A Love Lost

Gabriel

Who the hell could be ringing the doorbell to my mother's old house at two in the morning? Besides my uncle and my mother, no one else but Ana knew this place existed. Could it be my mother? I doubted it. I hadn't seen her or heard from her in years. But there, of course, when I opened the door, standing on the front porch in a lowcut bodysuit top and the shortest shorts ever was my mother.

"Mom?!" I shouted loudly.

"Mom!" I heard Ana upstairs.

"Hi, Gabriel. It is nice to see you again." my mother greeted me.

I stood out of her way. I wasn't rude. I was surprised and mad. As I closed the door behind her, I heard Ana running down the stairs. Then the footsteps stopped.

"Who are you?" my mother asked her. Her tone was sharp as a needle.

"I...I.." Ana was lost for words. Who wouldn't be. I told her that my mother never came here and I hadn't hear from her in years, and there she was in the foyer, the morning after one of the worst days of Ana's life.

"I..I.... what are you an imbecile? You can't even get a word out and you look like trash. I guess you are the maid. I would like a sangria and two beers please. And when you're done, please take my bags from the car and place them in the main bedroom on the third floor." My mother was acting like a first-class bitch.

"Of course," Ana said before walking toward the kitchen.

When she disappeared around the corner, I let my mother have it.

"Where do you get off?!"

She looked at me, shocked. "What? I just asked the help to do her job. What else are you paying her for?" She didn't stop. "I mean I will give you this, you sure chose a tiny one. Probably cheaper."

"Mom!" I yelled at her. I lost my shit. "She is not the help. She is Antonio's step-daughter!"

"That thing? She is my brother's new wife's daughter? Where is she from the sewer? She has no class. Nothing." She paused for a minute when Ana returned with the drinks. She gave me a glass as well. Then she walked out of the door.

I smelled the liquid to see what she had given me. She gave me a glass of rum. Hard liquor? What was she thinking? I drank it all in one sip. If I was going to argue with my mother, I needed a fire lit under me. She drank from her sangria.

When she finished it, my mother restarted her tirade of Ana. "I will giver her this, she knows how to make a damn fine drink." she smiled. "Wait. Why do you care about her? You have never cared about anything to do with that family. When you were a kid, you hated when I made you stay with them. Now you care about Antonio's step-daughter! Where is she?!"

She didn't let me explain. She just walked out the door. I followed behind her.

There in Antonio's Ferrari was Ana, curled up in a tight ball in the front passenger seat. There was no evidence of my mother's things. Uh oh. When my mother didn't get her way, I remember things getting ugly.

"What the hell do you think you are doing in my brother's car, you little shit!" my mother yelled at Ana. She opened the passenger door and pulled Ana out of the car. I wasn't fast enough. Ana hit the pavement. Hard. "I told you to get my bags and you curl up in my brother's expensive car. What switch flipped in your tiny little brain that told you it was okay? Are you so stupid?" My mother continued insulting Ana, unaware that she was not responding to anything.

"Aren't you going to say something? Or are you so pathetic and weak to stand up for yourself?"

Ana didn't move. She just lay there. I took a step closer. Then my mother's hand pressed against my chest.