"There you are!", Julia exclaimed as the young woman walked through the front door.
"Sorry I'm late. This rude guy bumped into me and I spilled all my coffee. I had to get a new one.", she replied and pointed at the half-dried brown stains on her white shirt. Jules scrunched her nose in disgust.
"I know. I'll change right away."
"Lima!", the little blonde boy screamed as he ran down the stairs and hugged her leg.
"Hey buddy! Did you miss me", she said to the little boy and ruffled his hair.
"Where were you for so long?", the little boy pouted and poked her in the side.
"I had to get a cookie for you", Lima smiled and pulled the cookie from her bag, giving it to Alex, who quickly started eating it.
"Do you need any help setting up for tonight?", she asked Julia.
"Yes please. Could you get the salads out of the fridge and put them outside on the table? And I think we need some napkins. There should be some in the drawer by the kitchen table.", she listed.
"No problem, Jules. And it's still okay for you if I come? I'm only your babysitter.", Lima said.
"Of course! You are part of the family.", The brunette woman gently touched her shoulder before she turned around and made her way outside.

•

BBQ's were a US tradition Lima would never understand. You invite total strangers to your home who just happened to be your neighbors. And then you cook for them. And they bring food too. How would you know that they are not trying to kill you?

"How do you like it?", Julia had walked up to her without her noticing and when she started talking Lima flinched. She didn't like being surprised, but didn't want to make Julia feel uncomfortable, so she tried to play it off by chuckling: "It's nice. People here are very friendly."
"It must be strange. Living here now. A place that is so different from your home country.", Jules offered her a juice and she took it with a gentle smile.
"It is very different. But in a good way... hell, it's almost impossible to be worse than where I'm from", she joked and Jules smiled. "Oh my god! He actually came. I can't believe it. Excuse me for a second.", Jules said absentmindedly and moved towards the entrance fence of the garden, greeting a tall man in a dark suit. He looks like the asshole who made me spill my coffee, Lima thought as she slowly walked closer to see the new arrival. As she got close enough to see his face, an annoyed expression made its way onto her face. He is the guy that spilled my coffee.

"LIMA! Come here. Let me introduce you!", Jules waved her over, and as the man looked at her, a knowing look went over his face. He had recognized her. "Lima, this is Billy Russo, my brothers best friend from the army. Billy, this is Lima. She is new to the country and lives with me as an integration program for refugees. She is helping me take care of Alex and Emma."

"Where are you from", the man asked. Lima didn't like him. He didn't even have the decency of saying hello to her. how rude.

"Iran. But my father is American. He was a soldier down there."

"Ah.", Billy replied and turned back to Jules. "I'll say hello to the others now." and with that he was gone. "Pofak sar", Lima mumbled under her breath. "What was that?", Jules turned around to her. "Oh nothing. It's what we say in Persian to say that someone is a very pleasant person to have a conversation with."

"Yah, I know what you mean.", Jules chuckled and took a sip of juice from her cup, "but what can I do. He was Franks best friend. I've known him for almost 10 years now. He is family. However big of a - what was it you said?", Lima smiled: "Pofak sar. It means Cheese-Puff head"

Julia laughed: "Alright, however big of a cheese-puff head he is."

•

Lima considered herself lucky that she didn't cross path with Billy again for the entire dinner. It had been intentional. She figured, a person like that with his designer shoes and wrinkle free suit would probably not enjoy being around two messy kids. And she had been right. She had eaten her dinner at the kids table and Billy always seemed to be the one person keeping as much distance to it as possible.

"Have you met uncle Billy yet?", Emma asked her as she stuffed another sausage into her mouth.

"I have. What a pleasant man.", Lima replied.

"Uncle Billy is a poopie head", the 5 year old boy replied, making Emma spit out her sausage in laughter.

"And here I thought you liked me.", the low voice coming from behind startled Lima. Of course he was standing right behind her. She slowly turned and faked a smile. He didn't even attempt to look friendly.

"Well, Uncle Billy, maybe we would like you more if you came to visit more often.", Emma replied and shot him an ice cold look before turning her attention back to her dinner.

"Fair enough.", Billy replied and sat down next to Lima. She scoffed as he pushed her towards the end of the bench so he'd have enough space, almost causing her to fall off. "What is your problem?", she finally said to him. He slowly turned to her, an arrogant smile on his face. "What was that?"

"I asked you what your problem is. Because you seem to be rude to me all the time and I never did anything to you. Is it because I'm brown? Is that it? Are you a racist?"

But Billy just laughed. "I don't care about the color of your skin Lily...", "It's Lima", "whatever. It's the fact that you ruined my favorite shirt today at the cafe when you ran into me."

"I DID NOT!", Lima exclaimed, "You didn't watch where you were going. You bumped into me!"

"You should've looked where you were standing. If you had, then maybe you could've seen me turn around. This is on you!"

"IT IS NOT!"

"Hey guys. Can you relax maybe? You're upsetting mom.", Emma interrupted them and they both turned to look at Julia approaching them. She had an angry expression on her face and it made Lima crouch down in her seat like a child. Billy however seemed unfazed.

"What is going on over here?", Julia asked the two of them as she stood in front of them, arms crossed like an angry school teacher. She had a lot of practice at that.

"He's the guy who made me spill my coffee today.", Lima replied and Billy shot her a dirty look.

"Actually, she spilled her coffee on me because she didn't look where she was going.", Billy said and Jules rolled her eyes.

"You know what we do in School when we have an argument?", Jules said and Alex and Emma started giggling.

"Oh please no. Jules!", Billy started but Jules raised her index finger and he fell quiet immediately. She has to show me how to do that, Lima thought with a grin. She turned to Billy, who sat next to her with a sour expression.

"Don't look so smug Lima. You too!", Jules said and Lima turned to her. "But he started it!"

"Wow. You guys are very bad grownups.", Emma laughed as she grabbed the last of her sausages from her plate and left the situation, before Jules' anger got out of control.

"Ugh, fine. What do we have to do?", Lima said and Jules started to smile.