How To Salsa in a Sari (5 page)

I'm an Angel, Honest! The Horns Are Just There to Keep the Halo Straight

“Amir,
she has completely lost her mind,” Issa shrieked into the phone as soon as her brother picked up.

“What now?” Amir, in his usual calm tone, didn't sound the slightest bit alarmed. His ability to remain unruffled by any drama was the key reason Amir was her anchor more than anyone. But right now, she really needed him to panic with her.

“She's actually going to make us move! She's packing!”

“Look, listen. You listening?”

“Amir!”

Silence on the phone and from the other bedroom where Alisha was packing. Issa felt like she was the only sane person in the world.

“Iz, why are you shrieking? I can hear you at a normal decibel too, you know. Quit being dumb.”

“You're dumb,” Issa muttered.

“Iz, stop it.” Amir sighed. “I know what's going on here. It's not just Diego, is it?”

Issa scowled. No, it was also Cat. And Diego. And this whole stupid idea. Who got remarried when they had two grown-up children? She didn't need a stepfather. And she certainly didn't need Cat!

“Look, he's not coming back. Our daddy is not coming back. A man doesn't walk out the door one day, disappear and just come back five years later. You dig?”

In one second, Amir got to the heart of Issa's problem. The problem she didn't even know she was wrestling with until that moment.

Their father. Roy. After he left, it seemed everything had fallen apart. After the divorce papers arrived in the mail and Alisha was laid off from her job at the inner-city Detroit high school where she had taught art, Alisha, Amir and Issa had moved out of their brownstone. They had ended up in New Joliet for her mom's new job. The quaint, rich town where they were known as the “poor mixed family.”

One day her father would come back, Issa knew he would. A man didn't just leave a note saying “Need to figure stuff out, will be back” and disappear forever. They would see him again. They would. They had to. But not if Alisha married Diego.

But Issa kept this fantasy her own secret. She knew Amir would never forgive their father for leaving them. “He's not a man,” Amir always said. “A man would never do such a horrible thing. He was a coward.”

Issa changed the subject back to Diego. “If it was anyone else it would be okay. But, Amir, you should see this man! And Cat is horrible! You remember how she used to be, right? I hate their whole family, they're so spoiled and rotten and—”

“Shut up,” Amir cut in. “This isn't you. You're acting insane.”

Issa counted to five silently. Amir was right. She sounded insane. She had to pull herself together. She had to reasonably explain to Alisha why she could never, ever be related to
Cat Morena.

Amir was still talking. “…get to know Cat. She doesn't have a mom, of course she's screwed up. And, Iz, you always get along with everyone. I know you'll win her over too.”

No way. Not a chance. Not that manipulative, miserable—

“Look, after getting to know them, if you still don't like this situation, I'm sure Ma will listen to you.”

Amir obviously had no idea what Cat was made of. A few nice sister-sister conversations wouldn't turn the Wicked Witch of the East Coast into an angel. Cat had decided long ago that Issa was an enemy. And that wasn't about to change. Cat would be around twenty-four-seven. The things she could do to Issa if they lived under the same roof…

“When are you coming home?” she asked instead.

“I can't for a while. Exams are going on, probably not till the wedding—”

“Amir…”

Issa's eyes started to fill as she thought of him being so far away. He had been the pillar of their family ever since their father had left them. How could he leave them and go so far away to attend college in Los Angeles? He'd only been gone for two months and already she missed him so much she called him every night.

“Give Mom a break. It hasn't been an easy few years for her. This new job, me going away. You growing up so fast…”

Issa sniffed. The years had been hard on her too. New school, new friends, her beloved father gone.

“Call once you guys are moved in, okay? And, Iz? Please try to behave!”

Yeah, right.

After Issa said her goodbyes, she reached into the drawer of her nightstand and pulled out a photograph. It was of her mother and father when they were young, just moving into Detroit where they'd lived a bohemian lifestyle for almost fifteen years. Roy and Alisha Bradley. Her father, as handsome as a young Ice Cube, was kissing Alisha's hand. Alisha had her head thrown back with laughter. Issa hadn't seen her mother laugh like that since her father had left.

“Come back, Daddy,” Issa whispered. “Come back and let's get our old life back. Mom needs you so much right now. We need you.”

She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to remember what her father sounded like. She could barely remember his scent. His voice no longer rang in her ears. They were forgetting him.

She heard the sound of her mother's singing in the next room as she packed her things. Issa had to stop this madness.

“Mom! We can't move into Diego's house! You can't live with him!” Issa threw herself on top of Alisha's bed, right in the center of a pile of clothes. “You guys aren't married. It's gross to live together. What will people say?” She knew she was really grasping here, but she had to make Alisha see reason.

“This love is making me roll. She said goodbye…too many times beforororor…” Alisha continued singing as she tossed her clothes haphazardly into boxes.

“Mom!”

“What?” Alisha finally stopped singing and flopped down onto her bed.

“You're messin' up the words.” Issa took a deep breath and sat up straight. “Quit bein' all ghetto.”

“Whatever.”

“And would you please listen to me?” Issa snapped her fingers. “Why do we have to move to Diego's? Let's all get to know each other like we have been. He and Cat stay there. You and I stay here. The old-fashioned way. I think it's been going well, don't you?”

Actually it had been going horribly. Diego had insisted on cooking dinner at the Mazumder house on Thursday. Cat had strolled around the house and snickered at their secondhand furniture while Issa had hidden in her room. More than ever, Issa was sure this marriage was a match made in hell.

