Chapter Eleven
Henna's morning was spent at the spa with her mother, aunt, and sister. There was no Gloria around to make her feel threatened or ill at ease. After a massage, which finished the job of relaxing her totally, she went to the terrace where the ladies were meeting for lunch.
When she thought about it, the Hirsch girls hadn't had a girly day for at least a year. Eden sat with her sunglasses on under a shady umbrella as Henna took her own seat. She looked at her sister who peered back at her over sunglasses, smirking.
“So…” Eden grinned. “Anything new with you?” It was the first opportunity the two had found to chat alone since the previous afternoon.
Henna narrowed her eyes and stared at her sister. “No. Why do you ask?”
“Oh,” Eden examined her nails, “I don't know.” She lifted a drink to her lips and sucked on the straw. “So, meet anyone new recently? Anyone, oh, I don't know…slightly more mature than you with an exotic, let's say, South American flair?”
“Oh, for god sakes. I'm sleeping with Eduardo. Everyone knows. I assume you are a part of everyone.” She picked up a magazine and flicked through it.
“I know. Everybody knows. ” Eden cheered. “I heard about you and Gloria getting into it at the bar.”
“We did not get into it at the bar. Who knows about this?”
“Other than Romeo, Gloria, Hector, and me?” Eden grinned. “Nobody. Except Leo. I did tell Simon. But he already knew. He told me to keep my mouth shut. As if.”
“No one else? Because you could have just sent out a group email. Probably would have saved you some time.”
“Don't blame me,” Eden said. “Eduardo is the one with the big mouth. He's the one who let it slip.”
Her eyes snapped sharply to Eden's smug face. “What?”
“Eduardo, your lover,” Eden purred out the last word. “Told Princess Crazy, he met a pretty lady that made his heart go thumpy-thump. Well, Princess Crazy calls Romeo. Of course, I intercept the call, because I've learned well over the past three months that Princess Crazy is a world class shit-stirrer.”
“Stop.” Henna held up a hand. “Who the hell is Princess Crazy?”
“Esmeralda,” Eden said. “Hector's sister, Romeo's ex-girlfriend, and Eduardo's goddaughter.”
“You mean that poor girl who has profound emotional issues and is currently on her way to a sanitarium in Switzerland because she's unable to cope? That's Princess Crazy?” She gave Eden the hardest and most uncompromising look she could muster. “Do you have any compassion or empathy for the suffering of others, or do you still only think of yourself?”
“You heard about Princess Crazy?” And there was no getting through to Eden.
“We do talk between the sex. Who else knows about us?”
“Well, maybe daddy knows.”
“How would daddy know?”
“I told him,” Eden said.
“What do you mean you told him?”
“Well, the truth is, just for once it's nice that I'm the responsible one he's proud of and you're the naughty little minx who turns his hair gray.” Eden gave a large sigh. “Life is so good.”
“Did you know that daddy, Leo, Romeo, and Eduardo are golfing this morning?”
“I do,” Eden said. “In fact, I told daddy right before he went down to the lobby to meet Eduardo and Romeo for breakfast. Before you tell me how childish I am, I just want to remind you of all the times you've ratted me out in my life. I think we're now officially even.” Eden smiled.
“You realize daddy is carrying clubs with him,” she said.
“Eduardo can handle himself,” Eden said. “I know you think you know him, and in a few ways you do know him better than I, but honestly I know him a whole lot better than you do at this moment. Eduardo Salazar is not a wimp.”
“Good point,” she said. “Besides, any man daddy can scare isn't the one for me.”
“Excellent point. So what do you think? He's a little old fashioned but charming.”
“Eduardo is...” She sighed deeply just thinking about him, and the word that best described him.
“Incredible? Makes you feel like a princess? Like a woman?”
“Exactly,” she said.
“Romeo is the same.” Eden glowed like a bride should. “I love him so much you can't imagine.”
“Do you believe in destiny?” Henna put down her magazine and crinkled her nose.
“Who are you and where is my neurotic sister?”
“I'm serious. Do you believe in destiny?”
“Yes,” Eden said. “I knew Romeo was the one for me the moment I saw him. It was destiny.”
“I don't know. It's just so illogical. Destiny. Brujas. It's so far away from how I normally look at life.”
“You've heard about the bruja.” Eden nodded. “Do not underestimate the power of the bruja.”
