[Samuel x Roman]

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That almost soft expression persisted on Manuel's face as Roman told him about the other kids. To someone who might not know them, he maybe sounded a little braggy, but all their children were so talented in what they cared about so it was just the truth. Once Roman finished talking about Letha there was a small smile on Manuel's face for a moment.

"Who are their parents?" he asked after a little while of just processing the new information.

Samuel frowned, it might just be a matter of terminology and genuinely not knowing, but it felt so typical of him to ruin what could have been a genuinely nice moment, "We are. Neither of us is their biological dads, they are all adopted, we know their biological parents but that is for close family to know. And it does not matter. We raised them, from day one. "

Samuel just wanted him to know that, while genes did factor in some, it was thanks to their upbringing these children had turned out so great. Thanks to the upbringing from gay parents without reinforced gender roles. The kind of upbringing he thought was a bad one.

"...Right. Of course," Manuel said, his voice was back to its normal stern tone, Samuel suspected it masked irritation for being corrected, but he was glad it did because he knew he wouldn't be able to handle this man angry, "Is there anything else we need to discuss?"
 
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"...No, I don't think there is," Roman said. He couldn't think of anything else he needed to say to the man in front of them, everything had been covered. It was just up to Manuel to keep his word and follow the requests they had made.

Roman would do the same. He just really hoped that Manuel eventually told the truth to his kids. He didn't agree with keeping these kinds of things under wraps, but it wasn't his place to expose him. The one thing he wouldn't budge on was defending his family if anything homophobic or sexist was said, but he trusted that Manuel had the common sense to refrain from saying such things in their presence.

Roman sighed and turned to Samuel. "Was there anything else you wanted to say?" Roman asked. It wasn't like Samue hadn't had the ability to say whatever he wanted, but he knew it could be hard to do so in the presence of someone you were scared of. So, Roman just wanted to make sure Samuel knew he had a voice.
 
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Samuel thought about it for a moment. Technically there were. There a million things he wanted to say to his father, not necessarily about why he was there but just in general. But he knew telling him how wrong he had been about so many things wouldn't make a difference. He knew telling him that not having him in his life for the past years had been better would accomplish nothing but more hostility. And that wasn't what they needed right now.

"No, there's nothing," Samuel said, and honestly maybe that was enough, because that meant no I love you or I've missed you, or anything of the like, and that honestly was enough to communicate all the things Samuel wanted said.

Manuel nodded and stood, "thank you for having me," Samuel stood as well and they walked Manuel out to the door. Before leaving he lingered a little, looking at Samuel. Samuel held Roman's hand hard again, he had no idea what to expect from his father at this point, he didn't really know him anymore.

"Samuel?"

"Yeah?"

"... I'm sorry," he said in Spanish

"okay," Samuel replied in english.

Manuel nodded, seemingly accepting that Samuel wasn't accepting his apology he told them to call him when they knew what they wanted to do and said goodbye and then he was out the door. Samuel let out a slightly shaky breath. He was just glad it was over, but it had still been a lot so immediately he turned to his husband and pulled him into a tight hug. This was a lot but he had actually done it, it was a huge step but also a step closer to getting to know his siblings, hopefully, it'd be worth it.
 
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Harper was currently sitting in the library at lunch time next to Emma-Marie. They were seated on one of the couches, Harper's legs in his friend's lap, playing Go Fish without a care in the world.

"Do you have any sevens?" Harper asked his friend, just as a pretty laugh he recognised immediately met his ears. He looked over his shoulder and his heart did a backflip when he saw Laila Azouli, sitting behind them with a group of her friends. She was an absolutely beautiful Afghan girl who had thick black hair to her waist and stunning caramel skin. Her eyes were huge, sparkling and the colour of melted chocolate. She was so pretty and she was so nice to everyone. Harper liked her a lot.

He often found himself just gazing at her. Their friends had pointed it out to them before but Harper hadn't tried to stop it. He just ... he didn't know why, but he felt happy when she was around.
 
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"Go fish," Emma-Marie said, as she had no sevens, it also seemed like she suddenly lacked her friend's attention. She followed Harper's gaze to a group of girls and specifically to Laila Azouli, Harper had mentioned her once or twice before. And she had caught him looking at her once or twice or possibly a couple of more times before too. She smiled softly because it was kind of apparent that her friend liked that girl. She wasn't jealous at all, just happy for him.

