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58: Chance of a Lifetime
Last Updated:
2025-03-03 02:27:05
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Mi Amor 59: Wynnewood
I was so excited when Thanksgiving break arrived, and I could hop back to Miami for a visit with Javier. He picked me up at the airport late in the afternoon on the day before the holiday, and once we were in his car, I leaned over and kissed him. He kissed me back, quickly, then turned the car on. “We need to get moving,” he said.“I like the way you think,” I said. “I can’t wait to get back to your apartment and get naked with you.”“We’ll do that. But first I want to show you the property. You’re going to flip.”I started to as we waited at an interminable light on the exit ramp and an old black guy in shorts hobbled past us, holding his hands out for money. He was limping because he had only one foot, his other leg ending in a stump banging onto the hot pavement. As we passed him, Javier rolled down his window and handed the guy a five-dollar bill.Traffic was heavy, luxury cars alternating with old beaters and tricked-out motorcycles. Javier turned onto a narrow, one-way street,
Last Updated : 2025-03-03Mi Amor 60: Lililana and Louis
I tried to make up for lost time with Javier that weekend, but I had a couple of case studies to read for my finance and marketing courses and a lot of accounting problems to tackle, and Javier was taking a management course at FIU, so he had work to do too, as well as fine-tuning his projections for the new project.We spent most of our time together, our laptops back to back. We worked together on one of his assignments and one of mine, and our collaboration made them both better. Saturday evening we met Javier’s sister Liana and her husband at one of the cool new burger joints tucked away in a corner of the beach, where the beer was microbrewed and the beef locally sourced.Liana was as beautiful as Javier was handsome, the same dark hair with a gentle curl, olive skin and large, expressive brown eyes. “I’m so pleased to meet you,” she said. “Javier has told me so much about you.”“All of it untrue, probably,” I said.She turned to her husband, a big bear of a guy, tall and broad-s
Last Updated : 2025-03-03Mi Amor 61: Imprinted on the Skin
I loved the way that Javier and I responded so easily to each other. I began kissing his lips gently, then his cheeks, then the scruff around his chin. He let me take the lead, leaning back to enjoy my touch. I moved slowly down his body, unbuttoning his shirt and sucking his nipples, one by one. His chest was lithe and muscular, the result of years of hard work on construction sites. He still pitched in whenever he had to—he could hang drywall, paint, or install electrical fixtures as well as any workman.I slipped off my shirt and pants so all I was wearing were a pair of sexy briefs. I opened Javier’s pants and kissed his belly.“That tickles.” He laughed, as I grazed my chin against his pubic hair. I helped him out of his pants and boxers, skinned down my briefs, and we were both naked. I spooned beside him, his stiff dick pressing against my butt, and we moved together in a gentle rhythm as he kissed the back of my neck and played with my nipples.“I want to fuck you, mi amor,” h
Last Updated : 2025-03-03Mi Amor 62: Columns
That evening I flew back to Boston, and dove back into the whirlwind of business school. I had a group project due and then exams, and by the time I returned to Miami all I wanted to do was relax with Javier, on the beach, in the clubs, and in bed.There wasn’t much time for relaxation, though. As soon as he picked me up at the airport he started talking about the new building, which he was calling Wynwood Columns. When we got back to his apartment, he and I went over them together. I didn’t know much about reading plans, so I focused on the renderings. The building was five stories tall, with long rows of balconies interrupted periodically by round support columns. The underside of each balcony was to be painted in artistic swirls of color, with a geometric pattern of black and white tiles on the top level.The building was set back from the street about ten feet for a row of parking spaces for the retail stores. Tall doors at the center of the ground floor led to an elevator lobby f
Last Updated : 2025-03-03Mi Amor 63: Jersey Shore
Through my father’s connections, I got an interview with a condo developer at the Jersey shore, and during spring break I went down there to talk. I wanted Javier to fly up and spend a couple of days with me there, but he was too busy, and it was too cold for the beach anyway.The property was the last one that could be built on that stretch of beach, and the developer wanted to capitalize on the popularity of a reality show about the Jersey shore with lots of parties and events. The job was tailor-made for me, and I accepted it eagerly.Javier and I still talked almost every day, sharing stories about our classes and the progress on Wynwood Columns. One day in April a guy in my business foundations class asked me out, but I told him I had a boyfriend.I told Javier that night on a Skype call. “Why did he ask you?” he demanded. “Were you flirting with him?”“Of course not,” I said.“Because I know how you can behave,” he said. “All that smiling and body language.”“Javier. He’s nice g
Last Updated : 2025-03-03Mi Amor 64: Up and Down
Late in June, he flew up for a long weekend. I was sharing a two-bedroom apartment a few blocks in from the beach with another intern, who had gone away for the weekend so that Javier and I could have some privacy.“I had no idea New Jersey was so pretty,” Javier said, as we walked along the beach on his first day. “I thought it was all industrial.”We didn’t hold hands, but it was still so nice to be with Javier, and I felt a rush of emotion at having him with me. This two-year separation was all going to be worthwhile, I thought. We had to work for our future. It was so romantic walking at sunset. I had to run a party that night, and Javier only stayed for the first hour, then went back to the apartment. By the time I got home, close to two in the morning, he had long since gone to sleep.We did manage to have sex twice, though it was tough to schedule between my work and Javier’s long phone calls and document reviews. I didn’t feel as much of a deep connection with him as I had in
