The Villa

I dreamed of weren't to be. I'm sorry for that, but not that you're my child. You may be sorry that your goals of marriage and children didn't come to be. But are you sorry, Pilar, that Sophia is yours?"
    "Of course not."
    "You think I'm disappointed in you." Her eyes met Pilar's in the mirror, and were level, clear. "And I was. I was disappointed that you allowed a man to rule your life, that you allowed him to make you feel less than you were. And because you did nothing to change it."
    "I loved him for a long time. That may have been my mistake, but you can't dictate to your own heart."
    "You think not?" Tereza asked. "In any case, nothing I said to you could sway you. And, in looking back, my mistake was in making it too easy for you to stay adrift the way you did. That's over now, and you're too young not to make new goals. I want you to take part in your heritage, to be part of what was passed to me. I insist on it."
    "Even you can't make me a businesswoman."
    "Then make yourself something else," Tereza said impatiently as she turned to face Pilar directly. "Stop thinking of yourself as a reflection of what a man saw in you, and be. I asked you if it bothered you that people will talk. I wish you'd said the hell with people. Let them talk. It's time you gave them something to talk about."
    Surprised, Pilar shook her head. "You sound like Sophie."
    "Then listen. If you want David Cutter, even for the moment, take. A woman who sits and waits to be given usually ends up empty-handed."
    "It's only dinner," Pilar began, then broke off as Maria came to the door.
    "Mr. Cutter is downstairs."
    "Thank you, Maria. Tell him Miss Pilar will be right down." Tereza turned back to her daughter, recognized, even approved of, the slight panic she saw in Pilar's eyes. "You had that same look on your face when you were sixteen and a young man waited for you in the parlor. It's good to see it again." She leaned forward, brushed her lips over Pilar's cheek. "Enjoy your evening."
    Alone, Pilar took a moment to settle. She wasn't sixteen, and it was only dinner, she reminded herself as she started out. It would be simple, it would be civilized and it would most probably be quite pleasant. That was all.
    Nervous, she opened her bag at the top of the stairs to make certain she'd remembered everything. She blinked in shock as she dipped her fingers in and closed them over two packs of Trojans.
    Sophia, she thought as she hastily shut the bag again. For God's sake! The laugh that tickled her throat was young and foolish. When she let it come she felt ridiculously relieved.
    She went downstairs to see what happened next.
     
    It was a date. There was no other word for it, Pilar admitted. Nothing else brought this rosy glow to an evening or put this giddiness in the belly. It might have been decades since she'd had a date, but it was coming back to her, loud and clear.
    She might have forgotten what it was like to sit across a candlelit table from a man and talk. Just talk. More, to have that man listen, to have attention paid. To watch his lips curve at something she said. But remembering it, experiencing it again, was like being offered a cool sip of water before you'd realized how desperately thirsty you'd become.
    Not that she intended to let anything come of it but, well, friendship. Every time she let herself think of what her own daughter had slipped into her purse, Pilar's palms went damp.
    But a friendship with an attractive, interesting man would be lovely.
    "Pilar! How wonderful to see you."
    Pilar recognized the cloud of scent and the cheerful bite of the voice before she looked up. "Susan." She was already fixing on her social smile. "Don't you look wonderful. Susan Manley, David Cutter."
    "No, don't get up, don't get up." Susan, glowingly blond and just out of recovery from her latest face-lift, fluttered a hand at David. "I was just on my way back to my table from powdering my nose, and saw you here. Charlie and I are here with some out-of-town clients of his. Dead bores, too," she said with a wink. "I was just saying to Laura the other day how we should get together. It's been so long. I'm glad to see you out, and looking so well, honey. I know what a horrible time this has been for you. Such a shock to everyone."
    "Yes." Pilar felt the quick sting of the prick, and the slow deflate of the pleasure of the evening. "I appreciated your note."
    "I only wish I could have done more. Well, we don't want to talk about sad things,