“How interesting.” Felipe bent over and slowly kissed me once on my left cheek, then on my right. He smelled like rum and smoke. For the third kiss, I felt his lips a hair away from mine when he suddenly wasn’t there anymore.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Ryan was still holding on to Felipe’s T-shirt. He’d just yanked him off of me.

“She’s not your girlfriend,” Felipe said. “She just told me.”

“She’s my partner so stay the hell away from her.” Both men had squared off, facing each other. I stepped in between them and pushed them away with one hand on their rib cages.

“It’s late and we’re all tired,” I said. When they didn’t seem to be listening, I pounded on both of their chests with my fists. “Stop it!”

Ryan looked down at me and started to chuckle. “Only you would get in between two boxers. You have no sense.”

Felipe began to grin as well. “I didn’t know you felt that way about her, brother.” He walloped Ryan on his shoulder, leaned down and mock-whispered to me, “Never got that reaction from him before.”

I said, “If you guys aren’t going to tear each other’s throats out, how about I try to get a taxi?”

“Go ahead,” said Ryan, “But nothing’s around for miles.”

I stepped out onto the street. Behind me I could see Felipe had his arm wrapped around Ryan and was whispering something to him, gesturing toward me while he did it. I raised my arm and a cab pulled out of the shadows, coasting to a stop in front of us.

Ryan stared. “How did you do that?”

“I think they were afraid of you. I’m a woman. Get in.”

I waved good-bye to Felipe as we drove off and he blew me a kiss.

“What did he say to you?” I asked, leaning back against the vinyl of the seat.

“Some crap about how great you are. I think he was still hoping to get your number. I hate that guy.”

I smiled in the darkness. “I liked him.”

“I’ve never seen Felipe so surprised. It was all worth it.”

“I’m glad,” I said softly. “So did you spend your whole youth sitting through those parties, unable to dance with anyone?”

“That about sums it up.”

We were quiet. However wonderful this night had been, it was the end of something. We’d completed our deal. He was committed to Fiona, I was committed to not losing my job, and Pa wanted me to find a nice Chinese man, a Dennis or Winston. I sighed.

“You sound sad.” The lights from the street slid across his face.

“I guess I am.”

I felt his hand on the side of my neck, pulling me toward him. “Don’t be,” he said.

I gazed up at him. “Ryan, we can’t do this.”

He closed his eyes and swallowed. “I know. Come on, just pretend I’m a girl.”

I sighed as I rested my head against his shoulder.

When we stopped near my apartment, I pulled out my wallet but he waved it away. As I opened the car door, he caught my hand. There was something open and pleading in his eyes. I touched his cheek for a moment, then I pulled away and stepped out of the taxi.

Twenty-One

There were only about ten days left before Lisa’s school went on vacation for the summer and I had an appointment to see Mr. Song again. I wasn’t sure there was anything he could do to help Lisa, but I had to try. Through his window, I could see the hot blustery weather outside. It was drizzling.

Mr. Song was wearing a pale blue shirt with no tie. He shook my hand vigorously. “I was just thrilled to hear that Lisa will be going to Hunter, although we will miss her here, of course.”

“We’re very grateful to you.”

“Oh, that’s nothing. What can I do for you today?”

I chewed on the inside of my cheek. “The thing is, we’re worried about Lisa.” I made myself explain to him about Lisa’s symptoms, that she hadn’t actually fallen as she’d told the school, but we didn’t know why she was becoming so weak.

He looked concerned. “Some of her teachers have noticed a change in her but we assumed it was the combination of the physical injury and her leaving our school soon. Many kids start to mentally check out when they know they’ll be going someplace else next year, but it’s much more worrisome if there was no physical injury to begin with.” Mr. Song got up and started rifling through his file cabinet. He pulled out a number of forms. “If you can get your physician and father to sign these, the school nurse will be able to begin constructing a health plan for Lisa. It’ll allow the nurse to communicate directly with your medical practitioner and then she can pass the information on to the right person at Hunter. The only problem is that we’re approaching the end of the school year so we’ll need the forms quickly.”

“We don’t have a family doctor.” Uncle Henry had always taken care of us, despite his lack of a medical degree, and we’d gone to a public clinic for standard vaccinations. “My father is pretty resistant to western medicine.”

Mr. Song frowned and said, “That’s unfortunate,” which made me defensive.

“It’s because when my mother died, the medical bills were astronomical. We don’t have any health insurance.”

“But times are different now. Recent changes in the law don’t allow insurance companies to deny children under nineteen coverage on the basis of a pre-existing condition.” He’d lost me. He must have seen the confusion on my face because he explained, “It used to be that if Lisa did have a condition, the insurance company could refuse to cover her, but now they can’t do that anymore. She could get free or low-cost health insurance.”

I’d had no idea. I felt torn between fear at the thought of Lisa with a disease and elation at the possibility of providing health insurance for her. “What would we have to do?”

“I’ll give you the right forms. The main thing is for your father to sign them. If the parent refuses to diagnose or treat the child, then we enter into a gray area of ethics. Usually, unless actual threat to the child’s life can be proven, the school’s hands are tied.”

“I don’t know if I can convince Pa.”

“I’d be glad to come by and talk to him.”

Pa was so intimidated by school officials, I didn’t think he would hear anything Mr. Song had to say. “I’m afraid that might do more harm than good.”

Mr. Song scribbled something down on a business card and passed it to me. “That’s my personal cell phone. If you think there’s any chance I could do anything, day or night, just give me a ring.”

“Thank you. It helps just to know you’re out there.”

—

I couldn’t wait to talk to Pa about Lisa and her insurance, but I didn’t want to barge into the noodle restaurant again. This was too important. I needed to keep my head level. I’d talk to him tonight or maybe even tomorrow morning, when we were both calm and rested.

When I got to work, Simone wasn’t there. As Adrienne started the Monday meeting, she said, “I’m sorry to have to tell you that Simone is in the hospital. She won’t be coming back to the studio due to some personal problems.”

“What?!” Mateo exclaimed. “Is she all right?”

Nina looked sad. She knows something, I thought.

“She is fine now.” Dominic continued, “She has had some health issues and we must respect her privacy. She sends all of you her love. We will miss her greatly and wish her the best. We’ll also need to redistribute her students and will be speaking to you individually as soon as we’ve made our decisions. For starters, Nina, since you’re our remaining competitive Latin dancer, we are hoping that you’ll take Simone’s place with Keith in the competition.”

Nina glanced at me. I gulped. The last thing I wanted was to have to compete against her. I closed my eyes for a moment. I knew that whatever happened, we’d be friends first and competitors second. When I met her eyes, I managed to smile. She relaxed, then said, “Sure.”