Caray, Caray!

What, do you think they’d play? This is Real del Monte.

Yesterday’s news: Camila swoons over the bourgeois new ceramics line so hard that she swoons right on into Rafael’s arms. Tantalized by the proximity of man-flesh, she pulls back and looks him in the lusty eyes. Their lips hover millimeters apart. Will they or won’t they?

Breaking headlines: Barely. After a moment of lip contact so brief you almost need the instant replay to catch it, Camila asks what they’re doing. Remember, it’s been quite awhile for her (unwanted kisses from Oily Orly don’t count), so she may need the refresher course. Rafa thinks it’s all pretty obvious, but Cami says no way; he’s not free and she’s sort of seeing Orlando. Rafael says he isn’t deceiving anyone as he’s already filed for divorce. Camila stands her ground and says things that start badly end badly, and she just wants to forget the whole thing. Rafa doesn’t want to forget it, just postpone until the timing is better.

Natalia tells her friend Ivonne that Alonso thinks Carlota provoked Iñaki’s heart failure. They both think Alonso is just losing his mind from grief, so Nat wants to send him to Ivonne’s shrink. (Side note: Why is Natalia’s house so old-fashioned looking? The place she had when she was about to marry Cris was much more modern. Did her tastes change that much?)

Orlando has his secretary looking high and low for an address for Gudelia. He thinks back to running into her (Diana) at the restaurant. Back in the privacy of his office, he stands in front of a painting of a horse which I rather like and asks himself how he could have let her go (my theory: survival instinct). Orly calls Camila’s place and is perplexed to hear that she’s gone out so early (how early can it be if everyone at Ferrer’s Fine Silver is already at work?).

In the school courtyard, Romina asks Paloma if she really has no designs on Emiliano. Paloma assures her that she meant what she said, and says she doesn’t want to talk about it anymore. Romina fondles a thorny plant with a dastardly look in her eyes.

Angélica shuffles through the courtyard, eyes on the pavement and face all droopy so as to garner more sympathetic attention from the nun she initially ignores. The nun, being a nun and therefore phenomenally patient, asks what’s wrong. Ange is confused, but so hopeful because her old flame might be leaving his other lover! Maybe he wants to be with her! (Didn’t the guy have a wife too? How many of his other women would he have to dump for Ange to be okay with the situation?) The nun gives Ange the gentlest of smackdowns and tries not to roll her eyes.

Emiliano has heard the gossip from secretary Vero that Orlando is still in search of the mysterious dame, so he asks how it’s going. Not well, because Orly doesn’t have a photo or anything. Orlando thinks maybe it’s foolish and he should just forget about her. “But what about your child?” asks Emil. Oh, the IRONY. Orlando doesn’t know if the kid was even born, and says he thinks of Emiliano as the son he always wanted. Oh, the IRONY. Emil says that works for him. Orly decides to forget the whole thing and concentrate on wearing Camila down.

Carlota leaves for the D.F. “Paaaaarrrrrrrteeeeeee!!!!” says Rufi. Actually, she thinks Macarena should take advantage of Cruel’s absence to tell Paloma the truth, the whole truth, and whatever else she’d like to say without Cruelota’s interference. Mac, as usual, is too scared, and thinks she doesn’t have any options if Cruel throws her out, since Carlota won’t sell the house to give her her share of the money and things are kaput with Rodolfo. Rufi is having a no-nonsense Jockey kind of day and says to talk to a lawyer about the house and call Rude-olfo and ask Qué the hell?

Paloma tells Angélica that Romina bought the story and they’re going to be besties again, good as new. Ange warns her not to trust that conniving Romina. Romi eavesdrops on the entire conversation, in plain sight about four paces behind them.

Mac actually takes the bull by the horns for once and dials Rodolfo’s office. Unfortunately, the receptionist reports that he’s not in yet and says it’s weird he didn’t show up for their date; she knows he was planning to. Right after they hang up, Rude-olfo walks in and gets the message.

