Page 84 of Minha Dona

Helena tilted her head. “That would be good.”

Mariana laughed and hugged Helena. “I’m happy for you. Now come on… Juliana is threatening to make caipirinhas and I don’t trust her ratios. She always puts in too much sugar.”

“I disagree. She puts in exactly the right amount of sugar.”

Mariana pursed her lips. “I forget you’ve got your own special insight into my best friend.”

They walked back to the pool, arm in arm. When they reached the group Mariana walked straight over to Caitlin and joined her, sitting on the pool edge with her feet in the water.

“Caitlin,” Mariana said. “Helena tells me you made partner younger than anyone in your firm’s history. Tell me everything about that. I need ammunition for when I’m trying to get promoted.”

Caitlin looked surprised, then pleased, and the two of them fell into conversation. Mariana’s cool attitude was completely gone, replaced by her usual animated, curious personality. Caitlin warmed to it visibly, and Helena watched them with a growing sense of delight.

Juliana appeared next to her with two caipirinhas. “She passed the Mariana test then,” Juliana said quietly, handing Helena a glass. “Mariana just voluntarily sat next to her and asked a personal question. She’s essentially just made her one of your family.” Juliana clinked her glass against Helena’s. “Congratulations.”

“On what?”

“On finding someone worth bringing home.” Juliana smiled. “She’s great, Helena. I’m happy for you.”

Helena took a sip of her caipirinha, which had just the right amount of sugar for her taste, and watched the woman she’d fallen head over heels for charm the sister who was notoriously hard to impress.

It is, she thought, going to be a very good weekend.

Chapter 31

The restaurant that Friday night was less romantic and intimate than Maré, and absolutely perfect for a group of six of them. Mariana had taken charge of the reservation because Mariana took charge of most things when it came to her friends, and by the time they walked into town along the beach with a spectacular sunset behind them their table was ready with a bucket of beers waiting for them in the evening heat.

Seafood… there was no menu as such, simply large platters of whatever the chef had bought in that day. You either ate it or you didn’t, and if you didn’t then you were going to go hungry. Luckily all six of them liked their seafood, and between them they ate extravagantly.

To go with the food they soon moved from beer onto the ubiquitous caipirinhas again. Juliana had disappeared for a few minutes and worked her charms on the barman, much to Mariana’s disgust.

“Too much sugar,” Mariana said, grimacing and doing an exaggerated thing where she worked her mouth open and closed.

“Perfect sugar,” Juliana replied. “You have the palate of an old woman.”

“I have the palate of someone who wasn’t raised by a woman who puts sugar on fruit.”

“My mother puts sugar on mango and she’s right to do so. You leave my mother out of it.”

The whole group were speaking in English for Caitlin’s benefit, and Helena felt a fondness for her sister and her friends when she realised how they were making a concerted effort to include Caitlin in the night. Caitlin, for her part, was watching the exchange between Mariana and Juliana with growing amusement.

“This is how they’ve been since they were ten,” Helena leaned over to whisper.

“It’s lovely to see.” Caitlin turned her head and brushed her lips across Helena’s cheek as she leaned in to whisper back. Something she was learning about Caitlin was that as she drank more she got more tactile… a trait that Helena had no concerns about whatsoever. “They’re a great double act.”

The group dynamic had loosened up completely since the afternoon and Mariana’s approval of Caitlin… once she’d decided to engage the rest of the group quickly followed. She was one of them now, as quickly as that, just as Helena had been for years and just as Mariana or Juliana were when with Helena and her friends.

As the dinner went on everyone changed seats organically around the table, it was that sort of place. Helena noticed, halfway through, that Juliana and Caitlin had fallen into their own conversation at the end of the table. She couldn’t hear what they were saying over the music playing and the conversations around her, but she could see them both leaning in, talking with a level of intensity that seemed to go beyond simple small talk. Juliana was animated, gesturing about something, and Caitlin was listening intently, not out of politeness but out of genuine interest.

At one point Juliana said something that made Caitlin throw her head back and laugh long and hard. It was Caitlin fully relaxed, fully on holiday, fully herself, and Helena loved seeing it. Juliana looked pleased with herself and glanced at Helena with an expression that said she’s great, isn’t she? as clearly as if she’d said it out loud.

Helena raised her glass slightly. Juliana raised hers back.

After dinner they moved to a bar further along the waterfront, a place with outdoor seating and fun, modern music to dance to. The group colonised a table outside, the drinks continued, some of them danced, some of them got talking to other groups they didn’t know… it was a night that went from height to height.

Sometime in the middle of it, Juliana sat next to Helena while Caitlin was at the bar.

“She’s great,” Juliana said to Helena in Portuguese, nodding towards Caitlin who was watching the dancers while she waited to order. “Really great. Not what I imagined.”