Rosa, My Love

As she turned away from me I said, in a quiet voice, "Well, if you don't like what you see in me you can always move out." She stopped still, as if she'd walked into an invisible wall. If she'd said anything to me in reply, I think the whole thing would have come out there and then. But instead she just flounced off to the bedroom, without a glance in my direction. By the time I followed, ten minutes later, she was already asleep, snoring gently.

By the time I woke the next day she'd already headed off for JFK. Lisa's unexpected absence had given me an idea. I called a contact, then called Rosa's house and spoke to Julio. "Hey buddy. What say we go out to Shea at night as well, the Braves are in town. You up for it?" I heard him excitedly asking Rosa if it would be okay, then we made the arrangements.

Julio had such a great time that night I was almost as excited by it as he was. I got us both Mets caps, and we enjoyed huge chilli dogs, as well as New York pounding Atlanta. When we got back to Rosa's Julio was dog tired but couldn't stop talking about the game. The last thing he said to me before he went to bed was, "Can my friend Brian come next time?"

As I was about to leave, Rosa pulled me back, and kissed me passionately. Then she whispered, "Where you goin'?"

Slightly confused, I said, "Home. I know you don't want me sleeping over, with the kids and..."

She kissed me again. "Kids grow up quick now, an' my two not stupid. They know what's goin' on, an' they don' care. Anyway, I don' want you to go. I wanna spend the night with you." We made love twice that night, between holding each other and whispering our love, over and over. The second time I played with Rosa, thrusting into her fast and slow, pausing for seconds at a time, jiggling about, while she bit on her knuckles to try and stifle her giggles so as not to wake the kids. As dawn broke I massaged her ass, my fingers dipping deep between her cheeks as she groaned and squirmed back onto my penetrating hands.

A short time later, as I made Rosa a coffee, Angelina wandered into the kitchen, dressed for college. To my surprise she gave me a peck on the cheek, and said, "Thank you for making my mom so happy. Be good to her, she deserves a lot of happiness." I couldn't have agreed more.

That evening, when Lisa got back from Chicago, I told her we needed to talk. I told her there was someone else, and that I'd give her time but I needed her to move out. She stared at me with dulled eyes, and groaned, "Oh God Mark, I only flew out of O'Hare three hours ago, the Jefferson Nagle deal's falling apart -- I can't handle this right now. Jesus, who is she?" When I told her, she looked momentarily confused. "Rosa? Who the...omigod! The help? That fat old Latino with the scar? Are you kidding me? You are, aren't you? You're punishing me for something, and this is your idea of a joke." She must have known from my face that I wasn't kidding. Standing, she screamed at me. "For fuck's sake Mark, have you totally lost it? You have me and you're fucking that old, ugly..."

"Shut up Lisa!" I think my roar must have been heard the other side of Brooklyn. I advanced on her, and glared at her, my face inches from hers. "Rosa is not old, or fat, or ugly, she is beautiful, and has a better heart than you could even conceive of. I love her, and I intend to spend the rest of my life with her, so get used to it and start looking for somewhere else to stay. I'll sleep in the spare room meantime." Too angry to face her any longer, I stormed off to my study, slamming the door behind me.

A couple hours later, Lisa tapped on the door and entered, looking meek. She sat next to me, and spoke as if to a sulky child. "Mark honey, I know you've been going through a hard time lately, and things haven't been going so good between us. I maybe gave you the wrong idea about Gary and me, nothing happened between him and me, I swear. Look baby, I'm sure you feel a lot of pressure about going back to CNHP, but you don't have to, not if you don't want to. I could speak to Daddy. We could both go and work with him, and I'm sure he'd offer you a senior partnership within a couple of years. We can get right away from this crazy city." Lisa's father ran an old-fashioned family law firm in the Hamptons.

I was shaking my head before she even finished speaking. "Lisa, you just don't get it, do you. I don't love you anymore -- if I ever truly did. I love Rosa, and she and I are going to make a life together. I'd like you and I to part as friends, but..."

The change that came over her was as if Doctor Frankenstein had just thrown the switch on his machine. She leapt to her feet, sending her wheeled chair crashing back against the wall. "Okay, fuck you, you asshole. If you wanna fuck some old wetback bitch instead of me, fine! I'll move out tomorrow. But this may be your house but I've got over two years invested in it, and you'd better be ready to pay me what that's worth, you fucking sonofabitch. And when you get your fucking sanity back -- if you ever do -- just don't come crawling back to me, because there are plenty of guys out there who'd sell their souls to screw me, and I've turned better men that you down since I moved in with your sorry ass!" And with that she stormed out -- if Lisa has always had one talent, it was storming.

Naturally I didn't go back to CNHP. Remember Freddy Bargas? I work at his community law center now, for a fraction of the income I was getting in my old life, and I've never been as happy in my career. Instead of helping corporate fat cats screw over their clients, rivals and employees, I'm now helping real people with real problems -- doing real legal work. The sheer satisfaction of watching someone get the childcare payments they should have been receiving by right, or seeing some scumbag landlord forced to withdraw illegal eviction notices, is worth more to me than all the six-figure checks in the world. I'm also fluent in Spanish now, and learning Italian fast.

Rosa and I live together, with Julio, in Corona through the week. We have a better apartment now, but I would never have wanted to take Rosa away from the community she knows. We have season tickets for Mets games now -- three of them. If ever Rosa doesn't want to come, we can always find one of Julio's pals ready to make the trip. Rosa's given up cleaning other people's houses; she still works days, part-time, at La Romana -- her choice -- and she's going to school, studying for a financial qualification. I still have the house in Brooklyn Heights -- Lisa is staying with friends in TriBeCa -- and Angelina and a couple of her friends stay there through the week. We join them at weekends, and Rosa and I walk hand-in-hand along The Promenade, gazing across the river to Manhattan. And of course, we make love as often, and for as long, as we can. We're marrying in a couple of months, with Angelina as bridesmaid and Freddy Bargas as best man. My life has totally changed since I met Rosa -- and I have never felt as complete as I do now.