35. Loving Dalia

Nelly sprawled shirtless on the gray L-shaped sofa in his rented flat as he watched Scarface on the flat-screen television—well, actually, he was pretending to watch the television. On the real, he was surreptitiously watching Dalia as she puttered about in the kitchen, balancing a cookbook in one hand as she tried to bake him a cake.

She had no idea what she was doing, and when he offered to help, she shooed him away. His fiery little girlfriend was hell-bent on getting that cake baked. And he was enjoying watching her make a flustered mess of herself.

When he’d picked her up earlier, his plan was to grab something to eat, take her shopping on Robertson Boulevard and then see a movie. Of course, her choice of food was pepperoni pizza—she was a pizza maniac. But as soon as they’d finished at the pizzeria she began whining that it was his birthday and it wasn’t right to do things for her on his day. She wanted to do something for him, like bake a cake.

At first he’d been upset and trie