Chapter Seven
Henna's bedside phone jangled in her ear, waking her from the most delicious sleep she'd had in as long as she could remember. Eduardo rolled over, and his hand cupped her bare hip, pulling her away from the persistent telephone to promises of a morning to remember.
“Get rid of them,” he whispered as his body curled against her.
She snatched the phone, determined not to let the unwanted intruder on the other end ruin what promised to be a perfect morning. “Hello,” she snapped.
“Good morning, sunshine!” her father chirped into the phone.
“Daddy,” she gasped, sitting up abruptly and knocking the amorous Eduardo off her. “You're here.” She fumbled out of the sheets that wrapped and twisted around her like a vine.
“Your mother and I just arrived along with Leo, Aunt Midge, and your suitcase that you left behind in the airport,” her father said. “That doesn't sound like you. The girls are on their way up with your bag.”
“Mom is coming up to my room?” She started tossing discarded clothing at Eduardo who grinned a bit too merrily as he dressed.
“Get yourself up and come down and have breakfast with us,” her farther said. “I can't wait to see my little girl.”
“Okay, bye.” She slammed the phone down. “You have got to go now.”
Eduardo finished buttoning his shirt. “I'm going,” he said warmly. “I have a daughter. I am certain she knows men, but I would not want to know this.”
“I'm sorry to just kick you out.” She slipped into a hotel bathrobe as she scanned the room for signs of her night with Eduardo. She grabbed the trashcan and started brushing empty condom wrappers into it. “But you need to get out.”
“I truly understand.” He tossed his linen suit jacket over a shoulder. “Do you honestly think this is how I want to meet my new daughter's parents for the first time?”
“Probably a really bad idea to meet my father like this.” She went to the door and opened it. She stuck her head out the door. No sign of her mother and Aunt Midge. “Coast is clear. Out you go.”
He grinned as he gave her bottom a quick squeeze and passed through the door. “Henna. You might want to hide the zipper bag of condoms.” Again, he chuckled.
“Check.” She gave him a very quick peck. “Bye.”
“Ciao.” He kissed her one final time, then walked directly across the hall and through the door opposite hers. The moment his door closed, her mother and Aunt Midge rounded the corner with her carry-on.
“Hi!” she said warmly when her mother Judith and Aunt Midge reached her door. Judith pulled her carry-on inside her room and left it next to the bed.
“Where's Simon?” Her mother asked, looking around.
“Sick.” She edged over to the desk where the open condom bag spilled out onto the blotter. “He stayed in San Francisco.”
Her aunt watched her with a raised eyebrow and a knowing grin. Nothing got past Aunt Midge, mother of five sons. Henna followed her aunt’s eyes to a discarded male sock peeking out from under a chair. She gasped and her aunt chuckled.
“What?” Her mother started fussing around the room, opening curtains, and tidying discarded clothing.
“Nothing.” Midge walked across the room. “Just thought of something hilarious.” She reached the sock with her shoe and gave it a small kick out of sight when Henna’s mother wasn't looking. Henna loved her Aunt Midge.
“Why haven't you unpacked yet? Please don't tell me you've lived alone so long that you're letting standards slip. It happens you know. Live alone too long and things like personal hygiene and tidiness might not matter so much anymore.” Her mother picked up her discarded dress then took it to the closet and slipped it over a hanger
“Mother. Living alone is not going to make me stop bathing and picking up after myself.”
“Which is why your dress was tossed on the floor? You should marry Simon.”
Henna checked the clock just for accuracy. Her mother had been in her room for less than a minute before mentioning her and Simon in the same sentence.
“I can't understand why the two of you don't get married.” Her mother tsked. “He's Jewish and a doctor and quite honestly darling, you're not getting any younger.”
“Mother! I am not going to marry Simon. Why do we have this conversation every time I see you? Why? He has a fiancé.”
“Waverly is distasteful. You two get along beautifully. What more could you ask for? I’m sure he'd get rid of her, if he knew you were interested. You're good friends, you get along beautifully...” There was no stopping her mother when she got the Simon bug in her britches. But there was tuning her out. Henna went to her carry-on and zipped it open while her mother and Aunt Midge continued the Simon-Henna debate without her participation.
“She doesn't love him!” Aunt Midge snapped. “For the love of god Judith, let it go!”
“I'm just saying....”
Inside her bag was her dress. The perfect dress that cost as much as her first car. It didn't look like much hanging from her fingertips, but thrice weekly yoga classes and daily cardio workouts had earned her a figure that filled the shimmering gold sheath perfectly.
“Is that your dress?” Aunt Midge asked as she too gave up on Judith and joined her.
“What do you think?” She held up the gold dress to her body.
“Honey, if I had your rear, I'd wear the same thing. We could be twins.”
She put her arm around her aunt's shoulders and squeezed. “You're gorgeous you know.” She kissed her aunt on the cheek. She put the dress in the closet then went to her bag. “Shoes.” She picked up the strappy silver sandals with the nearly four-inch heels that went with the dress.
