“No, I’ve definitely been here at the bar,” she said dryly.
“Drinking alone?” asked a concerned Belisaria. “Tell me what’s going on, Kate.”
“Don’t worry about me,” she rushed. “This is only the second time I’ve been here since I got back from New York. Besides, I'm just having a coke. Drinking your unhappiness away isn’t a good way to go.”
“Unhappiness?” asked Belisaria.
“Enzo is married now and expecting a child,” she said, bitterness overflowing from her like a waterfall.
I left the road wide open for her, Kate thought. What was I thinking?
“The way I understood it, the guy never wanted to marry you or have a family, did he?” Gary blurted.
“Ouch! Thanks for making me feel worse.”
“I’m not trying to make you feel worse,” Gary said lightly.
“Then what are you trying to do?” she asked angrily.
“I’m trying to get you to come to your senses.”
“What?”
“Wake up and smell the coffee,” Gary stated.
“Excuse me?”
“He’s never been the right man for you.”
“Excuse me?” she repeated with a tone that was surprised and angry at the same time.
“You’ve held on to a man who couldn’t give you what you really wanted.”
“What do you know about what I want?” Kate snapped.
“You want to get married, don’t you? You want to have children.”
“But—“
“But nothing! Stop lying to yourself, Kate. Be honest, if not with me, with yourself.”
“But—“
“Gary is right, Kate,” Belisaria interjected. “You deserve more than what Lorenzo was willing to give you.”
“What would the therapist say about this?” asked Gary.
Kate sighed. “The therapist would talk about honesty.”
“So what’s the truth, Kate?”
Fat tears welled up in her eyes. “You’re right,” she said quietly. “Why couldn’t he have wanted a more concrete relationship with me? What’s wrong with me that he preferred another woman?”
“What would the therapist say?”
“Why do you keep asking me about the therapist?” Kate said bitterly. “I gave up my practice because the therapist was no good.”
“That’s bull!" Gary snapped. "The therapist was great. It was the woman who got in her way.”
“But—“
“But nothing. Now tell me what the therapist would say about your situation—about him preferring another woman?”
Kate sighed deeply. “The therapist would say that wondering if one is good enough for someone else is not the right question. People are full of complexities and that’s why they choose some over others.”
“That sounds pretty accurate to me.”
“The real question lays in our own lives—what we hold on to and what we give up.”
“And you gave up marriage and children to be with him,” Gary stated quietly.
“Yes, I did.”
An awkward silence ensued as none of them said anything. The waitress brought their meals, but with the tense atmosphere at the table, the steaks were left practically untouched. Gary’s cell phone rang, cutting the loud quiet.
He checked to see who the call was from. “It’s a client,” he said quickly. “I have to take it.”
As he stepped out of the restaurant for privacy, Kate turned to Belisaria. “What’s gotten into Gary? Your boyfriend has never talked to me like that.”
“I’ve got to tell you something,” Belisaria stated.
“What?”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” Belisaria explained.
“What did you say?”
“We’re just friends.”
“You broke up with him?”
Belisaria eyed her carefully. “We were never together in that way.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I haven’t been honest with you.”
“What do you mean?” Kate asked, fully curious.
“I’m gay, Kate,” she declared.
“You are?”
“Yes and I know what it's like to live a lie,” Belisaria commented, eyeing Kate carefully.
“Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
“Sometimes I get tired of fighting the prejudice out there so when people assume that Gary and I are together, instead of the best friends that we are, I don't clear it up for them. That way I save myself the aggravation of their discrimination.”
“Belisaria, I’m not like that. You know me.”
“Yes, I know,” Belisaria said quietly.
“I don’t care about your sexual orientation—I really don’t.”
“I know you would’ve accepted me, but I don’t see why I have to talk about my love life. I don’t ask other people about theirs.”
Kate nodded. “You’re right.”
“I don’t ask straight people what their sexual preference is. My love life is private to me, and it shouldn’t be anyone’s business.”
