Caray, Caray!

From last time: Beltran barely lets Rafa and Ale celebrate their success in Cocoyok (the business deal, not the personal one) before he’s on them about the Celeste contract and threatening to kill himself with his necktie. Susana shares a conspiratorial smile with Ale and tells her they have a conversation pending. She then warns Ale to try to hide the mega watt smile of hers, or everyone will know what’s up.

Tonight: Rafa continues to give Jaime a hard time over the phone about whether he followed the rules with his baby sis, meaning kept his hands off and slept in separate beds. Jaime stutters and sputters, but soon enough Rafa lets him off the hook, saying “I know you were a total gentleman. How could I not trust you?” Poor Jaime is feeling even more like a slimy traitor. His only two bed notches consist of Rafa’s baby sis and Rafa’s girlfriend (he thinks).

Rafa tells Jaime how happy he is because he is the novio of Alejandra Alvarez de Castillo! He’s practically singing, he’s so happy. Jaime, on the other hand, is having a mini heart attack imagining the wrath of VickyVickyVicky. He tries to convince Rafa to rethink things. “What, are you her lawyer? Whose side are you on?” Jamie assures Rafa that he’s on his side, he just doesn’t want to see Rafa’s, and his own, blood run down the streets when Vicky’s family kills Rafa and all those associated with him. Rafa’s had enough. He yells into the phone, loud enough for it to become clear to Jaime, and loud enough for Ale in her office next door to hear, that his heart and soul belong to Ale. And he is going to talk to Vicky and her family tonight to make sure they get the message. He hangs up on Jaime, promising (threatening?) that they’ll talk later.

Ale approaches Rafa’s desk looking concerned about how upset Rafa appears after that conversation. She wonders if he should call Marian Celeste, but then asks him what’s wrong when she sees how upset he is. He explains about Vicky’s playing deaf when he broke up with her and not accepting it. Ale’s clearly concerned as she thought both she and Rafa were free and single. “For me, it’s over”, Rafa explains. He asks about her ex-novio and Ale says it’s as clear as a bell for Marco.

It’s so clear, in fact, that at this moment Marco and Chavez are wrapping up their business deal with Frank. The deal that will result in Rafa and his family in jail and/or on the streets, and in Ale returning to Marco (supposedly). Frank gives Marco a final bone crushing squeeze and makes his exit. Marco wants Chavez’s assurance that they’re rid of Frank for good and that no one will be able to trace the scam back to them. Whatever the costs to get this done, it’s worth it.

We leave our loveable scoundrels, for a not so lovable slimeball. Marino has somehow managed to convince one of the lovely floor models to go out for a drink and a meal with him. I’m thinking she’s not so smart to even give him the time of day, but when she orders a VIRGIN piña colada, I figure she has some common sense. Marino begins his sales pitch. He wants her to be his baby mama. She wonders what about love and marriage, before the baby carriage. He tells her that comes AFTER she gives him a baby girl. He has her stand and tells her she would look great pregnant, and then has a fantasy of her very pregnant, dressed in white (and she does look lovely), and him caressing her baby bump. “Wouldn’t you love to have my baby?” She looks at him like she’d far prefer to have a hernia. When she makes it clear she’s not going to give him baby # 10, he decides that he’s not going to pay her half of the tab. Jerk!

Back at Siglo, Ale’s urging Rafa to call Marian already when Susana comes in to announce that she’s on the phone, wanting to speak to Rafa. Uh, oh! Rafa wants to put her on speaker phone so that Ale can hear every word and there won’t be any misunderstandings. Rafa doesn’t quite understand the concept of a speaker phone and, despite Ale’s coaching in the background, thinks he needs to yell at Marian to be heard. But it doesn’t really matter what tone of voice Rafa uses, because Marian is mad. Mad about being stood up. Twice! It’s a lack of respect. Rafa begs pardon, but Marian claims she’s too busy to talk now, tells Rafa to call her at 5pm, and ends the call. She looks like she regrets hanging up on him though.

Rafa is desperate, but Ale knows what’s up. She says Marian’s furious, like a girlfriend that’s been stood up. “She wants you on your knees, so that she can get what she wants.” Rafa doesn’t think Marian’s like that, but Ale assures him that all women are the same. Rafa thinks Ale wouldn’t do something like that. Ale assures Rafa that she would, to get him (her principe). This pleases Rafa and for a moment he forgets all his problems and tells Ale, “te amo.” Ale rewards him with a smile, but gets back down to business. They need to deal with Marian. Rafa is sure she will take his call at 5. Ale is even more sure that she will not.