Alisha raised an eyebrow. “Could this have anything to do with your little issue with Cat?”

“Little issue?” Issa was disbelieving. “Do you not hear a word I'm saying'? Those people are crazy! We cannot live in their house!”

“Why do you hate them so much?”

“I don't…hate him, I don't even know him. But neither do you. You've dated him for like, what, two months? You can't just marry the first guy that asks.”

“I know you're not going to understand this, but Diego is good for me. And he'll be good for you too. He's stable and has a great job—”

“Mama, please! This is why you ran away from your parents' house. They wanted you to marry some rich person like Diego.”

It was true. If there was one thing Alisha hated, it was losing her freedom. She'd refused to give in to her parents' “marry a rich guy” pressure and had run away with starving-writer Roy instead.

Alisha rolled her eyes. “I ran away because I loved your father and wanted to be with him. And I wanted my own life outside of being a housewife.”

“And because you didn't want to marry somebody just for the sake of convenience,” Issa reminded her. She'd heard the story of her mother running away from home a zillion times. How could Alisha forget the suffocating life she'd left behind so quickly?

“And that, yes. But Diego isn't for convenience. Believe me, having you throw these fits is not even slightly convenient.” Alisha wasn't even slightly ruffled as she tossed a mound of floor-length skirts, V-necked tops and long scarves into a suitcase.

Issa ignored the teasing tone. This was serious. How could Alisha throw away their fun, lighthearted lives for a cold mansion and a dysfunctional family? “Do you love him?”

“He cares a lot for me, and you too. And I care a lot about him.”

“So you don't love him.”

Alisha was silent.

I didn't think so.

Issa knew her mom would never love anyone the way she'd loved her father. All the Diegos in the world wouldn't matter to Alisha if Roy came back.

Issa was convinced more than ever that this wedding could not take place. No matter what it took or how much she broke Alisha's heart.

“The Morenas suck,” Issa muttered instead of voicing her opinion about her father. Alisha would laugh at her and tell her to stop dreaming. “Especially Cat.”

“Why are you so nasty to her? It makes
you
look bad. Not her,” Alisha said. “She seems perfectly sane.”

Issa's ears burned. Cat? Sane? Frightening thought. “You don't understand. Adam dumped me in front of the whole school…for her!”

Alisha stood on the bed and started to take down the Picasso
Violin and Guitar
print on the wall. “I have to agree with Cat. If Adam broke up with you, he's an idiot. That's not her fault, babe.”

Issa rolled her eyes. Adam did have some help in his realization that she wasn't the girl for him. Like Cat's bikini-clad body wrapped around him in her daddy's hot tub.

The thought made Issa sick.

“Do you remember my freshman year when those three girls went to the headmaster and said I'd cheated on the biology final by looking at notes I'd hidden in my sleeve? The test I got a perfect score on? That was Cat and her friends.”

Alisha looked down at Issa. “Why would you say that? Do you have proof?”

“I don't need proof! We were lab partners for like a week and we were almost friends. Then she asked me to do her lab for her and I told her no way. She swore she would get me and she did. I could have gotten kicked out of school!”

“Why didn't you tell me it was Cat? You told me it was some random chick who hated you for no reason!”

Issa picked at the embroidery on the bedspread with her nail. “Everyone made fun of me for being the teacher's kid. I didn't want you doing anything else for me. I thought I would be able to handle Cat on my own.”

She hated bringing Alisha into her petty school fights. Bad enough that she was “different” for being poor and a mixed-breed. She didn't need to be the girl who had to have her mommy save her all the time.

“Well, I respect you for handling things on your own. But, babe, that was such a long time ago. And things are different now. You guys are going to be sisters. She's going to be nicer to you.”

“Uh, no!”

“Uh…yes! Listen, Cat's had a tough past…” Alisha's voice trailed off as she rolled her art print and fastened it tightly with a rubber band taken from her wrist.

“What do you mean? You mean, she didn't drive a sports car once upon a time?” Issa felt no sympathy for the poor little rich girl's unfortunate history.

“Cat's mom died when she was really young. She grew up with nannies because Diego was busy with his job, so she never learned to get along with people…and she never learned how to study.”

No big shock there. Cat was infamous for her pathetically low grades. Everyone knew she stayed in school only because of Diego's generous contribution.

“When Cat took my class this year, I saw that she had talent. I asked Diego to come in to talk about his daughter's future. Diego told me he was so happy to hear that I believed in Cat, because every other teacher in her life tells him that she's never going to amount to anything.”

Harsh. But still, Cat deserved it.

Alisha reached over and hugged Issa. “Diego has spoiled her to make up for a lack of family. She's lonely. She and Diego aren't friends like we are. He's a dad and she's a kid. That's how things work in their house. She needs us.”

Issa didn't buy it.

“Their house isn't like ours. They're not a democracy,” Alisha continued. “Diego makes the rules and expects Cat to obey. He told Cat months ago that he was seeing me and he told her last week we were getting married. And that Cat was getting a new stepsister with whom she'd be sharing all her lavish things.”

Aha.

It explained everything. Why Cat had reignited her hatred for Issa after almost two years of leaving her alone. She was
warning
Issa about what her life would be like if this wedding took place. Cat couldn't break up the engagement, Diego would never allow it.
Issa
would have to be the bad guy here.