Caray, Caray!

We zip across town where Pedro is on the phone with Eloisa, his Grandmother and long-suffering Matriarch.  She scolds Pedro about holding up the reading of the will.  She is inpatient to get it underway because she wants this pack of greedy hyenas out of her house.  Pedro informs Eloisa that her beloved grandson, Osvaldo, has complicated the negotiations with the Italians.  Ah, she always said Osvaldo was a good for nothing!  Pedro will take care of cleaning up Osvaldo’s mess and contact the law office to read the will the following day.  Good, because Eloisa doesn’t want those vultures hanging around her another day!

The vultures yip and yap at each other at the table.  Present are Federica, Osvaldo, Sonia, Gael and Roxanne.  Roxanne takes exception with Gael referring to the maid attending the table as Simoncita and wonders if he does this because he feels inferior.  Well, if she would come to his bed he would show her there’s nothing inferior about him!  Osvaldo wonders if Federica wants to tell them something about the inheritance. . .when Sergio sweeps in and sweetly flatters the blushing Simona, asking her to please heat his food.  Now it’s time for Sonia to complain about Sergio directing his seductive powers at a "mere" maid.  Sergio turns it back on her:  it’s not his fault that she chose the wrong man as her spouse.  Osvaldo thinks Sergio would put his energies to better use in getting Pedro to the ranch already so the will can be read.  Sergio shuts them up.  If not for Pedro, they wouldn’t be drinking fine French wine, but tap water, and thanks to Pedro, the family business is not bankrupt!   Salud!  The vultures can’t help but drink to that!

Back at the hospital Fiorella tearfully thanks Adela and Ray and promises to pay them back to the last centavo.  Gianna is much better and will be fine if she sticks to her strict regimen of medicine for her heart as well as undergo a treatment of some sort.  To her shame, Fiorella admits they have nowhere to go and shares the whole tale of woe with Adela and Ray.  It’s settled!  Fiorella and Gianna will come home with them and she won’t take no for an answer!  They will spend the night with her and in the morning help her find the person they were waiting for.  Fiorella thanks them with warm embraces!

Pedro arrives at Tania’s apartment and finds her on the floor sobbing in a knot of shame:  she has fallen off the wagon!   He hugs her and tells her it will be all right.

It is morning.   Bright sunlight bathes the cheery breakfast table where Adela and Ray sit while Fiorella is using a laptop to contact Don Vito via email.  Ray loudly opines that Fiorella’s “fiancé” has probably already filed a complaint against her.  If he were in that gentleman’s place he’d certainly think she had run game on him.  Fiorella doesn’t get upset but calmly informs Ray that he doesn’t know her:  she is a decent woman.  Gianna has awakened and is invited to breakfast.  Adela and Ray exit to the kitchen to make some chilaquiles – they are like pizza but made with tortillas! 

Uh oh.  Fiorella can’t find her information on Don Vittorio and it doesn’t take much to get it out of Gianna that she deleted his account!  Fiorella rips into her and Adela comes out when she hears the racket, to make peace.  Realizing all means of contacting Don Vito are gone, Fiorella offers to clean and do other jobs around the house in payment.  Adela has a better idea.  She knows someone in the building who needs a girl to help clean.  Adela takes Fiorella off so she can tidy up a bit and then they’ll go and meet her.

Vito, in his opulent office, frets over what could’ve happened to Fiorella and Gianna.  Benito calls and Vito reports that no, they have not appeared.  Vito has been studying the classified section of the newspaper.

Tania has fixed breakfast for Pedro to apologize and thank him.  He accepts that falling off the wagon is normal; he is more concerned about the reason for her fall.  I’m sure they have this conversation several times a day:  He can’t be with her 24/7; she feels neglected and hurt that he’s ashamed of her.  Well, this is the only kind of relationship he can have with her and he won’t leave her as long as she follows the rules.  He’s off the a family meeting and admonishes her NOT to call him!  Tania eyes the bottle of liquor after Pedro has left.

Benito arrives home and is introduced to Gianna and Fiorella.  He knows immediately exactly who they are and I deduct a whole lot of points from his character score card as he says absolutely nothing!  He even hears why they did not meet him and Don Vito at the airport, Gianna’s taking ill and all.  He says NOTHING, other than reassuring them that they are welcome to stay in his parent’s home as long as they wish!  Adela and Fiorella leave to meet the tenant who needs help.  Benito gets a call from Vito. . .he’ll be right there!  Traitor!

