ᴛʜᴇ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ᴡᴏᴍᴀɴ ʙᴏᴏᴋ ᴛᴡᴏ

Clashing Families

XAVIER

Sofia is sitted on the couch nervously playing with her fingers.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I ask, and she sighs.

"No. But we should probably get it out of the way." She says

We're waiting for my family. And hers. I'm going to be meeting her family for the first time since her brother and I got into a fist fight.

Hopefully, there's none of that this time.

Just as I'm about to sit next to her, the doorbell rings, and I answer it. I open it to see Zoe and Jason standing there.

"Hey. Come in." I say to them.

"Hey. Thanks for inviting me." Jason says and hands me a bottle of non alcoholic champagne. "I didn't know if Sofia was breastfeeding or not, so I got it for her."

Sofia smiles and hugs Jason and Zoe. "Thank you."

Zoe, on the other hand, is wearing sunglasses and doesn't say a word to me. I open my mouth to say something to her, but she walks past me with Sofia.

"Hey, um, Xavier." Jason says nervously. "Can you and I go out somewhere private after this?"

"Yeah, sure. You good?" I ask.

"Yeah, I just need to tell you something." He says.

Weird.

"Okay."

Zoe slumps onto the couch, and I hand Sofia the bottle of champagne and sit down next to my sister.

I wrap my arm around her, and she lays her head on my shoulder. "What's up with you?" I ask.

"Nothing." She says, and I take the sunglasses off her face.

"You look sad, Zoe.  You sound sad. What's up?" I ask.

"I'm not sad." She says with a frown. "I'm angry."

"Why?"

She takes a deep breath. "Lala left me."

"Lala left you?" Sofia blurts out. "Sorry.."

"Zoe -"

"Nope. I'm not talking about this, okay? I'm good." She says and gets up off the couch.

Sofia and I glance at each other as Zoe walks away and enters the kitchen.

Saint starts fussing, and Sofia picks him up from his bassinet.

Jason stares at Saint from the corner of the room. "Want to hold him?" I ask Jason, and he gives me a small smile.

"I don't want to get in the way." He says.

"You're not." I say to him.

Jason approaches Sofia, and she carefully places Saint in his arms.

"He's bigger than the last time I saw him." He says.

"Well, he's getting all of the good stuff." I say.

The doorbell rings again, and Sofia gets to the door before me and opens it.

"Jaun. Hannah." She grins and hugs both her siblings.

I get up slowly and place a hand on Jason's back.

"Mami." Sofia says and hugs her mother.

"Sofía, mi hija, ¿cómo estás?" Sofia mother says to her.
(Sofia, my daughter, how are you?)

I should've taken Spanish instead of French, but I can understand small parts of what they're saying.

"Estoy bien, mami. ¿Dónde está papá?"
(I'm good, mami. Where is dad?)

"No pudo venir porque no está lo suficientemente bien como para volar, mi amor." Her mother answers.
(He wasn't able to come since he's not well enough to fly, my love.)

"¿Está bien?" Sofia asks.
(Is he okay?)

"Sí, está bien." She says.
(Yes. He's okay.)

Sofia holds her mother's hand, letting her come inside with Hannah and Juan behind her.

Zoe stands next to me with a glass of wine and her sunglasses on again.

"Mami, this is Jason and Zoe. Xavier's siblings."

"Hello, I'm Angie." She says politely and shakes all of our hands.

"It's good to officially meet you, Mrs Gracia." I say to her, and she smiles.

"Such a nice boy." Angie says, and both Jason and Zoe snort.

I want to slap them.

Angie turns to Jason and Saint. "Oh, mira a mi hermoso nieto. ¿Puedo?"
(Oh, look at my beautiful grandson. May I?)

"Huh?" Jason answers while raising his eyebrow in confusion.

"She wants to hold the baby." Sofia explains.

"Oh, sorry." He apologizes and carefully hands the baby to her.

"Xavier." Juan says to me while staring me down, trying to intimidate me, but I stare right back at him, unfazed.

Zoe sighs and drinks from her glass, and that's when the doorbell rings again.

"Excuse me." I say to Juan and make my way to the door. I hesitate to open it for a moment.

Here goes nothing.

I open the door and there they are. My parents.

"Xavier." My mother greets me.

"Mom. Dad." I answer and let them in.

The room goes quiet.

"What is this? A green card meeting?" My mother mumbles under her breath.

"Don't start." I warn.

"Mr and Mrs James." Sofia says politely, but I know she doesn't like my parents.

I don't blame her. Not even I do.

My mother continues frowning and stares her up and down.

"Mom." I warn again.

My father extends his hand to Sofia. "Nice to meet you officially. Sofia, is it?"

"Yes, and this is my mother Angie and my brother and sister Juan and Hannah."

"Pleasure to meet you all." He says, and Sofia's mother approaches with Saint.

"And this is Santiago." Angie says.

"Santiago? I thought his name was Saint?" My mother says.

"Saint is his nickname." Sofia says to her.

My mother frowns again.

"Okay, how about we all just sit down and talk?" My father says, breaking the tension.

Sofia takes Saint, who is now sleeping from her mother and places him in his bassinet.

We all take a seat in the living room, and I notice Zoe refilling her glass. I take it from her and pull her aside.

"Seriously?"

"Look, Zoe, I know you're going through something right now, but please, can you stay sober today?" I whisper to her.

"Geez, you make me sound like an alcoholic." She says.

"Zoe."

"Okay, okay." She agrees. "But this is a bad idea."

I sigh heavily.

I know.