“No, it shouldn’t—not even a nosy boss.”
Belisaria smiled. “You’re a great person, Kate. You really are and as a human being who has to live in a world trying to force me to be what I’m not, I know what its like not to be able to be yourself. Kate, you can’t be with a person who doesn’t allow you to fully realize yourself. That’s too much of a compromise! Too much!”
Kate nodded.
“You know exactly what I’m saying. You’re too good of a therapist not to.”
“You’re right,” Kate said quietly.
“I told you about me so you could see where I’m coming from, so you could see that I understand your position better than you think I do.”
“Thank you for sharing, Belisaria.”
Stepping back into the restaurant, Gary took his seat next to Belisaria and across from Kate.
“Did you settle what you needed to with your client?” asked Belisaria.
“Everything’s fine,” he assured. “Being a lawyer can be trying sometimes.”
“I imagine,” stated Kate.
“And it can make me too blunt. I’m sorry, Kate. I didn’t mean to tear into you like that.”
“It's okay, Gary.”
“Sometimes my mouth runs off.”
“Really, it's okay.”
“I didn't mean to stick my nose in your business.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Kate declared. “It’s time that I stop feeling sorry for myself and move on with my life.”
“That’s a great plan,” stated Belisaria.
“Unfortunately, it’s easier said than done,” Kate declared.
“But not impossible,” Gary asserted.
Kate sighed. “No, not impossible.”
Chapter 53
Being that it wasn’t a holiday, the El Paso Airport seemed almost empty in comparison to the crowds that traveled at those times. Lorenzo waited anxiously for his parents’ arrival. When he saw them going towards him, he returned their wide grins.
“How was your trip?” he asked after he bear hugged both his parents.
“The ride was a little bumpy,” complained his father.
“I still can’t get over how fast it is to fly,” assured Mrs. Montes.
As they pulled out of the parking lot, Lorenzo turned on his parents’ favorite radio station from across the border in Juarez. It played classic Mexican songs of such greats as Pedro Infante, Antonio Aguilar, and Vicente Fernandez.
“It’s good to be home,” gushed Mrs. Montes.
Mr. Montes nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, very good.” No matter where they were, El Paso was always home.
Arriving at Lorenzo’s house, introductions were made to Valeria’s parents who had been invited for a get acquainted dinner. They settled comfortably in the dining room. Mrs. Loya had made her spicy signature Mexican Meatloaf with different kin
ds of hot spices that rattled the tongue but made it clamor for more.
“The house looks great, Lorenzo,” Mrs. Montes said, having always been partial to a Southwestern motif.
“Valeria decorated,” Lorenzo stated, smiling.
“How have you been feeling?” asked Mr. Montes, looking at Valeria.
“Very good.”
“How’s my grandchild?” inquired Mrs. Loya.
“Your grandchild kicks a lot,” informed Valeria.
“A lot?” gushed Mrs. Loya. “We'd better start going to the gym to keep up with our grandchild.”
Mrs. Montes chuckled joyfully. “The baby is already like his dad—very active.”
“You’d better enjoy some peace and quiet before my grandbaby is born,” stated Mr. Montes.
“Was Lorenzo like a kangaroo child?” asked Mrs. Loya.
“He seems pretty calm now,” added Mr. Loya.
“It’s not that he was hyperactive—not noisy in that way,” asserted Mrs. Montes.
“I told you,” Lorenzo said, patting Valeria’s hand. “I wasn’t a bad kid.”
“No, he was a great little boy, but he had a lot of nightmares.”
“Nightmares?” asked Mrs. Loya.
“And they were the same ones over and over again. It got to where we’d have to let him sleep with us, or he’d hide underneath his bed all night.”
“You never told me you were scared of night monsters,” teased Valeria.
Lorenzo’s cheeks flushed. “I didn’t have night terrors,” he insisted.
“No, my son wasn’t scared of anything like that,” assured Mr. Montes.
