Another laugh rang out and he decided that a man bearing chocolate and wine would be far more welcome, so he diverted to the kitchen to grab some supplies to smooth his entrée.
‘Knock, knock, can I come in?’
There was another burst of raucous laughter.
‘What’s the password?’ called Katerina. Felipe looked down at the label of the bottle in his hand.
‘Delancia,’ he replied.
The door was thrown open and Katerina snatched the bottle out of his hand. She gave a begrudging sniff. ‘I suppose you can come in.’
Felipe stepped past her and his heart seized a little in his chest at the tableau of love in front of him. Hismãewas sitting on the sofa, her arm around Cristina, who was snuggled up to her. Next to them, Ana perched on the arm, idly wrapping one of Cristina’s curls around one finger, a distracted smile on her face as she listened to her cousin and aunt laughing at something. In the meantime, Katerina bounced back to the spot she’d clearly just vacated at Maria’s feet, clutching the bottle as if she’d won a prize. They all looked so happy and serene, completely at home with one another. For a moment he felt his limbs soften and the tension in his shoulders fade away at the sight of all his favourite people in the world. This was why he worked so hard, why he had made sacrifices, and it was all worth it. Their security and love for one another shone through.
On the periphery sat Rebecca, and his heart clenched again. She looked at the others with such bare longing, as if she knew she wasn’t quite part of them, but she was smiling and laughing at the same time.
‘Hey,’ he said. ‘How are you surviving this crazy makeover?’ He made a show of studying her and then pulled a face. ‘What have they done to you?’
All four women burst out laughing.
‘Don’t you like it?’ asked Maria, with an arch smile. ‘We’ve been having so much fun.’
‘Mmm,’ said Felipe. ‘I can see.’
On one side of Rebecca’s head, her hair was completely straight to the neck and then flipped up in a wave. On the other side, her hair was coiled into fat ringlets that bounced slightly like the Slinky toys he’d played with as a child.
She turned to look at him and flicked her flippy hair on one side. ‘What do you think?’
‘Cool, isn’t it?’ said Cristina.
Felipe looked back at Rebecca’s face and grinned. ‘Taylor Swift meets Agneta from Abba, I presume.’
On one half of her face, she had perfectly painted matt red lips and immaculately applied wingtip eyeliner with a smoky eyeshadow while the other half of her lips was glossed in a shiny pale pink and her other eye heavily mascaraed and dusted with shimmery blue eyeshadow. Admittedly, both were carefully and skilfully applied. He recognised the hand of Cristina, who spent hours watching TikTok make-up tutorials. Rebecca’s cheekbone on the right was outlined in a dark bronze sandwiched on either side by a pale, lustrous highlight. On the opposite side of her face was a delicate smear of pink blush that spread over a good portion of her cheek.
Growing up with this many women, not forgetting having two sisters, he’d been exposed to enough make-up product talk to run his own branch of Sephora. Rebecca rose to her feet and Felipe instantly recognised the hand of Ana in the flowing linen trousers and pale taupe linen tunic– yes, he was also expert in colours, and knew the names of various shades and tones. Rebecca stood a bit like a stork, as if not quite sure what to do with her legs, even though the clothes suited her long, lean lines. It was obvious that although she looked good in them, she didn’t feel the same way.
‘The clothes are boring,’ said Cristina.
‘Cristina’s make-up is too much,’ said Katerina.
‘Neither hairstyle works,’ said Ana.
‘You look beautiful without make-up,’ said Maria. ‘Doesn’t she, Felipe?’
His mouth twitched. The delicacy of his mother’s matchmaking skills needed some work.
‘Try on the red T-shirt and denim skirt,’ said Katerina, standing up and pushing Rebecca behind the three-panelled screen that served as the fitting room. The two women disappeared from view.
‘Put her hair in a messy bun,’ advised Cristina. ‘And high heels.’
Ana rolled her eyes and Maria patted her on the leg. ‘What do you think, Felipe?’
There was more giggling from behind the screen and then Rebecca emerged in a scarlet off-the-shoulder, skintight top that stopped just beneath her boobs, and a low-slung full skirt of lightweight denim. Felipe’s eyes were drawn to the taut expanse of bare midriff and his groin tightened at the memory of the lean, naked length of her in bed beneath him. As if she read his mind, she glanced at him and to his embarrassment he felt himself blush. He never blushed!
On her feet were high red strappy sandals that made her coltish legs look even longer.
‘You look like the raunchy one fromWest Side Story,’ said Maria.
‘Yes. Yes. Anita,’ said Katerina with a clap of her hands. Rebecca swished her skirt from side to side and rolled her shoulders, her eyes suddenly mischievous as she sang a few lines of ‘America’, in a passable Latin American style accent.
