Page 21 of Tell Me What You Want, Or Leave Me

I laugh again.

Not even God could bring some balance to Dexter!

“My dear,” she says to me, “please find a good woman for my nephew. My Juanal needs someone who is pretty and loving and who’ll spoil him and take care of him.”

“Hey, while you’re at it, find me one too,” Dexter says, teasing.

His mother stares at him. “If you wanted, you’d already have one,” she says in a low voice but in front of everybody. “I’ve told you a thousand times.”

Dexter rolls his eyes.

“Mamita, don’t say that,” he says, looking over at Graciela, who is now holding his baby nephew.

“Auntie, the last thing I need is a wife,” says Juan Alberto, looking around expansively. “Now that I’m single again, I can have as many as—”

“Oh, cut the BS and find yourself a good woman. That’s what you need!” she says, and then, to me, in an aside, “I don’t know what it is with youth today; nobody seems to want the kind of beautiful thing you have with Eric.”

“Cristina, that’s because Judith is a love,” says Eric, taking me by the waist. “There aren’t a lot of women like my sweetheart, believe me. That’s why, when I met her, I wouldn’t let her go until she agreed to be my wife.”

Uff!

What my husband said is so beautiful and romantic, I could just eat him up with kisses!

Head over heels, I lean my head on his arm.

“It’s wonderful to meet a special person, and I was lucky enough to meet Eric,” I say, looking up at Cristina’s tender face.

My man presses me against him.

“You don’t happen to have a sister for my Dexter, do you?”

Eric’s laugh is absolutely monumental.

“Yes, Mamá, she does, but, according to Judith, there’s no way her sister is for me,” says Dexter.

“She’s that bad?”

Now it’s my turn to bust out laughing.

“No, Cristina,” I answer, “it’s just that she’s too good and too innocent for your son.”

Before she has a chance to ask me any more questions about my sister, Dexter takes his mother by the arm and leads her to the table where we’re all sitting down for dinner.

During the rest of the evening, we keep company with several of Dexter’s gal pals. They’re a little too much for my taste and, I think, for Cristina’s too. They’re a little too familiar with Dexter and Juan Alberto, and when they try it with Eric, I give them a look that says “I’ll cut you.” They still completely encircle him, and Eric grins.

After dinner, we keep on drinking and talking, and, as often happens at these family gatherings, in the end Dexter pulls out a guitar. His father takes it, and his mother serenades us with a ranchera.

I’m sure if the party were in Spain, my father would be singing abuleríawith Bicharrón.

So much talent! I listen attentively to Dexter’s mother, and her voice reminds me of the late Rocío Dúrcal.

That woman could sing anything!

My father has all her records, and I remember how he used to sing along with my mother. Those are beautiful memories.

Once the song is over, I clap and quickly request “Si Nos Dejan.” Eric glances over, and I grin. It’s the official song of our honeymoon.

Cristina doesn’t hesitate, and Dexter joins her for this one. Oh God, amazing! They have incredible voices.

---