Page 16 of The Intimacy of Control

There was no room for Forrest inside of my battered heart. Not while it was buried twelve feet deep beneath the murkiest of waters.

chapter seven

Mamá was not very happy with me, but how was I supposed to ignore all the delicious food waiting for me to snag pieces of?

She slapped my hand for the hundredth time. “Mijo! Keep your hands away from my things. How many times do I have to tell you, hm?”

I was quick enough to get the marinated goodness into my mouth before she tore it out of my hand completely. “It’s good, Ma! I don’t know what to tell you.”

“All I do is feed you boys. You don’t have something else to eat?” She scoffed. “Ridiculous.”

River poked his head in, glancing between me and her. “Did Forrest already get all the good bits?”

I leaned against the small counter behind her. She still had the shutters down and was precooking a lot of the meat. Once she opened, she’d have a line almost to the street. “Sure did. Last place loses the race.” I pointed at him. “Loser.”

He scowled at me, shutting the door behind him. “Has anyone ever told you you’re an asshole?”

“Me? Plenty. Has anyone ever told you you look like you belong in a Shrek movie?”

“Yep. Prince fucking charming right here.”

“More like Lord Fartwad.”

Mamá threw her spatula in the air, yelling at both of us. “Cállense! Please, boys. Can you not fight for one minute?”

River came to stand beside me, shaking his head. “We weren’t fighting. We were passionately discussing Shrek character look-alikes.”

“That old movie? You are too much. What do you need? If you don’t need anything, get out so I can cook. Come see me at home later.”

I peered over her shoulder, my mouth watering at the way everything looked and smelled. “Can a boy not just come visit his mother? I’d come over after if I could, but I have to work.”

“Same.” River sighed and crossed his arms.

“You have a job?” I furrowed my brows at him. “Where?”

From the way he started to grin, I assumed it was a newer development. He’d been unemployed for a little over six months now after being laid off from a bigger company. “Fire and Ice. I’m a server, and once they open up their new location, I’ll be working over there. I started the day before yesterday.”

“Oh!” Mamá turned, a big grin on her face. “That’s good. I saw things about them. They’re really popular. Good job.”

“Fire and Ice? One of my…um, friends is friends with some of the people who work there.”

River tilted his head. “Which ones?”

“Well, he’s met all of them, of course. But I know he’s close with Callum and Tobi, and I saw him hanging out with Crew and Willow the other day.”

“Yeah, yeah, Callum is my manager. I think Tobi just started at the grill station. Apparently, he’s a part of the OG staff. That’s what they call themselves. They all knew or worked with each other before Price and Crew opened Fire and Ice.” He put one of his fingers up to his lips, biting on the nail there. “Willow doesn’t work there, though. I’ve seen her a lot. Did you get to meet them?”

“I said a couple words to Crew and Willow, yeah. They were buying books in my store.”

He gave me a shit-eating smirk, huffing a laugh. “Did you blush? Stutter? Mumble through your words like a star-struck fanboy?”

Maybe. “No. Why would I do that?”

Mamá shooed me out of her way, moving some of her ingredients over to the counter. “Crew is one of the owners, no?”

“He’s married to Price. I don’t know whether he technically owns any part, but he’s just as famous.” River tried to steal a piece of steak but got his hand slapped away like I had.

I reached over to the stove, pulling a couple of tortillas off and setting them beside the container of Mamá’s famous mole poblano sauce. “Crew sounded like he was from the South. Willow, too, now that I think about it. I wonder how they ended up here.”