Rafa’s chomping at the bit to call exactly at 5, but Ale makes him wait a while (and we see Marian sitting anxiously by her phone). When Ale finally lets him call, Marian hesitates, but doesn’t answer. Ale won’t let Rafa leave a message. She understands this game. “Don’t let her know you’re suffering. Wait. Approach with a cool head.” Beltran comes in and Rafa quickly hides. His poor little heart won’t be able to take it if Rafa doesn’t get that Celeste contract signed. Ale lets him know the signed contract is on the way. “Santa Claus!”, exclaims Rafa after Beltran leaves.

While Rafa’s evoking Santa, Jaime’s chatting with his buddy Jesus. He confesses that he doesn’t know what road to take. He loves Julieta now more than ever after their romantic getaway, but he has a responsibility to Vicky and their baby, now more than ever that Rafa is in love with Ale. This is really Jesus’ fault, given that he knows and sees all. “What would you do Jesus?”

Jesus is probably too busy getting ready to celebrate his birthday to listen to Jaime’s problems, and Susana, Trapito and the floor models have been tasked by Beltran with putting up the (tasteful but not costly) Christmas tree. Susana wants them to keep in mind that the tree is a symbol of faith and renewal. She leaves it in the hands of the models because they have good taste. Trapito wants to know if Susana thinks he has good taste. Susana is sweet, but honest. Nope. But sweetheart Trapito points out that he’s crazy about Susana, so that must mean he has good taste. Awww!

Rafa and Ale attempt a third call with Marian. Ale has Rafa wait till just the right moment. She is sure Marian will pick up this time. When she does, a surprised and impressed Rafa yells out “bruja!” at Ale. Luckily, it doesn’t seem that Marian hears this (that would make an already bad situation worse). Rafa does nearly blow it again though when he tells Marian he will send someone over to pick up the contract. Say what?! Marian’s not pleased with this, and when she thinks about it, she’s not that pleased with one aspect of the contract. Siglo needs to take her old trucks off her hands. Rafa brings up Siglo policy, but Ale coaches him to negotiate the point. Rafa offers to talk it out via PHONE. Rafa is really blowing it now. Marian demands to see him, in person. “I’ll be waiting for you at 5 pm tomorrow.”

Ale seems jealous of/annoyed by Rafa’s date with Marian. Rafa offers to cancel, but she insists that business comes first and they’re in this together, “hasta que el dinero nos separe.” A little while later, Rafa can see that something is still bothering her and asks if she wants to come to the Marian meeting with him, so that she’ll have no doubts. Ale apologizes and asks Rafa to forgive her. She trusts him, and she doesn’t want him to take that worry into his meeting with Marian. What’s really bugging her is this business with Vicky and her family not accepting that Rafa has broken off with her, and his meeting with Vicky that evening. Rafa assures her all will be well, and offers to pick her up after his talk with Vicky, and her talk with Susana, to take her home and sneak a few more kisses. They lean in for another tender kiss just as Beltran busts in to their office. All of a sudden, Ale’s playing dentist and examining Rafa’s teeth with great interest. Beltran doesn’t much care what they were doing, he just wants the Celeste contract and his money, money, money. If not, Rafa’s going to be out on his butt. (Santa Claus!)

Jamie enters the lion’s den, Casa Vicky, to face up to the worst mistake (he thinks) he’s ever made in his life. When he tells Vicky that he is going to take responsibility for her and their baby, and break the news to her family, Rafa and Julieta, the only response she can muster up is, “Qué!” This was NOT the plan. The plan, if Jaime doesn’t remember, was to convince Rafa to sleep with her so that she could pass the baby off as his (well, the real plan is to get pregnant for realz with Rafa’s baby). Jaime breaks the news that Rafa and Ale are now an item. This earns a slap from Vicky, big enough to knock both Jaime and his glasses to the ground. He insists on taking responsibility. She runs him out of her house warning him to NEVER come back. (Does that sound like the actions of a desperate pregnant woman?)

Marco has also guessed the truth about Ale and Rafa when his little spy Claudia tells him that Ale and Rafa arrived together and Rafa was wearing the same clothes. Marco starts to have a meltdown. “She promised me!” Chavez tries to reason with him by pointing out that he hasn’t been so loyal. Marco counters that he ultimately was faithful. Since he couldn’t really seal the deal with anyone…

My dvr cut off just as the Brothers Grimm and Don Gaston appeared, so feel free to fill in what happened and what previews were. I’m sure there’s some Vicky craziness to be seen.

Labels: dinero