By Julia Amante –
A tall man in a sophisticated suit probably custom made to fit his great body, had walked in and stood just inside the entrance. He scanned the room as if he were looking for someone. Then Nelly Apolonia ran out of the large hall and to the kitchen and came back out with Mrs. Ortelli who called out in high-pitched shock, “Eric!”
Eric? Ortelli? Victoria stood by the coffee pots staring like everyone else at the guy who had inspired so much gossip through the years. There had been stories that he’d had a big fight with his parents, or that he’d gotten a girl pregnant in another state over spring break or even that he’d killed someone and was hiding out. Speculation ran the gambit from wild to ridiculous. Then eventually all gossip died down until out respect for Lucia Ortelli, no one mentioned Eric at all. So much time had passed since Eric had left home that Victoria had started to wonder if maybe he’d been a figment of their collective imagination, and he’d never existed at all. A sort of tall tale that had taken a legendary quality over the years. Yet here he was looking very real, and very handsome, and like he’d done extremely well for himself.
Mrs. Ortelli ran to her son and pulled this broad shouldered man into an embrace. Eric closed his eyes and held his mother close. He kissed the top of her head as she pulled back to look at him. Taking in the same image as the rest of the club – an amazingly put together guy with dark, angular features and black, wavy hair that if left longer would probably have curls. Different from the skinny, dimpled boy who left home.
After a brief private moment in a sea of observers where mother and son shared who knows what with their gazes, Mrs. Ortelli turned around with a huge smile and said, “Surprise. He made it home tonight after all.”
Was she going to try to pull off the lie that she expected him to show up? She’d been just as surprised as everyone else. But like her mother always said, Lucia should have been an actress, because she lived her life pretending. Pretending her life was perfect.
She pulled Eric into the crowd, talking to everyone around her, calling for someone to bring him a plate of food. He offered a gorgeous smile as he shook hands and accepted hugs or kisses. Lucia led him to their family table and Mr. Ortelli who had been fetched from the patio, joined them. As if Eric were a celebrity or a war veteran come home, people passed by their table to welcome him – though Victoria knew it was more out of curiosity and nosiness than anything else.
“Can you believe this?” Jaqueline whispered, having come to stand beside her. “What’s he doing here?”
“I don’t know, but to show up, just like that, without warning, to such a public place. He has no shame,” Jaqueline said.
“Mrs. Ortelli said she knew.” Victoria offered. Often the target of club criticism herself, she felt a small need to defend Eric.
“Well what else is she going to say? Pobre Lucia.”
Saving face. Such an Argentine trait. Too proud to say ‘my son’s a jerk’ All around them people were doing the same kind of whispering as Victoria and Jaqueline.
“Let’s go say hello and welcome him home,” her mother continued, grabbing Victoria by the elbow.
Victoria frowned. “No, give them some privacy.”
“It would be rude not to say something. Vamos.”
Jaqueline pulled Victoria’s arm and led her to the Ortelli table. “Eric, querido, what an amazing surprise,” Jaqueline said, and hugged him.
Eric stood for the hundredth time and opened his arms to Jaqueline, dropping a kiss on her cheek. Then without pausing he said hi and kissed Victoria. Then he took his seat again.
Victoria checked him out. He’d grown thicker, more muscular, more solid. Still just as handsome as he’d been in high school. He sipped his wine with a relaxed arrogance that didn’t seem quite proper considering the commotion he’d caused.
“How have you been Victoria?”
Again, the question was one that would make sense if he’d been way a few months, maybe a year. But for someone who’d disappeared seven years ago, his attitude seemed too casual. “Where should I start?”
He chuckled. “Wherever you’d like. Have a seat. Do you mind Mami?”
Now he was asking if his mother minded what he did?
“No, but you eat. Your food is getting cold.”
“I’m not hungry.” He eased the plate away. “I didn’t come to eat anyway. I actually went home and when no one was there I remembered it was Sunday and figured you’d be here.”
“It’s not only Sunday,” Victoria said. “It’s Independence Day.”
He frowned. “Oh, in Argentina. That’s right.” He glanced around. “No wonder all this.”
No one said anything in response. To forget July 9th was too big of an insult to comment on.
“I was actually just leaving,” Victoria said. “So enjoy your dinner.”
Jaqueline gave her a scowl. “You can stay a little longer. Talk to Eric for a while.”
“We shouldn’t intrude,” Victoria said.
Antonio Ortelli, who had walked in from the grills with a surprised look on his face, had hugged his son then sat to let his wife handle all the questions. Now he stood. “We have time to catch up when we get home.” He patted Eric on the shoulder. “Let’s continue to enjoy the celebration.”
“Of course,” Lucia said, and though she didn’t appear to want to let Eric out of her sight for a second, she also stood. “I’m going to go finish up in the kitchen and let you get reacquainted with your friends. Your father’s right, we’ll have you all to ourselves later. There’s plenty of time.”
Eric squeezed her fingers with his large, dark hands. The guy had a spectacular tan, the color of dark, golden honey.
“All the time in the world,” he said, before his mother and Jaqueline returned to the kitchen. Lucia looked back at him twice as if afraid he’d disappear.
Faced with making casual conversation with a man she didn’t know anymore, she took a seat across from him and tried to remember who he had been when they’d last spoken. Fun came to mind. Mama’s boy. Cheerful. He didn’t look like any of those things anymore. He looked harder.
He sipped from his glass of wine with lips that could possibly also be hard, but right now they looked shiny and sexy surrounded by the five o’clock shadow on his face. “This place never changes.”
“Some things never do.” Nor do some people. Namely, her. He, on the other hand, was almost unrecognizable.
His light brown eyes rested on her, after doing a very quick, barely noticeable scan of her body. “Remember when we used to sneak up to the offices on the second floor and pretended to look for clues that this was a secret organization involved in some kind of plot to take over the world?”
She wanted to smile at the memories of their childhood games. They’d had so much fun. She and Eric and Susana and a handful of other kids who were now all grown and married. Except for her. And maybe Eric. After high school they’d all stopped being friends. And he’d disappeared. Maybe that was why she wouldn’t allow herself to enjoy reminiscing with him.
“I don’t think we knew what we were looking for,” he continued. “Or even why our parents would want to take over the world.”
“Maybe we just wanted to have fun.”
“Yeah, or maybe we wanted to believe they were more than just lonely immigrants longing for a piece of their homeland.”
The way he said that, with such derision, irritated her. But a part of Victoria wondered if that was true. Kids always thought their parents were all powerful and important. But had she ever wished they were more than what they were? No. “Is that why you finally came home? Longing for everything you walked away from?”
He took another sip of wine, but kept his gaze on her, probably wondering how she’d had the nerve to ask him directly what everyone was wondering. “Maybe.”
From the book “Evenings at the Argentine Club” by Julia Amante. Copyright (c) 2009 by Liliana Monteil Doucette. Reprinted by permission of Grand Central Publishing, New York, NY. All rights reserved.”
Women’s fiction author, Julia Amante who also writes as Lara Rios, has been writing and publishing Latino fiction for over ten years. Her passion in seeing works by Latinos in bookstores comes from her frustration
over the lack of Latino-themed books that were available to her growing up. With her books she hopes to bring readers a taste of Latino culture tied to emotionally rich stories. Read more about her work at her Web site.