"Can we talk?",Khia said behind me while she was helping my aunt and mom set the table. I turned around and grabbed her hand leading her into the living room. I've been dying to let talk to me all day.

"Wasup?",i said putting my hands in my pocket and letting her speak.

"You get why I'm pissed the f... off at you right?"

I gave her a confused look because this wasn't exactly what I was expecting to hear.

"I'm not the type a girl to cheat. Yea I did it once but you and I both know we wasn't fully committed into the relationship like we are now",she said.

"Hold up. You wasn't fully committed. I was committed from the jump",I corrected.

"Okay fine. I wasn't committed I'll take that. But now it's a different story because the feeling between you and I are mutual. I'm fully committed to you and now that I've met your family, it makes me even more in love with you."

"I don't want to have to turn my back every once and a while to think you'll cheat on me."

"I won't. You've been good to me. I'm sorry I did anything to make you think otherwise babe."

"It's cool",i said.

"Okay. Do you want to spend the rest of the day with just us two?"

"If you want to, I'm down."

"Your cute when your mad babe",she said putting her arms around my neck. I smiled and kissed her. We both went back into the kitchen and I pulled up a chair for her next to me. Just then there was a knock on the door and Rome went to go get it.

"Hola familia",I heard a familiar voice say.

I turned my head and locked eyes on Marisol. We didn't even say grace yet and somethin always gotta disturb the peace. Marisol went around and hugged and greeted everyone except Khia but Khia looked unbothered anyway.

"I was in the neighborhood and thought I would stop by."

"That's good we're happy to see you Mari",my mom said.

"Join us for dinner",my aunt said.

"No no I just stopped by to say hi."

She looked at me and could tell I didn't want her here.

"Santiago can I uhm talk to you for a minute?",she said catching me off guard.

"I'm bout to eat",I told her.

"Hijo, don't be so rude",my mom said. I got up from the table and went to her.

"Why you keep following me? What's up?",I asked her in frustration closing the door behind me. To my surprise she balled out crying.

"Aww sh.t. Don't do this here Marisol. What's the problem?",I said.

"So this is it? This is really it? They told me you brought her here to meet your family. I had to come see for myself. I've apologized to you over and over again and you've taken none of them",she said through sobbing.

"Marisol , you and I have nothing to talk about."

"You brought her here? To meet our family ?"

"My family. Not yours",I corrected.

"Why are you so bitter towards me?"

"Let me smash your best friend and one of your cousins and you'll see why."

"Will that make us even? So we can move on?"

"You don't get it",i said shaking my head with a smirk on my face.

"Because if you, I can't love on Khia how I want to. Because of you, I can't trust her. Because of you, my mom doesn't want to get along with her because she thinks she's another you",I semi-yelled at her.

"I'm sorry."

"It's cool. Because I've already moved on."

"So this is it",she said.

"It's been it."

"She's not even Latino."

"I never made it a requirement to be Latino to date me. Look, if you came all this way to try to get me back, I'm sorry but it's not gone happen. Khia and I are happy."

"What's the difference between her and I? She cheated on you too. Oh you thought no one knew around school?",she said crossing her arms.

"The difference is she was at her lowest point. You had no low point or excuse. You had all the confidence in the world."

"I lost it when I lost you."

"That's something you should've thought about before sleeping with everyone that was close to me",I said. She leaned in to kiss me but I stopped her. I hated it when a female acted so desperate especially to me because it's not needed. Only makes me see them as a treat. Smash and pass them and that's it.

"I'll always love you Santiago. I'm sorry",she said caressing the side of my face. She walked away in her flowy yellow sundress. I walked back in the house and everyone was quiet when I came to the table. It was one of the awkward dinners we had. After dinner, everyone gravitated towards the living room.

"I'm really gonna miss you Khia",Jennifer said.

"What about me?",i said smiling.

"You come every year tiago and we talk on the phone every week."

Everyone laughed.

"I'm gonna miss you guys too. I'll try to call you guys too",Khia said. Ana wrote down their home phone number and gave it to Khia.

"So how would you rate this trip over all?",my pops said.

"I'll rate it a 11 if the scale was 1-10. I had a great time and I liked the fact that I got an opportunity to meet you guys and talk to y'all one on one. I hope you guys like me because I'm already attached to you all",she explained.

"Yea we do like you and we do accept you into our family. Santiago did good. Your one of the good ones",my mom said shocking everyone in the room.

"I told you",Romeo said to Khia causing her to smile.

"Alright well we gotta get back to the hotel to pack. Y'all gonna meet us there right ?",my pops asked my aunt.

"Yes that's the plan. I can't believe it's time for you all to go",she said almost tearing up.

"Aww don't cry cause if you do, ima cry",Khia said comforting her and making her laugh a bit. It was good to see everyone hugging Khia sayin they'll miss her.

"Keep in touch bro",Romeo said pulling me in a hug.

