Caray, Caray!

Previously on Amar Sin Limites: We met a bunch of people I'm having a hard time keeping straight today :) We begin back where we left off, with Azul trying to get Diego to open the shop early so she can get a suit for Mauricio. Diego says he won't help her because she's a liar. She apologizes for lying and he asks after her disabled daughter. She explains that she's in a big hurry, but we hear "ay, yi, yi, help me!" from inside the store. Diego goes off to help his second desperate woman of the day (wow, and the shop's not even open yet), one of the employees who's being attacked by a mannequin (yeah, they can be vicious). He goes back to Azul and tells her he can't help her, but she swears it'll won't take "nadita" (a little nothing--in other words she won't take long). He laughs at "nadita" and asks exactly how long that is. She talks him into it and he asks what she needs. Just as she says she needs a suit, the phone rings. It's Diego's mom on the phone wanting to know how he is since he left so early in the morning. He tells her he's fine and he'll call her later. He heads back to Azul, but Don Chucho (one of the three wise men from upstairs) gives him Doctor Ortiz's pants that are supposed to be picked up that morning and can Diego put a dust cover on them. Diego leaves the pants on the counter and goes over to attend to Azul, who has picked out a suit, but can't decide on the color. He asks if it's for an older person and before she can answer, he's interrupted again by another employee asking where to put the shirts. He tells the guy to put them on the display over there and turns his attention back to Azul, trying to figure out who the suit is for. He apologizes, saying the store's a disaster area before they're actually open (ha! That's what he gets for being distracted by the pretty instead of sticking to his guns about not being open yet!). A delivery guy is up next, asking Diego to sign a receipt. Azul then hightails it out of the shop, saying she's running late. Well, we've now established that these two have some chemistry and that the store can't function without Diego's attention. Moving on… At Casa Diego, Mama is making coffee and Papa asks where Diego is. She says he's already left. Did he have breakfast? Mama doesn't know, he was already gone when she woke up. Papa asks if she's feeling bad. Mama says, "I'm tired of you always blaming my illness, can't I be feeling bad for things that have nothing to do with my health?" Papa is cowed now and gives a "Yes, it's just…" "Do you remember what happened last night? Do you realize what you said to Diego?" "The truth, I told him the truth, that he's an inutil at 30 years old, that he still doesn't know what he wants out of life. Or are you going to tell me that's not true?" ("Inutil" meaning "useless"; what Papa said literally was "he's a useless"; it's an adjective, but put an article in front of it and you can use it as a noun.) Nope, that's not the answer Mama was looking for. "You told him that for us it was a nightmare that he'd come back." "It's true," Papa says, "We have our life organized, we have our ways of doing things, and 'that' shows up again." "'THAT'? He's our son! I'd rather he be here with us in that messy room than out on the street living with who knows who, or where." Papa caves and, for Mama, to make her feel better, he agrees to play nice. Azul's at the bank, wondering why her card won't work. The answer: It's an additional card and the main cardholder hasn't paid the bill for six months. Grouchy Scientist Dad (see above re: main cardholder) is in his lab showing off his fencing foil to a fellow lab rat. He then wields it at another fellow lab rat holding a beaker of a greenish-brown liquid. Lab Rat #2 calls GSD "Robin Hood". GSD objects, saying that Robin Hood used arrows and that the lab rat can call him D'Artagnan or Cyrano de Bergerac. Back at the suit shop, Mama has come to visit Diego at work. She compliments him on how handsome he looks in a suit (yeah, she's right, he cleans up good…sigh). She wants to talk about what happened last night with Papa. She doesn't want them to go on the way they've been. Papa says things without thinking and later he's sorry. Diego tells her even she doesn't believe that. She tells him she doesn't want his homecoming to be like this and she wants him to promise he'll try to get along with his dad and that he'll talk to him. He says does want to talk to his dad because he's got stuff to say to him. He says he respects what Papa says because he's his dad, but he wishes Papa would look in the mirror and realize he's imperfect just like everyone else, and that he would be closer to them (the whole family, I presume). He tells Mama not to worry about it any more and that he's got to keep chambeando (working; "chambear" is a new one for me, but I notice Azul's roommate has also used it) so she should go home. He says it nicely, though, tells her he loves her kisses her hand. He calls