Last Updated : 2025-03-03Mi Amor 65: Answer
I wished I shared Jean-Jacques’s optimism. But during the cold winter months in Cambridge I couldn’t help second-guessing everything Javier said or did, and I was nervous about what would happen when I finished my degree and moved back to Miami. Would we be able to pick up where we’d left off? Or had we both changed too much in the last two years, and lost that spark between us?My classmates and I shifted attire from jeans and T-shirts to business suits as interviewing season took hold. The placement office offered video interview consultations, resume help, and a dozen other services that reminded me my time in academia was about to end. Everywhere I looked people paced nervously, muttering prepared answers to interview questions.I had dual-majored in marketing and real estate, with the idea that I’d join Javier’s construction and real estate development firm after graduation. I tried to talk to Javier about what I could do, but every time I brought it up, he said he was too busy o
Last Updated : 2025-03-03Mi Amor 66: More Stargazer Lilies
Javier signaled a turn as we approached the Publix where we’d first met. “We need to make a quick stop here,” he said. He nosed the BMW up the long ramp to the parking garage, then led me down the escalator and into the floral department.I was still thinking about Wynwood Columns and what I could do that it took me a moment to realize that Javier was holding a bouquet of stargazer lilies, the flowers I’d been holding when we first met.“Adam Beller, ever since we met right here, I’ve known you are the only man for me. Would you do me the great honor of becoming my husband?”I was stunned for a moment, but I recovered quickly. “What? I get flowers instead of a ring?” I asked, smiling. I took the bouquet and kissed him. “Of course I’ll marry you, Javier.”He fished in his pocket. “I have a ring too,” he said, and he popped open the top of a ring box. My heart was already racing, and it skipped a couple of beats then.There were two rings in the box—both simple platinum bands with a sin
Last Updated : 2025-03-03
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Mi Amor 84: A Little Situation
The morning of our wedding, Javier and I were up at first light. We went for a run together along the beach, then out to brunch, where we toasted each other with mimosas. “This is probably the last time today we’ll have time to ourselves, mi amor,” Javier said. “So I have some things I want to say to you.”I sipped my mimosa. “Yes?”“I love you, but you know that. You encourage me, you frustrate me, you make me see things differently, you force me to open up my heart and confront my emotions. I am so glad that you have come into my life.”I felt myself tearing up. “I love you too, Javier. When I was cruising along without much direction to my life, you came along with a strong hand and a warm heart. You looked beneath my surface the way few people have been able to do. Every day I want to be a better man so that I can deserve you.”We lifted our glasses again and clinked them together. “Then let’s get married,” Javier said.We drove up to the Ancient Spanish Monastery, a beautiful sma
Mi Amor 83: Medicare Fraud
A few weeks later, I was in the living room when Liana called Javier. He put the phone on speaker so I could hear. “That doctor Papi was going to in Hialeah,” she said. “He’s been arrested for Medicare fraud! The clinic closed down. Mami is so frightened the police are going to come for them.”“As long as she doesn’t expect anything from me,” Javier said. “They’ve both made it clear that they don’t want Adam and me in their lives.”“They’ll come around eventually, Javier,” she said. “Unless they die first,” he said.“Javier!”I was as surprised as Liana was. I knew that Javier was upset that his parents had shut him out, but I hadn’t realized how deep his feelings ran. They talked for a few more minutes, but he wasn’t willing to budge on his parents.If they didn’t approve of our marriage, I didn’t want their names on the invitation. So I found an invitation template that didn’t mention parents, brides or grooms. Just Adam Beller and Javier Marisco invite you to join in the celebrati
Mi Amor 82: Ancient Spanish Monastery
I woke up early on Sunday morning to find the house empty. Where was Angus? Why was everyone in my life abandoning me?Whoa. I needed to stop pitying myself and figure out what to do. A few minutes later, Angus came in, sweaty from an early morning run. I thanked him for his hospitality and said I needed to get back to Javier’s.“Take things easy,” Angus said. “Give Javier some time, and I’m sure he’ll come around.”There was little traffic on I-95 so early on Sunday morning, and I made good time back to the beach. I parked in one of the guest spaces at the Madrigal, and noted that Javier’s BMW was in its regular spot. That didn’t mean much, of course. He could have gone off on his scooter, or on foot.Or he could be upstairs.I took a couple of deep breaths. I couldn’t go on in limbo like that, not knowing how Javier felt.I rode up in the elevator and used my key to unlock the apartment door. Javier was sitting at the kitchen table, nursing a mug of coffee. I could smell the fragran
Mi Amor 81: Best Man