Over at the church, Rufi tries to decide whether she’s crazy and wonders whether the ghost priest will appear again. She starts to walk away as Cris comes outside. He sees her and calls her name, but she doesn’t hear him. A lady summons him away for some pressing business in the dispensario.

The Madre Superiora tells Romina she’s so relieved things didn’t end up worse, and she wants Romi to get plenty of counseling from Angélica. “No way, I’m not going near her,” says Romina. MS asks what’s going on, and Romi says Ange has no ethics and has been trash-talking her behind her back. (Actually, right in front of her, too.) Hey, she is not at all wrong. Ange is the worst counselor (except for the one I had in high school, who was a doppelganger for Ursula in The Little Mermaid).

Camila finally arrives at her shop and Meche notices she’s all glowing and trembly and thinks she must be in love; nothing wrong with that.

Apparently the teenage boys in Real del Monte do nothing but play fútbol while the girls are in school. No wonder the girls have no interest in them. Chava’s hoodlum friends call him away and they have a teenage conversation which causes me to have to look up about every other word in the slang dictionary. Seems a pickup ball game is called a cascarita, and the guys want to go have chelas, which can mean either light-colored beer or light-colored girls (hey, maybe they want both). Also, something is a ruca, which can mean either a woman or a home and I’m not sure what they were getting at. Anyway, they go off, and a more clean-cut looking guy on the field watches and shakes his head.

Carlota lounges in the hotel bar in the D.F., drinking booze and chatting with her lawyer. He’s trying to get them an appointment with a judge within a few days, and she’s still pretending to him that she wants to keep Paloma from her inheritance until she’s a more mature 21 years old. The licenciado (in addition to being a noun meaning “lawyer” this also is an adjective meaning “pedantic,” btw) goes off to see about the embezzlement and also a detective to hunt down Cris. Carlota says she’s going to do some shopping (a whole city full of purple stuff!) and revels in the anonymous big-city freedom.

Natalia, wearing a blouse with an insanely long tie thing, calls Misery Manor but gets Mac since Paloma is still at school. Mac tells her what’s up: Paloma wants to go to the D.F. to work and save money for school while she waits for a space in the public university, since she can’t afford private. “The heck you say,” says Nat. “Paloma is rich.” Mac says they don’t have any money, but Natalia says she’s absolutely sure Javier and Sagrario, que en paz descansen, left their daughter a fortune, and Iñaki was going to find out what happened to the money.

Aaron lurks outside the school gates in a baseball cap and sunglasses like the creepy creep he is while Romina pretends to have an appointment with the MS in order to get away from Paloma. When Paloma is gone, Romina walks right past him into the street as he pretends not to notice her.

Ange gets a well-deserved dressing-down from the MS. MS, who I like more and more, is seriously peeved, not only about the multiple ethics breeches, but also apparently they had a specific agreement that Ange would provide counseling during school only and work on her book in her free time, and on top of that MS is fuming about Ange’s speaking negatively about students to other students. The gist of this long-winded rant is that Ange is fired.

Aaron negotiates an unholy alliance with Romina, the aim of which is to get both of them hooked up with the objects of their obsessions. Aaron insists that Paloma come through this dirty business with a clean reputation, but doesn’t mind if Romina takes advantage of her ingenuous nature in the process. Oh, what a catch he is. He says he’s going to get a new mailbox for them to use.

The church lady, whose name is Elisa, shows Padre Cris around the dispensario and raves about that wonderful Carlota, such a great Christian and a pillar of the community, sooooo fabulous, that lady, although frankly Carlota never seems to do anything but snipe at people and Mac is the one who is always at the dispensario. Cris keeps a polite smile carefully frozen onto his face. Padre Mateo joins in the Carlota lovefest and dispensario PSA. Cris stares at them, all, “I know what a dispensario is, duh.”

Angélica cries in the courtyard and gets more sympathy from the young nun. She can’t believe she’s been fired and doesn’t understand what she’s done wrong. Also, now that she doesn’t have a job, how will she keep herself from running back to Dario?