“I don't believe in the supernatural.”
“Not powerful like that,” Eden said. “I mean they really do go to her for council and they listen to her. She's got a lot of power on the mountaintop where their plantation is. Not so much the Salazars, but the people who work for them and live near them, so they give her a lot of respect.”
“That's disturbing,” she said.
“She's a scary old woman. Seriously, there is something very spooky about her.”
“You met the bruja?”
“I met the bruja,” Eden confirmed. “When I went to Colombia over Easter. I had to go and meet the bruja. Spooky. Aunt Midge would love her.”
“What did she tell you?”
“I can't tell you,” Eden said. “It's a secret. Bad things will happen to me if I reveal anything she told me before it happens.”
“You don't speak Spanish,” she said.
“I've gotten a lot better over the past three months. Besides, she drew me a picture. It's actually pretty good. She's got a sort of Modigliani edge. I'd show you, but then I'd be cursed to be alone, childless, and miserable. But then again, I could always move in with you and we could start collecting cats and cookie jars.”
Henna's two worst fears. The first great fear; living alone with cats and surrounded by collections of bric-a-brac. The threat of that grim sort of future controlled too many of her decisions. Just as her other great fear ruled too many choices. Ending up with the wrong man prevented her from ending up with any man.
“Thanks. This is nuts. I've got people coming at me with destiny and impressionist bruja's. It's like common sense has left the building.”
“I think if maybe you thought with your heart on occasion and not just your head, then maybe you wouldn't be alone.” Eden reached over and took her hand. “I love you. It makes me sad that you're alone. I want you to find what I've found with Romeo.”
“You hardly know him,” she repeated what she'd said all along.
“How long do you need to know someone to know you're in love and you want to spend your life with them? I knew when I met him that I wanted to be with Romeo.”
“But...”
“But what?” Eden shrugged with a smile.
“What if it doesn't work out?” There were always the little practicalities Eden never seemed to think about. Were they going to stay in Italy? What about later? Would they go to Colombia? Why couldn't they just live together for a period of time to try it out before they took a leap into marriage defied reason? They had no plan. She seemed to have more questions that needed answering than Eden did.
“What if it doesn't?” Eden shrugged again. “I'm no prophet. I'm pretty sure it will, but shit happens all of the time. Look at Aunt Midge and Uncle Lou. They were crazy about each other. Do you really think she planned on him dropping dead of a heart attack? Not everything goes according to plan, Henna. Sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith and assume love will carry you through.”
“You really are in love, aren't you?” She stared at her sister. “This isn't just some crazy whim like the time you went to Japan because you thought a hostess job meant working in a restaurant.”
“You promised you'd never bring that up again.” Eden had the decency to turn slightly pink at the reminder of her most infamous muddle.
“You sent daddy golfing with Eduardo right after telling him we're sleeping together,” she said.
“Good point,” Eden said. “Perhaps a touch evil of me, but ever so funny.” Eden smiled then leaned closer. “I want you to tell me the truth.”
“If I can,” she said.
“Does Eduardo have a massive cock?” Eden leaned back and held her hands about shoulder width apart. “Because Romeo...”
Of course. Only Eden. “I am not even—I'm just going to pretend you didn't ask me that. I'm just not—no.”
Eden laughed loudly as she sat back in her chair. “He does. He totally does. You're blushing. You never blush. I wonder if that's a genetic thing like brown hair.”
“You are such a child,” she said.
“I'm not. Just so you know, I do feel bad about Simon. I didn't know he liked me liked me.”
“Would it have made any difference?”
“I don't think so. I probably wouldn't have had sex with him in the rumpus room if I'd known. He's not a lousy lover. I don't know what you're talking about. He rocked my world.”
“I don't want to know,” she said.
“I really do feel bad for Esmeralda. She and Romeo were together for years. I'm threatened by her even though I shouldn't be. Sometimes that comes out as meanness.”
“He's marrying you. Not her.”
“Are you happy for me?”
“I am happy for you. I get why you've fallen for him. He's very handsome, and Latin men can be very seductive.”
“That they are.” Eden sighed.
“Maybe I'll try thinking with my heart rather than my head sometime in the future.”
“Really?” Eden asked, looking at her with pursed lips.
“Really,” she said. “I'm thirty-six years old. I'd like to get married and have a baby. Maybe I need to rethink the value of listening to my heart.”