A lot of people always said they liked each other, but that was because they were best friends and also a girl and a boy. Emmie knew better than to assume people liked each other just because they were a girl and a boy, that was heteronormative and kind of dumb. They didn't like each other though, not in that way at least. Emma-Marie loved having Harper as a friend, he was awesome and fun, but she had had crushes on other boys before and it was very different from how she felt around Harper.

Since this had been going on for long enough though, Emmie decided to take the opportunity to bring it up with Harper. She lowered the voice so there was no chance of the other girls hearing and leaned in closer towards her friend, "Do you think Laila is cute?"
 
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Harper jumped and whipped his head around when Emmie suddenly leaned in and broke him out of his trance. "Huh? What? No! Don't be weird, that's so stupid ... that's so ... I ... alright, fine, I do."

Harper sighed and leaned back into the couch, turning away from Laila almost stubbornly, as if he didn't want to affirm what he had just said verbally by looking in her direction. He knew he was being stupid but he had always been nervous admitting he found someone cute, especially to his guy friends who would quite often make fun of him for it. Of course, his friendship with Emmie was a lot different and she would never make fun of him. But still, it was a nerve wracking thing to do.

"But you can't tell anyone," Harper insisted in an almost whiny tone. "I don't want heaps and heaps of people to know, they'll make fun of me for it and I'll be nervous around her and she'll think I'm a dork." And the last thing Harper wanted was for Laila to think he was lame. He really liked her.
 
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"I promise I won't tell anyone," Emmie said earnestly, she really wouldn't she saw no reason to tell anyone, and even if she had some reason she wouldn't, because Harper had told her not to. She loved her friend and would never do anything to betray his trust, "She wouldn't think you're a dork though, she's super nice,"

Emmie seriously doubted Laila would be mean to Harper if she did find out and Harper did act like a dork around her. She was nice and Emmie couldn't think of any girl they knew that would be embarrassed or something about Harper liking her. Harper was just such a sweet guy, and even though some boys gave him a hard time for being feminine sometimes most girls seemed to like him because he was more mature than those other guys. Plus Emmie was not afraid to admit that Harper was a really cute guy. So he wasn't the kind of person you would mind having a crush on you.

"And honestly Harper, anyone our age who makes fun of people because they like someone is just silly, and they'll have someone they like within a year or something, loads of people in my year are dating and no one makes fun of them," She continued, Harper was only one year younger than her, but she knew that at their age that one year kind of mattered, because you'd come to school after the break and suddenly everyone was interested in dating and scoffing at how silly the people younger than them where who hadn't realised that was fun yet, "You know unless they are being like all silly and couple-y."
 
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One of the many things Harper loved about Emmie was that she always managed to convince him of the truth when he was being silly. He still felt a little iffy about the idea of his male friends knowing about his crush on Laila. But he also knew that Laila, even if she didn't like him back, wouldn't be mean to him. Emmie was right, she was super duper nice. That was part of the reason Harper liked her so much.

He turned and glanced at her again. She was so pretty. One of her friends looked up and noticed him looking so he quickly whirled around again, his cheeks bright red.

"I ... I kind of want to ask her out but I don't know how or what to say," Harper confessed to Emmie. Then he got an idea. "Wait, you're a girl. What do girls like when they get asked out?"
 
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"well I don't think all girls want the same thing," Emmie started, "But I think most of us just like the person asking us out to be themselves. And also, this might just be me personally, but I think if you ask someone out and you don't know what she'll say don't make like a big deal of it and make it super public because it can be embarrassing to turn someone down in front of other people too,"

Emma-Marie wasn't really unpopular in her year anything, but she was a quiet person who liked to stick to the friends she had, so it wasn't like she got asked out all the time and knew what she was talking about, she hadn't even had her first boyfriend yet. But she still felt like she could understand the situation by thinking logically and basing it on her friends' experiences and things like that.

"So you know If you want to ask her out just ask her to come hang out with you for a bit and be your normal self when you're asking. You''re a great person, Harper, so she'll like that," Emmie smiled kindly at Harper, she was maybe laying it on a little thick, but the compliments weren't untrue and she wanted Harper to feel confident enough with himself to be able to ask out the girl he liked, "I think you should do it, you know, when you're ready,"
 
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Harper listened dutifully to Emma-Marie's advice because even if she asserted that not all girls wanted the same thing when they were asked out by guys, she still almost definitely had a better idea of what Laila would like than he did. Harper liked a lot of feminine things, he loved flowers and painting his nails and sparkly things, among others. But he didn't really know much about how girls thought.

