Chapter Thirty Three
Maria laughed, remembering the argument she had with Amy. Proud of how long she had calmly been in his embrace, she pulled away and went to the table to lay out their lunch. She placed the two kids at the table and waited for Dave to get off the phone.
“You are wasting both our time. Tell her to take the car to the usual garage.” He hung up and dialled again, “Carol, get Amy’s car fixed and the Prado, then call the dealer and ask him to bring the car today.” He hung up and walked to the table with a wide grin, “Sorry about that.” He apologized, taking the seat opposite Maria.
Playing with her food, “I think I should be the one apologizing, you had to take care of my mess.”
“She just wanted to annoy me. So are you going to tell me about it?” Taking a bite of his food.
“She parked right behind me and I almost ran her over. When I got out to see what she wanted, she called me your new toy.”
“What?” Dave said laughing.
“She said you gave me your old toy to play with so I must have been your new toy.”
“Is that why you wanted to run her over?”
“No. She wanted Izzy and I wouldn’t let her go near her, then she moved her car to completely block me in.”
“That’s when mama hit her car.” Michael added with his mouth full, “It was awesome!”
“I bet it was.” Dave said with a chuckle, “Don’t worry about it, the car will be fixed by the end of the day. So what do you think of her?”
“You were on the mark with her. She managed to annoy me, and tried to put me down a couple of times.” she giggled, “It was nice standing up to someone for once.”
Dave looked at her, imagining how much she must have cowered away with Ricky, “You should always do that, no matter what. It draws a line that people will think twice about crossing.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” She knew no one dared to cross his line, all she could hope for is that she could be as strong as he was, “So you are getting a new car?” She thought he was joking when he was on the phone with Amy’s lawyer, but he had just asked Carol to call the dealer.
“Yes.” he said eating some more, “I don’t want to keep taking a cab and under no circumstances do I want Todd to know where we live and when Miguel starts school you’ll need it more.”
“I’ll pay for the damages on your old toy.”
“No you won’t, there is a reason I have insurance.”
“But…”
“We’ll take Miguel to school tomorrow morning together.” he said cutting her off. He didn’t want to have another fight over money, he knew why she did that, she wanted to make sure she didn’t owe him just in case she had to run again or he wants to collect. Dave was doing this for her because he wanted to and now, he felt selfish enough to tie her to him as much as he could. He wanted her to stop running, to live her life fear free with him.
“Yes!” Michael shouted.
“Why? Don’t you have work?” Maria asked, annoyed at how he had cut her off and changed the subject.
He looked at Michael glad to see his wide saucy smile, “I do, but I want to speak to the principal and make sure he settles in alright.”
“Talk to him about what?” Maria asked worriedly. She still didn’t know how Dave had enrolled Michael without her identification papers, he must have used his own.
“Don’t worry, I just want to make sure they’ll take proper care of him.” Dave looked up to meet her worried face, “You need to quit worrying so much, let me do that.”
“You can’t keep taking care of us, we aren’t you’re family.” Maria said with a hushed voice.
“Yes we are. Families live together, and they do stuff together like we do.” Michael said authoritatively. The grin was gone and his face creased sternly, “Mama, we finally have a family, the only ones missing is our grandmas and grandpas.”
Maria looked at him, the guilt riding her hard. She realized one other thing she had denied him for years, now he had a taste of it and it would be hard for him to let go when the time came.
“Your mama knows that, she’s just making sure of it.” Dave reassured Michael. He looked at Maria and saw the tears in her eyes as she stared at her son. He turned back to Michael, “Someone’s turning five soon, how about a party?”
“What?” Maria asked stunned, blinking away the tears.
“Yes! I can invite the new friends I make at school.” Michael cheered, bouncing in his chair.
“And your grandparents.” he kept his focus on Michael, ignoring the lethal eyes he was sure Maria was giving him. It was time for them to stop hiding and this was the first step, “And we’ll have a double birthday party because Izzy is turning two the same month.”
“Yeah!” Michael yelled excitedly, giving Dave a high five, “I’ll go call grandma now!” He jumped off the chair and ran for Dave’s desk.
“Dave…” Maria hissed out, standing up. She might have been a sitting duck in jail, but a birthday party was like a huge arrow pointing to where they were. What made her mad was how he had taken control of her and Michael’s life.
Dave stood up, he looked at her amused, it was the second time he was seeing her angry and she looked beautiful, “Buddy, why don’t you make that call at Carol’s desk, take Izzy with you and call her grandparents too.”
“Okay.” Michael ran back to the table and helped Izzy down, then he took her hand and led her out the office. The second the door closed Maria blew up.
“What the hell do you think you are doing?” Dave crossed his arms over his chest and gave her an amused stare, “Would you stop looking at me like that and answer me?” She moved and stood in front of him.
Dave moved to his desk and sat on it, “He’s turning five, it’s a big number for a kid.”
“He isn’t a kid and I don’t want it!”
“I noticed that, it’s the reason he’s having a party. And you do want it, you’re just scared.” He said seriously.
Maria ignored his last comment. Statements like those made her think he knew more about her than she thought, “Why do you do that? Cut me off when we argue and make decisions for my child!”
“Because we argue about money and you make decisions for my kid, why shouldn’t I get a turn?”
“Get a turn? He isn’t a toy we each get a turn to play with.”
“Really? It feels like we’re playing ping pong, but I always win.” He spoke calmly, his lips curved up.
“I’m done with people telling me what to do, I’m not going back to that Dave. It’s my kid, my life, my decision!” Maria yelled, she could feel her body shake with emotion. She’d never yelled like that at anyone, especially for something as small as this, it had been years since she’d even raised her voice and it felt relieving to her.