“I may just have to borrow these forever.” Aunt Midge took the shoes from her. “Honey, you have got taste.”
“How much did those cost?” Judith took the shoes from Midge.
“Who cares?!” Midge cried. “Henna is single, fabulous, solvent, and can spend a bundle on a pair of shoes if she wants to.”
“That's right!” Henna smiled at her aunt who gave her a wink. “I'm single, fabulous, and can spend my money however I want to.”
She reached into her bag and pulled out her underwear, which was set on the bed before she pulled out the necktie she'd chosen for Simon along with his suit, shirt, and shoes. Simon wasn't the most fashion forward of men. Forcing him to spend money on clothes represented one of the few contributions to Simon's life that Waverly had made of which Henna approved.
Judith took the suit jacket from her and shook it out. “This is ridiculous you know.”
Midge picked up the corset to go under Henna’s perfect gold dress. “This is gorgeous.”
Judith picked up the matching trousers and waved them like a flag. “Then why do you have his suit in your carry-on?”
“Because I didn't want to take any chances either of us would lose our luggage and not have anything to wear for the wedding.”
“The two of you act like married people.”
“No we don't.”
“How are you two not like married people?” Judith demanded as she shook the necktie at her.
“Married people have sex,” she countered.
“Well, sweetheart, I'm sure it wouldn't take much to get Simon into the sack. Don't think I don't know what happened in my rumpus room Thanksgiving last year. You two can blame it on the booze, but mother knows better.”
“Mom!” She shrieked.
Aunt Midge starts chuckling. “Did you and Simon get busy in the rumpus room?”
Henna screamed a little as she covered her face with her hands. “No! Oh, my god! Simon and Eden got busy in the rumpus room.”
“Really?” Her mother and Aunt Midge gasp in unison.
“Do not say a word,” she warned the two. “Eden doesn't know that I know and this was before she met Romeo. Simon doesn't love me. I think, but I can't be certain, that he's actually in love with my sister. Even if I wanted Simon, I'm pretty sure that ship has sailed for me. Okay? So could you please, for the last time, just drop it?”
The three women stared at each other for a moment, then her mother broke the silence. “Have you seen your sister?” She fetched a hanger from the closet and slipped Simon's suit on to it. “I ran into her in the lobby. We're having brunch with the Salazar's.”
Henna stared at her mother. Unpleasantness had once again been banished.” “No. I haven't seen them. We're having brunch with the Salazars?”
“You wouldn't believe the size of her engagement ring. The Rock of Gibraltar. Not that it matters, but I think they might have money.”
Aunt Midge snorted as she laughed.
Her mother ignored Midge. “I'm still not convinced she's not pregnant. I mean honestly, why else get married in such a rush if she doesn't have a bun in the oven? At least, they're being discreet about it if she is. I'd absolutely die if one of you girls got in trouble. I would just die. I'll never forget when Lois Grant's daughter was in trouble—”
“Oh my god!” Henna finally interrupted. “Maisie Grant is a tax attorney who makes a small fortune. Just because she chose to have a baby when she wasn't married doesn't mean she was in trouble. Seriously mother. Women have children without being married because they want to and not because they couldn't get a man to marry them. I see it all of the time. In fact, it is a really bad idea to get married because of a pregnancy.”
“Henna, really,” Judith sighed. “Stop being silly. I understand that sometimes the only way to trip a man over the altar is to get in a family way, but I am never going to believe that a girl who is pregnant wouldn't rather get married than stay single. Personally, I raised you girls better than that.” Her mother looked up at her, horror in her eyes. “You're not thinking about getting pregnant without a man? Please don't tell me you've gotten that desperate. Henna, I know you're not getting any younger, but that is not the answer. You do not want to be one of those women who think it's okay to have a baby out of wedlock.”
Henna pressed her lips together as she looked to Aunt Midge for support. Her mother's opinions were no mystery, but they still shocked her on occasion.
“Just let it go, honey,” Midge said. “Judith, you are my brother's wife and I love you, but you really need to get with it a little.”
“Pish. Get with it, indeed. Enough. Moving on. What did you get up to last night? Other than not hanging up your dress or unpacking your suitcase.” Her mother pulled something that looked like an advertisement out of the front zipper compartment of her carry-on. “Who is Antonio Martinez?”
Henna moved next to her mother to see what she held in her hand. She took the card out of her mother’s hand. She studied the head shot and the four images carefully laid out to show the bartender from the sports bar in the airport in the best possible way. No denying he was a looker. She flipped it over. The message on the back read, “Call me. Anton”.
His personal information, including name, phone number, email address, website, and social media contacts were listed in bold lettering on the front. Even a blind one-eyed monkey could find him if it really wanted to.
“He's the person who found my bag.” The card was discarded on the desk. “Nobody. What do you mean we're having brunch with the Salazars?”
“He's one hunky nobody.” Midge picked up the card, glanced at it, then set it down again.