"Okay, well, I'll think about how to do it, because I really like her and I want to do it right. Maybe I'll ask Dad," he pondered. Harper knew that his dad liked women and that he always had, even if he was married to another guy, and that before he had met Papa a lot of girls had liked him too. So Dad would have an idea of how to ask out a girl.

Harper sighed, cast one more look at Laila over his shoulder, and turned back to Emmie. Because even if he really liked Laila, he was still super nervous and he certainly wouldn't be pursuing anything just yet. "Do you have any threes?"
 
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Samuel couldn't decide if he was less or more nervous than the day his father had come over and he had seen him for the first time in twenty years. Today he was coming over again, which meant it'd be easier, but he was coming over with the rest of his family. The rest of his family who also was Samuel's family. That meant not only Sebastian who he had met, but his two other siblings. And Manuel's wife. Manuel's wife who apparently shared his believes, whatever that meant.

But it wasn't just Samuel meeting them, it was his own kids and husband too. This was something that affected all of them and if one word could describe the Hemlock-Ortega household now it was tense. Eden seemed worried, Stella seemed grumpy. Samuel was scared but trying to keep his mood up.

They were having dinner, which Roman was finishing in the kitchen, Samuel had tried to help but he was honestly too nervous and was scared he'd accidentally stab himself with some utensil or something stupid like that. He still hung around the kitchen until the doorbell rung though, because being around Roman was a comfort. They had instructed the kids not to open the door, Samuel would just feel better if their first interaction with their, somewhat, biological grandfather was supervised by them.

Samuel let Roman wrap things up in the kitchen and took his hand, this time he walked with him to the door because he had already met and realised he could handle his father decently, at least if the man kept as calm as he had last time. But upon opening the door they weren't met by just him though, but an entire family. There was Manuel, standing with good posture and stony expression, as usual, then there was his wife, Mónica, a slender woman, most likely hispanic and who had to be closer in age to Samuel and Roman than Manuel. And of course, Sebastian who wore a bright smile and happily said, "Hello! It feels like it's been ages, but it probably hasn't, but still,"

Sebastian's two siblings were of course there too, a girl Stella and Eden's age and a boy who had to be around the same age as Letha. Neither of them bounced into the house in the same manner as Sebastian and shyly kept to their parent's side for now, and followed them when they stepped in. Manuel looked both Samuel and Roman up and down, as was such typical behaviour of him. Samuel felt nervous about it though, he was wearing floral, not to spite him but to show him that he was allowed to be who he wanted now, and that he made the rules in his own house.

Samuel opted to smile at Sebastian first and say, "Well, it has been a while," he had needed that while to get used to the idea of it all though.

His father then cleared his throat, somewhat awkwardly. Samuel had never imagined him as someone who was capable of being awkward but he doubted anyone wouldn't be awkward in a situation like this, "This is Mónica my wife, Mónica, this is Samuel. And Roman. And Samuel, this is Julia and Tomas," Samuel smiled at his two half-siblings but they both nervously looked at their mother for her to approach the situation first.
 
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Today was the day.

Roman wasn't nervous. He knew he should have been, but he had already talked to Manuel and that was the main thing he had been worried about. It wasn't like he was jumping for joy at the idea of meeting Mónica, but he was genuinely looking forward to meet the other kids.

Roman made paella for dinner, with a vegetarian option for Eden. He wasn't trying to suck up to Manuel, though. He made it because it was comfort food for his husband. He also made a white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake for dessert. Roman was dressed down in a glittery black T-shirt and dark blue skinny jeans, with no makeup but all blue piercings.

The doorbell rang. Roman quickly put the paella on simmer and then went to open the door with his husband. Manuel was there, of course. Mónica was a beautiful woman, slender but voluptuous, with long brown hair and tanned skin. She was stunning but she had a somewhat terse expression, as if she was forcing herself to be amicable.

Roman held his pink-manicured hand out to her regardless. "It's nice to meet you, my name is Roman."

Mónica looked at his hand for a moment, but took it and smiled tensely. "Mónica," was all she said. But she did turn to her children to say, "Say hello, darlings."

"Hello," Tomas said nervously.
 
