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One month later.....

Cameron slapped the dough hard on the counter.

"That's it, Angel, spank it like you mean it!" Diego whooped.

"You! No! Respect! Don't speak that way in my kitchen!" Rosa cracked a wooden spoon on Diego's knuckles.

Cameron stood wide eyed, but relaxed when Diego just laughed.

"If you're not careful, Mom, Cameron's gonna call CPS on you. Child abuse! This crazy woman is hitting her poor defenseless little boy!" Diego pretended to cower.

Rosa kneaded her dough, and gestured for Cameron to do the same. "Hijo, you were never defenseless even when you were a baby. Such attitude! I'm a saint for putting up with it all these years. Now, Cameron, sprinkle in the almonds and keep kneading until they are mixed in. And you!" She gestured to Diego, picking up the spoon again. "Be good!"

Cameron spent the afternoon with Diego and his mom. Rosa ran a catering style, party service from her home. Small scale, but she was known for her delicious food and her detailed displays. She'd been happy to teach Cameron a few things, when she found out her son's new friend liked cooking. They done pazole verde last weekend and today it was sweet almond bunuelos. Cameron leaned down and sniffed the dough.

"It smells so good." His eyes were shining. "Now what?"

"Now we have to let it rest. Go play, for a while. I need to talk to Diego's grandma upstairs."

Diego lived in a duplex of sorts, with the ground floor for he and his parents, and two older sisters. His dad's parents lived upstairs, and they all just went back and forth between the places. It was in a nice neighborhood, on the other side of town, about halfway between the Tanner's and the Winters. Sometimes the three friends were here, sometimes at the Winter's, and sometimes at Chris' house. But today Chris had track practice and so Diego took Cameron alone to his place.

The minute Diego and Cameron had stepped into the house, Cameron immediately went to the kitchen. Thus the impromptu cooking lesson. Rosa already adored Cameron. It had taken her a while to accept her son's sexuality, but when he'd come to her as a shy twelve year old boy and told her he had a crush on one of his friends, she promised herself and her son that she'd learn more and try her best to  keep an open mind and an open heart. She'd just asked him to keep it from his grandma, because she was in her late eighties and it might be too much for her to process. Christopher was acceptable, but he was a little sarcastic for Roas's taste. Cameron on the other hand. She kept pressuring Diego to ask Cameron over, giving them lots of alone time when he was visiting.

Diego just laughed, and tried to tell her that Cameron was involved with someone else. But she kept putting her foot down. "I don't see a ring! Where is this other boy, hmm? Not here, right? You make him yours, ok, hijo? I want that boy in this family. He's a keeper. He's polite, sweet, he likes to cook, he stays at home, he reads, gets good grades. He's perfect! He will make you a good wife."

Diego groaned, "Mom, husband...husband...not a wife. Most guys really don't like that."

"Whatever, whatever! But you do what you need to, I want him as my daughter in law, ok?"

-----

Cameron followed Diego into his room. He'd been surprised to find, when he first came over, that Diego loved art. His room was covered in his sketches and papered with different things he'd printed out from the computer. He'd been drawing since he was in grade school in Los Angeles, just watching YouTube videos and messing around. But he kept it up and now, at 18, he was a decent artist. Some of his sketches were of flowers or coffee mugs or whatever was just lying around. Lately he'd been experimenting with oils.  His favorite piece at the moment was Klimt's The Kiss. Given the opportunity, he would go on and on about it, the gold with the bright spots of color, the geometry of it. Cameron could just sit and listen to him talk about art forever. He had to admit. It was pretty hot.

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