"Always. Put the weed down and pick up a book or get a job out here. You gotta help the fam too Rome",I said. He looked at me like he was gonna seriously think about it.

"Until next year man",Rico said hugging me.

"Yeah."

"With Khia Right?",Jennifer asked me giving me a hug.

"I'll see if I could make that happen",I said smiling.

"Hijo, te amó",my aunt said caressing the side of my face and kissed me on the cheek with her red lipstick.

"Te amo tía",i said hugging her.

I looked at Khia who was hugging my uncle & making small talk. She looked like she was in her element. She was learning Spanish, adapting to the family, and it made me real happy cause this family trip was a success.

"Okay So are we supposed to be up here?",Khia asked me as she followed me up the stairs to the hotel's rooftop.

"You talk too much",I said joking with her.

"What is it with you and rooftops?",she asked.

"You Ask a lot of questions bae",I said to her. When we reached the top, i led her to the outer part where you can see the top of the toll houses and the ocean.

"I brought you up here to show you my country."

"It's pretty."

"You see the top of that toll house. It's blue",I pointed out.

"Uhm I could barely see it but it's there."

"That's where I used to live."

She looked at me surprised.

"Are you serious? It's not secure. There's no door, it's literally made out of rocks stacked on top of each other",she said.

"Yea. That's where I used to stay babe."

"But what happens if it rains?"

"Then we just get wet."

"So how did you guys eat?"

"My uncle has a truck and he used to being me along with him to go to the highways and try to sell plantains and mangoes. This is one of the countries that are rich with good mangoes."

"Yea haiti is another one."

"Yeah I read about that too. So that's how he would make money to buy us food. If we didn't have money, we still was lucky because we used to have a mango tree right by our house and we would eat mangoes all day. Two a day would usually full me up."

"Wow I can't believe that. So how about personal hygiene. How do you guys get water to brush or take a shower?"

"Oh that wasn't a problem. We had a neighbor that had a reservoir where we get water to take a shower and do the things we needed to do."

"That's crazy. Did you guys have electricity?"

"Nah. The bit of light we get is daylight babe. Once it's dark outside, that's it",i said hugging her from behind.

"How old were you again?"

"From birth up until 12 or 13. I wanna say 13."

"That must've been awful."

"From the outside lookin in, it seems that way but my life wasn't all that bad."

"Why do you say that?"

"Our family was happy, there was no such things of water bills, electricity bill, phone bill, internet bill, car notes, etc. We had our bit of fun. I used to play cards with Rome and Rico, we played dominoes, my uncle would always tell us stories at night, we loved playin with the kids around the block. I think I had a pretty decent childhood."

She looked at the sky.

"There was a lot of conversation. The family actually communicated with each other. It's not like we at the dinner table and everybody on their phones all the time."

"Yeah. That's really true with the generation now a days no one knows what it's like to have a real physical conversation anymore."

"So when you came to the U.S how long did it take you to pick up on the language?"

"It didn't take me long. It took me a couple years to grammatically form a sentence right but i picked it up pretty quickly because I was surrounded by it every day at school",I chuckled.

"You speak perfect English to me & I don't even hear the accent when you speak it compared to the family here."

"I mean I've been in the states for a very long time. I'm sure once I get them to get there, they'll learn it pretty quickly."

"How's that going by the way?",she said turning to me.

"It's lookin like it's gonna take a lil longer than I expected",I said.

"Why is that?"

"My job. The social worker Job ain't cutting it for me anymore. They said my income isn't enough."

"Can't your dad help out too since he's already a citizen? He got you in."

"My pops can't take that responsibility right now. He has a lot on his plate already with the restaurant that he keeps beggin me to take over and that Mortgage we got."

"Is there anything I can do?"

"Baby, I could never ask you to help me with something like this. I got it."

"Oh really? You got it?",she said crossing her arms and giving me a face. I chuckled.

"Yeah. We just gonna have to play the waiting game for me to either find another higher paying job or wait until I get my two degrees and start working on them."

"Babe that's a long time from now."

"I know."

"I have an idea though."

"I'm listening."

"What if you took your father's offer about the restaurant and that can be another addition to your income."

"That's actually a good idea but that's gone put a lot on me babe,I'm already a full time student trying to do two programs, and I'm working at the office and managing a restaurant? That's a lot."

"If your the owner, you don't have to necessarily be there every single day. Just pop up twice a week to see if things are running smoothly." I thought about her idea for a minute.

"I could kiss you right now. You know that right?",I told her. She cupped my face and kissed me. Khia was a genius. I never thought about it like that. Maybe owning this restaurant could do more good than harm.

"We could make flyers and advertise it around school, advertise it at the club",I said getting excited. It's like my lightbulb just turned on.

"I'll advertise it at my job."

"Word? That's dope babe",I told her.

"Yeah love. I'll support you in this."

"Promise?"

"Promise",she said. I picked her up and spun her around making her laugh. I swear she was a gift from God himself.