Delia's Gift (Delia 3)

“Take off the top. I’ll wash it out and use the hand dryer.”

“I want to go back to your apartment, Fani,” I said, wiping the tears from my cheeks. “I don’t want to stay here.”

“Okay, okay. First things first, Delia. Take it off, and let me fix it. You don’t want to walk around out there like this, do you?”

I sucked in my breath and did what she asked.

“You’d better give me that bra, too. It’s damp. Just stay in here. I’ll fix things. It’s actually a very funny situation,” she added.

“How is it funny?”

“Clifford Carolina or whatever his name is sitting there in shock. He looks like he’s going to faint. He’s telling Larry what happened, and Larry keeps going, ‘Huh? Huh?’ This is a blind date Clifford will never forget. Give me a few minutes with all this,” she added.

I closed the door, put my arms around my naked breasts, and sat on the toilet seat. Moments later, I heard Sophia and Trudy come into the bathroom.

“Doing laundry now, Fani?” Sophia asked. “Where’s Mommy Delia?”

“She’s in there,” I heard Trudy tell her. She came to my stall and tried to open the door.

“Better stay in there, Delia. Everyone’s talking about you on the dance floor. You’ve made a wonderful first impression in Los Angeles,” Sophia said. Trudy laughed. “I can’t wait to tell Edward about this leaking of information.”

“Leave her alone, Sophia,” Fani said.

“I thought you weren’t going to protect her anymore. I thought after what happened with Adan, you hated her,” Sophia snapped back at her. “Why are you with her, anyway?”

“Get out of here, Sophia. What I do and don’t do is none of your business,” Fani replied.

I heard the hand dryer go off and on.

“Oh, really. Well, Trudy and I might just steal away your boyfriends.”

Fani laughed. “Sophia, you’re such an idiot. You think we care about them?”

“Yeah? Maybe I don’t care about the boys. Maybe I care about something else, something you can give me and better give me.”

“Forget it, Sophia,” Fani said.

“You owe me. I spied on my mother for you.”

“Shut up, Sophia!” Fani shouted.

“I’m not going to shut up,” Sophia replied. “Trudy and I would like some X now, and don’t say you don’t have any.”

“You had better get away from me, Sophia,” Fani told her.

I stood up in the stall. I felt helpless, half naked, but I wanted to hear more. Why would Fani want Sophia to spy on mi tía Isabela? What was this about X?

“We can make quite a scene if we have to,” Sophia said. “Think you want all that attention? Think Mommy Dearest in there wants it? Maybe it will get back to your parents, and they won’t be so generous anymore.”

Fani was quiet. I heard the hand dryer go off. No one spoke. And then I heard the door open and close. Fani knocked on the stall.

“It’s all clear. I’ve fixed this pretty well, too,” she said.

I unlocked the stall and looked past her.

“Where is she?”

“They left. Forget about her. Here, put this back on. It’s all right for now,” she said.