THEY LOOK GOOD together Eva concluded as she watched Lechaim and Maxine from her position in the kitchen, but she still had some reservations. Her house girls had been given the day off, it being Christmas Day, but Eva did not mind. In a way, it gave her a break to have a day off from being waited on by others, and she welcomed the activity. Christmas fare was laid out everywhere - the girls had helped her with the preparation of the food the night before - and her guests were now recovering from too much of everything. Wasn't Christmas always like that, she reflected as she loaded more food into a bowl. Then she walked back into the lounge with a tray bearing a potpourri of different biscuits, nuts, and other assortments that people pick over with coffee and tea.
Lechaim saw her coming and made some space for her on the table by re-positioning the large pot of tea that had been placed there. He made sure it was in easy reach though because Eva and her family were avid tea drinkers. Eva's expatriate women friends were always amused at Eva's insistence, even when her maids were on call, that she brews up herself. “This is Manila, my dear! Maids do that sort of thing!” Eva thought their remarks quite amusing considering most of them had never had people to wait on them before while servants had been part of her lifestyle in Buenos Aires for many years. How quickly do such women forget their humble beginnings, she thought, and adopt supercilious airs and graces as if they were born into such an environment? Such thoughts were furthest from her mind today, however.
She placed the tray on the table and off-loaded the food. Putting the tray to one side, she poured the tea.
“A cup for you, Lechaim,” she said as she placed an elaborately ornamented China cup brimming over in front of him on the table. “And one for you, Maxine, and one,” she paused looking at Carlos peering at her over his glass of wine, “for you, my darling.” Carlos smiled appreciatively at her endearment and joked. “Aye, aye! What are you after my girl?”
Ignoring his teasing, she distributed the food around the table and sat back in her chair alongside the other three. Laughter from the patio indicated where the last two members of the group were. Eva looked over and mild alarm went through her when she saw the two of them lying over the pool table coupled closely together Lito was demonstrating, as only Lito could, how a pool cue should be held and Angelina was his willing pupil. It made Eva realize that her sister was very much a woman now and men desired her. Eva caught Lechaim looking at her in mild amusement and she lifted an eyebrow.
“They're okay!” Lechaim said by way of assurance and she murmured back, “Hmmm” As Lechaim glanced again in the direction of the giggling pair, he recalled Lito's change of heart, “Lechaim! I might take you up on that invitation for drinks on the day after Christmas!” Now, he was cementing his relationship with Angelina away from the others. Who could blame him?
When Lechaim glanced back, he saw that Eva had now focused her attention on a guidebook that had been lying close by on a side table, and she was casually glancing through it at the pictures inside. For a few seconds Lechaim’s thoughts went back to the previous Christmas they had all spent at his mother’s place in Brighton. He recalled that then, Eva had been looking through a guidebook of the Kent countryside. They had come full circle. It was strange, he pondered how he could think about those days now and not have that gut-wrenching knot in his stomach. The memories of Sinead and Ireland were just that - memories. Even so, he could not help thinking that she would have loved it here, in the company of these people, his friends, one and all. Would Sinead, if she were looking down, understand the presence of Maxine? He could hardly believe it himself. It had been pure impulse on his part to invite her for he had known her less than a week. Eva's voice interrupted his musing.
“You know, we've never been there in all this time!”
Carlos added, “Meant to, but we've never got around to it.”
“It should be an interesting place,” Lechaim declared. The guidebook that Eva was now reading with such avid interest was a cheap publication with scant information on the Island's history; the black and white pictures within were of very poor quality. Still, Lechaim thought, in a few days he would be seeing it for himself or rather they would because Maxine was going with him.
“What time's the ferry leave?” Maxine asked.
“Ten in the morning, Thursday” Lechaim answered. “The hydrofoil's not running so the crossing will take about three and a half hours by steamer.”
“Wish I could come with you but there's a problem at the plant so duty calls,” Carlos said.
There's always a problem at the plant, Eva thought resignedly.
“What about you and the boys? Are you certain you won't come with us,” Lechaim asked Eva.
“No, you and Maxine go!” Eva replied. She would like to have gone too but she wouldn't spoil their pleasure. Let the two of them go alone. Lechaim needed another woman in his life and she had recognized the look in Maxine's eyes. The look of the female predator that had fastened her eyes on her prey, and wasn't about to be distracted. Eva had not decided yet whether she liked Maxine or not. Perhaps it was the thought that another woman had come into Lechaim's life. Her relationship with Lechaim had always simmered between the platonic and the sensual. Although she loved Carlos and would never be unfaithful to him, she was a woman with a woman's desires and Lechaim's masculinity had not been lost on her. Was it possible, she asked herself, that she was a little jealous of this other woman that had entered Lechaim's life? She had never met Sinead, Lechaim's dead wife, so the issue had never arisen but she had now met the lovely Maxine. Eva realized that she was being a trifle foolish and gave herself a mild chastising.
“Go where?” Angelina asked as she came in from the porch with Lito.
Lechaim said, “You can come if you want!” His offer caused Maxine to stiffen anxiously. She wanted to be alone with him, not have to compete for him with this child in a woman's body.
Lechaim handed the guidebook to Angelina who appeared disinterested.
“Thursday?” Carlos interjected as his memory gave him a nudge. “No she can't on Thursday. Eva and I are taking her to Angelis City with us in the afternoon.”
The Problem at the plant or not, Carlos had made a promise to Eva and he meant to keep it. He couldn’t make the Island trip though because that would take the whole day up.
When Lechaim looked at him inquiringly, he said simply, “Eva Peron here wants some new furniture!”
“I'll give you Eva Peron!” his wife warned.
Carlos always called Eva that, when he thought she was getting a bit above herself. He was patently aware that Eva's parents had named her after the legendary Evita (the Spanish form of Eva), the second wife of Juan Peron, a former president of Argentina.
Both Lechaim and Carlos looked at each other and then they started singing in unison,
“Don't cry for me Argentina....”
Eva, being Eva joined the happy men in their singing and that was the way the evening went. Good company, much to eat, plenty to drink, and the promise of more to come.
Above them the sun settled over the city and the sky turned red as the eye of heaven plunged below the horizon.