Page 19 of After the Fire
“Mom, what are people going to say?” she said as she rested her back on the headboard. “This is ridiculous. It’s not the time for this.”
“Cristina,por favor, no digas estupideces.”Don’t say stupid things. “It is exactly because I think about what people will say that we’re having the party. This is the end of this discussion.”
“Mamá,” Roberto yelled. “What is wrong with you? Papá,your husband,is missing, and you are pretending to live life as if he were still here. I don’t understand.”
“Keep your voices down,” I said as I turned to leave. I walked out of my daughter’s room and took a deep breath, trying to control my emotions. It was a bold move, I was aware of that, but life had to move on, and we couldn’t look weak. This had already been dubbed the wedding of the year by one of the magazines, and the title was too coveted to let it go so easily.
I went back down the stairs, and Pedro was waiting in the entryway. He had been distant, but as soon as he saw me, his eyes lit up. I knew Pedro was in love with me the first time we had a dance at his school. Pedro was handsome, with broad shoulders and a full head of hair that was constantly untamed. He went to the all-boys school close to our homes, so he walked us to our school every morning and then back in the afternoon until he went to university. Our relationship was easy, playful even. For the longest time, I even believed I would marry him.
It was easy.
Growing up, I’d known I wasn’t the most attractive girl, but I thought I made up for that with my wit and my charm. I knew that I was smart because I was able to really get what I wanted. Every. Single. Time. Some would say I was manipulative. I said I was smart. I had always been able to read into situations and use them to my advantage, to my benefit. To this day, that was most likely one of the only traits that remained from my teenage years: the determination to grow and climb up. Develop, if you will.
“What’s going on?” he said, looking concerned. “What are they going on about?”
“They are ganging up on me,” I said, walking straight to him. I stood on my toes and stretched up to him, kissing his cheek. He grabbed my waist and pulled me to him, taking a deep breath and inhaling my scent. We stood there for a minute, neither of us willing to move.
“Ya se les va a pasar,”he said. They’ll get over it. I didn’t think it would be as easy as that, but I always managed to get what I wanted. I took a step back, then looked at him. He looked tired; his hair was a mess. I couldn’t remember ever seeing him like this, so affected. He always kept his composure, even during the most trying times. “Be patient.”
He smiled at me, a sweet, shy smile, then kissed the top of my head. If I were a weaker woman, I would melt. But I needed to take care of things, so I took a step back and turned, heading to the dining room.
“The ladies are here,” I said over my shoulder and left him standing there, looking at me with that longing in his eyes that I’d only seen a handful of times before.
11
THE OTHER ONE
Santiago’soverwhelming presence was aggravating me, but at the same time, it was so calming and peaceful that my brain was jumbled. I had never, ever been jumbled.
My goals had always been clear to me. Calculated and intentional, in every single thing I did. It was taught in our home, and it was what was expected of me, always.
But suddenly, the circumstances that were trailing me exceeded me.
“Cata,” I answered, my phone propped up against a vase on the small dining table in my room. I had been mindlessly scrolling on my phone for hours, not paying close attention to anything in particular. In that period of time, I found out that two girls from college were having babies and another one was getting married. “What’s up?”
“Okay, so I have to tell you something, but I need you to promise me to stay calm.” She looked straight into my eyes, and even through the phone screen, I could see her concern.
“Cata, what could be worse than everything that’s happened to me in the past ten days?” My shoulders sagged, and I tilted my head, waiting for her to say whatever was on her mind. I could hear rain pelting down against the bedroom window. The morning had been gloomy, perfect reading weather, and as the afternoon progressed, so did the storm.
“Manuel is in Australia,” she said quickly. “Your brother confirmed it today.”
“What?” I blinked. “On my trip?”
“Yes,” she said. “He’s not alone.”
“Who is she?” It was the first thing that came out of my mouth, but I didn’t want to know. I shook my head and lifted my hand to stop her. “No, I don’t want to know.”
Manuel and I had courted under the watchful eye of Susana. From the beginning, we were complete opposites: he was a man of many, many friends, and I was a loner who preferred to spend time with her family and had, quite literally, one friend. He was well connected—both of us were—both because of his family name and because of his profession at a creative agency, where he bumped elbows with the city’s elite.
He loved going to a brewery close to our shared apartment, even after I repeatedly told him that I didn’t like beer. That was where he took me for our first date.
“I don’t think we know her,” she said, knowing that I would still want more information. “I think it might be someone from work or work adjacent.”
“What does that mean?”
“Like, acquaintances with someone from work, maybe a sister or best friend of someone from work?” It didn’t matter. “It doesn’t matter really.”
“So I guess I’m not the only one who runs away when the situation doesn’t suit her,” I said, scrunching my nose at the thought of comparing myself to Manuel. “What a fucking coward.”
