As Alejandro turned onto the expressway, he glanced at her. For all that he was pretending not to understand, his eyes were skeptical.
If the circumstances had been different, she would have exclaimed that he’d understood her. But now she just wanted to talk. However, she did glance in the visor mirror. An advantage of going back in time was that she was four years younger than she was yesterday. It wasn’t much in age but there’d been a lifetime of experience in those years.
“Anyway,” she said, “I was shocked when I found out about your sister and Kent. I guess you know that she’s pregnant.” When he kept looking straight ahead, she tapped his shoulder with a single finger. He looked at her and she said, “Carmen,” then pantomimed a big belly.
With an expression of disgust, Alejandro nodded. Yeah, he knew.
For a moment Elise wondered what she would have done if she’d actually known about Carmen before she got married. The way she felt back then, she probably would have married Kent anyway. But she’d always been absolutely sure she could make him love her. “I planned to run away to the airport, but the limo driver betrayed me.”
She told him about giving the driver a check and that he must have gone directly to her father. Alejandro said nothing, but the muscle in his jaw was working furiously, and his neck was turning darker. Elise smiled. Even if he was lying about the language, his rising anger was making her feel good. It was nice to have someone on her side!
“The security men scared me,” she said. “I knew that if I didn’t get out of there I’d end up saying vows to Kent. Then what? He has two lives? Me in one house, Carmen and the baby in another? I knew who’d lose in that tug of war.”
When she looked at him, Alejandro turned just enough that she could see sympathy in his eyes. Good! she thought. At least she was showing a different side to the awful things Carmen had said about her.
But Elise didn’t want to go too far, didn’t want to make Alejandro feel too sorry for her. That could lead to something that she didn’t want right now. She planned to spend just a few days with her almost-husband’s lover’s family, then get out. There was no way Carmen would hold out for more than forty-eight hours before she blabbed to Kent.
As Elise looked at Alejandro, she could feel the heat of him. It hadn’t happened yet, but she remembered the closeness they’d had before. Laughing together, telling each other about what they did during the day. He’d told her about the American woman who’d demanded more than Spanish lessons from him. He said he’d accepted a summer job from his brother on a whim, thinking that he’d last about a week. But he’d liked the physical labor, had liked the US. “But I don’t like your winters!” he’d said, and they laughed together.
Elise reminded herself that none of that had happened—but she had no doubt that if she let it, it would repeat itself. The very last thing she needed now was to attach her life to another man. To in essence say, “I am yours. Do with me what you will.”
No. What she needed was to find a place to put her own feet. In two days—three tops—she’d go to Warbrooke, Maine. She had no connection there, but she needed to con her way into Olivia’s future family. Maybe they could help her with legal matters. Help her find a job.
Alejandro stopped the truck. She hadn’t paid attention to where he was driving, so she was surprised that he’d pulled into a shopping mall parking lot. In front of them was a Nordstrom’s.
He turned off the engine, got out his wallet, pulled out four one-hundred-dollar bills, and held them out to her.
Elise’s heart nearly stopped. She’d gone too far and he was throwing her out. But no, he motioned to her maid’s uniform. He wanted her to buy herself some new clothes.
She took the money from him because she needed it, but she didn’t get out of the truck. “I think you’re a very nice man, but your sister hasn’t exactly been a friend to me.” She gave a bit of a laugh at her joke. “Oh well, if we were held accountable for our relatives, I’d have to take on the sins of my parents. Sorr
y, but I’m in a bad state right now. And sorry you got stuck with me.” She extended her right hand to him. “Thank you.”
Alejandro took her hand in his. “Amigos.”
“Yes,” she said. “Amigos.” She got out of the truck.
In the store, Elise rushed to buy some jeans and leggings and T-shirts. When she went back outside, he was there, waiting for her, and when she smiled at him, he smiled back. For a moment he was the Alejandro who was her friend.
She got into the truck, and when she handed him a leftover hundred-dollar bill and change, he looked surprised. In the years of her marriage, she’d had to learn to economize. But then, her husband was supporting two families.
Alejandro’s cell rang, he answered. “Yeah, she’s with me,” he said in Spanish. “No, you can’t stay with him. You have to come back tonight.” He hesitated. “I don’t give a crap if your lover is upset. You’re needed at home.”
He turned away from Elise. “Because I don’t want to be alone with her. No! She isn’t useless and I want you to stop saying that.” He paused. “I have to go back to work. Do you remember what that is? Or are you too busy with...with him?”
Elise kept her face turned away so he couldn’t see her expression. It looked like Carmen was with Kent, and Alejandro didn’t want to be left alone with Elise.
He hung up the phone, started the truck, and got back on the highway. Minutes later, he pulled into the cracked concrete driveway of a little house on the outskirts of the Long Island neighborhood where Elise had lived with Kent. She assumed the house was rented for the summer. It had that forlorn look of being unloved and neglected. Like me, she thought.
Inside it was nearly bare. There was a little living room with beat-up old furniture, and a kitchen to the side. An old table and chairs was by the back door.
There were two bedrooms, but she was glad to see that there were also two tiny bathrooms. It seemed that Alejandro and his brother had one room, Carmen in the other. But that was to change.
Alejandro was staring at her.
Oh, she thought. She wasn’t supposed to know that she was to take the twin bed in his room. “No, no, no,” she said. “I didn’t dump one man to get another one.”
She saw that he had to work not to laugh at something he wasn’t supposed to understand.