"De verdad no te entiendo, Cecilia Maria," Mom said while driving me to work. "Te dije que sí podías salir con él, por qué lo zapateaste?"

I groaned.

It was day two of talking in circles and I was the only party in this conversation who was tired of the cycle.

"What I don't understand is why you suddenly changed tune."

Mom sighed. "Lo que no quiero es que salgas con cualquiera. No te estoy diciendo que te quedes soltera toda la vida."

That wasn't quite the content of our conversations about guys of late—or ever. Mom had always been skeptical of every single guy I'd once thought was the real deal. And now she was telling me to snatch a specific one off the market?

People could change, but Coromoto Diaz de Luna had never been one of them.

"Sabes que lo que estás diciendo contradice todos tus sermones de los últimos, no sé, cinco años?"

"This one is good," Mom said as she pulled into Ultra's parking lot. "Trust me."

I narrowed my eyes. "How would you know?"

She switched back to Spanish. "Osea, dejó lo que sea que estaba haciendo botado para irte a rescatar así como así. Se enfrentó a un tipo más grande que él para ayudarte. Se caló a tus amigas viejas—todo sin pedirte nada a cambio. Y aparte está bien simpático, y tú lo mandas a comer ya sabes qué?"

My jaw hung open.

Mom smacked my arm. "I want you be smart with boys. Right now, you are an idiot."

I rubbed the sore spot, which didn't help because in truth I was more sore by her words. "Wow, I actually thought if I didn't jump at the next available guy you'd be proud of me."

"Lo estoy," she said, patting my cheek. "Pero más todavía si no dejas un buen tren pasar."

My head reeled as I finally walked into the store and sequestered myself in my office. I locked the door this time, in case Bryce wanted to attempt an ambush. He'd bombarded my phone with text messages and calls I didn't respond to, and even then my thoughts had been completely devoid of him.

I could still see Tae Yang's expression in my mind from the moment I told him to try dating Ga In. His eyes had burned holes through mine and his mouth had been set in a tight line, even though his cheeks had been stuffed with food.

He'd been upset.

I hadn't exactly been skipping for joy either, especially after coming back home and realizing that, while I made the firm decision of not following through with my feelings for Tae Yang, Mom decided to switch her tune about my dating life.

Her incessant questions about why I'd turned down Tae Yang served to make me dwell on a deed I wasn't proud of.

My fingers itched to grab my phone and text him, but all weekend I hadn't known what to say. Thank you for saving my behind? Sorry for hurting your feelings? Don't listen to me and take me out on a date instead? Kiss me again? Show me you're actually one of the good ones?

Because they existed, I knew that. I could still remember my dad, coming home after work with two flower bouquets for his ladies. He'd sweep Mom in his arms and dance with her in the kitchen, looking into her eyes like she was the reason he existed.

The problem was I'd stopped dreaming of someone like that because of Bryce.

He'd made me believe he could become someone like that, at first. He'd kissed me like he meant it, given me expensive gifts everyday and had been the most attentive in bed out of any of the guys I ever went out with.

The mirage collapsed when he introduced me to his parents. I'd gone to the dinner with high hopes this would be the beginning of an official courtship, the kind that led to marriage and a house with a picket fence. His mom remembered me as one of the girls who'd worked on the shop floor, so our conversation was smooth the entire night.

But the next day, Mrs. Montgomery asked to meet me privately. She slid a big envelop with cash, telling me in not so kind terms that I should break it off with her son. That I wasn't their kind.

Of course I refused.

When Bryce found out, he was angry—at his mom, yes, for getting in his business. But also at me, because it revealed to him my desires for marriage. And that wasn't in his agenda.

"Then what are we doing together?" I asked, naked in bed with him.

Bryce just turned, so he could pull me back against him. "We're just having fun."

As my eyes prickled with tears, I said, "That's not what this was for me, especially not after you took me to meet your parents yesterday."

He shrugged. "Sorry if that gave you the wrong impression."

That wasn't the moment we broke up, though. It was just the first of many that showed me what I really was to him. Fun. A good lay. Someone who kept him entertained with secret trysts at work. Who he could feast his senses with. But not someone who had her own feelings, wants, needs.

What had hurt me the most about him was, out of all my many exes, Bryce had been the one who hid his true intentions the longest.

That was why Tae Yang was so scary. He was smart, funny, sweet—and going by the way he kissed, he would know how to drive me wild. I couldn't find a single red flag about him, which was why I had to cling to his age to keep a distance.

Especially, since I was already following my problem pattern.

I didn't call him that night at the casino for no reason. He was the first one I thought about when I needed help, when I needed to feel safe. Because he'd already shown me he could be that person for me once, just the night before. It would be so easy to rely on him—and for a while it might even feel good for him, especially if I thanked him intimately. But at one point he'd start seeing me as a burden.

And then it would be over.

I didn't want it to be over between us. I wanted us to still be able to chat about everything and nothing, to hang out at empty Walmarts and be each other's backup. That would all come to an end if we tried something more, and he realized his feelings for me weren't quite deep enough.

