RP: Fancy Meeting You Here

[nereida_dances]

Date: Wednesday, 10 Aug 2010
Characters: Lupe Espinoza, Nereida Santiago
Location: Serenity
Status: Private
Summary: The long day needed a cool-down.
Completion: Incomplete

Comments

[lupe_espinoza]

Lupe preferred running outside to treadmills, but the heat had her forgoing her normal morning run and heading to Serenity after her shift instead. Just as well; she needed to make better use of her membership than she'd been doing lately. She had a police discount here, which meant a lot of other cops did too, which meant she usually ran into way too many of them here. Not that she didn't like mingling, but it was like being back at work sometimes. Cop humour was often tedious and too often at her expense and that of the other women on the job. Just because she could give as good as she got didn't mean she felt like dealing with it all the time

[nereida_dances]

The movement in the mirror made her look up in time to catch sight of the woman claiming the next machine over, and she grinned broadly in welcome, turning to wave at her. "Hey, yeah, long time! I don't take nearly enough advantage of the stuff here. How's it shakin'?" She looked over her shoulder automatically to look for Mattie and say hola, then looked back at Lupe. "Habit; was looking for el guapo. Mattie off with friends tonight?"

Adjusting the settings so she was at a slightly easier run and could talk if the other woman wanted, she tilted her head. "Was thinking about you two the other day, while I was visiting Ruth, one of the girls who works here after she brought her new bébé home. Work still treating you all right?"

[lupe_espinoza]

"Oh you know, he has his own active social life, breaking hearts and taking names." She grinned. "His aunt's got him until seven which means he's probably in X-Box Land at the moment, but I'll be relieving her when I'm done here." She configured the treadmill and started a light trot, lighter than she'd intended but it was a little hard to talk and run full-out.

"Really? I'd wondered if you knew Ruth. She's a neighbor, sort of--Mattie and I stopped in to see her on Sunday. God, I remember being that exhausted. I'm still that exhausted sometimes." She laughed a little. "Work's fine, never lets up. Hard not to take it home with me--so sometimes I find it easier not to resist." She nodded toward her file, her expression wry. "It's good to take a break sometimes, though. How've you been?"

[nereida_dances]

"But Mamá, X-Box Land is so much fuuuuun!" Drawling teasingly, she laughed lightly as she fixed her ponytail. "But hopefully she's run him ragged so he'll sleep well tonight. It always feels like that's the one thing my cousin Paula wants when I have her kids -- just wear them out so that they give her sleepy little cuddles when they get home and head straight to bed." She grinned faintly. "Not that she doesn't adore them. But sometimes it's nice to send the kids off for a day with someone else, and have an hour or two to yourself after work

[lupe_espinoza]

"He runs himself ragged well enough on his own, especially when he's with his cousins. He never gets tired of them, which I suppose is good given he has to be there so much." She shrugged a little and let her shoulders fall with a slight sigh. Her life was mostly work and Mattie; she usually felt bad taking breaks from him because she had to be gone so much for the job.

"It's going to be a rough time for her," Lupe agreed, "beautiful at the same time, but really rough. She's stronger than she thinks she is, though." She snorted. "Believe me, I'm no saint. And I don't envy those schedules, either."

She frowned and tucked her hair behind her ear where it had fallen loose. "Sorry to hear Paula's sick, seems like the heat's getting to everyone. But you must be exhausted too--those boys are a handful." No more than any other boys their age she was sure, but she had her hands more than full with one boy and occasionally his friends and cousins.

[nereida_dances]

"It's good he has them to grow up with, though, too," she added. "I've met a lot of kids who can't stand being around the relatives their age because they've never really met, and it just seems to make things a lot more strained." One thing she definitely hadn't missed when it came to having practically no family other than Antonio and Carmen.

Nodding in agreement, she quirked her lips. "Rewarding and yet." Nereida gave her an impish grin, pretending innocence. "If you say so! I thought it came with the territory, m'self."

"They're good kids," she said with a tiny smile, thinking of the long nights mostly behind her now. "One of her friends helped out too, when I just couldn't get everything done; both boys play sports, and Isabel wants to do dance and riding once she's done with swim lessons at the Y this summer. It was a lot of driving, mostly; I got very good at batch-cooking on the weekends."

[lupe_espinoza]

"Mattie takes to most people," she said with a smile, "I hope he never loses that." He was much like she'd been growing up, bubbly and outgoing. She hadn't managed to keep that after what Reed had done to her--she could easily hate him for that alone. For now though, she was glad Mattie seemed to take after the best parts of her, and hopefully none of Reed's.

"Yeah, you never really stop driving with kids. And I've only got the one, so I can't even imagine the craziness. Glad you've got your time to yourself again--I always thought the cool thing about taking care of other peoples' kids is you get to enjoy them...and then they go home." She winked.

[nereida_dances]

With a tiny, emphatic wriggle of her hand, she looked at Lupe wryly. "So am I, though don't get me wrong -- I love the niños dearly, but trying to keep four different schedules at least sort of lined up so that they all got fed and bathed and taken places... I agree, sending them to their dad for a few days once he got back from his business trip was probably the biggest relief in my life." She winked back, knowing Lupe's ear was sympathetic, and grateful for it. "You'll have to give me some tips at some point about how you keep your sanity."

She tightened her ponytail, and looked at her curiously. "But even with the long hours and the trying not to bring cases home, how are you liking the new position? Does it give you any sort of..." Nereida rolled her hand a bit, not wanting to use "fulfilment," which was overused, she thought. "Does it feel right, being where you are?"