her "jefa" which literally means "boss [lady]," but using "jefa" and "jefe" for parents is an acceptable usage and not necessarily disrespectful depending on how you say it. At Casa Millionario, Azul is complaining to Mauricio that she made un ridiculo ("a ridiculous"; see above re: adjectives used as nouns) in front of the bank employee and then it turned out that GSD hasn't paid the bill in six months. Mauricio tells her it's her dad's problem and she shouldn't get anxious like that; let dad live how he likes or how he can, Mauricio and Azul will do their own thing. He tells her not to worry about money because he'd proposed that they work together on that project. He says whatever he makes every day is hers too. She thanks him, but says she doesn’t think her dad will accept the job. Mauricio fakes like he doesn't care one way or the other. He's convincing too. Conniving, two-faced liar that he is. He says one shouldn't mix business and personal, but he and Azul are "different". He says she's the perfect person to manage Personnel and he's going to have a business credit card issued to her. She objects, but I'm like, "hey, girlfriend, take it!" Diego is packing up to leave the house. He goes downstairs with his bag, appears to have forgotten something, runs back upstairs, and then runs back down when he hears knocking. It's papa coming in the front door. I have no idea what all the running up and down stairs was about. Papa asks where he's going and asks him to take his bag back upstairs. Diego gets all pouty and says it's better for everyone if he leaves, he's got somewhere to stay, don't worry about him. Papa says he should stay and quit playing the victim as if Papa had run him off. Diego says he did run him off last night. Papa wants to drop it, but Diego repeats the stuff Papa said last night. They get back on that argument again and Papa says maybe he didn't express himself well and maybe Diego misunderstood him. Diego says that's the problem, he's never understood Papa. These two are going to drive me nuts! Papa asks Diego to stay again; Diego says he'd rather leave; Papa tells him to stay…for MAMA (ooh, playing the Mom Card); Diego tells him the constant fighting isn't good for him, or Papa, or Mama (or me! Add me to the list!), but it looks like he's giving in. Mama is at school, tutoring a kid with a broken leg. The kid's mom comes up and Mama tells her the kid's smart; she replies that he's got such a good teacher. The kid's mom doesn't know how to pay her for what she's doing for the kid. Mama says with the tamales (mmm, tamales!) the kid's mom's been bringing she feels quite well paid, and besides it's the government who pays her. The kid's mom says they pay her "repoquito" (very, very little; poco = little; the "-ito" suffix means "little"; stick "re-" in front of anything and it means "very" or "way" as in the sentence "Diego es rechulo," meaning "Diego's way cute!"). Mama has some kind of a pain and sits down. The kid's mom and the kid wonder what's wrong, but Mama plays it off like it's nothing, she just got a little dizzy. A woman with lovely curly hair that I covet asks Azul about her thesis. Aha! So Azul's a grad student. Her advisor (I'm guessing) says she was reading over what Azul's done so far and the topic looks good, but the planteamiento (the approach; in this context, I think she means her thesis proposal) is weak and lacks definition (okay, so she's probably not done a good job of clearly stating her research question…what? I'm taking a research methods class this semester, I can't help it!). Azul says it's that she doesn't have a lot of time, she's doing a thousand things. Her advisor says it shows, it looks like she did it in a hurry. She asks why Azul doesn't start over from scratch. She reminds Azul that she's got two materias (classes) left to get her psych degree. Azul finally says her advisor's name, Emilia (thank you!) and tells her she was thinking…. Emilia tells her to focus on her thesis and think of other things later; Azul's smart, it would be a shame if she ended up doing a mediocre job on it. At the pool hall, Diego and his buddy are playing dominos. The owner comes up and calls them her "misery" duet. She puts the place in their hands. The buddy flirts with her and she tells him she won't raise his salary. They joke about how she pays him "una miseria" (a pittance; another adjective-as-noun) and that's why they're her "misery" duet. Emilia is in…her other office?...sitting at a desk writing while she talks to a woman in green who's standing behind her. The woman in green admires the painting on the wall. Emilia says she put it up when… and then changes her mind about what she was going to say and says it hasn't been up a year yet. The woman in green says she's happy to be in Emilia's house and Emilia says she's happy too and hands the woman in green a receta (I'm going to guess a prescription rather than a recipe, given Emilia's profession, but we really don't know). The