Breaking Down

Chapter 15

15

Tyler

In the end, Gabi and I agreed to meet for lunch at a diner near her brother’s apartment. After all, it was lunchtime and we had a lot of details to talk about, and we had to start studying the questions for the interview, even if it was still a couple of months away.

I barely had taken time off for lunch breaks. I usually brought a pop tart or a frozen meal to the office, heated it up, and ate while filling out reports or checking inventory, so as not to waste time.

But now my account was momentarily full—soon all that money would go to paying the bigger bills on my long list—and I could afford to eat better.

She was already seated at a corner booth and looking over the menu when I arrived. A lot of things would be hard to get used to with this deal and one of them was how pretty she always looked. Her hair was loose today, falling like a wave down her back, and she had on a blue blouse.

When I slid into the booth across from her, she lifted her face to me and I sucked in a sharp breath. s**t, the blouse made her blue eyes pop.

“Hey.”

She offered me a small smile. “Oi.” We stared at each other and the air around us became awkward. “Hm, how was work?”

“I took the day off,” I told her. “In fact, I took next week off too, since we’ll probably be moving into a new apartment.”

“That is a good thing, I guess.” She frowned. “You’re at vet school with Garrett, right? So working at a clinic must be nice.”

I pressed my lips tight, not sure what to say to that. I sighed, remembering I would be living with this girl for the next two years, so I decided to tell her some basic stuff. “I didn’t finish vet school, so I’m an assistant. Plus, I work more with dogs and cats. Dr. Bohm knows I want to treat the horses in the area, but he doesn’t share those with me too often.”

Her frown deepened. “So you’re also a horse lover?”

I nodded. “Yup. Always have been.”

“Oh,” was all she said, and I felt like she wanted me to say more.

And for some reason, I did. “I rode a lot when I was younger, but I wasn’t good enough to pursue professional polo or jumping or anything like that. I tried riding on weekends when I was in college, but it was hard to keep up with everything. After a year, I gave up. But my love for horses is still there.”

Her forehead smoothed and the half-smile was back. “Bom, my family has a big ranch about twenty minutes from town, you know. You’re welcome to go there and ride anytime.”

This time, I frowned. What was I supposed to say to that?

The waitress saved me as she arrived to get our orders. Surprising me, Gabi asked for a cheeseburger with fries and a chocolate milkshake. From her slender figure, I thought she ate like a bird. I asked for the same, though I switched the milkshake for a soda.

When the waitress was gone, the awkward silence returned.

Gabi folded her hands on the table and I saw the ring glittering on her finger. It wasn’t a big diamond, but it was big enough to make me sure I could never afford that. I couldn’t exactly explain why, but I hated that ring.

“So, hm, I talked to my parents this morning …” she started.

My gut clenched. “Uh-oh.”

“Uh-oh indeed. They didn’t take it well. In fact, my father said that if I’m not home by the weekend, he’s coming here to get me.”

“Would he do that?”

She nodded. “Sim, he would. And I wanted to give you the heads up because it means he’ll be here soon and he’ll come hard at us. Bom, more at you than at me. I think.”

Shit. “Are you trying to make me back out of our deal?”

Her eyes widened. “Of course not! But I feel like I should prepare you for the challenges ahead.”

“Will there be many?”

“Maybe. Probably.” She sighed. “Sorry.”

“For?”

“When I offered you this deal, I had the illusion that all the pieces of the puzzle would align and all the bad things that could happen would simply vanish.” She shook her head once. “It seems I’m too optimistic.”

“Sometimes that’s a good thing.”

The waitress brought our drinks and instead of drinking her milkshake, Gabi started playing with her straw.

“I was thinking …” Gabi started.

“About?”

“Maybe we should go to Brazil instead.”

I stared at her. “You mean instead of your parents coming here?”

She nodded. “I think it would be easier to control the situation there. We’ll be at their place, where they are most comfortable. Here, they will be on edge all the time.” One corner of her lips tugged. “Besides, I really could use that trip to bring more of my stuff here.”

“Just back up a minute. You’re talking about going to Brazil?”

“Hm, sim.” She played with her straw again. “Not now. Maybe in a month? I don’t know. But we shouldn’t wait too long.”

I shook my head. “Can I think about this first?”

She shrugged. “Sure. Just consider that, if we don’t go, my father will come here. He’ll expect to meet you as soon as possible.”

Go to Brazil? Even if for a few days? That sounded ludicrous. “Do you do everything your family expects you to?”

She stared at me as if I had thrown my drink at her. “This isn’t only about my family, you know. I wouldn’t mind going to the immigration office tomorrow or this afternoon, really, to get everything rolling.” Her voice rose. “If I could simply hand you the money and you handed me the green card, the situation would be perfect. But it doesn’t work that way. My family is from Brazil. It makes sense if we go there to visit and spend time with them. The immigration office will see pictures we can post online from there, and they will see we’re having a good time there, that we aren’t faking. In fact, we should take pictures of us together all the time and post everywhere. That will make our relationship seem real to the party that matters.”

I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it at all, but … “It makes sense.” It really did and now that I had agreed to this, now that I could see myself debt free in a couple of years, I didn’t want to let this deal go. Even if it meant having to go through some seriously uncomfortable situations. “Sorry I’m such a pain in the a*s. I guess I’m just having a harder time getting used to all of this than I thought.”

“You think I’m not?” She grimaced. “I confess that getting hitched to get a green card had crossed my mind a couple of times, but I had never really considered it. I’m not the most romantic girl out there, but I visualized my future wedding, and let me tell you, it was never, ever like this. So, don’t think you’re the only one suffering here.”

I cringed. That was a strong word. “I’m not suffering. The entire situation makes me uncomfortable, that’s all. I guess once we move in together and settle down for the next two years, I’ll be able to relax again.” I was about to ask her something when the waitress came back with our burgers.

Gabi thanked her then dug in, without even glancing at me again.

She was halfway through her burger and fries when I couldn’t hold the question anymore. “Are you suffering?”

She stopped eating and stared at me. “What?”

“You said I’m not the only one suffering, so I’m assuming you’re suffering.”

Sighing, she leaned back on her booth. “Not suffering, but … like I said, I never considered this situation. I didn’t think things through.”

“What do you mean?”

“My horse. Tostado, my beautiful horse, is in Brazil.”

“Oh.” That sucked. If I had a horse of my own, I wouldn’t want to be that far away from him. “There’s nothing you can do about that?”

“My brother and my cousins brought some of their horses when they moved here four years ago, but … it’s not a fast or easy process. I won’t bring my horse here until I know—” She pressed her lips together.

“Until you know what?”

I thought she wouldn’t answer me, but after a moment, she continued, “Until I know this deal will really work out and I have the green card in my hands.”

“It makes sense,” I said. We both wanted it to work, but we never knew what could happen. The immigration office could be onto us and deny her the green card, or something could happen along the way and she could need to leave.

We finished our burgers surrounded by tense silence and the loud chattering of the other customers.

“So,” Gabi started after she was done eating, “after you left last night, I went online and searched for apartments that seemed nice.” She pulled out a thick sheet of paper from her purse and spread them over the table between our plates. “These are the ones I liked the most.”

I leaned over the table and glanced at the apartments staring back at me. “They seem … expensive.”

She waved me off. “Don’t worry about that now. Let’s just take a look at them.”

I sighed, not in the mood to argue more. I nodded, and once I was done with my lunch, I paid our tab—she wanted to split it—and we left to go apartment hunting.