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Samuel got a kind of bad feeling about Mónica, he couldn't help but recognize her demeanour in a lot of his unaccepting relatives who were trying not to show it while still not wanting to let it go enough to not show it. Still, he didn't even know if it was the gay thing, or just that she didn't like being in the home of her husband's first son and said son's husband who had been the reason he had been to prison. At least from her perspective, in reality, Manuel was his own reason as to why he had gone to prison.

Samuel ignored her, and his father for now. He crouched down just a little, but not too much, they were kids, but he kind of wanted them to feel like they were on the same level, because they were siblings, even if he was almost the same age as their mother, "Hello, it's very nice to meet you," he turned towards Julia, "And you must be Julia? It's very nice to meet you too,"

"Yeah, um, you too?" The girl said and glanced at her parents as if unsure. Samuel smiled and didn't push it, it was a weird situation, not everyone could be as comfortable with it as Sebastian.

And Sebastian certainly seemed comfortable and gladly asked, "Are your kids home, can we meet them now?"

"Yeah sure, they're in the living room," Samuel didn't lie and say they were excited to meet them, even though that sentence fit very well and would have made Sebastian happy. He'd just get disappointed if he didn't get the right response from them as he wanted.

They approached the living room where the four kids sat cooped up in the couch, under a silence that just didn't make sense in a group of siblings their age. Samuel felt bad that they had to feel so nervous and tense and whatever else was causing them not to talk and smile like they normally did. Sebastian seemed to not even realise though and happily bounced forward. He turned back to the adults for a moment and asked, "Can I introduce everyone?" Manuel glanced at Samuel who shrugged and so Manuel gave him a nod. Sebastian smiled, but did not receive the same expression at least from the twins. Eden was looking at him with wide eyes and Stella wasn't even looking his way really, instead scowling towards Manuel.

"Okay, so I'm Sebastian, and I'm your dad's brother, and Julia and Tomas here are his siblings too!" Sebastian gestured to his siblings and then continued, "And then there's my mum, her name is Mónica, and also my dad, who I guess is your grampa! What are your names? I should know since I'm technically your uncle and all," Sebastian finished with a grin, not really realising that introducing Manuel as their grandfather wasn't really appropriate. He seemed like a really social, and also maybe a little childish kid, and this was clearly fun to him. Samuel didn't want to ruin it by correcting him.
 
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Harper's gaze was flicking between Sebastian, Mónica and Manuel warily. Letha was also looking between them all but she looked unsure and even sort of nervous. Roman hated that his kids were unsure and nervous in their own home, but there wasn't much they could do about it in this situation. Roman wanted them to be able to know their aunt and uncles.

But if they really showed that they were uncomfortable, then he would step in, because he wouldn't be sacrificing his children's happiness for anything.

"Um, well, I'm Harper," said Harper, gesturing to himself. He seemed to take the responsibility of introducing them all onto himself, probably because he was the eldest. "This is Stella, and Eden, they're twins, and this is Letha, she's almost ten."

"Wait, you're twins?" Tomas asked curiously. He took a step in their direction. "That's so cool, I have some friends who are twins and they —"

"Tomas, darling," Mónica said, reaching out and gently putting a hand on her younger son's shoulder. "Let me fix your collar."

She stood there and fixed her son's collar, but then stood with her hands on his shoulders, as if to stop him from moving. Roman had to force himself to refrain from rolling his eyes, because it was so obvious what she was doing.

"I'll go dish up dinner," he said, moving to turn into the kitchen. "Does everyone like paella?"
 
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"Julia loves paella!" Sebastian announced, seemingly oblivious to his mother trying to keep his younger brother from interacting with the other children. Maybe it was spiteful but he kind of liked that Sebastian just kind of roped in Julia into the conversation in a way where it'd be very weird for anyone to interrupt.

"You do?" Samuel asked his half-sister with a smile. She still seemed a little uncertain but now Samuel wondered if she was shy or if it was actually that she was wary of them because of how her mother was acting, and possibly had been acting before showing up.

"Yeah it's great, dad got this recipe from our grandma used to make in Spain that mum makes and it's the best, It's my favourite food probably," Julia said. It was almost surreal to think that these kids grew up eating the actual same food, by the same recipe as he had.

