A lot of references to Taylor Swift's song "Begin Again." Enjoy :)
Mirabel was pacing around her room, already panicking. She looked at the clock: 2:30. She had 30 more minutes. She wasn't ready. No, she couldn't do this. She'd send one of her cousins or sisters to go tell Max she just wasn't ready and that she was very sorry, but she'd have to do this some other time.
She was seconds away from a panic attack when there was a knock on the door. "Mirabel. It's Camilo. Can I come in?"
"Yeah. Come in."
He walked in and could immediately tell she was freaking out. "I came in to check on you. I would ask if you were okay, but I think I know the answer to that."
"No, I'm not okay. I'm freaking out! I can't do this. I can't go through this again. What if he does the same thing to me that Javi did to me?" She flinched at the mention of his name. "I don't think I could survive it again. Will you go tell Max that I'm sorry, but I'm just not ready?"
"Okay, the first thing you need to do is to breathe." He walked closer to her. "You are panicking and you need to take some deep breaths and calm down." He started taking deep breaths and motioned for her to do the same. She got this way frequently. Her family knew exactly when her anxiety was rising and a panic attack was near and the best way to get her out of it was to breathe deeply with her. She took deep breathes with him and finally calmed down a little bit. "Look, if that's what you really want me to do, I'll do it. But I think you need to give him a chance. It's not even dinner, it's just coffee. Right?"
She nodded.
"Okay, then. That takes some pressure off. Just take it one step at a time. Your first step? Go to the coffee shop. Wait for him. Once he arrives, have coffee and just talk. You don't have to do anything, but talk. We have everything handled here. My mom is keeping Rosa company now, so you don't have to worry about her. It's going to be okay. Don't think too far ahead and just enjoy the here and the now. You deserve to be happy, too, Mirabel."
She took one final deep breath. Her heart rate was back to normal speed. She was still nervous, but felt confident enough to be able to handle coffee with Max. "Thanks, Milo." She gave him a hug. "It's just been a while and I'm nervous."
"I know. But I'm sure everything will work out fine."
"I hope so."
She went downstairs and after giving Rosa a kiss goodbye, she left the house. Her heart was back to pounding out of her chest. She took deep breathes, but it didn't work. Her hands were shaking. She had to just tell herself that nothing was happening today, just coffee and talking. She could handle that. It was still early and that would give her enough time to just sit and talk herself down.
She walked in the coffee shop and immediately saw Max was already there. He was sitting at a table at the other end of the shop. He turned and smiled at her. He stood up and waved at her. Mirabel smiled back and walked over to him, still scared out of her mind. She thought it was so nice of him to arrive early. She wasn't expecting that.
"Hi Mirabel. You look beautiful."
She blushed and looked down. "Thank you."
He pulled out the chair next to him and motioned for her to sit down. She smiled and sat down. He probably didn't realize how nice that small gesture was, but she did. Javi never did anything like that. "What kind of coffee do you want? I'll go get it for you."
She was still shaking and didn't think coffee would help that, so she said, "I think I'll actually just take a water. Thank you."
"One water, coming right up." He walked up to the counter and got her a water. He brought it back to her and sat down. She took a sip. "So, I want to know all about you and your family. I think the powers you and your family have is so cool."
"Really? You don't think it's weird?"
"It's definitely unique and like nothing I've heard before, but I don't think it's weird. It fascinates me. I know the history about your mom and her siblings and how the Encanto came to be, but I'm just curious about the powers. What can everyone do?"
The last thing Javi said about her family was that they were weird and it didn't make sense to him. This was a nice change of pace. "Well…you know what my mom can do. My tio Bruno can see the future. My tia Pepa can control the weather with her emotions."
"Oh, man, I bet that's rough. One bad day and it's raining."
"More like a thunderstorm or if it's really bad, a hurricane. She was so nervous on her wedding day that she caused a hurricane, but we don't talk about that."
"That would be rough. Props to your tia Pepa."
She was just amazed by him already. "My tia Pepa and tio Felix have 3 kids. My cousin Dolores, the one you met with me at the market, has super hearing. She can hear everything, literally, everything. There are no secrets with her. Her twin daughters, Maria and Gabriela, who we mostly just call Gabi, just got their gifts in July of this year when they turned 5. Maria has incredible empathy. She has the ability to calm anyone down, no matter the situation." This gift had come in handy for Mirabel, especially with her anxiety. She didn't want to take advantage of her, so she rarely went to her for it, unless she was having a severe anxiety attack. "Gabi can move anything with her eyes. It's kind of crazy to see random objects moving around. My cousin Camilo can shapeshift into any person. Then, Antonio can talk to animals."
"Talk to animals? That's so cool! I'd love to know the thoughts of animals."
