Caray, Caray!

After the rehashes... Lopez (channeling Dickens's hand-wringing, obsequious Uriah Heep) has found a lovely office for Tomas, who promptly gives him a few orders and tells him to take away the horrible pictures. Tomas asks Lety who his secretary will be - hoping for Alicia, no doubt [Editor's note: Alicia has so extravagantly outgrown her costumes that I am left speechless]. Lety says (1) forget about Alicia or you'll never get any work done; (2) after I deal with the cuartel I'll decide who'll work in this sector.

She calls Caroline to find out where Aldo is, thought-bubbling about how much she misses him. No answer.

Next Lety is escorted to Fern's old office. She sits in his chair. Her infamous old garbage is there! "Why was this bag full of lies saved?" Throws picture of Marcia on the bag. "Why did you leave me your garbage?"

Aldo is, meanwhile, thronged by the adoring, simpering cuartel members and is simultaneously getting the Sexy Siren vibe from Alicia, who commences powdering her cleavage. Coming around the corner, Tomas observes this and has a spasm of jealousy about his "big momma."

Aldo goes out for a little air to escape all this attention and kill some time till Lety is free to see him. After he leaves, Lety arrives and Tomas says: "There's some guy looking for you, I don't like the look of him at all."

I loved this next part. Fern and Aldo are on a collision course as Aldo heads out and Fern is arriving. Aldo blocks his way with a strange little shuffle, forcing Fern (who first asks, "Shall we dance?") to introduce himself and shake hands. "Fernando Mendiola." Aldo, staring him down: "I've heard a lot about you." "Uh, do we know each other?" "We have friends in common. I'm Aldo Domensain." "And what are you here for, DomensaEEN?" "Various things. For instance, I have business with Luigi Lombardi." Aldo walks away, leaving Fern shouting behind him, "Nice to meet you, we'll catch up later."

Omar bumbles into his perplexed partner and asks, "Who was that?" "Aldo Domensayne." "Isn't it DomensaEEN? Like those..." asks Omar. "What? there's a name like that? With the accent on the 'i'?" [I see a new shtick developing here.] Well, I don't like him, he has soperbia (I think it's 'an attitude'), he's sangrón (annoying), altanero (arrogant). He acted like he was the owner of Conceptos - which of course I'M not - DomensaEEN? [goes on tiptoes as he says "EEN"] [walking away with Omar] Is he from Spain? ..."

Lopez is working on where to put Erasmo. "There's Omar's office..." "No," says Lety, "that's off-limits." "OK," says Lopez, "I'll keep looking for something suitable for your eminent, high level."

After he leaves Erasmo asks Lety: "Rather than finding one on another floor, how about the office YOU had? Where is it?" She shows him her little closet. Erasmo calls it a hueco (a squinchy little parking space, a stairwell, a hole in a tree) and asks, "who worked here? The Phantom of the Opera? La Llorona?" "I did." "How??! Who dared put you in this hole?" "At first it was just till they found a better space, but time passed, and Don Fernando needed me all the time, and I decided to stay here. I love this place."

"I didn't pay for university and postgraduate and special degrees to have you in this dark stuffy hole." "It wasn't bad. True, there aren't windows, but just look at this little lamp - you can turn it on, off, on, off, to tell if it's day or night! You got your two telephones [makes a mocking phone demonstration], and a great computer with all the most advanced financial programs... and look how fast you can get to the archives! [Rolls her chair back a few inches and hits the bookcase.]" Erasmo decides to stay: "If you could tolerate it, so can I, we're made of the same stern stuff! And this way I can be near you." Awww.

In his office, Omar reassures Fern: "If she let us use this office, she can't hate you so much." "Of course she does!" "Nah, she's melting, soon she'll fall into your arms, just use all your old tricks." "She won't listen." "If you want, I can explain things to her." [Worst idea of the week.] "She doesn't trust me and I don't know how to express what I feel. While we were apart, all I wanted was to get back with her, while all she wanted was to forget me."

While Aldo is outside, dancing with Fern, the fight over him is waged in his absence by Alicia (powdering her cleavage) and Luigi. It ends when Aldo pops out of the elevator and heads directly for Lety. Those people who say "no chemistry between Aldo and Lety" are stubborn Fernites. In fact, there is a sweet and very charged moment as Aldo and Lety smile at each other and he touches her hair tenderly, while all others are impactados. They give each other a twirl and she happily introduces him to all. They go off to gab.

Meanwhile, Omar goes on with his "reflections." "The weaker sex, women's suffering is a thermometer for the intensity of their love. They like to call their friends, talk about how destroyed they are, drenched in a sea of tears, then they say: 'I love this wretch.' Women don't cry for happiness, that's just in telenovelas. Lety suffered so much for you, her love can't be snuffed out already."

"Magnificent theory. Then why didn't she marry the first man who hurt her?" "Because you came along and made her suffer more. Newton or somebody discovered this theory." "Omar, know what people think of you? They think you're a sewer rat, navigating the black waters."

"OK, here's another thought. Did Marcia love you because you're the greatest guy in the world? No, she suffered for two years ["three" interjects Fern], she suffered like crazy, but if you stepped up and said you'd marry her, she'd say yes and be happy." "Lety's different, you don't know her. Here's MY theory - there's nothing more 'radical' than a woman who's made up her mind, and Lety has." "Mr. Ex-President, you're so stubborn. When a woman says no it means maybe; when a woman says maybe it means yes; when a woman says yes it means Right Now." They agree Lety's different and Omar asks, "Have you told her you loved her?" "Yes, and at that moment the phone rang, guess who called? M - M - MAL TIMING!"

After marvelling over how hard it will be to make 2-mill-plus dollars a month for three months, they consider the tiny amount of space in the office they must now share, and Omar gives Fern, and us, a vocabulary lesson. "For three months we must somentamonos, subjugate ourselves, it's a new word for me..." They discuss rearranging things - Fern has to go get his stuff out of Lety's presidential office. "Hacinamiento (stacking/piling/heaping), that is to say amontonamiento (piling up, crowding together), Mr Ex-President, you can look it up in the dictionary. ... It will be like our old school days when we used to share a desk."

Fern comes in search of Lety and is MUY IMPACTADOS to find she is with Aldo. He suffers one of his delicious bouts of jealousy and goes back and tells Omar, "She's with HIM! With DomensaEEENNNN with an accent on the I!"

In the conference room Lety and Aldo are beaming at each other, talking softly about business while their eyes are saying something else entirely. It gradually occurs to them that Aldo's huge [boring] project, concocted with honcho restauranteur Guillermo - aka "Gastronomic Tourism of Mexico" - could be turned into a huge undertaking - advertisements and expositions around the world! - and if Conceptos designed and implemented the whole campaign, it might even pay the bills.

Aldo gets closer and the atmosphere gets more tender and he says, "I have some other things pending ... how's your heart? Are you still suffering for Fernando Mendiola?" and we can tell by Lety's puckered-O mouth that she's mighty glad it's suddenly time for the Golden Circle of Goodbye!

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