“Honestly, me too.” She rolls her eyes, but the grin that follows makes us both laugh. The sound feels like a quick release of tension I don’t realize I’ve been holding.
We trail the hostess through the dining room until she seats us at a corner table by a tall window. From here, the hotel’s front driveway is on full display. Three black Escalades idle at the curb.
“Damn. Looks like La Reina del Sur is checking in.”
Mireya follows my line of sight and sighs. “Yeah, Adrian can be a bit protective.”
“Wait, those are all three, your Escalades?”
“Ya. I’m not used to all the bodyguards and security, but Adrian doesn’t want a repeat of last year.” She winces.
I catch myself staring longer than I should. Something about the scene feels staged, like a warning that this place, for all its chandeliers and white tablecloths, is still orbiting around power I don’t fully understand.
Last year, Mireya’s mother kidnapped her. I still haven’tbeen given the whole story, but I’m quickly learning that the Consuelo family is complicated.
“That one is really fucking tall. He’s fucking scary,” Mireya says. She points at the large man who steps out to guard the vehicle.
“Damn he’s tall.” I say, noticing the way he towers over the other men.
“Adrian calls him Lurch.”
“Yup, he’s definitely Thalia’s brother!”
We both let out a laugh. Thalia is obsessed with Halloween andgives everyone a spooky nickname. Adrian had been dubbed Frankenstein when he first started working at the hotel.
“How tall do you think he is?” I ask, still curious.
“At least seven feet.”
“Is that a nut roll he’s eating?”
“Ya. That’s all he eats. You’d think they’d call him something like Candy Man, but ironically, his nickname is El Carnicero.”
We bust up laughing before our meals are delivered to the table, and we eat in silence.
“I miss you guys.” I sigh. “How’s it been living at the Consuelo Villa?”
“It’s been nice having family around, but I miss the times when it was just you and me in the apartment.”
“Shit, you and me both.” I’d trade Larix for her in the blink of an eye.
“How has the new roommate been?”
“I don’t even want to think about her.” I groan before I shove a bite of pancake in my mouth.
“What happened?” Mireya pries.
“Last night, Don Cheetos had one of her used condoms in his mouth, and there was a drunk guy in the shower again.”
“Again?”
“Ay pues asi la puta vida,”I say begrudgingly. I stab my fork into another bite of pancakes and drive it into my mouth.
“Oh my god. Alma! What the hell? You can’t live like that. Did you say something to her?”
“No.” I sigh. “I don’t want any more tension than there already is, and we barely see each other.”
“What can I do to help?” She reaches across the table.