Macarena, having quite the day of assertiveness with the cat away, calls Licenciado Rosas’s office, but learns he is in the D.F. for four or five days. She and Rufi find it veeeeeerrrrrry suspicious that his travel schedule matches Carlota’s. Quick, Mac, start a rumor about their torrid affair so it will be all over town by the time she gets back! Mac is now sure there’s funny business going on regarding Paloma’s inheritance. Rufi agrees but says to go with feet of lead (con pies de plomo), meaning be very careful and don’t do anything hastily.

Paloma returns from school and giddily asks Rufi and Mac whether they’re spying through Carlota’s stuff. Unfortunately, they are not.

Rafael dutifully asks Emiliano whether he’d like to work with him in the ceramics business. Emiliano wonders why he asks; is he jealous of Orlando or something? Rafael says he feels bad that he missed out on so much of Emiliano’s life while he was at school in the U.S. and in Monterrey. Emil assures him that he’s been a great father, and suggests that maybe someday when both their businesses are raging successes, they can team up and have some business together.

Camila tells Mac that she kissed a man and she liked it, but she’s afraid of the implications. Besides, there’s Orlando. “Forget Orlando; go for the real thing!” says Mac. Cami isn’t sure.

A similar locker-room chat happens with Rafa and Joel, but Rafa is more sure.

Carlota gives Licenciado Rosas a description of Cris. He’s 47 years old and his birthday is August 4, in case anyone wants to shop for birthday candles.

Macarena walks past the dispensario and hears Cris’s voice through the open door. She is overwhelmed, but amazingly does not just faint. She actually looks through the door and sees him!!! And then faints.

Wow. I did not expect that to happen so soon. Do we have to have an amnesia plotline now to drag this out awhile?

Cris finally shakes off the dispensario lady and heads back to the church, but unfortunately does not use the door Mac is lying next to. The lady sees her and calls for help.

Clara wants to display some of Paloma’s paintings in an exhibition. She says they won’t sell for much money at first, but gradually she’ll be able to charge more. Paloma is excited about this money-making possibility and asks for suggestions of places to keep studying in the big city.

Germy tells Orlando he’s getting antsy at work. Orlando suggests starting his own firm with a partner or joining another law firm.

Rafael relives the grand kiss with a lot more contact than I remember seeing. He also thinks back over every time he’s touched Camila, and looks thoughtful.

Mac is wheeled into the hospital on a stretcher. The worried dispensario lady (this one’s name is Hilda) phones Rufi and reports the latest.

Angélica instant messages with her pushy demanding loser ex and wonders whether she should go back to him. In a word, Ange: NO. He insists on seeing her, and when she says she isn’t in the D.F. anymore, he replies that he knows exactly where she is. Great. On the plus side, though, I’m happy to report that they don’t type with “k” in place of “qu” like the kids are doing.

Aaron sweet-talks Paloma by saying he would definitely buy one of her paintings. “How do you know you would like it?” asks Paloma. He’s sure he would, because she’s such a sweet gal. She says she’s going to have a hard time leaving Real del Monte, especially leaving Mac, but once she gets established in Mexico City, Mac can come join her there. Aaron starts with the stalker-talk, suggesting that she won’t be getting away from him because they are destined to be together and she’s going to forget all about Emiliano. Paloma does not like the direction this conversation is going.

Macarena is awake in the hospital and Dr. Rude-olfo has even deigned to treat her. She apologizes to Hilda for the scare. The doc says blood sugar surges like this are usually the result of emotional upheaval, and asks what’s up but tries to snit away without hearing the answer. Mac is having none of it and asks why the formerly hot-to-trot doc is suddenly running cold. She thinks she deserves an answer. He thinks that he deserves an explanation. For what, she asks. “Is it true you secretly had a daughter, and that daughter is Paloma?”

Avances: Mac tells Rufi she saw Cristóbal. Paloma tells Cris her aunt is in the hospital. No, not Carlota. Macarena.

Labels: amor