They parked and got out of the car. Noah didn’t even notice he was frowning until he glanced at Roni as they walked through the parking lot. She was looking at him weirdly. “Something wrong?”

He tried to ease up the tension he felt building. “No. Not at all.” Then he forced a smile.

The restaurant was in a building that was clearly an old tenement once upon a time. The doorways were small. Noah held the door for her and let her walk in first, since it was impossible to walk through the door together. The bell on the door jingled and some spanish Christmas music played on the jukebox. The guys were all already there. Just about every table was taken but Abel and Gio had saved them seats.

Gio had obviously anticipated what Noah might be feeling about Rita being there, because the seats he’d saved for them were the furthest from where Rita sat with his sisters at the opposite end of the table. They walked through the crowded restaurant and waved at everyone as they passed them to get to their seats.

They sat between Jack and Gio. “Everyone’s already ordered but she said she’d be over as soon as you two got here to take your order. Order whatever you want.” Jack smiled at Roni. “You too, little lady.”

Noah breathed in feeling a little better that not only did Rita sit at the other end of table so did Hector, and apparently since he’d waved giving everyone a generic hello he wouldn’t have to be introducing her to Roni. Another thing that made him smile now was how perfect it felt walking in with her. Everyone here was under the assumption now that they were an item and no one seemed to think it strange.

They ordered the shrimp fajitas and Roni hadn’t even flinched when the waitress had asked if they wanted the platter for two. They were sharing a plate just like a real couple would and no way would he ever tell her how excited something so trivial made him. Not only did it make him feel totally immature, he was sure it was something only a damn teenage girl would get excited about!

Everything was going smoothly until the plates started coming out. One of the things Chente’s was famous for was the portions were humongous. Every plate that was placed on the table was commented on.

The waitress placed Rita’s plate in front of her. It was this huge red mountain. Gio’s sisters giggled as Rita’s eyes grew looking at it.

“Damn!” Abel said laughing. “Rita, what is that thing?”

Noah froze. Roni’s attention had already been on that end of the table but Noah glanced at her after the mention of Rita’s name and her eyes went from the burrito to Rita’s face.

“It’s a wet burrito,” Rita said laughing. “No one told me it would be this big!”

Gio’s sisters laughed even louder as if they’d pulled a good one on her. It was a good one actually. That had to be the biggest burrito he’d seen in his life. If it hadn’t been for his churning stomach he would’ve been laughing too like everyone else. Instead, he kept looking at Roni whose eyes were glued to Rita’s for a solid minute at least.

Thankfully, their flaming fajita tray was brought out and all attention was on them now.

“Damn, that looks good!” Gio said.

If everyone else’s plates were oversized, theirs was ridiculous since it was made for two.

“We’re never gonna finish this,” Roni said her eyes so wide and to Noah’s relief she smiled.

“Don’t worry,” Noah said reaching for a tortilla. “I skipped lunch so I’m starving.”

Everyone dug in and Rita’s name wasn’t mentioned again. At least not on his side of the table and not loud enough for him or Roni to hear. But he did notice Roni glancing in Rita’s direction several times. She was subtle about it but Noah was so damn paranoid about the whole thing he caught it each time.

Noah had begun to finally relax when people started finishing their dinner and moving around to talk to others at the table whom they hadn’t been able to during dinner. He straightened up a little when he saw Gio’s youngest sister Pria and Rita walking toward their end of the table.

“What did you guys order?” They walked past them and ended up at the head of the table facing them. “Oh my God, Gio.” Pria laughed. “Soup really?”

“It was their siete mares soup. You should’ve seen how much seafood was in it.”

“Well, shit,” Abel laughed. “The bowl is big enough to bathe a baby in!”

They all laughed. Noah laughed nervously, praying nothing stupid would be said about him and Rita. He trusted his friends and even Hector knew not to blow this but he couldn’t help worry.

“How were your fajitas, Noah?” Rita asked. “They smelled heavenly when she walked them past us. But good Lord, that platter was huge.”

“They were good,” Noah said, hating that he’d now have to introduce her to Roni. “And yeah it was for two. We shared,” he said gesturing to Roni. “This is Ron— uh Veronica, my roommate.”

“Just say Roni, dude,” Hector said, coming up and standing behind Abel’s chair. “It’s what you call her.”

Noah pressed his lips together and ignored Hector. “Veronica this is Gio’s cousin Rita.”

Rita smiled very genuinely. “Nice to meet you, Veronica.”

“Nice to meet you, too,” Roni responded.

Noah couldn’t believe how incredibly uncomfortable he was. They talked mostly about the food then they moved on to talk about the games they would play on Christmas Eve at Gio’s. Suddenly they were all laughing reminiscing about the previous year. “Remember your uncle and the tissue box with the ball,” Abel said laughing.