A Dream Called Home

Cory invites Reyna to lunch after the winter break. Keen to show him her reality as a single mother, she brings Nathan along on the date. Cory goes over to Reyna’s house after the meal. He stays for hours, asking if she likes Scrabble and sharing personal information about his family. Reyna learns that Cory’s parents divorced when he was three years old and that his mother raised him alone until she remarried. Although Cory did not see his father often, he bears no resentment toward him or his mother. Reyna hopes her son feels the same way when he grows up. Cory stays at Reyna’s house until dinner time, at which point he asks her out again. Reyna calls her mother to babysit Nathan while she and Cory go to a Thai restaurant. They go hiking together the following week, scaling rocks and jumping into the creek along the way. Reyna wishes she and Cory were more than friends.

Reyna invites Cory over for dinner on his birthday. She spends hours cooking chicken mole, the national dish of Mexico, while he and Nathan play games in the dining room. Reyna is pleased to see Cory and Nathan enjoying each other’s company.