As promised, Pedro digs Osvaldo out real good for interfering in and complicating the negotiations with the Italians.  Pedro was able, through much effort, to get them to go back to the original deal HE negotiated and Osvaldo ought to be thankful because had he not been successful, Granny Eloisa would have sent him far away!  Well, Pedro is going to be the one sent far away if he doesn’t get HIS self to the ranch today.  So, we get it.  Pedro the mover and shaker, Osvaldo the inept and envious.  They decide to go to the ranch.  Maybe if Osvaldo sees what Granny has left them, he’ll get the hell away from him and leave him to run the business.  As they exit, Pedro’s secretary tells him he has an urgent call. . . .from Tania.  Pedro sends Osvaldo away with the cover that he has an urgent conference call with The Italians.

Pedro goes into his office and calls Tania.  Ah, Tania is the girl who needed help!  Fiorella merrily dusts a shelf of what-nots as Tania directs her not to leave one speck of dust:  it makes her nervous.  Tania is a bit sloshed but answers Pedro’s questions. . .Fabiola. . .er, Fiorella is a girl she hired to work for them, she knows Adela, she’s Italian, she’s divine, and he will meet her.  Tania covers the phone and tells Fiorella that she’s talking to her boyfriend, who is ashamed of her and wants to abandon her.  She denies to Pedro that she is drinking but that if he doesn’t come right away, she will think that he doesn’t love her and then she WILL drink!  Fiorella’s smile has faded as she takes all this in.  Tania hangs up on Pedro. 

Tania asks Fiorella not to think she’s a crazy drunk lady:  she just likes to have fun and pull her boyfriend’s chain.  Fiorella  walks over to the coffee table in front of the sofa where Tania sits.  Fiorella says no, she’s not a drunkard, that was her uncle Lucas, he couldn’t stop drinking and eventually died of cirrhosis of the liver.  Tania shouldn’t worry, she’s young and beautiful and has a boyfriend, which is no small thing.  Fiorella now sits on the floor, the coffee table between her and Tania and it suddenly feels like a sleepover between besties.  Fiorella asks what her boyfriend is like.  Tania gets all dreamy-eyed:  “Ahhhh.  Pedro is a Prince.   He’s got black hair, and blue eyes.  He’s educated, he’s a gentleman, he’s elegant, and fun, we go on trips, and he cares for me, and protects me, and helps me, he’s perfect . . .”  Fiorella asks if they will be married and the girl talk is interrupted by Tania’s phone.  It’s Diana, Tania’s friend who is quite pregnant.  Tania goes to the balcony to talk to her.  Fiorella looks at and reads some lines from Tania’s diary which is open on the coffee table.  In the diary Tania sadly gushes about the shadows of anguish that engulfed her today but Pedro chased them all away with his smile and all his love and illuminated her life once more!  Fiorella grins and silently sighs that Pedro must be a true Prince Charming!  Tania walks back into the living room and we hear her counsel Diana not to worry, that a man will NEVER abandon the woman who is having his child. . .she muses aloud that if she were to be pregnant. . . .she hastily encourages Diana to relax and excuses herself.  Tania sends Fiorella to the pharmacy to pick something up for her.

Pedro orders a car and instructs Osvaldo to go on to the ranch.  Osvaldo orders his driver to follow Pedro and report back to him where Pedro is going while he will take a taxi to the ranch.

Benito arrives at Don Vito’s office and completes his betrayal by not breathing a word of having found Fiorella and Gianna.  Don Vittorio won’t rest until he finds the girls!  Don Vito asks Benito to put all the emails from Fiorella into a folder in chronological order.  Benito tries to question the logic of Don Vito calling the police:  what will he tell them, that he sent money and tickets to a couple of strangers?   They will laugh at him.  He is right.  The police will not be of any help.  That is why he has hired a private investigator.  He has asked for all the information he can give him on Fiorella and Gianna, including those emails.  The P.I. promised he won’t rest until he finds those girls!  Benito has cara de “oh, snap.”

