“Ay, Mija. I know. We miss you terribly too. But this is our land. Our people. At your grandma’s age, she should feel at home.”
“I know,” I say. “You’re right.” My heart aches a little whenever we have this conversation, reminding me that I have no family here.
“Maybe you can visit us next summer?” Mom asks, hopeful.
“Yeah. Maybe. Joe, my manager, did great on his first weekend night alone. I think I could leave him in charge for a month.”
“Wow. A whole month?” Mom asks, disbelieving.
“Yeah, I have a friend moving there next year. It might be nice to help her settle in too.”
“She’s moving here? To Chihuahua?”
I laugh. “No. She’s moving to Acapulco. But maybe we can all go there for a week?”
“You have a deal,” Mom says.
“Listen, Mom. Ileana is waiting for me. I have to go. Give Nana a kiss for me. Love you both.”
“We love you too.”
* * *
Ileanaand I stare at the tequila flights in front of us. I’m glad she came with me so she could drive because while Ileana has made good use of her spit-bucket, I haven’t. Half my testers are gone, and we stupidly planned to have lunch after and not before, so I’m nice and loose before our conversation.
“Who were you on the phone with earlier?” she asks.
“Oh, my mom.”
“They’re in Chihuahua, right? How is she? And your grandma?”
I blink at Ileana, surprised she has paid such close attention to my life. “Yeah. They live in Juarez. They’re good. My grandma needed some medication, so I transferred some money over to them.”
“That’s right. You take care of them.”
“Least I can do,” I say truthfully.
“You’re a good daughter,” Ileana says.
“Ha! I try to be, but I’m not always a good daughter.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m a grown-ass woman. I’m twenty-eight, have an MBA, and own a successful business I built from the ground up—and yet, Mom doesn’t think I’m a success.”
“Mexican parents are tough.” Ileana offers a sweet smile as we both take a small break from the tasting.
“Tell me about it,” I say. “Mom thinks success means being married and going to med school or law school. She doesn’t think what I’ve accomplished is enough.” I smile sadly. Owning a bar isn’t quite the proper, respectable path Mom had in mind for me.
“But it is enough.” Ileana tries to reason with me. “Maybe not to her but having a profitable business before you’re even thirty is amazing, Sofia. I have such admiration for you and everything you are.”
I cock my head to the side, studying her, trying to determine if she’s sincere. “Really?”
“Why does that surprise you?” she asks with a teasing smile.
“I don’t know. I guess you’re so proper; I always assumed you judged me for sleeping around.”
Ileana throws her head back with laughter. “No! Not at all. I envy you. I wish I could be like that. To be so self-assured that I could pick people like you do and have sex without intimacy. But I’m just not wired like that. I’m a serial monogamist. Not because I’m a traditionalist like our moms, but because I need an emotional connection to be able to enjoy a physical one.”