I met Walter on a random warm night in California. I had just gotten off work, tired and honestly not in the mood to talk to anyone. I stopped at this little street stand to grab a drink before heading home, just trying to have a quiet moment. He was already there, joking with the vendor in Spanish about putting too much ice in his cup. I wasn’t even trying to pay attention, but it was kind of funny… and I ended up laughing. Like actually laughing, not just a fake polite one. He turned around right away and looked at me, smiled, and said something like, “Well… I guess that worked, I got your attention.” It wasn’t even that smooth, but it felt real, so I didn’t brush him off. We ended up sitting on the curb talking. At first it was just small stuff like where we’re from, work, normal things, but it kind of shifted without me noticing. We started talking about family, growing up Hispanic in the U.S., that feeling of being in between two worlds. It didn’t feel awkward or forced, which is rare. I remember checking my phone at some point and realizing hours had passed. The streetlights were already on and I was still there, talking to someone I had just met like I’d known him forever. I wasn’t planning on meeting anyone that night, especially not like that. But that’s kind of what made it feel real.