“I’m not taking any chances.”
The grandeur of the sprawling villa was intimidating. In a lush pocket of the city, a pebbled driveway opened onto the property. The house (if you could call it that) was a subduedPrussian blue — like the color of waves in Japanese watercolors. Unlike some of the Spanish-colonial style architecture, beautiful in its own right, the exterior was completely smooth, as if it were an inflated pueblo home.
She let out a low whistle while walking through the front door. It opened into a foyer, revealing a courtyard in the center, like a monastery, with tiled hallways leading to the various rooms and gathering areas of the residence.
“It’s nice,” Zelda said absently, sending a text message to someone before turning toward Cierra. “Do you have everything you need? Rental car? Cash?”
“Yeah, got everything I need.”
“Perfect, we’ll check-in later about tomorrow,” Zelda said before dashing off toward one of her colleagues.
“Your room is right across from ours,” Nadine said, walking up from behind her. In the twenty minutes since they’d arrived, she had already changed into linen shorts with a crop-top and chunky tan vacation sandals with teal and magenta tassels. “And it’s so cute. You even have your own tub. I’m so jealous.” Erik and Elliot joined the two women.
“The first and last day of freedom, kids,” Elliot said forlornly. Starting tomorrow, everyone was going to be in full-blown networking and schmoozing mode for Zelda. “What are you gonna get up to?” He looked at Cierra first.
“There are a few errands I need to run ahead of the event tomorrow.” In all honesty, she hadn’t done too much touristy research, since she knew she’d be working most of the time. Realistically, she’d be lucky to get one afternoon of sight-seeing that wasn’t related to her job. When Zelda was on edge, that anxious energy seemed to flow right into Cierra.
“That sounds like a good way to see the city,” Elliot remarked. “What about you two?”
“I’m down for anything,” Erik said, stretching his arms. “Whatever the lady wants to do is what I wanna do.”
“Well, I’m not sure if we have enough time, but I wanted to check out their Anthropology Museum. A bunch of articles I’ve read claim it’s the best in the world.”
“That’s in the Bosque de Chapultepec, right? That’s only five minutes from here,” Elliot said while checking his phone. “It’s two-thirty now, and they close at six. I’d say you have plenty of time.”
That name sounded familiar, and Cierra remembered Julian’s recommendation.
Librería Porrúa Bosque de Chapultepec.
“Would you guys mind if I tagged along on the way there? There’s a bookstore I wanted to check out, and I think it’s in the same park.”
“Oh! The one with the massive tree sticking through the middle!” Nadine said quickly, with wide eyes. “I watched a TikTok about it.”
“More the merrier,” Erik said, smiling at Nadine’s excitement. “What about you, wanna come?” he asked his older brother.
“No, I should stick around and see if Zelda needs help with anything. But you guys have fun. I’ll wanna hear all about it later tonight.”
While Erik called one of their private drivers for the weekend (which Cierra was still getting used to), she plotted out her evening and the next morning; she had more time than she realized. Luckily, all the grocery stores she had ordered from were nearly all in the area where they were staying, so realistically, it would only take her an hour or two to make all the stops.
She was grateful Nadine was here. The Lawsons were good people, but it felt nice to have someone who seemed to comefrom the same planet as her, to witness and enjoy this other world of wealth with her.
A black Mercedes pulled around to the front of the house, and Erik and Nadine called out to Cierra to come along. She collected her things and hopped into the back seat, excited for her first excursion into the new city.
They reached the entrance to the museum in just a few minutes, and the couple hopped out.
“Sure you don’t wanna come along?” Erik asked.
“It’s all right, I wanna do some solo exploring before getting started on work.”
“All right, well, have a good time. We’ll see you later at the hacienda.”
The two waved before Nadine practically skipped toward the entrance. Once alone in the car, Cierra slumped back, grateful to have a few minutes alone.
“Habla español?” the driver asked curiously.
“Ah, no.”
He chuckled, “You look like maybe you’re from the Dominican.”
