The Taco Diaries...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

HARLINGEN, Texas | Guillermo Garcia met younger Claudia Salas while in line inside a popular taco joint. He'd been captured by the softness of the back of her legs. The day had dragged and now all he wanted was his usual three fajita tacos on corn tortillas and maybe a lemonade, canned would do. Claudia had not noticed him, her mind being on the handsome guy who'd moved into that apartment across the hall.

She thought his name was Wilfredo, although that was more about what she thought she heard when he'd introduced himself the first time they'd seen each other. Here, she was itching for a to-go order.

"So," Guillermo said aloud right into the back of her head. "You've eaten here before?" Claudia turned her whole body around to see who it was talking. Garcia was not a handsome man, his stocky, portly build nothing like the new neighbor's physique, which she thought was sexy.

"What?" she said next in a cold tone.

"Have you had these tacos?" Guillermo went on.

"Excuse me?" he heard in return. Circling annoyance joined the hot, humid air inside the eatery.

"I'm not making a pass or anything like that," he quickly explained in a congenial tone of voice. "I'd really, really like your opinion on the food here." Claudia frowned and turned back around, deciding to ignore him.

"I mean, are the fajita tacos good here, or what?" he pressed on, speaking now to Claudia's long, black hair. It was a nice, cool day in Harlingen, and he was in the mood to make a friend. Claudia, however, was not answering.

When they got to the counter, they stood alongside each other, and, while they waited for their order, less-aloof Claudia went ahead and acknowledged his presence.

"Tacos de trompo are my favorites," she threw out as Guillermo stood with his hands in his jacket.

"Never heard of those," he told her. "What are they - French?"

Claudia heard her name called by the taqueria's employee, took her bagged order and walked away...

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