Taina – One Year Later
Taina
WEDDING PRESENT
ONE YEAR LATER
Consider this your wedding present.
I open up the text message thread from an unknown number, and there’s a link to a reporting. I click it and my heart drops.
What the fuck?
My phone buzzes with another message, this time a picture of their bedroom, blood splattered on the walls. When I attempt to see where their bodies are, I realize…
They’re in pieces.
You’re welcome.
Rose.
I type back my response, wondering if this is her actual number. Do I save it?
Does she want to be friends? I think I’d like that.
Thank you. Let’s have lunch when I’m back for a visit?
The bubbles on screen appear, disappear, and reappear, as if she’s typing and stopping. I wait a few minutes, and I’m about to set my phone down when her response pops up.
Okay.
If I’m being completely transparent, I have a harmless girl crush.
Nothing for Emiliano to worry about, because I’m obsessed with the man.
But I’d like very much to make friends with Rose like I have with Deirdre, Cesár’s partner.
It feels wrong to call her his girlfriend when she’s far from a girl.
That woman is stacked, stunning, and smart as hell.
“You coming in?” my husband asks from where he rests with his arms on the edge of the pool. His hair is slicked back from his swim, and his gold chain is dripping water.
“And get my hair wet before dinner?” I shake my head, knowing I don’t want to deal with frizzy curls tonight. We’re in Puerto Rico, on our honeymoon. Our wedding in México was stunning, Carmen having planned it all perfectly.
When she approached me about handling it, I told her to do whatever she wants and we’ll just show up. With that gorgeous house of hers, I knew we’d be in for a treat.
And she did not disappoint.
“ Mami loves it here,” Emiliano says, pulling me from memories of twinkling lights under sheer tents with tropical flowers covering almost every surface.
“I’m glad. She earned this honeymoon, too.” When I approached him with the idea to invite her, he asked many times if I was sure.
But he doesn’t understand what it’s like to want a mother who cares. From the moment I met Carmen, she’s enveloped me in this warmth that Emiliano always seems surprised to witness.
Yesterday, as we sat under the setting sun, she told me that she always wanted a daughter.
It feels like we got what we’d always wished for.
And some got what the fuck they deserved.