“That’s what Mateo is saying.”
“Here, let me get you a drink and you can tell me all about your tattoos. They’re gorgeous.”
“You don’t have to do that,” I call out after her as she walks into the kitchen. “You’re the bride!”
“She’s been doing that all weekend,” Ines says to me. “Better to just sit back and relax.” Suddenly a baby starts crying from one of the rooms. She sighs. “That’s Alice. So much for relaxing.” She gets up and disappears into the bedroom.
I sit down on an armchair and look at everyone else. Chloe Ann followed Ruby into the kitchen, and I’m pretty sure she’s grilling her about sports reporting, while Thalia, Teresa, and Elena are having a conversation about Portugal. David Roberto is asleep in his crib, oblivious to all the yapping.
I’m really, really happy for Thalia and Alejo. They wanted a baby for so long, and there were so many disappointments when they went the IVF route. The cost, the pain, the weight of the unknown. I saw what it did to them, time and time again.
When they finally got the news they were approved to adopt David Roberto, I was there. It was like a love explosion in the room, and their love for this boy started on that day and has only multiplied since then. I’ve never seen them so happy, nor have I seen them so in love. In love with their child, their family, each other.
All that to say, I know Thalia will take it easy with the drinking tonight. She’s always been the level-headed one, and I don’t think it’s because she’s so much older than me. Things change when you become a parent, even I’ve grown up a smidge since I started having Chloe Ann in my life. And I thought I’d never grow up.
“Here you go,” Ruby says, handing me my glass of red. “It’s local. From Madeira. They only make, like, twenty cases a year or something ridiculous like that.”
“Thank you,” I say to her, raising my glass.
She raises hers. “You’re welcome. Thank you so much for coming. I know it was such a last-minute thing, no warning.”
“If it helps, I’m pretty spontaneous too.”
“Our whole relationship has been spontaneous,” she says. “This made sense. We thought, why not do it now while it’s the off-season, you know? That way everyone from the team could make it down, including Marco, since he gets busy as soon as the season starts too.” She pauses. “To be honest, I’m surprised my father and stepmom showed up. They weren’t a fan of me moving here, but I guess they got used to it.”
“I hear that. My parents are divorced too, and my father never came to the wedding. My mom did, but only to spite him.”
“Sounds like you’re used to family complications.”
“Oh yes. And of course none of them approved of me and Mateo to begin with. You know, because he was married at the time.” I pause, wondering how she will take that. I don’t normally tell people that, women especially, off the bat, because they judge me. But I’ve already decided that Ruby is more empathetic than anything else.
She smiles. “I was dating Luciano’s brother when I first fell in love with him,” she says softly.
Then it dawns on me. “Oh,” I say slowly. My eyes go big. “Oh! You’re her. You’re…”
“The girl that screwed him over all those years ago?” She fills in. She sighs. “Yeah, that’s me. In the flesh.”
“Sorry, it’s just this all makes perfect sense now. Wow. You really did a number on him.”
Ruby takes a sip of her wine, staying silent.
Oh shit. I’ve said the wrong thing.
“Not that…” I attempt to say. “I mean, our stories are similar, they really are. Our love didn’t come easy to us did it?”
She swallows. “It came easy it just…took me awhile to grow up and do the right thing. All I know is that I’m the luckiest bitch alive. When I had that chance with Luciano again, I knew I had to do everything in my power to make it right, to hold onto him for as long as I could. It’s just too bad life wasn’t on our side at the time.”
“But you’re here now. You’re getting married. And you love him, right?”
She nods, her eyes filling with tears. “I love him more than I can even say. I don’t even know how I’m going to get through my vows tomorrow without crying. I can’t even talk to you about him without crying. He means everything to me. Everything. He’s my heart and my home and I...”
I put my arm around her, giving her a squeeze. “Hey, it’s okay to cry. Weddings are emotional business. And you made it, you know? Does it really matter how a love story went as long as you get your happily ever after? I know that’s what I tell myself all the time when it comes to Mateo. We went through shit together. We really did. We did things the hard way and we weren’t always in the right, and we definitely weren’t perfect. But by being messy and chaotic and flawed, we were allowed to be real. And, in the end, that’s what matters. If you’re real. If your love is real. What you and Luciano seem to have, it’s lasted all this time, through all the different periods of your life. It doesn’t get more real than that.”
Ruby is full on crying now.
“Thank you,” she sobs, throwing her arms around me. “You really are as cool as everyone else says.”
I hug her back and smile. Cool, huh? I’ll take it.
After a moment I pull back, inspecting her face. “You going to be okay.”
She wipes her tears away and nods. “I don’t even cry that often.”
“I’ll give you a pass,” I tell her. Then I peer at her lips. “Hey, so what lipstick is that?”
Her eyes brighten and she straightens up. “Oh! It’s amazing, Lisa Eldridge Velvet Ribbon! Let me
