“Hola. I’m Blanca, Eddie’s Mom.”
Uh… wow.
This was a surprise.
I glanced at Eddie and his hands were on his hips, his head was tilted back, looking at the ceiling. This was not a happy posture.
For some reason (probably residual hysteria), I found this amusing.
I smiled at Blanca.
“I’m Jet,” I told her.
Then, the front door opened and two women and a man walked in. It wasn’t difficult to see they were related to Eddie. One of the women was tal and so was the man, the other woman was tiny, like Blanca. They were al glamorously good looking, just like Eddie.
They al looked at me.
Eddie glared at them, then dropped his head and ran his hand through his hair and muttered words in Spanish and English, none of them nice.
I looked at the newcomers.
“Hey,” I said to them.
There were general greetings and smal waves and lots and lots of white teeth against dark skin.
“These are my kids, Carlos, Rosa and Elena,” Blanca said (Elena was the short one).
“I’m Jet,” I repeated, stil smiling and beginning to think this whole thing was hilarious.
“Are we having a reunion?” Eddie asked.
Carlos laughed. Rosa and Elena looked at each other and grinned. Blanca gave Eddie a death glare and spat something at him in Spanish. Then she turned back to me, al smiles again.
Yep, Eddie’s Mom was just like mine.
“I forgot the dessert so I brought you Napoleons from Pasquini’s,” Blanca told me.
She did not forget dessert. She deliberately delayed delivery of dessert so she could check out Eddie’s date. I wondered if it was me or if this happened to Eddie al the time. I couldn’t imagine Eddie would put up with this al the time so it had to be me. I didn’t know what to make of that so I pushed it aside.
I came forward and took the box from her. “That sounds lovely. Dinner was delicious, by the way. Thank you.”
“De nada,” she said, graciously inclining her head.
Everyone stood around, smiling at each other. That was, everyone but Eddie.
Final y, I broke the silence. “Did you get enough for everyone? Should I serve these?” I asked Blanca.
“No!” Eddie final y snapped and I couldn’t help myself, I turned my smile to him.
He glared at me.
His family watched us.
Eddie looked at his mother and said something in Spanish. It didn’t take an interpreter to translate she was being ousted.
“Al right, al right. We’re going,” she said and turned to me, “Eddie told me about tu madre. How is she?” I was stil smiling, too amused to be annoyed she knew about Mom.
“She’s fine.”