Cathartic

The following is written in 3rd Person POV following Tanya

Earlier in the night…

Tanya just arrived back at her apartment from the group meeting, and she’s had one thing on her mind since the drive home from Viv’s restaurant —

“Tequila.” Tanya says out loud in a loving tone, as she walks to her liquor cabinet, desperately needing the liquid in her system right now.

“[We missed you too], mama.” Tanya suddenly hears someone say in Spanish from the couch, making her gasp from surprise.

“¡Ay Dios mío, Dios por santo!” Tanya reacts in shock, as she takes deep breaths to calm her down. She thanks God she hasn’t picked up her decanter of tequila yet, or she would have definitely dropped it.

“[She’s still used to living alone.]” Sofia points out to Nelly, who was the one who apparently made the remark earlier.

“[So, how’d your emergency group meeting go?]” Nelly asks Tanya. Tanya gets a glass and her decanter of Tequila, avoiding Nelly’s question entirely.

“That bad, huh?” Nelly remarks in English.

“No, no, no. [It was fine.]” Tanya corrects her assumption, although her downing of her shot of tequila didn’t support that answer in Nelly and Sofia’s eyes.

“[Yeah~, it sure looks like it was fine.]” Nelly sarcastically comments, and Tanya can’t help but concede that her daughters’ are right.

It’s not fine.

She desperately wants it to be. At least, to assure the man she loves, someone who already guilt trips himself enough as it is, to not worry about the consequences of the action he needs to take. Despite what she said earlier during the meeting, as genuine as it was at the time, a part of Tanya still feels a lot of discomfort with the possibility that she might have to share Jay with her daughters.

She didn’t lie when she said a part of her can be comfortable with it. She didn’t lie about seeing Jay as Sofia and Nelly’s step-dad either. She just didn’t mention that she actually has reservations about the idea of marriage in general.

She knows she’ll want to spend the foreseeable future with Jay, and she told Jay as much. The problem is… how would that even work with him having multiple girlfriends? Tanya already knows the answer to that.

Magic.

The cause of… and solution to… all of her problems right now.

‘UGH.’ Tanya mentally grunts, before pouring herself another shot of tequila before quickly downing it.

“I hate to sound like abuela, but… [do you plan on leaving some for the rest of us?]” Sofia jokingly asks her mom, but the tone of concern is not lost on Tanya.

“[Sorry. A lot on my mind.]” Tanya finally admits to them.

“We figured.” Sofia replies.

“[Do you girls want some?]” Tanya asks her daughters, referring to the tequila she’s drinking.

“[Sure.]”, “Not on an empty stomach.” Nelly and Sofia answer respectively.

“[Oh, shit. Right. What do you girls want for dinner?]” Tanya asks, after being reminded by Sofia.

“We can discuss that later. What happened at that stupid ‘meeting’? Did you guys fight because I was being rude this morning?” Nelly asks, dismissing Tanya’s question about dinner. “He didn’t make you choose between us and him, did he?” Nelly asks pointedly.

“Of course not!” Tanya exclaims. “He’s not that kind of guy!” Tanya adds in defense of her boyfriend.

“I guess that tracks. You always did have a thing for doormats.” Nelly comments, to the annoyance of her mother.

“[I know I deserve that, but this is your only warning, young lady.]” Tanya threateningly reprimands her daughter, who quickly apologizes.

“So? What happened that seemed super important?” Sofia asks the question this time. Tanya just lets out a sigh. She knows she can’t tell her girls the actual issue. If they find out that Cassie and Becca are half-sisters, Tanya knows her daughters will have a logical reason to side with Mr. Hoffman for trying to break up Jay with either Cassie or Becca.

Plus, Tanya knows it could lead to questions that might reveal how the group intends to magically deal with it, and how that might lead to the consequences Tanya’s actually struggling with.

“It’s a relationship thing, just blown out of proportion since the number of people involved in the relationship is out of proportion.” Tanya tries to be secretive, while outright fibbing the real reason why she’s stressed out.

“And it has nothing to do with Nelly’s behavior?” Sofia asks, getting a loud “HEY!” from Nelly.

“OUR behavior. You’re the one mama wanted to take outside to ‘talk’, remember?” Nelly corrects Sofia, and Tanya waves their argument off.

“Both of your behaviors this morning didn’t cause the problems we’re going to have to deal with. Don’t worry.” Tanya assures them.

“It’s because of that shouting match we heard this morning, isn’t it? The one that made you go over there again while you were cooking.” Sofia then correctly guesses.

“It was.” Tanya answers honestly, before plopping down her couch between Sofia and Nelly, the decanter and her glass still in her hands; and she pours herself another shot.

“We didn’t ask this morning since you said ‘It’s been handled.’, but you’re saying it hasn’t been?” Sofia continues to question her mother.

