Caray, Caray!

Friday: Vicky, who has decided that sleeves or even straps are burdensome office wear, gets hired at the agency, but her boss will be Eman, not Emil. She has to shake hands with him and it’s a miracle nothing pops out of her little dress when she reaches over the table.

And off we go! Ilitia, who, as you recall, has arrived at the agency to redecorate Eman’s office, is telling his assistant that the drawing of Mari has to go. The assistant protests that Eman was quite specific about nobody touching it and if she did, she’d get fired. Ilitia says she’ll let that go for now, but that the assistant is to be her eyes and ears and is to let her know if Eman is messing with any office ladies. The assistant is none too pleased with this addition to her job description. First getting coffee, and now this!

It’s always fun to watch Fedra curse somebody, so we get some delicious moments while she heaps abuse on Netty to Bernardo who tells her not to get all worked up. Fedra snarls that she wants to hurt her good. Plus she’s just sure Gretel is in the pension somewhere. Bernardo points out that he looked in every nook and cranny.

Emil introduces Vicky to a half-dozen staff members, half of whom are probably thinking “put something on, you little hussy” and the other half, “yay, they’re relaxing the dress code!” Emil thanks them for being such a splendid team and Vicky beams and swears that if one wins, they all win.

Bernardo shows Fedra a document that shows that Netty’s pension is in foreclosure. Poor thing! says Fedra and they both chortle.

Gladiola and Netty have checked out every room, and don’t find anything missing. They can’t figure out who or what Fedra was looking for. Netty looks in Mari’s luggage and finds the little old chest that held Eva’s things. How is it that Vicki has it? asks Netty, suddenly suspicious.

Eman and Mari enter his office, she giving a lot of attitude. He finally asks her why she’s that way with him. She notices the Gordita portrait on the wall and asks about it. He smiles and affectionately taps it and says that that’s his gordita. She tells him not to blow smoke, she knows what he did to Mari, how he tried to destroy her. It’s a lie! he says, grasping her by the shoulders.

Netty is raving about Vicky having her sister’s remains. (I didn’t realize her ashes were in there! How did that get through customs?). They both figure Vicky is lying about something. Netty wants to ask her point blank, but Gladiola suggests that they say nothing and just wait and watch. Then they hit on the shocking idea that Vicky is a spy for Fedra.

Back to Vicky and Eman: He’s furious and says he could never hurt the woman who he loves more than anything in his life. Vicky calls him a coward and a liar. He reminds her that he’s her boss and he won’t put up with disrespect like that. Okay, boss, she says, take this as a goodbye. He slaps him. I quit! For good measure, the door hits him in the face when she swings it open and he’s left holding both his check and his nose.

Ilitia shows up in Brandon’s office, and he says she’s the last person he expected to see there. She rags on him, telling him it’s and it’s all his fault her reception was a disaster, because the Lirio robbed everybody and he didn’t catch him. She tells him she’s had it with him. He just smiles and tells her not to come into his office to tell him how to do his job, calling her little hysterical one. Say, on your wedding night, did you think of my body and my kisses, huh? She tells him to shut up. Did you come by to get a kiss? She reminds him that she’s a married woman.

Good thing you dropped by, he says, because I wanted to ask you about this. He holds up her earring that he found at Mauricio’s.

While Bernardo watches, Fedra, on the phone, tells off some poor secretary, saying she’s a great friend of her boss, and no, she won’t hold. If she has to, she’ll pull all of her money out of the bank. Good move, chortles Bernardo. He owes me from La Mala Noche, too, whispers Fedra. The boss, Santillian, comes on. Fedra tells him to fire the secretary. Okay, she’ll forgive it this time, but she’s calling about her great and grand friend, Ernestina Pavon. Fedra makes a patooie spitting face.

Mari is stomping down the hall, thoughtbubbling that she just can’t believe Eman hung that picture there to make everybody believe that he loves her. And they don’t know that he tried to kill her! Oops, she runs into Eman who must’ve been lying in wait, and tells him not to even think of touching her again.