She giggled. "Then there are my sisters. Isabela can grow flowers and all kind of other plants and Luisa has super strength. She can lift just about anything. And that's it. That's our powers."
He eyed her. "You conveniently left out yourself. Don't you have a gift?"
"Not in the same way that everyone else does, but yeah, I guess you could say I have a gift." She spent the next 10 minutes explaining everything, starting with her not getting a door at 5 years old to Casita being rebuilt without magic and the magic coming back with her putting the doorknob in the hole. She absolutely loved talking about her family and Max was very intrigued by it all. When she thought about it, Javi only seemed to tolerate her family. This is why as she talked about them, she'd stop sometimes, look at the ground, and take a sip of her water. She had to remind herself things were different.
"Wow." He was watching her wide-eyed, absolutely loving it. "You brought your family together. You are literally the gift."
She smiled. "That's what Tio Bruno said, too."
"The man knows what he's talking about."
She blushed a little bit and looked down and took a sip of her water. She took a shaky breath and said, "Okay, enough about me. Tell me about you."
"Honestly, not much to tell. I grew up in a town about an hour from here. My parents, my brother, and I were all very close. I don't have any aunts or uncles, at least not any that I know about. So, when my parents died, it was very hard." He took a shaky breath and ran his hand through his hair. His parents passed only a month prior to this, so it was still very raw to him. "I'm old enough to take care of my brother, but we didn't have any other family around. My grandparents, which were my mom's parents, came to town for a while and encouraged us to come back here. Right now, we're living with them. They don't have the biggest house, so Diego and I are sharing a room, but it's okay. We're just happy to be here."
Mirabel nodded, looking at him sympathetically. "Again, I'm so sorry about your parents. I can't imagine how difficult that must have been." She reached out to touch his hand, but then got anxious about it and moved her back. She hoped he didn't notice it.
He did notice it, but didn't give it much thought. He knew she had a hard time trusting guys. He was just so happy she agreed to have coffee with him. "It's been extremely difficult, especially for Diego. I wasn't excited about moving here, but he really didn't want to. He fought our grandparents about it for days until finally agreeing to it. He has made friends quickly, which has helped. Honestly, the friend he talks about the most is Antonio. Diego says he is so cool."
Mirabel smiled. "I've always had a close bond with Antonio. Now, it's cool to see him have a close bond with…um…" She immediately caught her almost slip up. She definitely wasn't ready to tell him about Rosa. She cleared her throat. "Um…Dolores' girls. They just love him so much." She breathed a sigh of relief. That wasn't a lie. Antonio was very close with Maria and Gabi.
"That's awesome."
"This may seem like a weird question, but I'm just wondering…how old are you?"
"I'm 24. What about you?"
Mirabel smiled. She was happy there wasn't a huge age difference between them. She didn't think there was, but still wanted ask. "I'm 22." She cleared her throat. "The last guy that I dated was almost 6 years older than me. He told me that things could have worked out if we were closer in age." She suddenly realized she probably shouldn't be talking about a past boyfriend to the current guy she was on a date with. "I'm so sorry, I shouldn't be talking about my last boyfriend. That's not fair."
"No, it's really okay." he said. "I'm sorry he said that to you. Age is not anything you have control over, so I imagine it was hard to hear that."
"It was. He said it to me when he broke up with me. And the day before that was my 21st birthday and he chose to not show up to my party, after telling me he'd be there." Her eyes filled with tears at the memory. "Oh, man, I'm doing it again. I'm sorry. I'll stop."
"Stop apologizing, Mirabel." he said gently. "You're not bothering me at all. I'm just so sorry he did that to you." Changing the subject, he said, "There's one thing I'm curious about. Your mom can heal anything, right?"
She was happy for the quick change of conversation. "Injuries, yes. Sicknesses are a little different. She can heal the symptoms, but not the virus or bacteria itself."
"Interesting. Now, please don't get offended when I ask this, because I think there's nothing wrong with it. In fact, I love it. I'm just wondering…"
She raised her eyebrows, having no clue where this was going. "Okay,"
"Does she not have the ability to heal eyesight?"
Mirabel giggled. She had heard that several times throughout her life having a mom with healing powers. "Nope. That's one thing that's out of her scope. Fun fact about my parents; they met, because my dad is so accident prone and he was constantly coming to see her to heal his injuries. He has glasses, too, and she always thought it was cute. Then, I needed glasses when I was like 3 or 4. So no matter how many times she heals me or my dad, our eyesight is the same. It's not something she would want to change about us anyway."
"I love that."
