Time

“Oh, Shit!” Maria cried out.

John’s heart skipped a beat when he heard her call out. “What is it?”

“It is almost seven o’clock!” Maria got up and retrieved her cell phone. “Shit, Shit, Shit!” she muttered as she paced beside John’s bed. She had not yet redressed and her skin glistened with sweat.

“And…” John prodded.

“My mom, got here an hour ago,” she informed as she read her messages on her phone. “She is locked out…She is upset… Very upset…She has called the Police!” Maria bit her lower lip. “Mi Dios! Me ella matará!” she was frantic. She practically wore a hole in the floor.

John was not much better, when fortune smiled on him. “Maria, I have an idea. Grab some of my clothes and get dressed.”

“They are too big.” She argued.

“All the better, wash up in the bathroom, fix your hair and do in a minute. Put your phone in your pants and put them in the clothes hamper.” Maria began to see where he was going with this. “The living room has no windows, come down the stairs when you are done and don’t go near any windows, meet me in the living room. I’ll have a movie, uh one of the ‘Lord of the Rings’, long and engrossing but not too loud so she should have been hearing it play the whole time.”

“I know the movie I long but it is too short, I have been here well over 2 hours.” Maria worriedly explains.

“I got the extended version, trust me just I’ll have it playing at the credits. When you get down, call your mom from the house phone, and let her think you lost your phone. We’ll play it from there.” John wasn’t anywhere near being sure they could pull this off, but he tried to sound it.

They went about the plan and when Maria called her mother, John could hear her distinctly. Maria rushed to the back door and let her mother in. Dolores Lopez burst in to the room hurling Spanish curses the far beyond John’s ability to translate. She could be quite beautiful for a 41 year old mother of three, she had a nice bust almost as full as Maria’s, her hair was thick black and full of bounce, but when she was angry she was beautiful as a hurricane, and just as devastating.

“Whoa, whoa! Mrs. Lopez, what are you saying?” John asked legitimately, but hoping she would think he meant ‘why’ was she up set and not ‘what’ she was saying.

She stopped and sighed. “Why didn’t you come to the door, puñetero pequeño gigolo!?”

“I didn’t hear you.” John tossed his thumb over his shoulder at the tv which was half way through the credits.

“You didn’t hear your door bell?” She said in disgust.

He suddenly realized just how much fortune was on his side, either she had not used the door bell or it must have broken or else they would have heard it. He raised his eyebrows in mock surprise and then lowered one in look of confusion. “Mrs. Lopez, did you try the doorbell? Let me see something.” John ran to the front door and went outside. He pressed the doorbell, nothing. He ran to the back door. It was the same. “Shit!” he shouted, hoping his smile could not be heard in his cry. He ran back to Dolores. Maria was cowed by her mother towering and storming, while Maria sat in the corner chair. Dolores may have only been five feet and seven inches tall but in her fury she seemed to be standing seven feet and five inches. John was worried she would look guilty. “Uh, looks like they are broken, you wouldn’t know a good handyman would you?”

Dolores was a little satiated but she was still upset. Why hadn’t they answered her text messages? “Okay, but what about the messages I sent?”

John just shrugged his shoulders and hummed a ~I don’t know~. Maria realized she had to do this just right she reached for her pocket but they were empty, as they had planned. “Shit,” she leapt up and ran up the stairs in a minute or two she returned with the phone hurriedly going through her messages.

“I am sorry Mama, I was soaked in the storm. John, let me change in their bathroom, I left my phone in there.” John was impressed by her performance.

The last of the fury left Dolores. She was a mother, she was angry, but she had reason in her. Their story made sense. “Maria get your things and let’s go.”

“Yes, Mama,” Maria answered as she jumped up the stairs. When Maria had collected her clothes and come down stair she leaned into her mother’s ear and whispered something in her ear. Her mother had a disapproving look. “Oh, Mama, come on, Lana will be there. I owe him, besides I have to get these clothes back to him.”

“Alright, Maria, you can ask him.” Maria responded by hugging her mom tight around the neck. She turned back to her lover, “Lola, remember my little sister? Is having a birthday party she and Miss Furr's little sister Misty are turning 18 and we are having a party tomorrow. Mostly, it is just a bunch of us girls but Cat makes a chocolate cake so moist you will think you need a straw instead of fork, Miss Furr from school will be bringing an apple pie that is to die for, you know you will want to try Miss Furr’s pie.”

John struggled to keep a straight face. He slowly nodded as if he had to consider the possibility, though now he would kill for any time with Maria he could get.

“Okay, come by around 6:30pm,” said Maria with a smile. The Lopezes left.