Rita

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 ever seen in his life. If it hadn't been for his churning stomach, he would've been laughing like everyone else. Instead, he kept looking at Roni whose eyes were glued to Rita's for a solid minute at least.

Thankfully, their sizzling 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 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 dinners 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 worrying.

"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, and 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.

They all laughed at once. Even Noah couldn't help laughing.

"Box with the ball?" Roni asked.

To Noah's surprise, Rita was the one who jumped in to explain as she continued to laugh. "We played this game where they tie this empty tissue box to your behind with a ping pong ball in it." She paused to laugh, shaking her head, her hand over her mouth. "And you're supposed to shake your ass, jump, wiggle, whatever it takes until the ball comes out of the hole. It's timed so whoever does it fastest wins. Everyone did until it was my dad's turn, and when the music started and all eyes were on him, he starts swaying his hips all sexy instead."

"It was hilarious!" Pria said. "We always play all kinds of silly games like that. It's so much fun. You should come with Noah this year."

"Yeah, bring her, Noah," Rita added. "You'll laugh your butt off," she said to Roni. "And," she rolled her eyes, "usually at my dad's silly antics, but it's all in fun."

"I, uh ..." Roni glanced back at Noah.

Knowing she had nowhere else to be on the twenty-fourth and most likely not on Christmas day either, he answered for her before she could think of an excuse. "I'll bring her."

Probably because everyone was watching, Roni just smiled and nodded. "Sure, sounds like fun."

Noah smiled, satisfied but could only hope she wasn't mad that he'd put her on the spot like that. With everyone staring at her, how could she possibly say "no"?

It's crazy how things work out sometimes. Noah had started the evening, dreading that Roni and Rita would be in the same room, and partially due to Rita, he'd now be spending his Christmas Eve with Roni. He expected Rita to be pleasant and unlike most girls, he knew she wouldn't be catty about seeing him with another girl. That just wasn't her. What he didn't expect was Roni's change in mood once she realized Rita was there. Sure, she'd agreed to Christmas Eve, but even now as they walked to her car, Noah got the strange feeling she might just take it back.