Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 66518 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66518 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
This felt like a dream. I already knew, just hours into my visit, that going home after this was going to be such a harsh wake-up call.
10
Ryder
Hal’s visit flew by, and before we knew it, it was his last full day in Texas. It had been an incredible week. Both of us were sad that it was coming to an end, but we tried not to let that color the time we had left.
That afternoon, we spent hours naked in bed, followed by soaking together in my big, claw-footed bathtub. After we got dressed, we moved to the kitchen. I’d promised to show him how to make tamales, using the recipe and techniques my grandmother had taught me. Somehow, we hadn’t gotten to it earlier in the week, so this was our last chance.
It was a pretty straightforward but time-consuming process. We made two different types of filling and soaked the corn husks, and then I showed him how to prepare the masa. That was the tricky part. I slowly added the broth I’d made ahead of time, until the dough felt right and didn’t stick to our hands.
Once that was done, I turned on a classic rock radio station in the background, and we took a seat at the kitchen table with a couple of beers and got to work. It took a little practice to press an even layer of the masa onto the husk, add the right amount of filling, and fold each tamale into a tidy packet, but Hal picked it up quickly. Pretty soon, he was matching my pace.
I kept glancing at him while we worked, and I couldn’t help but grin. He was so serious about this. His brow was knit in concentration, and he tried so hard to make each tamale as perfect as he possibly could.
It was such a simple thing, just getting to spend this quiet evening with Hal around my kitchen table, sharing my family tradition, talking, being together. But it meant so much to me, more than I could ever hope to explain.
I wanted to remember this forever, along with so many other beautiful moments, from making love on our bed in the field to waking up beside him each morning. There were countless little details to remember too, like the way he smiled right before he made a winning move and beat me at checkers. The way he danced around the kitchen when we were washing dishes and a song he liked came on the radio. The tiny freckles on his nose that became visible after a day in the sun.
I was going to miss Hal so much that I didn’t know what to do with it all.
How could I possibly go back to my lonely existence, now that I’d gotten a taste of life with Hal by my side? How was I going to get through each day when this sweet, gorgeous, wonderful man was half a continent away?
It was too painful to think about, so I shifted my focus to the task at hand. After a while, Hal glanced at me and asked, with a teasing note in his voice, “Is there a number we’re shooting for here, and is it less than a thousand?”
“The plan is to keep going until the masa runs out. I always make a ton,” I explained. “That’s how Gran used to do it. She always said if she was going to go to all this trouble, she wanted something to show for it. They keep really well in the freezer, and I’ll be sure to save some for your next visit.”
“Which reminds me, I’ve been thinking about when I can come here again.” A strand of hair had escaped from his ponytail, and he pushed it out of his eyes with the back of his hand. “Does mid-June work for you? It might be my last chance for a while. If I manage to get a job right after graduation, I can probably come here before it starts. Otherwise, I’m not sure how long it’ll be before I’m able to take time off.”
“That definitely works,” I said. “I want to come to San Francisco for your graduation ceremony, so maybe we can fly back together afterwards.”
“Actually, I’m not planning to attend the ceremony.”
“Why not?”
“Because my parents aren’t coming, so it would be too depressing.”
“Why aren’t they coming?”
“When I invited them, they said they were going to be too busy with work.” His voice wavered, and he cleared his throat before continuing. “My mom just got a promotion, and I guess the company where my dad works is really starting to take off, so they said June wouldn’t be a good time for a trip to the US.”
“Seriously?”
“I got the impression things might be different if I’d made better choices.”
“What does that mean?”