Yo pitcho
“That’s a lot, Boy, I can’t join you,” Meche said, sitting across the table from Boy at her café, La Buena Bakery.
Boy had invited Meche to go to a dance in El Chuco featuring Liddy Joe, a performer who was a big hit in their youth. It implied a major excursion, and really their first date ever. They’d been close since elementary school, and they’d come to be close again now that he’d come back after having lived away most of his life. But they’d never actually gone on a date together, never kissed, not even held hands. The closest thing to a date they’d engaged in since he’d been back almost a year earlier was to have coffee together most—not all— weekdays. But they’d never taken this ritual into the weekend. Now Boy had asked her out not just for a simple date, but for a weekend out of town together.
“All the way to El Chuco? That means traveling, room and board, and the tickets to the dance,” said Meche.
“I know,” said Boy.
Meche looked into Boy’s eyes to try and read his full intentions. Were there any obligations? One room or two?
Boy could read Meche’s eyes. She was scanning all the implications.
“Why now?” she asked.
“I wanna dance to Liddy Joe again,” he said.
“And you want me to dance with you? We’ve never danced together before,” she said.
“No. But I always did want to,” he said.
“Really? And it has to be in El Chuco?” she said.
Boy paused and took a long deep breath.
“I know it’s a big leap. But if you think about it, the time for little steps was back when we were in school together. And we took them by being friends. I figured that, a lifetime later, the most appropriate thing is a big step like going on a trip together,” he said.
It made sense to Meche, but it was no less a shocking proposal to her.
She cracked a brief smile but didn’t say anything.
“Don’t think about it, Meche. We should’ve already done it,” Boy said.
Meche looked over at her daughter behind the cash register at the café.
“What do I tell her?” she said pointing her chin at her daughter.
“You had something planned with her this weekend?” Boy asked.
“That’s not the point. The onda is that…,” Meche began to say.
“I’ll ask her for permission myself,” Boy said.
Before Meche could react, Boy stood up and walked to the counter.
“Hey, what do you think if…,” Boy said before he was cut off.
“If you take my jefita to El Chuco for the weekend? I heard it. I’ve hear everything all the time,” the young woman interrupted.
“Órale,” Boy said and stood back a step.
“Last thing I wanna see is you pichoneando here in the bakery. So if you’re gonna pichear everything, go to El Chuco and do it,” she said.
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