Chapter 28

"I will have some water. Thank you." Manuel orders. He is staring at her with a quizzical look on his face. She notices and blurts out,

"What?"

"Nothing at all. Why did you think I was hitting on you?" Manuel asks, genuine curiosity lined in his tone.

"Linda asked you to set you up with my single female friends and when you started talking about family and priority, I thought you wanted to talk about that before taking me to my brother." She added that last bit so he knew she was still focused on the matter at hand.

"Well, not ruin my sister's groove but I am not straight and I have my eyes on a particular someone." He says, with his eyes trailing a figure behind the window. The figure walks into the diner and his eyes light up.

"Hi, Raph." He waves in nervous excitement.

"Hey Manny, how is it going?" Raph walks to them, successfully gaining the attention of every woman with his baritone voice. Manuel looks almost ready to swoon at the sight of him.