“Not really my type. Brunch?”
“Just an informal get to know you before the rest of the family arrives. Just us, Romeo, his father and sister, and his grandparents and an uncle.”
“Have you even met this guy she's going to marry?” Aunt Midge asked.
“Nope,” she said. “But I video chatted with him a few times. He's really handsome.” Just like his dad.
“I can't believe his name is Romeo. Can you believe his name is Romeo?” Aunt Midge asked. “How romantic.”
“His name is really Romeo,” her mother said. “None of us have met him. Honestly though...Romeo? What kind of a name is Romeo?”
“I think it's pronounced Ro-may-oh.” It took an iron will not to laugh. “It's probably a family name.”
“Your father is convinced he's part of the Medellin Cartel,” her mother said.
“Why?” she asked rhetorically, wondering why anything her father thought surprised her anymore.
“He's Colombian,” Judith said. “Based on the size of Eden's engagement ring, I can't wonder if your father might not be right.”
“And don't you know all Colombians are drug dealers?” Aunt Midge rolled her eyes and scoffed. “That's like saying all Americans are cowboys.”
“Apparently, they're very big in coffee if you can imagine. I keep on thinking of those commercials with that man and the donkey. I hope they're not too terribly rustic. That engagement ring of Eden's had to have cost a pretty penny. That or it's CZ. Wouldn't that be a shame. Cheap and tacky. I wonder if Eden's had it appraised. For insurance purposes, of course.”
“Of course,” Midge said. “Because I'm sure the first thing she thought when Romeo asked her to marry him was how much did the ring set him back?”
Henna had a vision of her mother's worst nightmare. A serape wearing man with a glorious mustache and his donkey, standing in the middle of her tastefully decorated sitting room while the ladies of the DAR sat around drinking tea out of her grandmother's china. Laughter bubbled up from inside her until it spilled out.
“Why are you laughing?” Aunt Midge asked. “Any reason why you're in such a good mood?”
“Never mind,” she laughed. “Go on. Tell me more.”
Her mother continued on as if she hadn't been interrupted. “Eden promises me they all speak English, but I'm just not convinced. The father is a widower, so don't ask him about the mother. Cancer. Apparently, she was perfectly fine, then one day, she keels over when they're on a wine-tasting tour in France and voila...” She waved an arm. “Pancreatic. Dead as a doornail four months later. So definitely hush hush.”
“Really?” she snipped. “Because I'm the one who has no internal sensor?”
“Don't get snippy with me,” Her mother scolded her. “Eden told me to warn all of you. There's more, but I don't want to bore you.” She went for Henna’s still packed suitcase.
Henna was anything but bored, but indulging her mother's love of gossip seemed intrusive and more than a little rude. She wanted to know about Eduardo, but because he wanted her to know and not because her mother and sister had an insatiable desire to gossip. She also wanted to get her mother away from her suitcase. There were items of a personal nature in there that she did not want her to see. “Can I please unpack my own suitcase?”
“I was just trying to help,” Judith said. “Hand me things and I'll hang them.”
Henna could live with that. She turned her suitcase just enough so her mother couldn't look inside. She started to pass over items for the closet while keeping what she privately thought of as her boyfriend replacement wrapped in a nightie.
“Just spill it,” Midge ordered. She was just as bad as her mother and sister.
“Well,” her mother pressed her fingertips to her chest, “I hate to gossip...”
Aunt Midge snorted a laugh. “Not that it stops you.”
“From what Eden tells me,” her mother continued, “he was just devastated. He went to her funeral then after they buried her, he just packed his bags and took off. Fell off the face of the earth for nearly a year. Romeo and his uncle tracked him down in a hut on a beach in Mexico just like some kind of hippie. Told them what they could do with themselves and where they could go and that he'd come back home when he wanted to. A year ago he showed up as if nothing had happened.”
“That poor man,” Aunt Midge said with a deep sigh. “If anyone knows what it's like to lose a spouse all of a sudden, it's me.”
“Well, don't say anything to him,” her mother warned. “They were childhood sweethearts and apparently he's just devastated.”
“I'm not going to say anything,” Aunt Midge snipped. “What am I going to say? I heard your wife croaked and you lost your marbles? Honestly, Judith.”
Henna snapped shut the suitcase, which contained her vibrator, then locked it before stowing it away.
“Go hop in the shower,” her mother said. “Daddy and Leo are waiting for us downstairs.”
Henna took what she needed to pull herself together for the day and went into the bathroom. Her back pressed into the door as she let out a long slow exhale. Her uncomplicated, well-ordered, and routine life had been tossed in the air and shaken around.
Eduardo insisted destiny guided their actions, but from where she stood, it was all too perfect to be sustained. A beautiful place and a sensual, sexual man who had woken up all her senses. Eduardo made her wonder that, if she just released her grip, life could be easy and uncomplicated. Dangerous thinking for a woman who clung to order and precision.