He says he realizes he was rude and he wants to apologize. How ‘bout they sit down and chat a little bit? Not a chance, she says, turning away. He grabs her arm and she yanks it away. Just then his pal Andre passes by and tries to butt in, but Eman tells him to butt back out. He tries a little humor, telling Mari she can’t really quit because she hasn’t started yet.

She tries to walk away, and the staff, who are now watching, all rise and crowd around to see what happens next. Eman grabs Mari by her departing hips telling her he doesn’t want her to leave before they clear things up, and she swivels around and tells him that she told him to keep his hands off, that’s what his wife is for. Or haven’t they started their honeymoon yet? The staff love that one.

Ilitia tries to snatch the earring away from Brandon, but he says not so fast. Apparently he has not only a policeman’s nose, but also a policeman’s eye, because he remembered seeing those earrings on her. Does she remember the day she lost it? Ilitia is starting to tear up. Yes, her wedding day. He says that she must not have been having her hair done or her dress put on, because he found it in a very compromising place, Maurcio’s house.

Mari is punching below the waist now. She asks Eman if his wedding night was maybe a flop. Did he have to sleep in a separate bed, or did he have trouble delivering the goods? The staff think that’s a hoot.

Eman tells Mari, look, there’s the door. Go on home. His pal tells him that’s no way to treat a lady. A lady! Eman says, astonished. She some wild animal, all teeth and nails. She lunges at him and he grabs her wrists. You’re boring me now, he says. Go. You can’t throw me out, she says, because I’m leaving.

She turns to go and comes face to face with Emil, and tells him she’s quitting. And for extra effect, she accuses Eman of sexual assault.

Ilitia tells Brandon it’s none of his business where she was on her wedding day, and she wants her earring back. He says it’s evidence – evidence that she’s just a woman who collects men. Was I just one of your playtoys? Ilitia looks at him sadly and says it’s not true. He tells her he figures she and Mauricio have been lovers for a long time, and she hauls off and suh-LAPs him a good one. He grabs her and kisses her by force, which you’d think would turn her into a PTSD hysterical case, but the music swells, so maybe it’s going better that we would expect. It’s fortunate nobody walks down the hallway just then, because the blinds in Brandon’s office are open.

Eman protests his innocence, and Mari says she kept telling him hands off, but he kept putting hands on. Emil finally says basta, and says she stays because they need her, and Eman will behave. Mari smiles triumphantly.

Ilitia shoves Brandon off and tells him she hates him. He tells her she doesn’t. Is she having trouble in her marriage? Idiot, she responds, you just think below the belt. So I’m the villain in the movie, huh? he says sadly. You’re the one who goes around leaving earrings in your lover’s house. She tells him she doesn’t want to talk about it. He lays his hands sympathetically on her shoulders. She shrugs them off, saying Don’t touch me! The commissioner barges in, wanting to know what the hell’s going on.

Eman paces up and down in his office, furious with Mari. He hears voices on his phone’s intercom and listens. It’s his secretary complaining to someone else about Ilitia asking him to spy on him and report to her. And he’s been so crabby lately, it’s the last thing she needs to have to babysit him.

Eman sits down and realizes now there are two women who had accused him of chasing after models (Mari had earlier). Well if that’s what they think, that’s what they get, he declares.

Brandon swears he didn’t do anything. Ilitia tells the commissioner that she came because she’s in desperate need of help, and she got treated like trash. She heads out tearfully and Brandon calls after her, but the commissioner snatches his arm and yells at him to get that woman out of his head and get on the trail of the Lirio de Plata. He doesn’t want any hanky-panky in his police station.

The commissioner storms out and Brandon raves, wondering what’s wrong with him, and then he wonders what’s up with Ilitia and Mauricio.

Oliver is the next to burst in. He doesn’t want to work with Manolo one more second. That guy runs in reverse (does he mean he thinks he’s gay?).

