Something She's Not Telling Us - Darcey Bell Page 0,62

considering that, though I would be lying if I pretended my decision didn’t depend partly on how much I like the presents—”

Mom laughs at her little joke, and the guests chuckle, relieved that the tension generated by Ruth’s arrival seems to be dissipating.

“Open it,” Ruth says. “Now.”

Charlotte remembers how Ruth insisted they eat her grandma’s sticky buns.

Astonishingly, Mom obeys. As she rips apart the package, Luz gathers up the shredded wrapping paper. Mom holds her gift up for the others to see.

It’s what Charlotte knew it would be.

The angel-devil mask.

“Wow,” says Mom.

“Pull it,” says Ruth. “The chain.”

Mom pulls the chain and the mask splits, the angel and the devil separate, and the woman’s face appears beneath them.

Mom says, “This is me. This is a mask of me on the inside.”

“It’s a mask of everyone,” says Ruth.

Ruth said that masks scare her, and then went back and bought the one that Charlotte loved. Where did she get $300? She’s taken a risk, assuming that Charlotte’s mother would like it. But it’s worked, and she’s won. Charlotte tells herself to be glad that at least someone in the family has the mask.

“Thank you.” Mom puts her hand over her heart, a gesture totally unlike her. “I love it.”

“Don’t thank me,” Ruth says. “I mean, don’t thank just me. It’s from me and Rocco.”

17

Rocco

Ever since the vanishing start-up, Rocco has been weighing Ruth’s good points versus her bad. It’s something he used to do with women, and he’s come to think that it’s wrong. Anyone weighing his good and bad points might come to some disturbing conclusions. He is, after all, a guy who threatened his own mother with a knife. That was when he was drinking. He’s not drinking anymore.

On the night before Mom’s party, Rocco and Ruth lie beneath the ceiling fan evaporating the light film of sweat from their bodies.

Ruth asks, “What did you get your mom for her birthday?”

It seems like a sign of intelligence, or at least sensitivity, that she waits until after they’ve had sex to ask the difficult questions.

“Nothing. She said no presents. My mom is capable of giving the gifts away, just like she threatened.”

Ruth says, “People say they don’t want presents, but everyone wants presents. You need to get her something. I saw the perfect gift. Trust me on this, Rocco. I know what people want. I inherited it from Granny Edith, the world’s best present giver. She gave me clothes and heels and makeup when my mom was still giving me Barbies.”

Rocco says, “The party’s tomorrow.”

“No worries. I’ll go. I’ll buy it for us both. I’ll be back long before the party starts. But listen . . . This thing I have in mind is a bit expensive. Worth every peso, but news flash, beauty isn’t cheap, not even here. We could split the cost, so it could really be from us both . . .”

That’s how Ruth gets Rocco to give her his credit card. She says she’ll ask the store to divide the charges between his card and hers. He knows she’s had credit card trouble, but he can’t bring himself to mention it.

When Ruth isn’t back when the party begins, Rocco knows she’s probably buying the gift. But still he worries that she’s lost, or that something has happened. He’s also afraid that he’s set her loose on the town with his credit card—and that she’s never coming back.

But they’re flying back to New York together. That’s reassuring. Sort of.

It’s hard to enjoy the party when he’s constantly looking for Ruth. The only thing that’s any fun is talking to Reyna, who is charming and funny and, despite her domestic problems, which he’s heard about, lighthearted. She cares about his mother, and better yet, she respects her. Se?ora Sally. Soon they’re laughing—affectionately—about what an impossible person Mom is.

Reyna says she wants to send him a picture of Mom surrounded by the kids she reads to at the library. Rocco types his number into her phone, and she texts him so that he has her number too, just in case he ever needs her to help get in touch with Mom.

He senses Ruth’s presence before he sees her, the way—when he lived in the country as a kid—he always thought snake a few seconds before he saw one.

It’s Rocco’s luck that Ruth walks in just when he and Reyna are exchanging phone numbers.

Ruth sees him; she sees Reyna. Ruth looks . . . fierce. For the first time, he’s actually scared