“One of my co-girlfriends, Cassie… you remember her?” Tanya asks first before continuing, getting a nod from her twins. “Her mother arrived and… she didn’t approve of their relationship.” Tanya informs them, continuing to leave out the part that’s causing her stress.

“Shocker.” Nelly sarcastically reacts, getting Tanya to give her a warning look again. “What? Don’t tell me you’d be pleased with me dating someone twice my age.” Nelly argues with Tanya, and Tanya just downs another shot since Nelly has a point.

“Okay, mama. [Ease up on the tequila.]” Sofia reminds her.

“Now that you girls know what went on around lunch time, I’ve actually been meaning to ask something.” Tanya prefaces. “What do you girls think about, Jay?” Tanya asks them, trying to gauge their standing on her boyfriend.

“[I know you’re not asking that because you want our approval to date him. You never gave a shit about that before.]” Nelly comments in Spanish.

“[I know you got comfortable talking to me like that because of your abuela, mija; but she’s not here to side with you anymore. You talk to me with respect or you’ll talk to me with your head through a wall. Comprende?]” Tanya threateningly reminds her daughter, who immediately gets the conditioned look of fear in her eyes upon hearing her mother’s threat.

“He is your boyfriend, mama. What we think shouldn’t matter.” Sofia points out.

“You just said what your sister said with nicer words.” Tanya says in reaction. “To be clear, I’m not breaking up with him no matter what you girls initially think of him.” Tanya says adamantly.

“Then why bother asking us then?” Nelly argues, unable to hide her frustration; and immediately apologizing so as not to anger her mother further.

“BECAUSE I WANT YOU TO LIKE HIM!” Tanya shouts in response. “I mean, ‘like him for me’... not ‘like him on your own’. Not that I don’t want you to like him on your own. I do… but only as my boyfriend! Okay, not just as my boyfriend, but as-uh~… person? [What the fuck am I saying?] I just—” Tanya begins to ramble as she tries to overcorrect what she means.

“Wow.” Sofia says in reaction, unintentionally cutting Tanya off.

“What do you mean, ‘wow’?” Tanya stops her ramble to ask.

“I mean, just seeing you like this… you must really like him, mama.” Sofia points out.

“Why can’t you girls believe that I do? [That’s what I’ve been telling you since we talked earlier].” Tanya tells her daughter.

“Then I’ll be honest, I don’t really care for him… but if he makes you happy, then why should what I or Nelly think of him matter? We’ve always adjusted to guys you’ve dated before, we’ll just do that again.” Sofia answers her.

“That’s not what she means, genius.” Nelly points out to Sofia.

“[Why don’t you fucking answer her then]?” Sofia quips right back, before

“Fine. You want the truth, mama? I don’t like him.” Nelly tells Tanya outright.

“Why, mija? What did you see that made you aggressive towards him immediately?” Tanya asks her, genuinely curious.

“[I didn’t see it from him.]” Nelly answers quickly, and Tanya reacts in surprise, as Nelly’s answer only means one thing.

“[I saw it from you.]” Nelly adds, confirming Tanya’s suspicions.

“You don’t tell us about him, but bring him to the airport with you as if he’s not a stranger to Sofia and I. You tell us you’ve only been dating a week, but you say you love him already. You act like he’s the love of your life, but we find out he’s dating four other women… which is fine, whatever. That’s normal for a guy like him… but it’s not normal for you.” Nelly begins to elaborate.

“Nelly has a point.” Sofia chimes in. “Please don’t take this the wrong way, mama; [but you’re the one who does that to guys, not the other way around. You’re the one who understands what kind of relationships you get into, and know they’re just for the time being.] With this new guy, it’s obviously different. It’s like he has you in some kind of spell that’s clouding your usual judgment.” Sofia adds, and Tanya has to hide how funny she thinks Sofia’s use of words are.

“Look, mama. We don’t trust him because someone has to. Someone has to look at him without the rose-colored glasses.” Nelly further explains.

“We’re just looking out for you, mama.” Sofia adds sweetly, which incites Tanya to give her a tight loving hug.

“If you say it like that, then I can’t really tell you to stop, can I?” Tanya jokingly asks. Hearing her daughters voice out why they have apprehensions about Jay does put things into perspective for Tanya. Despite the rapid acceleration of her feelings for Jay, it doesn’t mean the same thing will happen for Sofia or Nelly. Especially when they’re on guard with him.

“Still, can you two be a little less rude to him, while still looking out for me?” Tanya asks them.

“Si, mama.” Sofia answers.

“[No promises].” Nelly answers, but Tanya understands she’s only joking.

“I’ll take what I can get.” Tanya jokingly replies, before standing up to get two more glasses from her **** cabinet, and giving her daughters a glass each. She pours each of them a shot of tequila, before pouring herself one too.

“To ‘looking out for me’.” Tanya says before raising her glass.

“Salud.”