Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 6

also busy, but this might be a case of life and death, and Javier is too young to die."
    A shy knock on the door jolted Esteban, he'd barely had time to hide the letter before Sister Lupe entered the room.
    "Father, I know you said not to bother you, but your brother, the one that looks like a gangster, is outside."
    Before Esteban could reply, said brother announced himself behind her. "I heard that."
    She jumped, and got closer to Esteban, who remained seated at his desk.
    The six-feet-plus of Raul Hidalgo invaded his office, dressed in an expensive but tacky leather suit, even a humble girl like Lupe could see as such. She associated him with the kind of dark men she'd known in her native Mexico, maybe because Raul had the same arrogant expression and impertinent eyes.
    Esteban told her, "It's okay, Sister Lupe, I asked him to come over."
    Raul looked down at her. "I don't deal drugs, but if you switch careers, I could have a dancing pole ready for you."
    When she scowled and lifted her head as if he couldn't scare her, he added, lowering his voice, "I'd personally train you."
    After that, she managed to hasten out of the room.
    "Raul, please!"
    "What? She called me gangster and you said nothing."
    "If you stop dressing like that maybe she wouldn't call you names."
    "She would look great on a dancing pole, you know."
    "She's a nun, Raul, stop being nasty."
    "What have you done this time, Esteban?"
    Raul dropped the newspaper over the desk while citing, "Archdiocese expels stellar attorney Father Hidalgo."
    He paused, and when Esteban didn't say anything asked, "What happened, man?"
    Esteban frowned, and picking up the paper, read some of the printed words.
    "It's only baloney. I've not been defrocked, and they know nothing about it."
    Afterward, he tossed the paper inside the wastebasket, where he was putting the stuff he had cleared from his desk.
    "Well, I'm asking you, because you sure know, right?"
    Esteban met the gaze so similar to his own, an unusual dark green that most members of the Hidalgo family had.
    "I withdrew as counselor and asked for a few days leave of absence, but in the last few hours, I decided that I'm leaving the priesthood. So, my voluntary request to be laicized has been sent."
    Raul looked at him speechless for a few seconds, and Esteban went back to finish cleaning his desk while waiting for his brother to process the news. Raul combed his short hair with both hands, still looking at his brother in awe.
    "Oh, man. I didn't hear that. Well, at least, I'm not the one telling the family."
    The tradition in the Hidalgo family was that the firstborn male joined the Catholic Church, while the second son ran the diverse family businesses, which had never been all legal. Knowing he would feel miserable representing certain aspects of those businesses, Esteban begged Raul to switch with him since his brother enjoyed the power and the thrill, of running the thin line between crime and legality.
    Raul and he were so different, but his twin brother had always been protective of him, even when he'd disapproved of his choices.
    "There is no need, Raul, I will tell them when I'm ready. I'm telling you now, so you don't waste your time trying to change my mind."
    "Why, Esteban? If you didn't want to represent the church in this case, you could have asked Uncle Rob to bail you out."
    Uncle Rob was also known as Cardinal Jose Roberto Hidalgo, their father's older brother, who already had an office at the Vatican, and who Esteban had always respected, but whose influence he didn't want at the moment.
    "It's not only this case, and it's not the church, it's me. Speaking of our Eminence, you have to convince Dad not to call him until there is nothing he can do about it."
    "Phew! He's Uncle Rob for me, I don't care if he wears a black and red dress. I remember he's cool."
    "Then your job is easier— keep him out of my business."
    "Easier said than done, by now Dad called him for sure, next thing you will be sent to one of those Jesuit seminars, and will come back more papist than the Pope. It happened every time you tried to quit."
    Esteban considered for a second telling Raul about the way Mauricio's death affected him, but it would have meant telling his brother about Mauricio's sexuality, something he had hid from Raul until his death. Instead, Esteban told him.
    "Not this time."
    "The archbishop called Dad, and they had a long talk in Spanish; you know what that means right?"
    "It's simply politics;