I have been in this house and it’s the house I want when I finally have some money. This house was designed, built and decorated by the developer himself. It has an open floor plan. The whole first floor is open with no dividing walls so you can see everything and everybody whether you are the kitchen, or the dining room or the living room. You have huge windows all around so you can see the backyard or the people jogging by. Anyway, we are engaging in small talk when this super cute 6-7 year old girl with long flowing black hair wearing a light pink swimming trunk with lots of flowers and a dark pink shirt comes running in. She shyly waves hello to everybody when she is introduced as Andy and immediately starts to play with two Labradors that were lying by the pool.
After 5-10 minutes the little girl gets tired of playing with the dogs and sits next to me. I have always been great with kids so I kind of engage in small talk but no reaction. This is expected because she doesn’t know me and probably has been properly taught not to talk to strangers. She just looks down at her feet and after a minute or two, she leaves again. As she opens the door, the dogs sneak into the house and run towards me. They already know me from my previous visits so they just jump on me hoping that I will play with them…I borrow a tennis ball little Andy has and throw it a couple of times. The kid and I start then start playing catch having the dogs go back and forth between us.
It seemed as if the dogs had vouched for me because all of a sudden the little girl started talking to me. She told me how she went fishing and caught a lobster with her hands and how she swam with the dolphins that morning and how…….All of a sudden, I became her best friend…
It also seems our host has his door always open because other kids and adults are coming in, saying hello, hanging out for 3-5 minutes or giving each other the heads up as to the next event and walking right out…At one point, we transition to the kitchen where our host is going crazy on his Viking stove while we are munching on cheese and olives and engaging in chit chat. Everyone is exchanging recipes and I let everyone what a mean piña colada I can make, or succulent roast pork or how I make the best mango salsa ever…
As this is going on, I hear the front door open and someone else walks into the kitchen and says: “My kid loves mango salsa…You MUST give me the recipe”
I am always very protective of my recipes so I jokingly answer to the group in a very serious tone…”No, I will not give you my recipe…I don’t give my recipes to just ANYONE…I guess I could tell you but then I would have to kill you.”
No one laughs at my joke. Maybe it wasn’t funny but they could have given me a pity laugh or something. I turn around and I am looking at the Godfather III himself. I am a huge Godfather fan and have seen the movies a gazillion times (even Godfather III which is not even on the same scale as the first two…freaking whiny Sofia Coppola messed up the movie…)
Anyway, I digress….I am looking at none other than Vincent Mancini…It is freaking Andy Garcia in matching pink shorts with one of those old Cuban straw hats and Harry Potter glasses…
He just looks at me funny and walks away without even giving me a chance to say I was joking. He goes on to sit in the dining room by himself. Our host then proceeds to tell us how he has been friends with Andy since 1972 and how they play the drums together and how they try to keep up with Arturo Sandoval to no avail…He is obviously proud of his friendship with Andy and talks of their days back in high school…
The little girl comes in yelling "daddy" and sits on Mr. Garcia’s lap. I am glad I spent those 10-15 minutes talking to the kid because the kid will now smooth any ruffle feathers between me and Mr. Garcia…They just need some quiet time….father and daughter…father will ask the daughter what she has been up to and she will say she was playing catch with me and the dogs and how much fun she had…I need this conversation to happen so the guy doesn’t think I am a total douche bag.
This conversation is interrupted by the ringing of my cell phone which is on the dining room table where Mr. Garcia is sitting with his daughter. Again, huge Godfather fan so if you haven’t heard my ring tone before, you can guess what it is. It is the actual Godfather theme music…As I am walking towards the table, Mr. Garcia grabs the phone and hands it to me while giving me a very quizzical look.
The rest of the night progressed with Mr. Garcia and I keeping our distance even though we were less than 3 feet from each other. After a few more drinks and more chit chat, it was time to say our goodbyes. Mr. Garcia was being polite when he gave me his hand. I knew it and he knew it but that was okay because the lovely little girl Andy came out of whatever corner she was hiding out to become my savior. She comes to tell me how one of the dogs licked her in the face and that she will show me pictures of her lobster and…I see a smile forms in the proud father’s face…
I start to apologize about the mango salsa and proceed to tell him that if I knew that the mango salsa was for his kid, I would have given to him in a heartbeat because of such a lovely kid. I tell him how she and I became best friends and how she told me how she caught a lobster and how she swam with the dolphins and…
His smile is gone…his eyes narrow…his jaw clenches…his lips move…
“SHE IS A HE…HE IS A BOY….”
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