Sundays were usually the slowest day of the week for the Casagrande Bodega, but this was no ordinary weekend in the small street of Great Lakes City. It was the annual neighborhood block party, one of the great highlights of the summer… except for Hector.

"Damn it!" the old man said under his breath as he looked out the window of his store. "Not a single customer today! That ridiculous party out there is driving off buisness!"

True enough, the block party did have the habit of driving off potential customers. After all, why go to the grocery store when you could have luxurious foods like deep fried butter on a stick? (Yes, that's an actual thing.) All jokes aside, this was usually the worst weekend of the year for the bodega. And this year especially, they could NOT afford it.

"Morning, Hector," Roberto said as he walked into the store. "Beautiful day, isn't it?"

"Yeah, sure…" he mumbled, before glaring to his son in laws hand. "What's that?"

"What?!" he asked, quickly placing his hand away from Hectors sights. "Uhh, nothing! Just, uhh, a little trinket I found, uhh…"

It was too late to lie. Hector had already made his way over to him and had grabbed his hand, pulling it towards him and grabbing the contents

"Deep fried butter on a stick?! Roberto, you know-"

"I know, I know! We aren't supposed to enjoy the block party, but look at it! The thing is HUGE!"

He gestured both hands towards the bodega windows. Sure enough, it WAS huge… the party was more like a fair than anything. It spanned 3 whole blocks and had a lot of rides spread throughout.

"I know, Roberto, I know! That's exactly why you can't enjoy it! We lose buisness!"

"Hector, I know as well as you do buisness has been down. This fair isn't changing that-"

"Really? Then explain to me why we haven't had a single customer today, huh?"

"Uhh… maybe because you didn't turn the sign?"

Hector looked towards the door dumbfounded. Sure enough, the sign hadn't been turned. He walked over and turned the sign, a look of frustration and tiredness on his face.

"Jesus Christ… Roberto, man the register. I need to lie down for a few hours."

"Sure thing, Pops!" he said as the old man walked out the door towards the staircase. He walked over and stationed himself at his usual spot, making sure that everything was in place.

To be honest, Roberto enjoyed working at the bodega again. He had a job here when he first married Maria, but that went away when they moved to Royal Woods… now that he was back in their lives, he remembered how much he had ENJOYED it. A store job was perfect: easy labor, easy math, and 10 dollars an hour! That came out to about a 400 dollar paycheck, and with rent 200 a month, he was set!

Well… not entirely. His apartment was cheap, yes, but it wasn't 5 star worthy… truth be told, it was barely half of one. And it wasn't exactly on the best side of town, either… usually he fell asleep to the sound of police sirens or that STUPID junky couple above him doing, well… you get the picture. The point was, it wasn't ideal like his wife and kids situation was.

Did that make him jealous? Sure, it did! Why even lie about it? But he wasn't gonna ask for favors anymore… no, he was on his own! Those guys had the Casagrandes to care for them! The kids had their aunt and uncle, their grandparents… their mother…

Maria…

"DAD!"

"AHH" He yelped, jumping in fright. Bobby stood towering above him, hands crossed.

"I've been trying to get your attention for half a minute now! You can't daydream on the job, dad!"

"I know, hijo, I know…" he said, rubbing his head. "I just have a lot on my mind nowadays…"

"Yeah? Well, I do too; that fair is gonna be the death of us! Not a single customer today, and the open sign is flipped! Believe me, I checked!"

"Kid, it's obviously gonna be a slow day! People are having fun! They ain't gonna stop in here to get a soda and chips!"

"Well, grandpa says we need to get buisness today or we don't get paid… so what can we do?"

"Oh, my God…" Roberto thought to himself as he pondered with his son. What COULD they do?

"Maybe we could put up a sign?"

"No, too forgettable… flyers?"

"No, too many…"

"C'mon, dad! We have to think outside the box!"

A lightbulb went off in Robertos head. With a grin, he grabbed his son by the shoulders and shook him around like a ragdoll.

"Bobby, that's it! We go OUTSIDE and sell!"

Robertos son looked at him as if he had just told him he was leaving again.

"You're crazy, Dad, you know that?"

"Of course," he said, straightening his apron. "It runs in the Santiago family. Anyway, we gotta get a table set up!"

"Dad, there's NO way…" Bobby started, but it was too late. Roberto had already pulled a foldable table out of the back closet and was setting it up in front of the counter.

"Listen, kid! Everything is outside, right? Why can't we be?"

"Uhh, because our job is in here? We can't just go out and-"

"Ahhh, but we can! We'll still be doing our jobs, won't we?"

The look on Bobbys face said it all. Roberto grinned; he knew he had won.

"-sigh- One hour. If we sell nothing, we come back inside."

"Oh, don't worry, hijo, don't worry. We'll be selling a lot more than nothing today…"

Later…

"Oh, boy, 5 bucks and counting. What did I tell you, dad?"

"Don't rush it, Bobby!" Roberto said as he wiped his brow with his apron. Business had been better since they had gone out… well, if you counted 5 dollars as better.

"Face it! We've made nothing all day except for five lousy dollars that YOU gave us to buy soda! There's nobody here that wants to buy from us!"

