Page 93 of Sleeping with the Frenemy

“Fine, I’ll just sit here quietly.” Abuela Fina walked over to the kitchen and placed the bags on the counter before sitting on a stool. She crossed her legs and placed her hands on her knee, overlaid like a classy lady.

“I’m not here to fight with you, Alicia,” her dad said. “I came to find out what is going on with our daughter since she hasn’t come to work for days.”

“Because I quit,” Sofi said, but she was ignored. Her parents were busy glaring at each other.

Mami held a finger up as if to say,Well, actually. “See, now, that’s where you’re wrong.” She used her finger to point at Sofi. “That smart, strong, fierce, and loyal woman standing there ismydaughter.Iraised her.” She turned her finger to poke at her own chest as she continued, “I was the one to wake up in the middle of the night when she cried. I was the one who worried whenever she was sick or sad. I was the one who took her to school and helped her with her homework. I was the one who braided her hair and held her hand to cross the street. I was the one who hugged her when she cried every time you failed to show up. I was the one who broke my own heart in half so I could give it to the girl whose heart you broke. Sofia is my daughter and just like her mother, she doesn’t need to jump through hoops for your attention. She deserves better than that.”

“You never asked me for anything,” he said. “So I didn’t know what to do! I came when you let me and when she came to me for help, I gave it!”

“Ay, Jose, please. I never asked for anything because you made it very clear that I was on my own. But I never once prevented you from seeing her. All you had to do was show up, but you couldn’t even do that unless your parents forced you to.”

Abuela Fina scoffed and then muttered loudly in Spanish, “I can’t believe this asshole is in his sixties and his balls still haven’t dropped.”

“Mami!” Sofi’s mom turned back to her dad. “You have had her working with you every day for over ten years and yet she’s still here brokenhearted and crying over your neglect. Do you have any idea how pathetic that is on your part? That in all that time you haven’t managed to build a relationship with your only kid despite her showing up and busting her ass for you? You have failed her as a father, but she wanted you in her life anyway. Do fucking better, Jose.”

“I was only doing what I thought best for her.” He tried to defend himself.

“¡Ay ya!” Abuela Fina exclaimed. “Nos tienes hasta acá con tantas zanganerías.” She waved a hand above her head as if saluting the sky. “Avanza y lárgate. Mira, mejor vaya pal carajo con todo y el trabajo.”

There wasn’t much to say after Abuela told him to go to hell and take his job with him.

Her father looked at her as if waiting for her to ask him to stay. Sofi kept her mouth shut. Mostly because she was doing her best to hold in her sobs, but also because she too wanted him to leave.

“That’s what you want?” he asked.

Sofi nodded. “Maybe one day, I’ll want to talk to you again, but not today.”

He swallowed. “Well, you know where to find me.” With that he left.

As soon as the door closed behind him, Sofi dropped to her knees. She buried her face in her hands and began bawling. She felt strong arms wrap around her and knew immediately who they belonged to, because they were as familiar to her as her own face.

Mami squeezed her tight and let her cry. At some point, Abuela Fina joined them. Her arms less strong, but no less comforting than her mother’s.

“I’m still mad at you for working with Leo to manipulate me,” she told Abuela Fina in between bouts of tears.

“I know, negrita. But I’m here for you anyway.”

After a while Sofi ran out of tears to cry. She lifted her hands to wipe her face.

“Better?” Mami asked.

Sofi shook her head. “No, but I will be.”

“There’s my guerrera.” Mami patted her on the back before standing and helping up Abuela Fina. “Now I have something for you and I want to make it clear that I’m giving it to you with no strings attached, so don’t start freaking out on me.” She walked over to her purse and pulled out a rectangle piece of paper. She handed it to Sofi.

Sofi looked at the paper and realized it was a check—for three hundred thousand dollars. She looked at the names and gasped when she saw her mother’s name in the corner and her own name in the payee section. “What the hell is this?” Sofi asked.

“It’s a check,” Mami said helpfully.

“I can see that, but what are you doing?”

“I want you to use it to start your own business. The one you said.”

“Mami, you don’t have this kind of money.”

Abuela Fina laughed. “Quien te dijo eso? Si tu mama es millonaría.”

Sofi’s jaw dropped. No way. Then she laughed. “Yeah okay. Mami’s a millionaire and so are you.”

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