"Blessed are the eyes that behold you, Mother." My son's voice greets me the moment I come downstairs to the dining room for breakfast. It's incredible to see how much he's grown, and with his eighth birthday right around the corner, I'm a bundle of nerves.
"Oh, but my nephew is quite the charmer — or could it be that he's buttering up his mother to score a special present?" Magda is in the kitchen finishing up the pancakes for breakfast.
"I can't believe you'd think that of me, Aunt Magda. I'm offended," he replies, feigning hurt but unable to hide his grin.
"Is that so, Lyon? Are you paying me compliments in exchange for something?" I ask, laughing as I sit down across from him.
"Of course not, Mom." I watch him blush. "It's just my way of thanking you for letting me have my friends over to celebrate here at the house," he says, looking at me with those same eyes his father has.
"Lyon, you know I don't mind that you decided to have a sleepover here with your friends. You don't need to flatter me — though if you want to give me lots of kisses, I won't object." He jumps off his chair, throws himself into my arms, and covers my cheeks in kisses.
Despite his young age, Lyon is very smart and also very guarded. He only shows his feelings around Magda, Ignacio, and me. With everyone else, he's serious and standoffish. In many ways, he reminds me of him — but in others, he's my mirror image.
Magda moved in with us over four years ago. She didn't tell me everything, and I can only imagine how much it hurts her just to remember. But from the little she did share, she told me Santiago destroyed some of the furniture in the house when I left. He tried to start a relationship with Rosa, but she cheated on him shortly after, and Magda couldn't help but laugh in his face for being an idiot. So out of spite, he cancelled all her credit cards and fired her from her job. She called me that same day, and I told her to leave everything behind and come without saying a word to anyone — her mother had never cared about her anyway. She didn't hesitate for a second, and three days later she was knocking on my door with three suitcases. Now she worked with me in the administration department, and even though she'd been thinking about buying her own place, Lyon had convinced her not to so she'd stay with us and keep cooking for him and spoiling him the way she already did.
"Today's the meeting with the Japanese investors. Do you think Susan remembered to bring the folders?" she asked when she sat down to have breakfast with us.
"She knows everything has to be in order. If she drops the ball on this, she can consider herself fired. Ignacio won't tolerate another mistake — remember, she's already failed twice before," I said, sipping my coffee.
"Why would Uncle Ignacio fire her?" Lyon asked before biting into his pancake.
"Hmm, maybe because two weeks ago she drafted a contract wrong and we nearly lost a multimillion-dollar merger — if your mom hadn't corrected everything and landed the account. Or because she botched a slide deck for a meeting and almost embarrassed the company, if Ignacio hadn't managed to salvage it." She shrugged while Lyon's eyes grew wider and wider.
"She doesn't know how to do her job?" he asked, astonished.
"She thinks she's a big deal because her brother sits on the board of directors. She does things wrong and then blames other people, but her brother doesn't want her as his secretary because he knows how useless she is, so he shipped her off to our department," Magda explained, draining the last of her cup.
"Honestly, I think Ignacio only keeps her around because of his friendship with Leo," I said, finishing my breakfast.
"But business is more important than friendships, especially when one person starts bringing the whole thing down." Those were the kinds of observations from my son that amazed me for someone his age — and every word he'd said was true.
"If anything goes wrong today, I doubt your uncle will care about the friendship," I said, grabbing my bag from the chair and getting ready to leave. "Remember, Magda — you start at nine, straight into the meeting." I kissed them both and headed to my car to drive to work.
Normally the commute was about twenty minutes, but with the road work and the detours, I'd had to leave earlier these past few days and let Magda take Lyon to school.
I parked in my reserved spot and walked toward the tall glass doors of Ignacio's tech company.
"Good morning, Jacob! How are the kids and Juana?" Greeting the security guard was part of my daily routine. He'd always shooed away the creeps for me, and we'd ended up building a genuine friendship. His kids went to the same school as Lyon, and during the summers we'd get together at his house or mine to enjoy the pool and a good barbecue.
"The kids are fine, but Juana asked when you all are coming over for dinner. I think she wants to talk to you about something and she's looking for any excuse to see you and Magda," he said, smiling.
"Well, we're free on Saturday. Why don't you all come to our place for dinner?" I said.
"Sure thing. I know I'll end up on babysitting duty while you three gossip in the kitchen." His booming laugh made more than a few people turn to look at him.
"Saturday at seven, then. Magda will probably make lasagna," I said, giving him a pat on the back.
"Great, I'll let her know, and we'll be there. I'll bring a nice bottle of wine so you ladies can enjoy tearing us men apart while I beat my kids and yours at motorcycle racing," he said, heading back to his desk.
"Good morning — where are we meeting up?" Ignacio's voice comes from behind me, and I turn around.
"Obviously, Saturday at my place at seven, and you'd better be on time," I answer as we walk toward the elevator.
"It wounds me that you'd question my punctuality." He clutches his chest dramatically, and I can't help laughing.
"We all know that if some guy gives you the time of day, you vanish. And since I was under the impression you're currently chasing after Elias, I have no doubt that if you get a text from him, you'll ditch us." I pout, knowing him sometimes better than he knows himself.
"Ouch — you just stabbed me right in the heart, sis." He lowers his gaze with a mischievous grin that proves my point.
"We'll be expecting you," I tell him, leaving him alone in the elevator as the doors open on my floor.
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