I felt myself tense up again, and it didn’t go without Mayra noticing.
“What?” she asked.
“Um…well, I did have another girlfriend once.”
“You did?” Mayra sounded shocked, but I couldn’t really blame her for that. “Who?”
“Um…Carmen Klug.”
“Carmen Klug!” Mayra released my arm and sat straight up. She moved away from me a little on the couch. “You dated Carmen Klug?”
“Well, um, sort of.”
“Sort of?” Mayra’s eyes narrowed as she looked at me. “Out with it, Rohan.”
I felt heat on the back of my neck, and I lifted my hand to cover the area I figured was turning red. I glanced at her, feeling more embarrassed for even bringing it up. I wasn’t something I had thought about for a long time.
“It wasn’t for very long,” I said, “and it was a while ago. I was never really sure what to think about it. We weren’t really friends before we were boyfriend and girlfriend, so nothing really changed after it was over.”
Mayra continued to look at me, waiting for details I wasn’t sure how to provide. It then occurred to me that I was leaving out something that could be considered rather important.
“We were six at the time.”
“Six?” Mayra repeated. “You mean six years old?”
“Yes.”
Mayra giggled and reached for my hand.
“All right, Matthew Rohan. Tell me all about your sordid love affair with Carmen in the first grade.”
She giggled again.
“Beginning of second grade, actually,” I admitted. Mayra waved her hand around, urging me to continue. “Well, she came
over to me at recess and told me I was her boyfriend, and she was my girlfriend.”
Mayra’s eyes widened.
“Oh, really?”
“Yes.”
“And how did she figure that?”
“Apparently, Aimee had a boyfriend, so Carmen thought she needed one, too. I had to carry her backpack on and off the bus for her—she lived just down the street from here when we were little. I think it lasted about two weeks before she told me her mother said she wasn’t allowed to have a boyfriend, and that’s when we broke up.”
I felt Mayra’s hand on the side of my face, and I turned my head to meet her eyes briefly.
“You are adorable. Do you know that?” she asked.
I just shook my head and smiled a little.
“Well, you are,” she insisted.
I couldn’t really argue with her, so I moved closer and pressed my lips against hers. We spent an hour on the couch, and I spent the time worrying about our date.
Overall, today was a win.