Her mind kept wandering to Javi and wanting to compare everything he did with Max now. There was such a contrast between them. Sometimes, when talking to Javi, Mirabel noticed he would act uninterested by looking off and just saying "uh huh." Max wasn't doing that. He was truly listening to her and giving her his undivided attention. It was nice.
They talked for several hours. Mirabel could feel herself loosen up a bit and joke around with him. She said something that he thought was hilarious and he threw his head back laughing like he was a child who had just heard the funniest joke of his life. It wasn't a fake reaction, either, it was genuine. This was so strange to Mirabel. Javi never found anything she said funny, even if she was trying to make him laugh. She could feel herself opening up to the idea of love again. It was exciting, but also scary. One look into his eyes, though, and all her fears went away. He was so easy to talk to and had the best stories. After talking for over an hour, she felt like she was ready to tell him about Rosa. But every time she tried to bring her up, she'd freak out and make something else up.
She looked up at the clock and realized she needed to be back for dinner with the family very soon. Time had gotten away from her. "I'm so sorry, but I have to go." She stood up. "Family dinners are very important to my family and I can't be late for it."
"No worries," He stood up as well. "Can I walk you home?"
Mirabel smiled and nodded. Such a gentleman, she thought.
As they walked together, Mirabel found herself, once again, wanting to bring up Javi. Just as she was about to, Max started talking about how cool it was that her family prioritized family dinner night and that's how it was for his parents. She was more than happy to not talk about Javi and to instead, talk to Max about his family. She felt like for the first time in a long time, the past was in the past.
They got to her house and turned to each other. "Well…thank you for a great time, Mirabel." He started to lean in and Mirabel started to panic. She was about to pull away, but instead of doing what she thought he'd do, he just kissed her on the cheek. He pulled away and smiled at her. "Can we do this again soon?"
"Yes. We need to. How would you like to join us for family dinner tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow? Yeah, I'd love that. Are you sure your family won't mind?"
She shook her head. "No, not at all. You've already met some of them anyway." She took a shaky breath. It hit her that now she had to tell Max about Rosa. If she didn't do it now, he'd be very confused when he got there tomorrow and saw a baby wanting to be held by Mirabel the whole night. And who would she say Rosa belonged to? No, she couldn't lie. She had to tell him. "Um…there's something I haven't told you yet that I need to say. I'm sorry in advance for not telling you sooner and…I hope it doesn't change things." She had a fear that if he knew she had a daughter, it would scare him off.
"Okay. I'm listening."
She took another deep breath. She hoped so badly this went well. "Okay, so…the thing is…I have a daughter. Her name is Rosa and she's 10 months old. My last boyfriend, Javi, is her father, but he has never had any kind of relationship with her. I found out I was pregnant after we broke up and when I told him about it, he decided immediately he wanted nothing to do with the baby. I gave him multiple chances and my sister even told him when I had her that he still had a chance to be in her life. He still wanted nothing to do with her." Her eyes filled with tears. It was still painful to talk about. "Now she's almost a year old and the absolute light of my life. My family has been nothing but supportive since the moment she was born."
He was silent for a moment just processing what she had said. He was trying to think of the right words to say. "Wow. I've never met this Javi, but I am not a fan of him. I already wasn't a fan of him after you told me things he did and said, but really not now."
She could have just cried at his words. "I was really scared this would change things and you wouldn't like me anymore."
"Are you kidding me?" He walked a little closer to her. "This doesn't change a thing. I love babies and kids. I guess this means I'll be meeting her tomorrow? Are you okay with that? We can postpone this dinner until you're comfortable with it, if you'd like."
"No, I don't want to postpone it." She smiled at him. "I can't wait for you to meet her."
"Okay. Tomorrow at this time, right here?"
"Mhmm. Works for me,"
"Okay. I'll see you soon." He smiled at her, squeezed her hand, and walked away.
She watched him walk away before going inside. Her family was starting to sit down to have dinner. Bruno was walking with Rosa to the table and as soon as Rosa saw her mom, she wanted her. Mirabel took her from him and gave her the biggest hug and kissed her several times on her cheeks. Mirabel got her situated in the high chair and she put some food in front of her.
Everyone wanted to know how the date went and Mirabel was happy to report it went amazing. She asked her mom if it was okay that he came over for dinner the next day and she said, with a smile, that it was perfectly fine. Then she said, "Does this mean you told him about Rosa?"
She smiled, nodded, and turned to Rosa. She was eating her food and already making a mess with it. Mirabel brushed her hand through her daughter's curls and looked at her mom. "I can't wait for them to meet."
Mirabel had spent the last 18 months thinking love was not for her and that it was destined to end in heartbreak. She truly did not think she'd find anyone and it would just be her and Rosa from here on out. But on a Wednesday in September at a coffee shop, the hard shell around her heart began to crack.
