out and overthought the situation. Her mom was always so good at helping her feel better and was still so supportive of her.
Mirabel left her mom in the kitchen and went to find Rosa. She was with Isabela and playing with Mateo. As soon as Rosa saw her mom, she smiled widely and quickly crawled over to Mirabel. Rosa was the biggest mama's girl and Mirabel loved her to pieces. Rosa was the light of her life. She pulled her in for a big hug and Rosa started pulling at Mirabel's clothes. She was eating a lot of table food at this point, but still nursed quite a bit and that's what she wanted when she pulled at her mom's clothes.
Mirabel took Rosa into her room and fed her. She would always slap at Mirabel's chest or try to stick her fingers in Mirabel's mouth during feedings, so Mirabel would pretend she was biting at her fingers. Rosa thought it was the funniest thing in the world and would laugh and laugh at it. Mirabel still felt the same overwhelming love in her heart for her baby girl as she did when she was first born. Everything she did was for her. She hadn't even begun to think about being with a man. She thought back to Dolores' words that not every man was like Javi. She knew that and she believed that, but the idea of opening her heart to another man was terrifying to her.
Mirabel hoped she didn't run into Max anymore, but she did. It wasn't like he was following her or anything, but they kept running into each other. He had the sweetest smile and the most amazing green eyes she had ever seen. Mirabel could very clearly tell he liked her. He smiled so big around her and she could sense a little nervousness from him. She could feel herself start to like him back, but she would always tell herself to stop doing that and she couldn't be with him.
They never had long conversations. In fact, it usually lasted only a minute or less. A lot of small talk and asking how the day was going. He seemed so kind and genuine, but then again, so did Javi. She wanted to like him and she wanted to trust him, but she couldn't. She couldn't let herself fall for him.
After about a week of constantly running into each other, Mirabel had had enough. They saw each other while she was leaving the village market and he was going to it. "Hi Mirabel. How's your day going so far?" he asked with a smile.
"Okay, just stop. I can't keep doing this." she said. "I can't keep running into you and doing the small talk thing. I'm done. If you see me out in town again, ignore me. Don't talk to me, because I don't want to talk to you."
She could tell she hurt his feelings. His face fell and he cleared his throat. "Right. Um…I'm so sorry. I won't bother you again." He walked around her and left.
She suddenly felt so bad. He didn't do anything wrong. In fact, she was starting to fall for him. She'd see him out with his brother or what looked to be his grandparents and he just seemed like the sweetest guy. But she couldn't like him. She had to get him out of her head and move on. There was no other way to do that than to tell him to leave her alone. Still, she felt incredibly guilty the entire walk back to Casita.
When she got home, she saw her mom inside gathering up supplies to head back out to help heal everybody. "Mama, I know you're busy, but can I talk to you for a minute?" She sat the bag of items she had bought on the counter.
"Make it quick, Mira, I really have to go."
Her face fell and she started to cry.
Julieta sighed, put her stuff down, and walked up to Mirabel and gave her a hug. "What happened?" she asked as they pulled apart a moment later.
"I was just so mean to Max." she said in between sobs. "I told him to stop talking to me and to leave me alone. He hasn't done anything, but be nice to me and I was just so rude to him. Mama, I can't like him. But I do like him. He makes it so easy to like him. He's so sweet and kind and now he probably hates me. Why did I have to ruin it?"
"Mirabel," Julieta grabbed her hands. "I know you've been hurt. What Javi did to you is inexcusable. But you can't make every guy in the world the bad guy just because one guy did you wrong and believe me, he did you wrong. I would love to have words with him and if I ever see him in town again, I will." Mirabel rolled her eyes. "I told you that you needed to be nice to Max and to let him down gently if you didn't feel the same way. Since you didn't do that, you owe him an apology."
Mirabel groaned. "I know."
"Go easy on him, mi amor. His parents just died. Don't make him feel any worse than he already does."
Mirabel's eyes widened. She knew he had just moved here to be close to his grandparents, but had no idea about his parents. It made her feel even worse for what she said to him. "Oh no. I had no idea."
Julieta shrugged and then she turned to grab all of her stuff. "Just talk to him soon. Okay, I have to go now. I love you." She gave her daughter a kiss on the cheek and left.
