La Mujer de Lalo (Lalo's Woman)

Spousal Privileges

The next day, Ana barely saw Lalo. When he left home that morning, he tucked his gun and silencer inside his pants. She thought he'd give some explanation, but he didn't. As he was about to leave the house, Ana stopped him, pulled him in and kissed him. The kiss could have definitely been better. It was as though Lalo wasn't mentally present.

"What could have got him so riled up?" She wondered.

At 2 p.m., Ana got ready to leave home. She decided walk home, and have a little exercise. It was a 20 minutes walk to Lalo's place. When Ana reached home, she saw Nacho's Javelin parked out front. She sighed and went in. Nacho sat in the kitchen counter, waiting for her.

"What do you want?" Ana asked.

"Did you talk to Andrea?" He questioned her back.

"Um... yeah like 2 days back I guess. Why?"

"Did she say anything?"

"No. Why are you asking so many questions? What's wrong?"

"She is getting married to Tuco this evening."

Ana almost spat out the water she was drinking.

"What? How did...? Where is she now?"

"At Tuco's. She wanted me to get you to come to the... I guess ceremony?"

"Oh god. Let's go."

Nacho sped off and they arrived at Tuco's. Ana ran inside, ready to talk some sense into her friend. Andrea, who now had a small baby bump at 18 weeks, hopped towards Ana. Face filled with joy, she hugged Ana.

"I'm getting married!!" She squealed excitedly.

"Seriously, what's gotten into you mami?"

"Ugh. I knew you would ask all these questions. First, come upstairs. We'll talk over drinks."

Inside the bedroom, they sat on a bed as they chatted. Long story short, Tuco had a little incident. There were already many cases filed against him, but he did manage to get away from most. But this was a little bigger. Tuco had shot and beat a guy to his deathbed. The poor man was still in intensive care for the past 3 days.

One of the guy's neighbors had heard gunshots and reported it. Gustavo's men had interfered and ensured that the police had correctly identified it as Tuco. Since Andrea was with him, well, in his car actually, which probably the police have identified by now, she was to be produced as a witness.

Their lawyer, Saul Goodman had gone through many scenarios, but said that the quickest way to get this problem out of the way was a marriage. An official licensed marriage between Tuco Salamanca and Andrea Álvarez would give them Spousal Privileges from testifying against each other. Saul had gotten the couple together to go to the County Clerk's office that morning to register and obtain their marriage license.

But Tuco had insisted that they have a proper wedding. At least a small one at their place. He wanted to do it properly to honor his lovely bride Andrea and their unborn child growing inside her. Plus he wanted to get married and make his abuelita (grandma) happy. They decided to have a simple wedding that evening in his house.

Ana could see some of their guys at work, moving the furniture around, sticking some flowers etc. Those decorations were horrid according to Ana.

"Does Lalo know?" She questioned.

"Yes. Tío Hector has also given his blessings. Infact they should be here any minute now." Tuco said in high giddy voice as he entered the room.

Ana felt lightheaded. Was it because she had been worrying about Lalo the whole day? Or because she had just a granola bar for breakfast and skipped lunch? Or was it because of her long walk in the hot afternoon sun? Or maybe it was because Lalo knew about this yesterday but didn't say a word to her! Ana was in a temper. In fact, no one had bothered to tell her anything. She felt like she wanted to hug someone and cry.