In a little patio at the house, Axel is a-strummin’ and a-singin’ to Delicia. She claps her sleeve-covered hands. It was so cute how she always tugged at them, and now, after two years, they’ve stretched to where her fingers don’t even show any more. Great for polishing the silver! Oops, here comes Nereida, who sashays around, asking what Fedra would say if she knew. Delicia tells her if she blabs, then everybody’s going to hear about how Nereida spends every night in Bernardo’s bed.

Nereida huffs off. Axel is astonished to hear about it. Delicia then tells Axel she gave him the guitar in hopes that it would help him remember. He said it does, and he’s had some very disturbing memory he’s not even sure is true. He’s had some bad nights waking up with it, so maybe it’s a nightmare. Oh, never mind, he says, going back to playing.

Bernardo is lying on his bed reading a book that looks like it might have pictures and big print. Nereida comes in without knocking and announces that Delicia has given Axel a guitar, and if Fedra found out, whooeee. Bernardo pops off the bed and heads out the door, saying he’ll take care of it.

Back to Axel, happily singing, but not for long, because here comes Bernardo, Nereida in tow, demanding that Axel give him that guitar because his mother has a bad heart. Axel says no, but Bernardo wrestles with him for it. Suddenly Axel flashes back on himself as a little child and Bernardo dragging him off to the prostitute. He gives Bernardo a hearty slap and tells him never to touch him again. Bernardo comes back with a powerful backhand slap that lands Axel on the ground. Off Bernardo storms with the guitar. Axel has another flashback – Gretel telling him that their mother is a monster, that she’s been fooling them all this time.

The floodgates open, and this memory is followed by another, of his now-girlfriend Lorena then yelling at him to get out of the closet. Then he flashes back on his father slapping him and calling him a degenerate and disowning him. Next he remembers telling Mari that he couldn’t stand being with a woman, that he doesn’t know why. He remembers being beat up. Delicia keeps asking him what’s wrong, what’s happening?

Brandon can’t help smiling at Oliver’s complaints. Oliver says Manolito is stuck to him like bubblegum, he just can’t stand it. He’s looking into my eyes so funny, says Oliver, he’s touching me, ewww. Just then Manolito comes into the office, and Oliver insinuates himself around behind Brandon’s desk for protection. Mano says he just wants to apologize for today, but Oliver says no apology necessary. He tries to slide along the walls to the door to escape.

Brandon thinks all this is a hoot. He tells Mano that he wants him to work with the police by doing a series of articles about Fedra Curiel. Mano strokes his fake moustache. While he’s doing that, I’m thinking about Gretel’s distinctive set of chompers which we’ve discussed before. Wouldn’t Oliver have recognized those?

Axel is striding across the lawn, Delicia after him. He remembers now – it was all his mother’s fault. They were right when they said he was that way. Delicia appreciates right away that this is a step back and tells him that was before, and it’s not true, and not to think about those things. I can’t help it! he says.

Lorena comes across the lawn and throws her arms around him. He pushes her off and tells her it’s over. He wants to know why she’s been playing this game with him.

Eman’s secretary brings him some coffee, but he gestures at the wrong moment and ends up with it down his shirt. Ow! He tells her can change his shirt at home, but she starts unbuttoning it when of course Mari comes in. She ironically points out that it’s hardly businesslike. He says it’s not what she thinks. He has on a fresh shirt, and his secretary, embarrassed, holds up the coffee-stained one, then leaves the office. Mari says she knows those kind of accidents – her mother and father had one like that, and nine months later she was born.

Lorena has trailed Axel and Delicia into the house, begging him to explain. He says there was never any love between them, and she was taking advantage of his situation. She blames all this on Delicia for putting ideas into his head. Delicia retorts that he’s just started remembering. Suddenly sober Lorena asks if it’s true. Axel sends Delicia off and folds his arms, ready to confront the truth with Lorena.

Eman decides to have fun with Mari. His shirt is still unbuttoned, and he can see she’s having a look. What was it you needed? he asks, rubbing his chest like he’s not noticing what he’s doing. He even gives his shoulder a rub, pushing his shirt off it a little. Mari stammers something about the art in a production. She plops a folder on his desk, bending to inadvertently show about as much chest as he is.