"It's my favourite too," Samuel said happily and soon they were all in the dining room. Which meant figuring out how to sit. They all had places on the table they sat in by routine but this clearly wouldn't be the case today. Samuel did not want his own kids sitting next to his father, and maybe even if they felt uncomfortable, not next their aunt and uncles either. But he also didn't want to sit next to his dad either. In the end, they ended up having one Hemlock-Ortega side of the table and one Ortega side. Harper was sitting next to Sebastian, who was followed by his mother, then Manuel, then the two younger children. Samuel had chosen to sit next to Julia even if that meant being somewhat close to his father.

"You'll have to tell Roman if it tastes right later," Samuel told Julia, he did not care if their mother didn't want them talking with them, he could try to include them anyway, "He's a great cook though, so it probably should," Samuel turned to Roman and without even really thinking about it said, "right, love?" the pet name did turn a pretty intense look from his father towards him, which was scary but he promptly ignored it because he was fairly certain the man didn't even know he was doing it himsel.
 
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"Of course, babe," Roman answered without hesitation. This earned him a look from Mónica but he completely ignored it as he and Letha worked together to carry the bowls of paella into the dining room. Roman told Letha to give their family their meals, mainly because he was still a bit iffy about her being so close to Manuel or Mónica.

He didn't think that they were going to hurt Letha or any of the other kids. But they, especially Mónica, had proven that they were hateful people and Roman wanted to keep Letha from that kind of negativity for as long as possible.

"Thank you," Tomas said sweetly when Roman set his bowl down in front of him. Roman smiled right back, because he was a little cutie and he definitely seemed to be the most open of the three, sans Sebastian of course.

"You're welcome, buddy," Roman said to him pleasantly. He set Manuel's bowl down in front of him, stopping himself from 'accidentally' tipping it onto his lap, and then took his seat beside Samuel. He had Letha on his other side, followed by the twins, and then by Harper.

They all ate in silence for a few moments, before Roman decided that they weren't going to get anywhere by being quiet. "So what do you do, Mónica?" Roman asked his husband's stepmother amicably.

Mónica looked a little surprised to be addressed but she answered regardless. "Oh, I work as a Spanish-English translator in a law firm."

"That must be interesting. Are you Spanish as well?"

"No, Colombian."

"Oh, that's different, I don't think I've met many Colombians. How long have you lived here for?"

Mónica was a little hard to read but Roman thought she was engaged in the conversation, probably because it was about her backstory rather than their sexuality. "We moved here when I was twelve."

"Nice, my mother moved from New Zealand when she was that age." Roman then looked over at Manuel. "So how did you meet Mónica?"
 
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"We were introduced through a colleague of mine after, well a couple of years after we last spoke," meaning year or two after he got released from prison.

In one way it was interesting to hear about the life of his half-siblings, what their parents did and how they met. In another, Samuel didn't really want to know what their parents were up to. He didn't want to know what Manuel's second wife did or where she was from or who she was. Not because she was his father's second wife but because she was voluntarily involved with him. And honestly, Samuel didn't even know, nor did he completely want to know what his father was doing at this point. Probably the same boring office IT type job he had had before but that Samuel had never really bothered to understand.

Since he didn't really care and he knew Roman was just making small talk to get the conversation started Samuel turned his attention to his siblings instead, "So uh, what about you guy,s what do you do? Julia, uh, dad told me you like soccer?" it was still so weird to not only talk about his dad but to refer to him as dad only, not your dad or my dad, but their dad.

"Yeah, it's great," Julia said looking kind of excited for a moment, but didn't seem to intend to say much more, as she carefully glanced at her parents and didn't say anything else. It wasn't as if she was scared of them, instead more like she was trusting of the to the point where she seemed to feel like she needed to mimic their behaviour. It made Samuel a little sad because he, though he couldn't speak entirely about Mónica, weren't really good people. He didn't press though and turned to Sebastian who seemed excited to answer the question.

"I like to read mostly," he said, "and hang out with friends and stuff,"

Samuel smiled, "I like reading too,"

"he used to read into the middle of the night and think his mum and I didn't know, just like you," Manuel told Sebastian. Both Sebastian and Samuel seemed a little flustered at how obviously caught they were in their behaviour. But Samuel exchanged a glance with his father as well and his expression was actually one of fondness. When most of the memories you recalled easily of someone was only the bad ones it was easy to forget that person might have actually not hated you, or even believed they loved you. Samuel wasn't sure if his father had actually loved him, he wasn't sure if you could hurt someone as much as he had and actually love them. But he knew his father had at least cared about him, and maybe if Samuel hadn't been gay things would have looked very different today. Samuel was honestly glad there had been a reason for them not to speak for so long. His life had been better without him.