"Kid, settle down!" Roberto said as a scream came from the swing ride. "We just have to give it a little more effort!"

"A little more- seriously?!"

"Yes, seriously! Bobby, I've worked here for much longer than YOU have, I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing-"

"Obviously not if we've made 5 DOLLARS today!"

"WAIT!"

Roberto had turned his head to the side, which prompted Bobby to do the same. A man was standing besides the BBQ truck, dressed appropriately as a giant pig. A huge line of people were lined up at the stand, waiting to buy brisket or ribs.

A huge smile had spread over Robertos face at this point. Both of the men turned to each other, seeming to know what each was about to say.

"NO."

"Bobby, it's genius!"

"No, it's STUPID!"

"Don't we have that parrot costume somewhere in-"

"No, we do NOT! Dad, it's ninety degrees out! There's no way that you'd dress in that thing!"

Roberto stopped to think about that for a bit. Of course he couldn't wear it, he would sweat off half his weight in ten seconds… BUT…

"Bobby, I hope you're feeling cold today, cause I got a job for you…"

10 Minutes Later…

"...I seriously can't believe I'm wearing this…"

"You look great, champ!" Roberto said to the giant red and yellow parrot that stood in front of their table. "Now, all you gotta do is dance!"

"Do I really have to-"

"Uhh, YES? Do you want that hundred bucks or not?" he asked, grabbing the bodegas radio and turning on 80s Evolution.

"-sigh- You're right… can I at least-"

"DANCE!"

The familiar tune of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun came and on, and with a sigh, Bobby the parrot began to jump around and flail his arms to the music. Roberto couldn't help but chuckle to himself… seeing his son in that parrot costume brought back memories for him…

"Where did we even get this thing, dad? It's gotta be, like, 50 years old!"

"Actually, more around 20. We got it from an old water park that was closing downtown."

Soon enough, the costume was doing its job… sort of. Kids were gathering at the table, sure, but it was more to watch the mascot do his stupid dances than to buy anything.

"Hey, HEY! Hands off the merchandise!" Roberto said to a little kid reaching for a Milky Way. "Don't have the cash, then ya gotta dash!"

"Bobby? Roberto?"

The two turned to see Ronnie Anne standing on the corner, Casey and her friend Sameer flanking her.

"Hey, Nini," Bobby said as his cheeks began to turn red. "We were just, uhh…"

"Hey Ronnie, you didn't tell me you guys hired a new guy…" Casey said as he pointed towards Roberto.

"Yeah… that's kinda weird…"

Roberto straightened up in his seat, not knowing what else to do. If he was gonna be introduced to Ronaldas friends, he wanted to look presentable.

"Oh, him?" she said, pointing towards her father. "That's Roberto… he's my…"

He had just begun to get up and introduce himself when the hammer dropped.

"My grandpas friend. He just got hired."

He opened his mouth in shock, then quickly sat down again. He was pretty sure he mumbled a 'hello' at some point, but he wasn't sure anymore.

"Well, uhh, we gotta run. See you guys!"

"Bye, Niní!" both men said with much different attitudes. Bobby noticed this, and taking a break from his act, walked over and knelt down by his dad.

"You know she's just trying to keep her life the same as always, right?"

"Yeah, whatever…"

"Dad, she's 11! Kids aren't going to react well to change all the time… and as big as this is-"

"Bobby, you don't need to explain," Roberto said, looking to the sidewalk. "Roberta barely knows me, anyways… I get it."

"Dad, she'll come around. Give it some more-"

"BOBBY! ROBERTO!"

The familiar voice of Hector Casagrande rose above the crowd, and both men looked up. He was standing in front of the stand, obviously ticked off.

"What are you two doing?!"

Bobby was the first to explain, stammering as he did.

"Well, uhh, we were just, well, you see-"

"We set up a stand outside!" Roberto chimed in. "We figured-"

"Back inside! Now! We have air conditioning for a reason!"

Yeah, yet it's always at 90 degrees…"

"I HEARD THAT!"

Upstairs…

Maria Santiago had watched everything unfold from her bedroom window: the stand, the dancing, even Ronnie Anne… of course, she didn't know what had happened, but did it really matter?

She fell back onto her bed, exhausted from her day at work. The city hospital was a lot busier than Royal Woods was… of course the pay was better, but it left her TIRED. Like, INSANELY tired. But, on the brightside, it gave her a good reason to sleep when she came home.

Except it wasn't working today. She was thinking back to when she and Bob- ROBERTO, had gotten married. It was a nice summer day down in the Catholic Church by Sullivan streets, across from Mr Catchatari's bar... she still had his wedding ring somewhere in her belongings…

She shook the thought out of her head. Roberto had left her a long time ago! There was no reason to hold on to his stuff!

And yet… there it was.

She sighed, closing her eyes. Of course Roberto had left… but he had given her two beautiful children in the process. And he seemed genuine about coming back to make things right; he actually sounded MOTIVATED for once.

Who knew? Maybe it was all an act of some sort, designed to make her fall for her ex husband again… and the sad thing?

It was working perfectly...