Canceled Plans

Fina Waits Up For Marta

After Marta left to go to her important meeting to save a client from leaving the company Fina heard a knock on the door. She thought maybe it was Marta changing her mind so she quickly opened the door ready to forgive only to be faced with Carmen. She forgot something in the room and had come back to retrieve it. Upon seeing Fina's face with the clear indication that the opera wasn't happening she took Fina into her arms as they plopped down on Fina's bed.

"Cariño, qué te pasa?" Carmen asked as she cupped Fina's chin and brought it to face her.

Fina was trying to avert her gaze but Carmen wouldn't give up. "Nothing. Nothing happened. That's the point. Nothing ever seems to happen with Marta these days. I can't even be upset because I know that she is the director of the company and that makes her very important to a lot of people and she as a woman has to work twice as hard, but I never seem to come first for her. It's always the damn company." Fina said, absolutely gutted about the whole thing. Carmen hugged her friend tightly knowing that nothing she could say would fix things or make Fina feel better. As Fina started to tear up she managed to get out before the crying became the only sound to come from her, "I couldn't even tell her that it wasn't even about the opera. Of course I would have loved to go and experience it with her, but what I wanted most was to just be with her. I miss her so much it hurts. I see her and my heart jumps out my chest. I've never loved anyone like this, Carmen. And lately I'm feeling like it hurts more than anything loving Marta."

"Ay, Fina. Cariño. Is there something I can do or say to make you feel a little bit better right now? Can I help take you out of this? I don't like to see you like this. What if you came to my house and had dinner with Tasio and me tonight. We'll talk and laugh and listen to music. We'll take your mind off of this. Hmm?" Carmen asked.

Fina hugged her friend tightly knowing how lucky she was to have her and her support and non jugement always. "I don't think I'd be good company tonight. Plus I'm upset with Tasio and if he annoys me I might go off on him." Fina said with a grimace.

"Tienes razón. Better hold off tonight then. Another time for sure. I'm not going to let my best friend wallow alone. May I ask some questions about why Marta had to cancel or are we not talking about it?" Carmen asked, trying to be sensitive to Fina's feelings. Fina shrugged her shoulders. "Okay. I'm going to take that as an invitation to continue. Why couldn't Marta go tonight?"

"There's a big client who is upset about something and needs to be convinced not to break their contract with the factory and Marta as the director has to be the one to talk him out of it." Fina said with a pout.

"So this was a thing that needed special attention and specifically from the director, then?" Carmen asked for clarification. Fina nodded. "Okay, so this is something that will be resolved, hopefully, by tonight and she could be free tomorrow to make it up?" Carmen verified.

"But she barely has time for anything these days. She made sure to be free for this and tomorrow will be just another day that will fill up with more important things for her to attend to which makes me second place." Fina said very grumpily.

"Fina. She's the director of the whole factory. And she just started. She's trying to prove to many people that they can count on her and trust her direction. Maybe you should place yourself in her shoes and try to understand that maybe she is being stretched too thin right now and things will settle down in a couple weeks once she gets a hold of things." Carmen suggested trying to make Fina understand that Marta wasn't putting her aside for the fun of it.

"Yo no sé, Carmen. All I know is that I keep waiting for her to have time for me and when we make plans something always comes up to break them. No puedo mas. No puedo mas." Fina said about to cry again.