My mouth dropped open. He was kicking me to the curb? Where would I go, at nine o’clock on a Saturday night? To a hotel?I hadn’t wanted to tell Javier because I knew he had his own money problems, but I’d been running through my savings at an alarming rate as I sustained both of us until money began to flow in from Wynwood Columns. I had credit on my plastic, but very little in the way of ready cash.I called Jean-Jacques, but went right to voice mail. He was probably out on the town somewhere, or maybe cuddled up with that new boyfriend of his. I ran through my list of old friends. Most of them had moved on, or were likely to be out partying on a Saturday night. Then I remembered Angus Green.He picked up the phone after one ring. “Hey, Adam, long time no see. How’s everything?”The kindness in his voice broke something open inside me, and I began to cry, telling him how stressful the last months had been, about my botched attempt to talk to Javier’s parents, his anger with me.“Com
Mi Amor 80: Mi Hijito
“I have something I would like to show you about Javier, if you would allow me,” I said, when she and I were in the living room with Javier’s father. They didn’t seem to know how to say no, so I hooked everything up, chatting nervously in a mix of English and Spanish, until I had a picture of Javier as a little boy up on the screen.“Ay, mi hijito,” his mother said.I launched into my story. Javier as a boy, cleaning up at construction sites, playing baseball, graduating from high school with honors. His parents were smiling and happy, adding in their own comments to each other.The last pictures were of Javier and me together—dancing at a party on South Beach, walking barefoot on the beach during one of Javier’s summer visits to New Jersey, us posed together in front of the Wynwood Columns sign.I left that last picture up on the screen. “Javier loves you very much, and I know he misses having you in his life right now. Wynwood Columns is his biggest success so far, and it would be s
Mi Amor 79: Presentation
I pulled up in front of a thrift store run by an Episcopal church, only open two days a week for a few hours at a time. Jean-Jacques made a beeline for the jewelry counter, where the sweet old lady who looked like a gerbil, with white hair and pink skin, seemed to know him well.I browsed the rest of the store, coming up with a couple of items for Jean-Jacques to consider: a pair of commemorative coins issued by Masonic chapters; a belt buckle with an airline slogan from the 1960s; a wooden box covered with colorful labels that had once held Cuban cigars. Jean-Jacques nodded approvingly and bought all of it.We worked together all afternoon, driving from store to store, and by the end of the day he had a decent haul. I researched and wrote descriptions of the items as he photographed them. Around six, I texted Javier that I was with Jean-Jacques, and we slumped in his living room over a bottle of wine, a box of crackers, and a log of goat cheese.“I’ve been thinking about how you appr
Mi Amor 78: Just Because It's Legal
We fell into bed together and slept until mid-morning Sunday, when I got up, fixed us omelets and bacon, and we hashed over the details of the night before. Javier had a half-dozen solid prospects for the condos, and he’d impressed a number of local real estate agents. The buzz at the party had been superb, and it looked like we were going to be a great addition to the Wynwood scene.I waited until a few days had passed, and Javier had contracts on two more of the condos, before I brought up the question of setting the wedding date again.“I don’t know, mi amor,” he said. “Maybe it’s not such a good idea right now. Just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s right for us.”I opened my mouth to argue. What had happened to “I’d marry you today if I could?” But I already knew what the problem was. His parents. Until they came around to the idea of their precious boy married to another man, my wedding plans were on hold.Over the next few days, I thought about the issue. It wasn’t about the
Mi Amor 77: Party Boy
The next morning I met Leslie at Wynwood Columns. That day’s T-shirt read Be kind to animals or I’ll kill you, and her pinky fingernails were painted in tiger stripes.“The walls look amazing,” I said, after we’d kissed hello. Then I held the ladder for her as she began to hang a couple of her complicated mobiles.Javier came through while we were working, showing off the retail space to a rep from a national drugstore chain. “This is Adam Beller, who’s handling all my marketing and public relations,” Javier said when he introduced me.I noticed that he didn’t say “partner.” But we hadn’t formalized any business arrangement between us so I wasn’t a partner in Marisco Enterprises. I didn’t even have a salary or a job title.There was no time to stress over it, though. Before I could blink it was the Saturday night of the grand opening. We rented one of those big searchlights and set it up across the street. We hired a valet company to handle the parking, a jazz trio for background musi
Mi Amor 76: Sour Taste
I woke with a sour taste in my mouth. What if Wynwood Columns was a big flop, and its failure destroyed Javier’s business, because he’d bet everything he had on it? That could leave us both out of work. And because Javier had mortgaged the condo at the Madrigal, we could be homeless as well. And of course the wedding would be off. We couldn’t afford a party if we couldn’t put a roof over our heads or food on the table.We had only a week to go before the grand opening of Wynwood Columns, and Javier spent all his time on the mainland, leaving behind the beach, while I was at the office most of the time, handling dozens of small details from chasing down attorneys and leases to sourcing party favors. It was doubly hard because everything had to be done on the cheap, and I called in every favor I was owed, relying on every emotion from guilt to greed to get what I needed.Late one afternoon I was all alone in the office, and I started to worry. What if this physical distance was just a m
