Page 43 of Entangled With You

She huffs, defeated. “Fine, you got me. I better go buy their entire inventory because I can’t get enough of it.”

She places her arms around my shoulders, pulling me down until she can sniff my neck. The tingling sensation of her nose on my skin sends very dirty thoughts to my brain, and my dick jerks in response. I take a deep breath; now is not the time for this.

I need to take care of her.

I reach for her lips. I nibble at her upper lip, then her lower one, passing my tongue gently above them asking for entrance, and she parts them for me. I take my time with this kiss, showing her how much she means to me. Slowly, I lay her down again in bed, and she grabs the blanket I got for her, her face finally looking more relaxed.

“For the last part, I need the help of a certain furball.”

She chuckles as I disappear into the living room looking for Tinta. As soon as we go back to the bedroom, Tinta jumps from my arms into the bed. She snuggles with Cattleya, taking residence above her stomach. Perfect. I get the remote to put something on the TV as Cattleya sits up.

“You got me ice cream?” She perks up at the sight of a huge tub on my tray of goodies. I simply grin in response as I place it on the bed. There’s a bowl of whipped cream for the ice cream, another bowl with fruit, and a few chocolate candies that I know she loves. “Ugh, bae. This is so incredibly thoughtful. You’re going to make me cry.”

I take off my clothes, leaving only my boxers on, and join her and Tinta in bed, putting the tray on my lap. I kiss her eyelids and get a spoonful of Dulce de leche ice cream to feed her.

“It’s okay, mi ángel. I know these days of the month tend to be extra emotional. We can watch a movie and cry together, or we can find something that’ll make us laugh. Whatever you want. Just know, I’m so incredibly proud of you. Even though you were in so much pain, you never complained, and even scored a badass goal. I don’t know how you did it. All I could think of was about those male soccer players that are always faking injuries to get a fault call.”

Cattleya starts laugh-crying, and I join in. “So true, bae. There’s some players who just fake it, a few actually come to mind.” Her amber eyes shine with mirth. “Thank you for seeing me,” she adds, and I kiss her. I’ll never tire of praising this woman.

Now that we are getting close to being done with the groundbreaking at the construction site, we’re ready to start pouring the foundation and building the columns. I need to approve the order for the cement and steel before we send it to our providers, so I decided to run the numbers one more time to make sure I didn’t make any mistakes.

I notice the order says we need 32,250 bags of cement a week for the next six weeks. Hmm, I read and reread what’s in front of me. I could have sworn I had written 35,000 bags of cement per week. Fuck, I can’t make mistakes like this. The entire stadium could collapse and potentially kill thousands of people. I couldn’t live with that on my conscience. Maybe I thought about writing it, but wrote it wrong? I know it’s only a five percent difference, but it’s strange. I’m usually so good with numbers and double checking things before sending for approval to Luciano. An idea forms in my head, but I shake it off. It can’t be, I mean, why would he do that? Curious, I check the file to see who last modified it, and the name Luciano Colucci shows up.

My eyebrows form a straight line, confusion fogging my brain. “Why would Luciano modify the numbers?” When I check the master spreadsheet, the numbers remain at 35,000 bags of cement per week. What the fuck is going on? Before letting my thoughts reach conclusions that might be far from reality, I make my way to Luciano’s office, printed pages of both numbers in hand.

I knock on his door with my knuckles, and I immediately hear him say, “Come in.” He smiles at me as he motions for me to take a seat. “Hey, Matías. Did you have a good weekend?” I smile at the thought of how I spent yesterday afternoon wrapped around Cattleya and Tinta.

“Yeah, I did. Thanks for asking.” I smile back as I place the pieces of paper on his desk. “I was just double-checking the order for the stadium construction site when I noticed a small inconsistency.” I point at the two different numbers on the papers, and Luciano’s face goes blank. It shocks me that he’s not surprised or confused by this, but I don’t let it show.

“Interesting, I’m sure it was an honest mistake. Good thing you caught it.” He hands the papers back and dismisses me when his phone rings. I give him a nod and head back to my desk. If it was an honest mistake, why wasn’t he surprised about it? I need to keep an eye open. If anything goes wrong, I’ll be the first to blame since it’s me who’s signing the orders.

Chapter 20

Cattleya Cardona

We’ve won the first match of the playoffs, and I’m on cloud nine. We’re one step closer to playing the final—of getting my first trophy with the Golden Warriors. Training has slowed down now that the season is coming to an end, which means I have more time to spend with Mati. But as much as I enjoy being here at home, I feel trapped not being able to go anywhere together. This thing between Matías and me is getting more real as the days pass, and my heart feels like it’s about to burst every time I’m with him. But I need to go out with him. I’ve never been a homebody, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. I want to explore the city with him, see his country through his eyes. I never thought feeling this much for one person was possible, but here I am, head over heels for my forever crush. I want to do everything with him and only him.

“Mi ángel,” Mati says as soon as he comes inside my place. I love how easily we've fallen into a routine together. Whomever gets home first, starts preparing dinner. We found a food service that allows us to choose the meals we want each week. Everything comes portioned and ready to cook. It’s the perfect solution for two fools who have no clue about cooking.

“Hi, bae. Dinner is almost ready,” I say as I give him a kiss. He seems stressed and anxious. I haven’t seen him this restless since the time we met at the confitería. “Did you have a good day?” I ask nonchalantly, trying to see if there’s anything upsetting him at work. I know he’s mentioned they’re making progress on the construction site, but I’m not sure why that would stress him out.

“Yeah, it was an okay day. I found some mistakes in the materials we had to order for the stadium, and that’s strange because it’s something that has never happened before.”

I plate my favorite food, and Mati’s eyes grow big, surprised to see rice, beans, beef and maduros.

“You got this from the food service?” I shake my head no as I take a bite of maduro and beef in my mouth. I’m immediately transported to my family’s farm in Tamarind Valley. I can’t wait to be on break and ask Matías to go home with me.

“Sofi brought it over today. They’re leaving soon on a surprise trip Franco planned for her birthday, so she wanted to see me before they left.” Mati’s face turns more troubled at the mention of Franco. “Have you talked to him lately?” He shakes his head as he takes another bite of food. “Bae, look at me.” His eyes lift up to me. There are so many emotions running through him right now. I need to help him calm down. “Remember what you learned during therapy? What did Dr. Sosa suggest you do when you are feeling overwhelmed by a situation?” I’m thankful he told me that going to therapy is actually what pushed him to put himself out there, and create a profile on OfficialCherub.

Mati puts the fork down, and taking a deep breath, he looks at me in the eyes. “To hit every single situation, no matter how small, with the facts.”

I reach for his hand, and squeeze it gently, letting him know I’m here for him. “Okay, why don’t we start with your job. Are you sure that mistake wasn’t there before and you forgot about it?” Getting another mouthful of delicious beans, I wait for him to reply.

“Nah, mi ángel. I have spreadsheets upon spreadsheets, just to make sure my numbers are correct. I know one simple mistake can cost us tons of money, or a structural failure that could potentially cause a catastrophe. I know I didn’t make any mistakes.”

I nod my head, processing what he just said. I knew he was meticulous, but I didn’t realize it was to the level of making several backups of his data.

“That’s good. It means it wasn’t you who made the mistake,” I finally say.