woman in green thanks her. Diego's telling his buddy about meeting Azul that morning. He says she had "su caracter" (her character; a strong character). The buddy says "even though she was arrogant?" Diego says he loves "viejas" like that. Viejas literally means "old women" and this is another one of those words that has many different meanings based on the context and the tone. He's obviously talking about women in general. It can also be used in the singular to mean one's mother or one's wife (as in "my old lady") and you can use the masculine the same way ("mi viejo" to mean "my dad" or "my husband"). Generally speaking, I consider it disrespectful, but again, context matters and tone matters and who one is calling a "viejo" or "vieja" matters. And, wow am I going on and on about the vocab tonight. Anyway, Diego continues saying he likes strong, secure women. His buddy jokes that Diego just likes women in general. Diego objects, saying he doesn't like them "all", especially not other men's women (an odd thing to say, but he's got to say it now so it can come back to bite him later) because he doesn't like to get into "camisa de once varas" (literally "shirt of eleven sticks"; he means "get into trouble"). His buddy asks, "Even if they look like the girl from this morning?" Heh. Diego looks pensive. It should be noted that Diego and his buddy refer to each other as "viejo". Azul is back at home, working on something. Her roomie is home early since work was slow. Azul shows her the organizational chart she was working on for Mauricio's company. She wants to make some structural changes. She tells her roomie she's going to go work with Mauricio because it's the best thing to do. The next day (I'm guessing based on wardrobe changes), Diego and his buddy are back at the pool hall eating some lentils that Isela (lovely owner of the pool hall) made. The buddy tells her they're "succulent" like Isela is. Oh, what a flirt. She chases him off to go take care of some customers and then sits with Diego and asks him how he is. She says his eyes aren't sparkling. He tells her it's his dad and repeats all the stuff his dad said the first night he came home. She tells him his dad won't change. She tells him he can come back and stay there any time he likes. He declines and says it hurts that his dad has such a low opinion of him. Then he starts in with "maybe he's right", but Isela's not buying that any more than I am. She tells him he's just had some bad luck and says if there's anything she can do to help him, she will. He tells her she's maaaahvelous. Diego's Mama comes into his room and is pleased to see that he's moved back in (I think they messed up the timeline a bit here--shouldn't she have found out he moved back in the previous day?). She goes down to the kitchen and sits down at the table with another mystery pain. Papa calls to her that the novela has already started. She's breathing through the pain as Papa comes into the kitchen and asks what happened and whether she's feeling bad. He asks what's up now. She says "I'm tired of you. The only thing it occurs to you to do is follow me around asking if I feel bad. What are you? My husband or my nurse?" She walks out of the kitchen as Papa stands there looking confused. Diego's sister (I think) comes into an office. Her boss looks at the time and says if he'd realized how late it was, he would have told her to go home. He offers to take her home since she stayed so late and asks when Paco's coming to fix the computer (answer: tomorrow or the day after, since he's actually been busy with work, thankfully). She accepts his offer of a ride home ("It really wouldn't be too much trouble?") and then we see Boss Man on the phone to his wife while he stands next to his car, trying to convince her to come to dinner with them. She's not interested though. He gets in the car. Diego, who from the looks of the lighting, has been at the pool hall all day, is still getting Isela's version of a pep talk ("Don't be stupid!"). She tells him he should prove his dad wrong. He says he's not sure his dad is wrong. She's had enough of his whining by now and says she's not sure either, hombrecito (little man), and walks off. At the restaurant, Boss Man and Little Sister have finished dinner. LS plays with her coffee as BM (ha!) drones on and on about how his family's fortune got squandered away. He asks if he's boring her, but she says "no," so he continues…let that be a lesson to all of us! He finishes his story, asks about boring her again, gets a "no" again, and then tells her he has something to tell her, since the wine has given him confidence. He tells her (Lidia is her name) that she's beautiful. Diego comes home and hears someone singing in the kitchen. Looks like Abuelo (grandfather)has come to visit. They're both really happy to see each other and Diego weeps like a baby on Abuelo's shoulder. Abuelo tells him, literally, to cry 'till he's dry. Silvana (formerly the woman in