Once more, I glanced at his name among my contact list but I still didn't know what to say.

Someone knocked on my door and I yelped.

"Cee?"

It was Leyna, so after a deep breath I opened my door. "Hey, good morning."

One of her eyebrows was cocked as high as it could go. "What were you doing in there? Nope, you know what? I don't wanna know. Necesito ayuda."

"Okay, sure." I followed her out of my office—and out of my head. "What's going on?"

"I have two fancy ladies who want a facial but everyone else is busy."

I breathed out in relief because that was easy enough. I really didn't want to deal with major crises this morning.

For a Monday morning, the main floor was fairly busy with customers. There was a short line at the register, keeping a couple employees busy for at least the next twenty minutes. Meanwhile, another three were taking care of customers around the store, leaving Leyna for two facials. Not doable, but that was why I was the pinch-hitter at the store.

"No hay problema," I told her.

"Great, because I already onboarded them." Leyna smiled.

I gave her a side glance. "What if I'd been busy?"

She shrugged. "I would've begged."

I shook my head but didn't press the topic. Other, more concerning things kept my head busy as I read the women's onboarding documents. Such as how fun it had been to give Tae Yang a facial and how I wished I could've tried some of my new, natural products on him. On all of him.

Deflated, I said to Leyna, "I'll take the one who just needs a hydrating mask. You take the one with the full works."

"Are you sure? I'll get the bigger tip that way."

I rolled up the sheet of paper with the customer's information and smacked Leyna up the head with it. "Look at that, it's the point not going over your head."

She chuckled. "I'm just saying."

As soon as we approached the customers, one of them said, "Oh. My. Gosh. I love this song."

It was that exes and ohs song that played a lot a few years back and yeah, it was a good song, but not at all what I'd prefer to listen to, right now.

The other woman, my customer, turned to her friend. "Did I tell you Rick called me again the other day?"

Leyna's customer gasped. "No way, the cheating bastard."

I shared a quick glance with Leyna. It spoke volumes in a second.

This kind of customer was a double edged sword. Sometimes they had the funniest stories and they made time pass in the blink of an eye. Those were a joy to work with and we begged them to come back. Other times, the chit chat hit differently and made us struggle finding creative ways to shut them up.

Once, I'd even lied to a Chatty Cathy saying if she talked during the mask application, the product would crack and the areas where the product wouldn't fully penetrate might get irritated. Total bullshit, but it earned me a few precious minutes of quiet.

What my glance at Leyna truly meant was we'd have to see which group these two fell into.

"I'm telling you, men are garbage and I'm swearing off of them," my customer said, teetering me dangerously over the edge of agreeing with her.

I cleared my throat. "I'll begin cleansing your skin, okay?"

"Yes, go ahead sweetie," she said, before picking the topic back up. "I mean, if my last two breakups taught me one thing is I'm better off alone."

Mood.

That was why the saying went, mejor sola que mal acompañada.

Leyna's customer sighed. "Aww but the sex."

Mine groaned. "Yeah, there's that."

A suspicious sound made me look up. It was Leyna, coughing to mask a laugh.

"I mean, that's about all they're good for," said one.

"Rick was a really good cook too, though." My customer closed her eyes as I kept on cleansing her face, but not her mouth. "Heck, he was better in the kitchen than in bed. I miss his omelets."

I bit my lips hard enough to leave a mark against the violent burst of laughter threatening to come out.

The song finished and maybe with that, so would the topic of exes. The radio presenter talked for a good minute before starting a new tune, and I made a mental note to play one of our curated playlists after I was done with the facial. As the new song finally started, all four of us froze.

Leyna's customer whispered. "What is that?"

My co-worker had absolutely no chill. All the way from here, at the back of the store, she shouted to the guys up front. "Hey, turn up the radio."

From the front, Stacy gave us a thumbs up and cranked up the volume.

The singer's voice was smooth and warm like butter on toast, which might explain why my mouth watered as I listened.

And if you save me tonight
I'll be your light tomorrow
When you need me there
I'll kiss away the sorrow

"Ugh," my customer said. "That's also what men are good for."

Her friend melted against her chair. "Even more if they can talk smooth like this."

No, that was actually worse.

I busied myself with my customer, pretending like the pop ballad wasn't making my heart beat three times faster than usual. Like it didn't remind me of Tae Yang and the hurt I put on his face.

"Damn, this is a jam," Leyna said, bobbing her head to the music.

It had started out as a sweet pop ballad, gradually growing more into its electronic undertones until it ended with a big declaration of love and a rhythm fit for the night clubs.

"One second," my customer said, in the middle of her exfoliation. She pulled out her phone from a purse that cost as much as my car. "I need to Shazam this."

"Who's it by?" her friend asked.

"It just says THESUN, all capitals and one word." She put her phone back in her purse and lay back on the chair. "Must be a new artist."

The other customer whistled. "Well, color me a fan. I hope he's hot."

Leyna said, "Me too."

As the three of them laughed, I hoped I never heard that song again.

SONG OF THE DAY: Elle King - Ex's and Oh's

narrator voice: she did, in fact, hear the song again and again