“So what was the problem?” questioned Valeria, her full curiosity showing on her face.
“The Mexican Revolution of 1910,” Mrs. Montes stated matter of factly.
“What?” asked Valeria, surprised.
“For some reason he kept having nightmares about the Mexican Revolution.”
“The strange part was that he mentioned places and names that turned out to be real. We looked them up.”
“Really?” asked Mrs. Loya, fascinated. “This is much more interesting than my telenovela.”
“He knew strategies, locations, and personal things about Pancho Villa,” explained Mr. Montes.
“Maybe he looked them up,” offered Mr. Loya..
“He was too young to read.”
“Movies?”
“He couldn’t have gotten such detail from movies.”
“Come to think of it, Valeria used to have nightmares about the revolution too,” volunteered Mrs. Loya, a surprised tone to her voice. “She'd wake up in the middle of the night and run to our bedroom.”
“In fact, now that I remember,” stated Mr. Loya, “Most of them stopped when we moved next door to this kind elderly woman.”
“Yes, this woman told Valeria about her parents in the revolution. After that, she only had one recurring nightmare, but you haven’t had it in a while, have you?” Mrs. Loya asked her daughter.
“No,” answered Valeria, her tone baffled. “I haven’t had it in a long time.”
“But they don’t seem to have been as bad as you tell us Lorenzo’s were. At least hers went away.”
“Lorenzo’s nightmares eventually disappeared too,” informed Mrs. Montes. “Thank goodness.”
Quietly, Lorenzo stared out the window. He had always hated lying to his parents but in order to save them from anguished worry, he had told them the nightmares had left him. In reality, they never had. Occasionally, they still popped up.
“What a coincidence that both of you had nightmares about the Mexican
Revolution,” Mrs. Loya commented. “A big coincidence.”
“It’s also strange that Lorenzo knew details as a young child,” Mr. Loya remarked. “How do you explain that?”
“We stopped trying to explain it a long time ago,” informed Mr. Montes. “We left it at life is strange sometimes.”
“If you ask me, I think that the fact that they both dreamed about a revolution has to mean that they were meant to be together,” asserted Mrs. Loya.
“You’re comparing love to war?” asked Mr. Montes, amused.
“I’m saying that life itself is a battlefield and it’s good to find the right companion to get through it,” Mrs. Loya explained as if surprised no one had figured it out. “It’s good our kids found each other.”
“Yes, very good,” declared Mrs. Montes with a grin.
The strained relationship between them didn’t stop Billy from running to Lorenzo’s classroom on their free period to tell his former friend the news. Billy anxiously explained, eyeing Lorenzo to make sure he was listening to every word.
“They seemed really together,” announced Billy slyly, his lips in a sardonic twitch.
Lorenzo stepped closer to Billy to make certain he had heard correctly. “Are you sure about that?”
“I know what I saw.”
“So she’s back in town,” he murmured pensively.
“Boy is she ever.”
“And you said she wasn’t alone.”
“Her new man was kissing her like crazy. They seemed in love,” Billy said, jabbing away.
“Kissing her?”
“Yes, the guy was all over Kate as if she was cat nip or something.” He had seen her and her new man at the mall cozying up to each other.
“How did she look?”
“Foxy as always.”
Lorenzo frowned at Billy’s misinterpretation. “I meant, did she look okay?”
“She looked better than okay. She was devouring the attention from the guy all up. She looked totally happy.”
“Happy?”
“Yes, like a kid during Christmas. She looked sooo beautiful. I never understood how you let a woman like that go. Why you never married her.”
“It just wasn’t in the cards for us, Billy.”
“I'm your friend so I have to tell you. I don't understand why you would marry Valeria instead of Kate. Valeria doesn't seem to be a stable person to me.”
“Is that why you kept trying to get it on with her?” Lorenzo asked sarcastically.
“You don’t have to get defensive. I’m just trying to help you out since we’re friends.”
“No, you’re not trying to help me out,” Lorenzo snapped. “Your pride is still hurting over Valeria having picked me instead of you.”
