Free The Butterfly’s Daughter by Mary Alice, Monroe Page A

a slightly annoyed tone from behind the counter. She was wiping her brow with one hand, tapping her fingers on the counter with the other. A few curly tendrils managed to escape the thick ponytail to hang loosely around her flushed face. Her heavily lined, almond eyes looked at her with cool regard.
    â€œYou deaf or something? I said, miss?” she called out again. “You want anything else? If not, I’m gonna sit down a minute. My dogs are barking.”
    The cook turned his head from the stove and called out in a gruff voice, “Whassat? I didn’t say you could take a break. If you’re done with customers, we gotta clean up.”
    â€œAw, come on, Mr. Cordero,” she said in a soft whine that mimicked a sob. “If I don’t take a break I’m gonna have this baby right here on your floor.”
    Mr. Cordero looked fierce with his acne-scarred face and short, steel gray hair. “You always say that. That baby’s not coming for a month.”
    â€œI dunno. I’m feeling these pains . . .” She rubbed her back meaningfully.
    Mr. Cordero waved his hand dismissively in the air. “Aw, go on. You rest. I’ll clean up. I’m only fooling with you.”
    Luz caught a small, smug smile escaping from the girl’s full lips. Then she called to Luz again, jutting her chin out. “So, you want something more or not?”
    Luz shook her head. She’d been thinking about the flan, but didn’t dare ask the exhausted pregnant girl to get her anything else.
    She watched as the young woman stretched her arms behind her back to untie the long, white apron and slip it off, revealing ahot pink spandex top that clung to her very pregnant shape. Then she reached up and, with one yank of the elastic, released a shower of brown curls heavily streaked with gold down her shoulders. She walked from behind the counter with her hand still rubbing the small of her back. She slumped into a chair at a table near Luz.
    Luz slanted a glance her way, thinking the girl couldn’t be older than she was. Maybe she was even younger, but flashier, with heavy brown eye shadow and several colored stones climbing her ear like a sparkling crescent moon. A tiny diamond studded her nose.
    â€œSo, how far along are you?” she asked in a friendly manner.
    The girl slipped off her shoes and bent at an awkward angle to rub her arches. “About eight months,” she replied, not looking up.
    â€œWell, good luck.”
    The girl sat back in her chair and said with a derisive laugh, “I don’t need luck. I need a miracle. That no-good Carmen up and quit on us. And now I have to do the work of two people. Hey, Angel says if I do the work of two people, I should get the pay of two people!” Turning her head, she called out in a louder voice to Mr. Cordero, “ ¿Me oyes? ”
    â€œYeah, yeah, I heard you,” Mr. Cordero mumbled, his back to them.
    â€œIt would help, you know? Especially with the baby coming!” she called back. “They need so much,” she said, turning around in her chair. “Those teeny things are expensive.”
    â€œYou should’ve thought of that before you got knocked up,” Mr. Cordero called over his shoulder.
    â€œWho was thinking? If I was thinking, I wouldn’t have a belly the size of a beach ball, would I?”
    Mr. Cordero turned, smiling, and they shared a laugh. Luz noticed how when the woman smiled, her full lips slipped back overa mouth full of large, straight teeth, revealing bits of pink gum. The smile lit up her face and seeing it, Luz couldn’t help but smile, too.
    Luz held out her hand when the girl turned back to her. “Hi, I’m Luz.”
    The girl narrowed her eyes and looked at Luz like a dog about to bite. She turned in her seat, giving her back to the hand, and took a sip from her water. “Never seen you before. Are you from around here?”
    Luz withdrew her hand, stung.