Julieta went back to her spot and had a very busy couple of hours. When she finished, she gathered up her supplies and started to head home. She just so happened to run into Max. She could tell he didn't look very happy and she had a pretty good idea why. She walked up to him. "Hi Max."
He looked up and suddenly got very nervous. "Oh…uh…hi ma'am."
"I talked to Mirabel. She told me about what she said."
He took a deep breath. "Yeah, I'm really sorry about that. I didn't mean to bother her. I didn't think I was coming on too strong, but I guess I did. She just seems like such a sweet person and I wanted to get to know her."
Julieta smiled. "There is no need to apologize. She is a very sweet person. She is just struggling with some things. I don't know if she's told you about her last boyfriend?"
"No, she hasn't."
Julieta took that as a hint that Mirabel hadn't mentioned Rosa to him either, so she made a point to not mention her. It was up to Mirabel if she wanted her daughter involved. "Well…she dated this guy who hurt her very badly. He did some things that just…I can't even believe a human being could be that cruel. He was the last guy she dated and she has a lot of reservations about meeting someone new."
"Well, I can understand that." he said. "The last girl I dated cheated on me, so I definitely understand being hurt in a relationship."
"I'm sorry to hear that. Believe me, I'm not saying that what she said was right, because I made sure she knew it wasn't. I promise you, you're not bothering her, so if you want to try talking to her again, do it. I think it's just very hard for her to trust another guy again, but give her a chance, if that's something you want to do."
Max nodded. "Okay. I will. Thank you, Julieta."
"No problem." She smiled, said bye, and left to go back home.
Max knew exactly what he needed to do.
A little while later, Mirabel was walking out of her room after putting Rosa down for a nap. She was heading down the stairs when she heard a knock on the door. She was shocked when she opened the door and saw Max standing there. He smiled warmly at her. He was making this "not liking him" thing a lot harder with that smile. "Hi Mirabel. I'm sorry, I hope it's okay I came by. I won't take up much of your time."
"You're fine." She stepped outside and closed the door. "What's up?"
He took a deep breath. "I'm really sorry if I was bugging you. This is my way of apologizing to you." He pulled his hand from behind his back and gave her a rose.
She took it, sniffed it, and then smiled at him. Roses made her think of her sister and her baby girl. She loved them. "Thank you, that's incredibly sweet of you. But I really don't deserve this. I was awful to you today. I'm very sorry about that."
"It's okay. I actually ran into your mom today and she told me about the last guy you dated. I don't blame you for being closed off."
Her heart picked up speed. "Did she tell you what he did?" She hoped her mom didn't tell him about Rosa.
"No. Just that he hurt you pretty bad. My last girlfriend cheated on me, so I get it."
"Oh no. I'm so sorry. That wasn't fair to you." She took a deep breath. "My mom told me about your parents. I'm so sorry about that. That is also something that wasn't fair to you."
He smiled a tiny smile. "Thank you. My brother and I were very close to them, so it's been hard."
"I can imagine."
He took a deep breath. He had been working up the courage to do this, but now, he was scared he would chicken out. He figured he needed to just come right out and say it. "Since I am new here and don't know a lot people here, I was wondering if…maybe you wanted…um…"
Mirabel could tell what he was trying to do. She gave him a soft smile and said, "Are you asking to go on a date?"
"Trying to," He rubbed his face. "I'm sorry. I'm not usually this flustered. But yes, I would love to take you out. It doesn't have to be dinner. It could just be going out for coffee." He smiled at her. "I want to get to know you better. Even if it means just being friends. You seem like such a wonderful person."
Mirabel was falling so hard for him already. She blinked a few times to remind herself to calm down and to not go there yet. It was one date. She wasn't going to expect much from it. He seemed very nice, but she didn't want to get her hopes up. She couldn't allow herself to fall too hard for a guy and then for it to come crashing down, again, but she could at least go have coffee with him. That was easy. "Yes. I'd love to go have coffee with you."
"Great. Um…are you available this Wednesday? We could meet at the coffee shop around the corner. Let's say 3:00?"
"Yeah. Wednesday at 3:00 sounds great. I'll see you then. Unless I run into you in town before then."
He laughed. "Counting down the minutes." He gave her a small wave and turned and left.
She sighed and walked inside, closing the door behind her. She had 2 days to prepare for this date. He was counting down the minutes because he was excited, but she was counting down the minutes, because she was terrified out of her mind.