green) is fixing up her bed on Emilia's couch and thanking her again. Emilia says she's not only her therapist she's also her sister-in-law. Or at least, she was until (from what I can put together from the conversation) Hugo, her brother, left Silvana after the death of their child. He hasn't talked to Emilia since he went to the hospital to tell Silvana he was leaving her, although even Emilia isn't clear about exactly who doesn't want to talk to whom. Emilia says that everyone dealt with what happened as best they could, but the hardest part fell to Silvana and Hugo, "you te derrumbaste ("you had a breakdown") and Hugo distanced himself from everyone." Diego is apologizing for his weeping and Abuelo wants to know what's up. Diego says he feels alone since Valeria…Abuelo guesses that Valeria left Diego. Diego tells him about the money and coming home and arguing with Papa. Abuelo's heard the last part of that story before, from the look on his face. He asks about Valeria and the money and Diego tells him it was the rent money plus all his savings. Abuelo utters his favorite exclamation "Valgame Dios" ("God save me!"; all-purpose expression of surprise). Diego says Abuelo's the only one who really understands him. Abuelo reminds him that "la suerte está echada" (the die is cast; your fate is written; que será, será). Abuelo offers to lend Diego money, but Diego says it's enough that Abuelo is there for him, he feels better just seeing Abuelo. Diego says he's got a lot he wants to tell him, but they've got time and besides, they're stuck sharing a room. Diego weeps again at how happy he is to see his grandfather. Back at the restaurant, Lidia's not bothered by what her boss said to her. He wonders if people will think it's the usual "boss and secretary" thing and Lidia says she doesn't care what people think and besides, they're not doing anything wrong (okay, she's obviously playing out of a different moral rulebook than mine; on the other hand they haven't done anything but eat dinner…yet!). She says they're just having dinner and since they work so closely together they really should get along. He says the boss-secretary relationship is important since they spend all day together. She helps him, she listens to him…she understands him. Lidia says they only talk about work and she doesn't know how he is outside of the office. He says that's why it's good they're getting to know each other in a different way. She says she admires him, he's a smart man, she'd like to be like him *giggle* (her, not me) and they're not doing anything wrong and if they manage it well nothing will happen. He says after they finish their cigarettes he'll take her home. Uh-huh. In the kitchen of Casa Diego, Abuelo brings salt and lime to the table. Abuelo knows how to par-tay! Diego pours the tequila shots as he tells Abuelo that he had this crazy fantasy that when he came home they'd welcome him with open arms (okay, I wouldn't call that a crazy fantasy, per se, except that if his father's always been this way then Diego should have known what to expect). Abuelo asks if his daughter was also rude to Diego and Diego says no, she's so good and sometimes she's so good she lets Papa step all over her (wow, the family dynamics going on here and each person's perception of how the family operates is just fascinating to watch…okay, I'm being a psych nerd again, sorry…carry on). Abuelo says Mama never had a very strong character (oh, I beg to differ!) and that's why Diego, as the son, should have done something. Diego tells Abuelo that Mama must have done something because Papa asked him to stay and they have a laugh at the image of Papa "begging" Diego to stay. Abuelo says he never liked Papa as a son-in-law, but Mama picked him. (Dude, you're not helping.) Abuelo asks what Diego will do now and Diego says he'll stay there until either he or his dad can't take it anymore, but he says he'd like to stay close since Mama hasn't been doing well lately. Abuelo asks if she's sick and what with, but Diego doesn't know. Abuelo gives another "Valgame Dios!" and says it's a good idea he came to visit since he's got a lot of things to fix…starting with Diego needing to toughen up and not let anyone take advantage of him again. He tells Diego "Pa' los toros del Jaral, los caballos de allá mismo" which means "For the bulls from el Jaral (a famous hacienda in Guanajuato), the horses from there too"; in other words, stick to your own kind (thank you, Internet! The idiomatic phrases tonight are running me in circles!). Abuelo is talking about Valeria ("that vieja") running off with all Diego's money. Diego says that's not going to happen again. Mama and Papa come home with rotisserie chicken (which Abuelo calls "burnt chicken"). Papa tells Abuelo that his daugher's not going to give him the pleasure of cooking for him. Mama says to ignore him, he's jealous. Papa says, "look at the chillon (the wailer; the whiner) how his face has changed because his Abuelito