"Well at least reading is good for you," Samuel defended himself, and Sebastian, "though not for the eyes, my mum blames my eyesight on all the reading in the dark I did growing up," he and Sebastian exchanged a small smile before Samuel directed his attention to Tomas, "What about you Tomas, what do you like to do?."
 
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For some reason it was a little surprising to know that Sebastian and Samuel had the same behaviours when it came to reading. It obviously wasn't genetic, it was probably just a kid thing. But it was still something that tied the brothers together in a sense of more than just genes. Roman obviously liked a lot of the same things as London and Brooklyn, but that was different. They had been raised together.

"Oh, um, I really like video games, and I like superheroes a whole lot as well," Tomas said, looking pretty excited to be able to talk about things that he liked.

"Oh, really? That's cool, what superheroes are your favourites?"

"Spider-Man!" Tomas said excitedly. "Spider-Man is my favourite." He turned to Harper, probably because he was the one sitting next to Sebastian and also the one who had spoken the most. "Do you like superheroes? Who is your favourite?"

Harper looked surprised to be address by his uncle so brazenly, but he answered. "Oh, um, my favourite is Harley Quinn."

"How come?"

"I really like her costumes, especially in Suicide Squad."

Roman glanced at Manuel. This was an example of Harper's interest in traditionally more feminine things, and he was ready to defend his son if Manuel or Mónica said anything about it whatsoever.
 
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Samuel followed Roman's glance to Manuel as well but he did or said nothing. Either he was keeping his word, or maybe he was reading it as a thirteen-year-old boy definitely being interested in the costume of a female character. The hemlock-Ortega family knew it wasn't just a matter of Harley-Quinn being pretty, though that probably played into it as well seeing as they had seen Harper interested in female celebrities before, but a matter of appreciating the costume design. Harper liked things like that, he appreciated things he thought were pretty in ways boys weren't normally encouraged to do, and Samuel was so proud of him for being himself like that.

He was also glad his father didn't comment on it in any way at all. Harpe didn't need that kind of negativity about it.

"She's not really a superhero though, Harper," Stella said, this was the first time she was speaking up and it was to address her brother. Samuel certainly wasn't going to do anything to push any of the kids out of their comfort zones during this dinner. Though, Samuel had a feeling it was less about comfort and more about keeping to her principles for Stella, "She's a villain, even if she helped save the world in suicide squad. Like she always teams with the joker and he's the bad guy. And sometimes in the comics she and Poison Ivy are literally girlfriends and dating so, she's a bad guy, not a hero."

That one got some reaction from Manuel though, nothing vocal, he was really keeping his word it seemed. But a slight scowl appeared on his face as Stella so openly stated that two female characters were dating, something she clearly was invested in. Which led Samuel to believe that maybe he had actually picked up on Harper's fondness for things he liked aesthetically, and had been holding it back.

"Stella likes cartoons and comics a lot," Samuel explained, clearly sounding just a little nervous, he knew he shouldn't, but he just didn't want things to end badly, especially not because of the kids just being themselves, "Tomas, do you like to read the superhero comics or watch the movies and stuff?"
 
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Usually Roman would have facilitated this sort of in-depth discussion between his kids because it encouraged them to look outside the box and actually study the characters they were watching. But it wasn't really a conversation that they could have in front of Manuel or his family. This was proven by the horrified look on Mónica's face when Stella mentioned the two female characters dating. But she said nothing, and therefore, Roman said nothing either.

"Anything! I like to read the comics, watch the movies and the shows, play the video games, anything!" Tomas said excitedly.

"You sound like my friend Elliot, he loves superheroes and Star Wars a whole lot," Roman said to the small boy.

"Oooh, he sounds super cool, can we —"

"Tomas, don't talk with your mouth full," Mónica gently chastised her son. Tomas had indeed been talking with his mouth filled with paella, but Roman knew he had been about to ask if they could meet Elliot, which was why Mónica had interrupted, because she had assumed that anyone Roman was friends with was similar in certain ways.

Roman just decide to change the subject. He looked to Julia with a smile. "So does my paella live up to your abuela's?"
 
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