At the elegant vulture's nest, Sergio, Federica, Roxanne and Sonia wonder where Pedro is after their usual round of hissing and sniping, including complaining that Doña hasn’t even bothered to greet them.   Osvaldo arrives.  Granny descends to stairs and chides the men for not offering to help her  and proceeds to insult the whole gathering.  When she learns that Pedro is not coming she decides to go back upstairs to her bedroom.  Osvaldo and Gael offer to help but she declines:  She has no intention of letting them further embitter the day and ascends perfectly, and haughtily, on her own! 

Pedro enters the elevator in Tania’s building.  His face is buried in a newspaper so he doesn’t see who has stopped the elevator to also enter.  It’s Fiorella.  She greets him, he doesn’t answer.  She notices he’s also going to the sixth floor.  BAM!  The elevator comes to an abrupt and unscheduled stop.  He lowers the paper and mumbles, “You again.”  There is no light in his eyes or voice. 

They sent you to watch me.  You’re following me, aren’t you?

No, it’s destiny

It’s destiny that my Grandmother sent you.

Your Grandma?  I don’t think it was your Grandma that sent me; I don’t know her.

Anyway they beat around the bush and she doesn’t quite tell him enough for him to know that Tania sent her to the pharmacy and Fiorella’s head half in the clouds thinking and talking don’t help.  She introduces herself and when she hears his name, Pedro, she realizes he is the Pedro Tania was talking about.  She almost gives this away, abruptly drops his hand and challenges him as the man in this situation to do something.  He pushes an alarm button and she chides him that that is something she could do herself .  She begins to yell for help!

Benito continues to try to dissuade Don Vito from hiring a P.I.  It’s the second worse idea he’s ever had:  the first was sending for those girls in the first place.  Vito takes a call from the P.I. while Benito continues to try to throw doubts at him; their names may be something else; maybe they’re working with the mafia; he should just drop the whole investigation!  Don Vito ignores him.

Tania is talking to Diana again and has floated the idea of becoming pregnant with Pedro’s child.  Diana tries to discourage her but Tania is convinced that if she gets pregnant, Pedro will NEVER leave her!  Diana counters that she needs to work on their relationship before trying to get pregnant.  Tania’s drinking wasn’t a solution, and pregnancy won’t be either and will only complicate her life:  if Pedro won’t recognize her and formalize their relationship, she should leave him.  Tania vows that she will NEVER leave Pedro.  She can’t live without him!

Inside the elevator of NOT budding love, Fiorella is beginning to panic.  She thinks they’ve been in there for hours and it’s getting difficult to breathe.  Pedro thinks she’s being ridiculous.  Ray and Adela arrive at the elevator and do ineffective and silly things to try to open it.   On the inside Pedro manages to pry the door open and they get out.  Both pant in each other’s faces a bit. . . .no, not like that, they had to squeeze out of the small space between the doors.  Fiorella thanks Pedro.  Adela and Ray arrive back from wherever they went and Fiorella proclaims that Pedro rescued her.  Ray and Adela hug Pedro warmly and fuss over Fiorella. 

As Pedro leaves, Fiorella also heads back to Tania’s apartment.  He stops, looks at her suspiciously and asks if she’s following him again.

Once again in the vultures nest Federica, Roxanne and Sonia sigh and trade barbs, insinuating that Pedro is the  only grand attraction at El Rancho Los Angels, accusing one another of having their eyes set on him, even his aunt, Federica.  Sonia thinks Federica is a cougar and would go for Pedro if he weren’t her nephew.  Roxanne thinks that since they are DISTANT cousins, she sees nothing wrong with hooking up with Pedro.  Grandma Eloisa is watching them from her closed circuit hookup and hisses, “sobre mi cadaver!”  Over my dead body!

Fiorella continues on her way to Tania’s apartment.  He continues to be creeped out and she finally tells him she is on her way to Tania’s apartment to give her the medicine she sent for.  He can take it he likes.  His antennae go up even more.  How does she know that’s where he’s going?  Well, because he’s Pedro. . . 

Yes, I’m Pedro.  What else did Tania tell you?  You know my name, you know I’m going to this apartment.  What else do you know?

Sir, you told me your name in the elevator.  He asks again, what else does she know? 

Pedro is closing the space between himself and Fiorella and it doesn’t feel warm and fuzzy.  Tania comes out of the apartment and calls Pedro’s name.  Pedro turns and looks at Tania.

FIN.  Til Monday!

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Next: Episode 5