arrived." Diego and Abuelo just look at each other and laugh. Azul visits GSD in his lab and slaps a folder down on the counter next to GSD's microscope. GSD tells her to be careful because "this is very delicate". He asks what it is and she tells him it's the payment of his debt for the credit card plus all the interest. He asks her why she paid it. She's like, "Duh! Cause otherwise we'd have lost our account at the bank and the apartment, that's all." He brushes it off, "oh, it sounds like you're exaggerating". She says she's tired of taking care of his stuff and why isn't he capable of being responsible for himself. (observation: Azul and Diego both have daddy issues. Just saying.) He asks what she's talking about (and he's not even bothering to look at her by this point). She says she's talking about paying his debts, that if he wants to spend all his money, that's his affair, but he needs to start being responsible because she doesn't want to spend the little that she's saved paying off his debts. She starts crying and reminds him she doesn't have a job. Okay, now she's got his attention again. She reminds him that her savings are for her to live off of until she has a job. He asks if she doesn't still have the money her mother left her. She tells him her mother left them both money and he spent all his on his lab with the argument that the government hadn't helped him. He asks her not to speak to him in that tone of voice because he's her father and he's not going to tolerate her rudeness. She says, "Oh, now I'M being rude?" He says he gets it, she's trying to pressure him to go work for her "beloved Marcelo". "Mauricio!" "Yeah, I know, Mauricio, Marcelo it's all the same to me." She says that everything she tells him goes in one ear and out the other. He says fine, his name is Mauricio and he's saved it to the hard drive (he points to his head) in a folder with the label "my daughter's boyfriend". She tells him all she wants is for him to be the dad and her to be the kid and she cries that she's tired of things going on this way. He says he knows he's not the dad she wants, but he's the one she's got and he loves her, "come on, now, a smile…" he lifts the corners of her mouth saying, "this one this way and that one that way." Eh, he can be charming when he wants to. They both cry and hug and say they love each other. Mauricio's henchman has brought him an invoice or purchase order of some sort. Mauricio asks about the taxes on some of the chemicals and Hench says he'll have an answer from the importer by tomorrow at the latest. Mauricio wants to know what happened with Benjamin (the guy he fired the day before). Hench says there are some problems, but the lab can't stay empty and he thinks Mauricio should put more pressure on GSD. Mauricio says to leave it to him and not worry. Diego's Mama has gone to the doctor. The doctor says it's strange that she came by herself. She says she doesn't feel well and she has a presentimiento (she's got a baaaad feeling about something). The dramatic music agrees with her. Silvana is…somewhere…an outdoor mercado, looks like. She's wearing sunglasses and has her hair covered with a scarf. She stops outside a store with a sign that says they rent tables and chairs. The scene cuts to her taking a bag of something and stuffing it in her purse, then handing a man a piece of paper or maybe some money. It's all shot from overhead, so it's kind of hard to tell what's going on. She walks back in the direction she came from. Mauricio has come to GSD's lab. GSD doesn't look pleased. He asks what Mauricio's doing there and whether Azul sent him to convince GSD to take the job. Mauricio says he was just in the neighborhood and stopped by to see if GSD wanted to grab a coffee. GSD says coffee wouldn't be bad, but it's got to be quick because he's got a ton of stuff to do. Fellow Lab Rat answers a ringing phone and tells GSD (Alfredo) the call's for him, it's a Benjamin Franco. Alfredo has no idea who that is…but we do! Lab Rat says it's the third time he's called. Alfredo answers the phone and Benjamin says "you don't know me, but I want to talk to you about Mauricio Duarte." Alfredo (and I swear, I don’t know if he really didn't get what the guy was saying or if he was playing dumb) says "Mauricio Duarte? Oh, he's right here, let me pass him the phone." Mauricio looks confused, but comes over to get the phone, puts on a big fake smile and says "of course, Benjamin Franco." He answers the phone and says "Hi, Benjamin, how'd you find out I was here and why didn't you call my cell?" Poor Benjamin looks freaked out and hangs up the phone. Alfredo asks who it was. Mauricio says it was someone he had worked with for a long time, but isn't it weird that the guy found him here and is Alfredo sure he doesn't know Benjamin? Alfredo says he doesn't and Mauricio just smiles. He probably thinks Benjamin now won't tell Alfredo about…whatever it is he was going to tell him. That he was unfairly fired by