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So I went along with the motions, helping them plan and figuring things out with them as time passed.
And now I was paralyzed. Standing in the middle of the kitchen, people moving around me and asking a million questions I had no answers to. Because how would I know if the flowers were supposed to be bigger or smaller or if the tall candles went inside the glass containers or not? Should I have had answers to those questions?
The only thing I wanted to do was to curl up in bed and hide from the world. Force my brain to shut down and take a moment to waddle through the mud. Maybe break down and cry. But everything was moving fast around us, with the ceremony and the party and the crises that we needed to get to.
“Lu.”
Motherfu—“No, please, no.”
“You need to stop it with that, Lucía,” Jacinto whisper-hissed at me. “I just need to tell you something.”
“Can it wait? Like, maybe in eight hours once the ceremony is over?” I begged. We were standing in the kitchen, a flurry of movement all around us as the minutes ticked on. The nervous energy was palpable. “Please,Mamáis going insane, and it’s freaking everyone out.”
“Fine. Goodbye.”
“Drama king!” He turned on his heel and bowed at me, making a little flourish with his hand that had me cracking a smile on this difficult day. Everything was ready. Victoria was hyperventilating upstairs, but in a good way, she had said. So excited to marry Santiago that she couldn’t contain herself. But I knew that deep down, she was still a little hurt from all her family drama from a couple of years ago. Her family was going to be at the wedding. Her grandmother would not, and it was painful for her. For everyone, really.
I ran up the stairs in my bare feet, still wearing the old T-shirt and shorts from the night before. Victoria and Catalina were getting ready in Charlie’s old room. The door was ajar, and I could hear them cackling inside at something unhinged one of them had said. By the snorts coming from inside, it had probably been Catalina. She had an extra level of energy that even my family couldn’t match.
“Lu.” I heard a soft voice coming from my left. I wanted to scream, even though I knew it was Martina, and I also knew it was my turn for hair and makeup. But I just wanted a moment alone after cleaning up messes and putting out fires downstairs and stressing about Jacinto’s shenanigans. The man was a child. A man-child. Clearly the youngest of us all because he literally did whatever he wanted and got away with it. He could probably get away with murder too.
I sighed and turned. “Yep.” I popped thep. “Ready,” I lied.
I followed her to my room, where she had set up a chair in front of the large mirror that was hanging from the closet door. I sat and took a deep breath. From the reflection in front of me, I could see the sun up high in the sky out my bedroom window. The tall trees were stiff and unmoving, a sign that it was stiflingly hot outside. By the time the ceremony came around, it would be nicer, hopefully. These early summer days were traitorous like that; it was either suffocatingly hot in the evening or nice and cool. The latter would be preferred.
Time ticked incredibly slow for me that day. I could feelMartina moving fast around me, working in choreographed movements like the pro she was. But it was like time was still for me. Everything was buzzing with energy, but I was dragging my feet along, trying to catch up to those around me. In a matter of hours, Santiago and Victoria would be married, and everything we had worked up to during the year would be virtually over. It felt like in the blink of an eye, they were moving on, and I was being left behind. And then in the blink of an eye, it would be a new day, counting down again.
There was a knock at the door that startled me from my thoughts. I looked up, and Valentina was standing there, all ready in her flowy dress, her hair cascading down her back.
“Hey,” she whispered. “Did you know Jacinto is hiding a cat in his room?”
What. The…
I lifted my head to look at Martina in the reflection, and her eyes were round. She licked her lips and swallowed audibly.
“Martina,” I snapped. I heard Valentina chuckling by the door and wanted to snap at her too. “I can’t.” I sighed.
“What? It’s all him, I swear!” she squeaked, her voice rising guiltily with the last syllables of the sentence. I groaned at her response because it was probably true.
Valentina walked into the room and sat on the bed, looking around the space. It hadn’t changed at all since the last time she was here a few months ago, when she’d had a small fight with her great uncle and stayed thenight.
“Where is everyone?” she asked, focusing on my reflection.
“Vee and Cata are in Charlie’s room. Santiago is in his house with Charlie, Victoria’s brother, and, hopefully, Jacinto. My parents are in their room, I guess.”
She nodded along to what I was saying, probably not paying any attention to the actual words but instead searching my face for something I couldn’t quite place. Martina started moving again, finishing up with hair spray all around my head.
“Okay,” she said. “You’re all set. Just come find me once you are in your dress so we can get those pins out of your hair and touch up your lips.” She smiled at me and immediately turned around to collect her things, avoiding my eyes like the guilty friend she was.
I blinked a few times, trying to ground myself. It had already been a busy morning, and we still had a few more hours to go, so I tried to center myself and enjoy whatever else was coming. Valentina would stick close to me all night, which was a welcome reprieve because I wasn’t ready to deal with dozens of people asking me to diagnose their kids—or themselves—via a blurry photo on their phone. Especially not the day of my brother’s wedding.
A couple of hours later, we were all at the back of the house under the big tree that had been adorned with lanterns the night of the welcome reception. The sun was slowly setting behind the tops of the trees, casting a warm, golden glow over the backyard, and guests began to taketheir seats on the neatly arranged chairs set up for the quick, casual ceremony. It was all a blur in between saying hi to the guests, checking that everything was ready, and posing for photos as a family. From the corner of my eye, I could see Jacinto and Martina whispering in the corner. Valentina was lingering a few meters away from them, looking casually disinterested but probably eavesdropping in on their conversation.
“Excuse me,” I said to the couple of locals that were chitchatting away at me. They had arrived a few minutes prior and came straight to say hi to me, wanting to talk about the practice and the patients and how old Dr. Martín was doing. Tres Fuegos wasn’t overly gossipy—it had its rumor mill, as any small town did—but its inhabitants insisted on pretending they didn’t snoop in on every single conversation. Case in point: Valentina.
“You are unbelievable,” I whispered loudly enough so that both Martina and Jacinto would hear what I had to say. Martina took a quick look at me and turned the other way, heading straight into Valentina. “I can’t believe you are hiding a cat in your room!”
Jacinto rolled his eyes at me and smiled, one of those shit-eating grins that came out in full display only on certain occasions and only with a few, select people. “It’s not a cat,” he added, rubbing his palms together in a sign of mischief. He was partially dressed—his shirt sleeves were rolled up his arms, and he wasn’t wearing the tie he had only moments ago for our family photos. Martina washolding on to his suit jacket, draped over her tan arm. “It’s kittens,” he whisper-yelled, cupping his hand towards my ear like he was trying to tell me a secret.
