"So what? Love doesn't wait for you to be older. Love arrives when it wants, without asking permission. And those two..." She pointed toward the pool, where Alex had just splashed Leo and he was splashing her back, laughter audible even from where they stood. "Those two are already in love. They just don't know it yet."
Claire looked at her with a mixture of disbelief and concern. "You think?"
"I know," Gloria said with a certainty that admitted no doubt. "And it's going to be beautiful to watch them grow together. Or a tragedy."
"Tragedy?"
Gloria turned toward the camera again, and in her eyes was a gleam not of tenderness but of warning.
"In Colombia, we have a saying: 'He who falls in love, loses.' But we also have another: 'He who doesn't take risks doesn't cross the river.'" She paused, watching the two young people who were now getting out of the pool, laughing, drenched, their fingers almost touching as they walked toward the towels. "That boy, Leo... he's good. You can tell. But if one day he breaks Alex's heart..."
She set the lemonade tray on the table. Her voice grew lower, more intense.
"In my family, we have ways of dealing with men who hurt women. They're not legal ways, but they're effective." She smiled, but it wasn't a warm smile. It was the smile of someone who had seen too much and was willing to do whatever was necessary. "And if he hurts her, I'm going to make him regret it. Not with violence. With something worse."
"What could be worse than violence?" Claire asked, her voice a little higher than normal.
Gloria leaned toward the camera as if sharing a secret.
"I'm going to call my cousins from Colombia. I have twelve cousins. Twelve. All bigger than me, stronger than me, with experience in making men disappear." She straightened up with a smile that was pure fire. "I'm not saying they're going to do anything bad. I'm just saying that if Leo hurts Alex, he's going to spend the rest of his life wondering why, every time he walks down the street, a big man with a Colombian accent stares at him."
Claire let out a nervous laugh. "Gloria, you can't say that on camera."
"Why not? It's true." Gloria shrugged. "In my family, we protect our own. And Alex is one of us. Leo is too, for now. But if he stops being..." She paused dramatically. "Well, in Colombia we have another saying: 'An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and a broken heart for a broken heart.'"
"That's not a Colombian saying," Claire said.
"It will be when I use it," Gloria replied with a smile that was half joke, half threat.
And then, as if nothing had happened, she picked up the lemonade tray and went out to the patio, handing out glasses with a smile that revealed nothing of what she had just said.
At the Pool
Alex and I sat on the edge, feet in the water, towels around our shoulders. The sun was beginning to set, painting the sky in shades of orange and pink. The family had dispersed: Phil and Jay were still at the grill, but now they were laughing at something Phil had said; Claire and Gloria handed out lemonade; Mitchell and Cam had managed to get Lily to put her feet in the water; Luke and Manny were on the diving board, jumping at the same time in an attempt to create a giant wave.
Haley, from her lounge chair, shot me a look that was pure amusement. I pretended not to see her.
"You know what?" Alex said, her eyes fixed on the horizon. "Today was a good day."
"Despite me pushing you in the pool?"
"Despite you pushing me in the pool," she repeated, smiling. "Or maybe because of it."
"You liked it?"
"I liked not thinking," she said. "For an hour, I didn't have to be the smart one. I just... was."
"That's what I do all the time. Just be."
"I know," she said, and for the first time, her hand found mine in the water. It wasn't an accident, nor a calculated gesture. It was just her hand brushing against mine, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "And that's why I like being with you."
I didn't say anything. I couldn't. Words stuck in my throat, not because I didn't know what to say, but because anything I said would break the spell.
And then, Gloria appeared with a tray of lemonade.
"For both of you," she said, handing us glasses with a smile too wide to be casual. "To cool off after all that... exercise."
Alex took the glass without looking at her. I did too. But when Gloria walked away, she threw one last look at us, and in her eyes was something I couldn't decipher. Tenderness, perhaps. Or warning. Or both.
"What was that about?" Alex asked quietly.
"I don't know. Maybe she wants us to return the glasses."
"Maybe," she said, but didn't sound convinced.
We stayed at the pool's edge, feet in the water, hands almost touching, watching the sun disappear behind the houses. And in the evening light, with the noise of the family in the background, Alex Dunphy wasn't the prodigy child. She wasn't the sarcastic sister. She was just a girl who had decided that for one afternoon, she didn't need to have the answers. And I was there, beside her, to accompany her.
Later, in the Car on the Way Home
Gloria drove with one hand on the wheel and the other out the window, enjoying the night air. Jay sat in the passenger seat, eyes closed, with an expression of satisfaction.
"Today was a good day," he said, his voice rough.
"Yes," Gloria replied. "It was a good day."
They fell silent. And then, without warning, Gloria said: "Alex's friend, Leo."
Jay opened one eye. "What about him?"
"Nothing. Just that he's going to break her heart."
Jay opened both eyes. "Why do you say that?"
"I don't know. But it's going to happen. And when it does..." She paused, looking at the road stretching out before them. "In Colombia, when someone breaks your heart, you have the right to take revenge. It's the law."
"It's law?"
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Gloria threatened Leo with twelve Colombian cousins. Claire tried not to think about everything that could go wrong. She failed.
Alex held Leo's hand in the water. And the world didn't explode. Yet.
On a scale of 1 to Gloria, how scared should Leo be? 🇨🇴👀💀
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