Mauricio? What Mauricio's evil plan is? Nah, if he knew that I have a feeling Mauricio wouldn't have told Hench to get rid of him "nicely". Silvana and Emilia are in her office. Silvana says she feels strange, maybe because she imagined "it" would be more difficult, that she wouldn't be able to go on. "The truth is that I'm surprised by how good I feel." Emilia asks what she doubted, her strength? Silvana says maybe and that now she feels supported but it keeps hurting. Emilia tells her it will take time. Silvana says she knows, but today she felt relief. She thinks that at some point she'll feel less anxiety and she'll be able to feel other things again. Emilia beams at her. At Lidia's office, her boss arrives and they give each other flirty "hello"s. Then the boss takes her hand, kisses it, and leads her away from her desk where they passionately…rub noses. Yep, that's it, nose rubbing. But I swear, it was the naughtiest thing…so much for "we're not doing anything wrong." Rubbing noses doesn't sound so bad on paper, but the way they looked at each other, come on! They hear someone coming into the office and guiltily separate (see, guilt! It's got to come from somewhere!). It's Paco, who's come to fix the computer. Lidia looks a little bit of a lot of things: guilty, confused, in need of a cold shower. Azul is going back to the suit shop. And oh, look, there's Diego coming down the stairs. I bet she didn't think he'd be there *wink, wink*. He says, "don't tell me, you're super busy…but at least this time when you leave say goodbye in a nicer way, yeah?" She apologizes for being rude on the previous visit and the female employee behind the desk gives Diego knowing looks behind Azul's back. Azul semi-breathlessly says she's got a lot more time today. Behind her back, Diego's coworker is signaling to him that he needs to say something. Diego tells Azul they've changed things around a bit and the suit she was looking at is upstairs. He lets her go up the stairs first so he can give a double thumbs up to his coworker behind Azul's back (and probably because he wants to watch her walk up the stairs--oh, come on, you were thinking it too). The coworker's got her hands up like "Dude, you are the luckiest man on the planet. How'd you get so lucky?" Diego tells Azul it's good she's got more time today, she can take her time choosing. He pulls out the jacket she'd been looking at, but she says she's not sure why she liked it now that she looks at it again and she needs something nicer, for a formal party. He says what she needs is an "esmoquín" (a tux). He pulls one out for her to look at and tells her it's made of this really great Italian fabric that never wrinkles. "Never wrinkles," she breathes. "Never." Wow, wrinkle-free fabric never sounded so sexy. Makes me want to do laundry just thinking about it. He asks who it's for. Aha, he's fishing for "do you have a boyfriend, yes or no?" But she says "for someone about your age. He's not really formal, but he's a little bit conservative." Nice dodge there, Azul! Diego pulls out a different jacket, proclaiming it to be a cut and color for more conservative tastes…special guarantee. She says it looks good, but it's difficult for her to imagine what it would look like on "him." Diego pulls a shirt off the shelf above, says "well," puts his hand up for her to wait, and walks off. She's just standing there saying "what?" I have to give my husband props for saying it was like the reverse of a guy going into a lingerie store and saying "You look like you're about my wife's/girlfriend's size, would you try this on for me?" Azul, however, is so smooth she didn't even have to ask. Girl's got mad skillz. After he walks off, she puts on a pair of reading glasses. Diego comes back out of the dressing room wearing the tux and says "Let's see, how does it look?" Looks good from here…oh, wait, he was asking Azul. We get slo-mo looks of longing from both of them as the theme music plays. Diego walks over to her and gets her permission to wrap her in a large piece of red silk cloth (I guess they keep it around and cut pieces from it to do custom pocket squares? But why isn't it upstairs with the guys who do the actual sewing? Maybe I'm overthinking this.) He wraps it around her like it's a strapless formal dress, then he takes the clip out of her hair and uses it to secure the fabric. Then he turns her around and takes off her glasses. They're all up in each other's faces all breathy and who's-gonna-kiss-whom-first. He turns her back around and stands behind her so they can look at themselves in the mirror. He asks her if she can imagine it now and kisses her on the cheek. And we end on that note. I'm thinking future eps will need to be accompanied by white wine and/or chocolate :) It won't be showing on Thursday because of the Premios de Juventud, but join us again on Friday as Mauricio plots dastardly deeds and pretty, pretty people make googly eyes at each other in slow motion.

Labels: amar