“That’s not true—“
“Of course it’s true.”
“I’ve got to go,” Billy blurted, heading towards the door.
“I want to make it clear that if I catch you bad mouthing Valeria again, you won’t be able to stand up for a month.”
Billy stepped out the door without acknowledging what Lorenzo had threatened, but Lorenzo knew he had felt every word. That was a friend? Who needs enemies? But he was grateful though that even if it had been maliciously intended, Billy had told him about Kate. If it was true that she had a new boyfriend then she was moving on. That was the best of news
Chapter 54
Lorenzo’s parents had fortunately visited before Valeria had gotten at her biggest and wouldn't have been able to stay active with them. Now that she was so close to giving birth her body almost felt like a separate entity she had to drag with her. Her discomfort showed on her face even when she tried not to let it. Her abdomen was huge, her navel had popped out, and sleeping was close to impossible. Thankfully, school was out for the summer and she could rest at home all she wanted.
Her mother; however, had different ideas.
“We’re walking in the park,” Mrs. Loya informed her with a firm voice.
“No, I don’t—”
“We’re going,” Mrs. Loya ordered. “You’ll thank me when you’re in labor and praying that the baby pops out fast.”
“But—”
“The baby needs a walk. Don't argue with me.”
“Okay, Mama,” Valeria muttered.
It w
as while her mother chatted about how beautiful the day was that Valeria tried to focus on keeping a steady pace. Her mother ignored her discomfort and changed the conversation to talk about animals. Valeria didn't pay attention to her mother's exact words. She was too busy trying not to trip on her own two feet as her mother remarked about how birds, pigs, and chickens were noble animals.
“Hi, Valeria, I thought that was you,” Billy Woods greeted as he stepped up to her.
Startled, her sight met his. “What are you doing here?”
“I saw you as I was driving home,” he stated. “I thought it would be rude not to say hello.”
“Mom, this is Billy,” Valeria said, introducing him. Mrs. Loya was already eyeing him from top to bottom with a suspicious look.
“Pleased to meet you,” Mrs. Loya mumbled with a tight mouth as she extended her hand towards him.
“Pleased to meet you too,” answered Billy, taking her hand but instead of shaking it, he kissed it. “I can see where you get your looks, Valeria. You look exactly like your mother.”
Mrs. Loya jerked her hand away, her eyebrows slamming together.
“Thank you,” Valeria said dryly.
“How’s Lorenzo?” he asked, an angry undertone to his voice.
“Fine.”
“Has he seen Kate?”
“Kate?” asked Valeria, the name jolting her.
“Yes, Kate’s back in town. You knew she had left, right?”
“Yes.”
“Didn’t he tell you that she’s back?”
“Who’s Kate?” asked Mrs. Loya.
“His former fiancé,” stated Billy.
“Fiancé?” asked Mrs. Loya.
Valeria frowned. “They were never engaged, Billy, and you know it.”
“But they lived together for like five years, didn’t they?” Billy asked.
“Then why didn’t he marry her?” questioned Mrs. Loya, eyeballing Billy in a furious challenge.
“Uh . . . Because . . .”
“Because he didn’t love her, Mr. Booby,” Mrs. Loya stated.
“That’s Billy,” he quickly informed her.
“Yes—whatever,” Mrs. Loya stated.
“Lorenzo loved Kate—he just didn’t want to marry her,” Billy declared smugly.
“Lorenzo loves my daughter,” announced Mrs. Loya, making certain she enunciated every word as she kept her heavy sight on Billy.
“Nonetheless,” Billy blurted angrily. “I don’t know why he didn’t tell you that Kate was in town. I told him about it a while ago.”
“You did?” asked Valeria with insecurity bubbling inside of her.
“I sure did,” Billy smirked.
“Maybe he doesn’t think an ex is important enough to mention,” Mrs. Loya stated, her voice disgusted. “After all, that’s the past.”