where else could he fucking be? His food still sat in a plate on the stove covered in plastic wrap, she'd even made crème caramel. The stress of keeping him was getting to be too high, at the same time "you at least have someone" her mom had said. Nana meant well but Maria wanted to set a different example for her daughters and nieces so that they wouldn't feel incomplete without a man.

When they met, Silvio had been the suave bad boy that half of the girls wanted. She was a different person herself then, young and rebellious. She loved to drink and make out even more, her waist was thin and her hips perked. She'd worn shorts that revealed her long legs, which were easily one of her most noteworthy features. Her feet were snug in espadrilles and she sat with her legs crossed high on top of a stool at the bar so guys could see her ankles, the subtle curve and arch of her foot, how the lines of her beauty drew the eyes up then down again. She let one espadrille dangle freely on her foot to reveal the soft pink flesh on the bottom. Her toes twirled with the rhythm keeping with the music, her nails were the color of passion and they caught the light in the room just as she'd caught Silvio's eye.

He said hello and they danced. Spirits were high a salsa merengue turned the instant spark between them into a fire. It had only taken a week for her to claim him as her boyfriend. He wasn't rich like the men she fantasized about from the short run soaps she watched as a girl, he wasn't pretty like those men but good looking in a brawny sort of way. More real. Maria had dreamed of the house they'd build, the places she'd go, and the wedding people would talk about for years. There would be food and family flown in from Puebla. She'd invite her BFF’s Rebecca and Nina to be her matrons of honor. Silvio would be better than the guys on TV.

Unfortunately it didn't last, after Silvio there was Marcus, then back to Silvio again. It hadn't been the life she'd expected. There had been fights to keep him marked by emotional and physical scars. It was too much to turn away from and not enough to stay, but why make it all for nothing? She'd loved him enough to fight back when he got out of line, to put him out of the apartment that she maintained when he couldn't find work, she laundered his fowl mood and kept the house. She learned to fight for him, and beside him like a woman should.

She remembered the time Pedro and his girl Rachel pulled a knife saying Silvio had cheated them out of twelve dollars. Maria was the one that had been there and he'd been happy for having a woman to stand by him, to take a cut for him, and to beat a bitch down for him. She'd done all of that, and she wasn't about to let Lisa or anyone step in and take the man she had tried so hard for. He was a prick but he was hers, and she loved him despite herself.

The night air hit her as she opened the front door, slipped the keys into her pocket and stepped around to her car. The engine tended to have a little sputter and didn't always want