Lorena tells Axel she was always in love with him, and she realized when he got out of the hospital that he didn’t remember the way he was before. Axel says that’s not real love. If she loves him, then tell him the truth. And so she does: Your mother paid me to be with you. Axel is stunned.

Take the money and go! he tells her. She admits that it started off bad, but she realized how special he is and every day she’s fallen more and more in love with him. She loves making love with him! He kisses her forcefully, then drags her upstairs saying if she’s been paid, she better get to work.

Mari tells Eman the concept could have been done by a three-year-old. Okay, says the still unbuttoned Eman, insulted, let’s see yours on my desk first thing tomorrow morning. She says that’s an impossibly short time, and for him to button up. He clutches his shirt closed for a minute, then drops it off his shoulder again with more rubbing action. He tells her she’s supposed to be some super star – she can do it! She says she needs a couple of days. Twenty-four hours or you’re fired, sez he. She smirks and leaves and he does some fist pumping in victory.

Brandon tells Mano about Jairo, a fellow who works at a magazine and can will help him get the articles published. Oliver is quick to point out that Jairo is a macho guy who likes girls. Brandon explains that he’s a neighbor and he studied acting with Netty.

Mano is on fire! He tells Brandon that Mari told him about Fedra and he can’t wait to help bring her to justice. Brandon likes his enthusiasm, and says if they get Fedra, they’ll get Mauricio along with her, and find out about the money of his the Lirio stole.

Oliver wonders why Brandon is so interested in Mauricio’s stolen money. Does he think it’s dirty? No, I think it’s been laundered, says Brandon. He’s Garduño’s man. What Brandon wants is for the two to be pitted against each other. Mano says So you want me to publish contradictory things about them that get them blaming each other? (I think that’s what he said.)

Smart guy! Says Brandon happily. Oliver is doubtful, but Mano says he’ll prove himself.

Mauricio, who has the creepiest ring tone ever, gets a call on his cell. What to say to them? he wonders. If I don’t get them their money, they’ll kill me. Curse that Lirio de Plata!

Muñeca’s maid Flora has showed up at the orphanage with another box apparently from the Lirio. Muñeca is afraid the police might have seen her with it. Flora begs her to open it, she can’t wait to see what’s inside. Oh! they both say in excitement as they open it. It’s chock full of neatly stacked bills. Muñeca is excited at the sight of it, but tells Flora to shut the case quick, so she’s not tempted. She’s going to call the Brandon at the police station.

Flora tries to talk her into keeping it to help the kids. Muñeca, though she’s struggling with her conscience, says it’s dirty money, and stealing is a crime. What’s more, she’s just sure it’s the money stolen from Mauricio.

Mano is on the phone with Jairo, telling him that the articles have to be published under a pseudonym, namely El Lirio de Plata.

Ilitia has showed up at Mauricio’s. Whoeee, he says, you’ve come for another round. Right, she says smiling. She turns her back and pulls a giant gun from her purse and points it straight at him. I’m going to kill you, she says steadily.

In his office, Eman is thinking about Vicky and wondering how Mari picked such a bitch for a friend. He takes a bite out of a piece of chocolate in Mari’s memory and goes over to her portrait, remembering how she was so different from Vicky. She was so sweet and kind. He tells her how much he misses her, and remembers their romantic night.

Vicki barges in, saying she’s finished, and early. He reproaches her for her bad manners and she gives him some lip back. He glances at the work she has submitted and says it looks okay, pretty good in fact. She tells him now he has a sample of her talent and hard work and she’s going home.

No, you’re not, he says. Everybody’s gone and the doors lock automatically and oops! I forgot my key at home. Welcome to Ruiz y de Teresa Inc.!

Avances: They do stay at the office. He squirts soda on her by mistake, etc. Pretty soon he’s come close and he says there’s something about her. Looks like they’re going to kiss.

Labels: llena