Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Author:Silvia Moreno-Garcia [Moreno-Garcia, Silvia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Worlds
Published: 2023-07-18T00:00:00+00:00

14

They hailed a cab and headed to Montserrat’s building. As soon as Montserrat walked into her apartment, she noticed the red button blinking on the answering machine. She tossed her purse on the couch. The first message was from Samuel.

“Hey, Montserrat. I have no shifts for you for the second half of December, but I might have something for you in January. I need to talk to you about the Christmas party. We’re doing a gift exchange. Phone me.”

She did not intend to go to the party and waste her time having to pretend she liked whatever idiotic gift the guys had picked. She’d get her bonus and tell Mario and his buddies that she had plans that day. She deleted the message. The next message was from her sister asking her to call her back.

“You didn’t tell her I was detained, did you?” Montserrat asked, turning to Tristán. But he shook his head no.

Montserrat dialed Araceli. Her sister sounded cheerful when she picked up. In the background she could hear the muffled sound of Christmas music. Great. She had started playing José Feliciano. Things would only get more insufferably cheery from there. Still, she was glad to hear Araceli’s voice after her forty-eight-hour marathon session fielding questions from cops.

“Hey, mom’s been calling you. She says you’re not picking up the phone.”

“She didn’t leave a message.”

“You know she hates machines.”

“She called you to tell me that?”

“Yup. She wants to know if you’re going to Morelia for Christmas. We could drive together.”

Montserrat’s relationship with her mother remained somewhat distant, but she made an effort to visit on her birthday and during Christmas. Araceli was closer to their mom; they talked often on the phone. Montserrat knew she was expected to make an appearance, but she couldn’t promise that, not with the way things were.

“I’ve got work,” she lied. “That’s why I haven’t been answering the phone. I’m in the middle of a research project.”

“I thought you were having trouble getting hours at Antares. Are they changing their mind?”

“Something like that. You should go, though.”

“You’ll be alone for the holidays if I drive to Morelia.”

“I’ll be with Tristán.”

“He doesn’t have a new hot date yet?”

Montserrat glanced at Tristán, who had plopped himself on her couch and was glancing at her curiously. “Status unknown.”

“Well, if you change your mind let me know. I’ll head out on the seventeenth, to avoid all the traffic. Work is slow and I might as well go there early. If you want me to take a gift for mom I can wrap it for you.”

“Sounds good.”

“You need to buy red-and-gold underwear, Montserrat.”

Red was for love, golden was money. Araceli followed her New Year’s superstitions rigorously. What would she say if Montserrat told her magic was real, and sorcerers might walk the streets of their city?

“Are you listening? It works. But you have to make sure the panties are red and the bra is gold.”

Araceli enumerated the cons of not wearing red underwear and Montserrat said her ahas and sures like a metronome.

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