Page 68 of Minha Dona

“Yeah.”

“All night?”

“Yeah.”

“Good.” She leaned closer and lowered her voice again. “Because, Helena, I’ve got a surprise for you under this dress, I’ve had a whole day alone with my imagination, and when we get home I am going to focus everything on making you feel exceedingly good.”

Helena glanced at her. “Exceedingly good?”

Caitlin grinned and nodded. “Exceedingly. You like the sound of that?”

“Sounds terrible,” Helena joked, her own grin matching Caitlin’s. “But how am I supposed to get through dinner knowing I’ve got that waiting for me?”

Caitlin shrugged. “That’s entirely your problem.”

***

Isabella was already at the restaurant when they arrived, sat on the banquette in their booth and positioned, Helena strongly suspected, so that she could see them the moment they came through the door.

“Helena!” She found herself wrapped in a tight hug by Isabella the moment they reached the table, even though it had only been a little over a week since they last saw each other. “You’re looking great. We’ve got so much to talk about,” she said in Portuguese. Isabella broke the hug and looked at Caitlin, who was standing patiently next to them. “Aren’t you going to introduce me?” she asked, switching to English and flashing a conspiratorial smile in Caitlin’s direction.

“Isa… meet Caitlin. Caitlin, Isa.”

Isabella wrapped Caitlin up in a hug just as tight and familiar as the hug she’d given her and she couldn’t help smiling to herself when she saw Caitlin tighten up instinctively for a moment before she returned it properly. Americans always think they’re the most open, tactile people in the world… until they come to Brazil, she thought.

“Come, sit.” Isabella was waving her hands vaguely at the table. “I ordered us drinks, they should be here in a minute.”

Isabella slid back onto her side of the table. Caitlin and Helena took the opposite banquette.

“I love the decor,” Caitlin said, looking around the room. “You’ve been here before?”

“It’s one of our favourites,” Helena replied. Modern Brazilian food with a wicked cocktail list and a vibe that got rowdier as the hour got later, she’d had more than a few nights there where dinner turned into drinks and more.

“We’ve had some good nights here,” Isabella added with a wink in Caitlin’s direction.

“You definitely can’t just leave it at that…” Caitlin replied. She was glancing between the two women, clearly hunting for some gossip and thrilled that Isabella was starting off on that tack.

Isabella laughed and looked at Helena. “Have you told her the story about the couple yet?”

Helena shot daggers back at Isabella with her eyes, and Caitlin saw. She started laughing. “She hasn’t,” Caitlin answered for Helena. “And judging by Helena’s reaction you’ve got my attention now.”

Isabella grinned back at Caitlin. “What?” Isabella said to Helena. “It’s my job to make sure that your new girlfriend knows the real you?”

“Isa… Caitlin doesn’t need to know about that.”

“Oh, I absolutely do.” Caitlin took Helena’s hand under the table and gave it a reassuring squeeze, which was nice but didn’t do anything to assuage the gnawing feeling of dread… this wasn’t a story that Helena necessarily wanted Caitlin to hear just yet. “Isa… tell me.”

Just then the drinks arrived, cocktails for each of them, and there was an amused silence that accompanied it. Helena suddenly feeling very exposed, Caitlin with an air of happy anticipation, Isabella practically bouncing in her seat in her excitement to tell the story.

When the waiter had gone, Isabella launched into it. “It was about seven or eight months ago…”

“Eleven,” Helena interrupted. “When matters.” She turned to Caitlin. “It was just before I came to Houston on my secondment.”

“Eleven then. So this place turns into a club later on at weekends, and a group of us had come for dinner and stayed. There was a married couple at the table next to us on their date night, and we’d been talking to them a bit as the night wore on…”

“You’d been talking to them. The rest of us had been letting them get on with their date.”

“Pah.” Isabella waved her hand dismissively and grinned again at Caitlin, who was listening intently. “Details don’t matter.”