Page 14 of Sleeping with the Frenemy

“Did you find out what happened with the company apartment I was supposed to get?”

She waited for him to admit that he’d forgotten to delegate the task to his secretary after their discussion (something she’d already investigated and confirmed), which led to her apartment going to a new out-of-state transfer, but was unsurprised when he didn’t. Her father barely ever acknowledged his mistakes.

“Yo no sé qué paso.” He shrugged. “But you’ll find something. Don’t worry.”

Translation: Fix this by yourself.

The whole point of her using a company apartment was that she wouldn’t have had to pay rent. Sofi was trying to save money. She’d been a bit excessive with her spending in Europe and her savings were abysmal. She needed to refill the coffers as it were. Everything she’d looked at in the last week was way too expensive, too far away, or too busted. She needed to find something soon because her body hurt from sleeping on her mom’s old-ass love seat.The joys of being almost five-ten.

“Is there anything else you needed?” she asked. “I have to get going. I’m late to visit my abuela and traffic is going to be a pain.”

“You see her a lot. Almost every day.”

Sofi nodded. “My mom has a lot of late shifts this month, so I try to stop over in the evenings when I know Abuela Fina will want company.”

“It’s a shame you weren’t able to visit the viejos like that. They would’ve loved to see you more.”

Sofi wanted to remind him that his parents had spent most of their adult lives in NYC before moving back to the DR a few years before they passed. Both of which meant that it had been impossible for her to visit them the way she did Abuela Fina. Still, her mother had made a point to send Sofi to visit them for a week or so every summer because it had been important to her that Sofi have a relationship with his family even if she didn’t have one with him.

Her dad probably wouldn’t listen anyway. He had a way of making her feel guilty for the distance between his side of the family and herself even though he was the one who’d walked away from her and her mother in Puerto Rico in order to continue feeding his ambition. Instead she just said, “That would’ve been nice.” It was true. She’d loved her grandparents dearly and they’d loved her. She hopped up from her chair. “But I really need to get going now. My abuela Fina is waiting for me for dinner.”

“Sí, sí claro. We’ll have a more in-depth conversation about the account tomorrow.”

“Of course.” Sofi grabbed her purse out of her coat closet and rushed toward the door. “See you tomorrow.”

“Oh wait,” he shouted after her. “I need you to take over my meeting with the Billings Corporation tomorrow morning. I’ll send everything you need to know to your email so you can look it over tonight.”

Sofi grit her teeth, but just nodded. She used to ask him why he’d throw these types of things on her at the last second, but when every answer she got was vague bullshit he used to cover up his desire to just not be there she stopped asking. She just accepted the sleepless nights and moved on.

As she made her way to her car and then to her mom’s place, she couldn’t help but think how different that whole conversation would’ve gone down if she’d been talking to her tío Manny. Her uncle Manuel was her mother’s younger brother. He’d been a baseball prodigy on the island and had barely been eighteen before he’d gotten picked up by the NBL. That had caused the whole family to make the move to Florida, where they’d stayed until he’d gotten traded to the Cubs. He’d excelled there too until a stupid drunk driver had taken him and her abuelo Juan Manuel away from them. But he’d been so much more than a talented baseball player lost from the game at his peak. He’d been her father figure and her best friend. Sure, her biological father popped in and out of her life at his convenience to throw money and material goods at her, but Tío Manny had been the one to teach her how to ride a bike, check under her bed for monsters, and show her how to throw a punch after some boys at school called her an ugly monkey. He’d understood her like no one else in her life had.

If he were still around, her life would’ve been so different. That conversation with her dad never would’ve happened, because she never would’ve worked there. Tío Manny would’ve made sure of that. He’d always jokingly called her his mini manager and claimed that when she got older she was going to take over the world and he’d help her. God, she missed him.

She pulled up to her mom’s building and found Abuela Fina already on the stoop waiting for her. She practically hopped down the stairs like a little kid. Sofi had to smile. She rolled down the passenger-side window. “You’re supposed to wait for me to park and come get you,” she called.

“If I wait for you to find parking around here—” she opened the car door and slipped in “—we’d never get to leave.”

Wasn’t that the truth.

Sofi leaned over and kissed her abuela on the cheek. Sofi couldn’t help but notice the fresh coat of red lipstick on her abuela’s artificially filled lips. If she wasn’t mistaken, Abuela had also curled her short silver hair. “You look cute today,” she said, leaning back to take in her striped blouse and wide-leg linen pants. “Although I don’t think you need the heels. We’re just going to El Coquí.”

Abuela Fina shot her a look. “I always look cute and of course I need my heels. That would be like leaving the house without my jewelry.”

Lord knew that leaving the house without jewelry on was basically like walking out naked.

She leaned over to take in Sofi’s outfit. “You have heels on,” she pointed out.

“Well, I’m coming from work and I’m not the one who fell and almost broke my hip not too long ago.”

“¿Y eso que? That means I’m not supposed to dress up anymore?” She snorted. “Antes muerta que sencilla.”

She was definitely Abuela Fina’s granddaughter, because Sofi felt that in her soul. She too would rather be dead than basic. She was extra just like her grandmother. The curse of being former beauty queens she guessed.

“I’m excited to meet your friends,” Abuela said.

Sofi frowned. “You’ve met Kamilah before. We visited you in Puerto Rico over spring break that one time.”

“That was years ago and it’s not the same.”

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