I smacked my lipstick-stained lips, admiring at how the cheap make-up managed to accentuate my best features. The heart-shaped neckline of the second-hand light purple frock showed my defined collar-bones and the material cinched at my waist, my figure  resembling an hour-glass. I wore strappy sandals and found myself enjoying the process of dressing up, it had been months since I had anywhere important to go to. 

"How beautiful!" My abuela gushed at seeing me and I bent down so she could kiss my powdered cheeks. Suddenly, her eyes twinkled and she asked me to wait. She went to her unopened suitcase, retrieved a tiny box and presented it to me. Inside the box was a thin, dainty gold chain like a malleable wire with a coin as a pendant.

I smiled in pleasure and she insisted on me putting it on so I let her. Holding my silky hair up, I looked into the mirror. The lovely chain rested on top of my collarbones, as delicate as my flesh there.

"Come, go now," she said with tears of rapture in her eyes and I hugged her warmly. I adulated at how she didn't show one sign of disappointment at having learnt that I was going to the woman's wedding who had wrecked her beloved son's life. On the contrary, she had been encouraging in helping me choose an outfit and showering me with precious compliments.

Once outside in the corridor with the sense of knowing that I was radiant, I strode ahead. Suddenly, I heard a gruff voice call me, "Mariana, wait!" I turned around to find my new next-door neighbour Abel beaming at me. "You look pretty, where are you going?"

"It's my mother's wedding," I said aloud, knowing how absurd that sentence would sound to a stranger. However, there was no judgemental look on his face. He was passively regarding me and my words.

"Are you in a hurry?" he asked and I evaluated his question, my sharp eyes landing on the big, brown boxes. "These boxes have been lying around for three weeks now. Ever since I came here . . . Can you help me? If you have time, you can have a drink also." I hesitated so he continued laughingly, "Don't worry, you don't have to carry them and ruin your pretty hands. You just have to keep the door open for me. It shuts before I can get one box in, that's why I'm asking you."

Being called out by him, I concealed my embarrassment and agreed, "Yeah, yeah, no problem. I'm anyway early for the wedding."

So I held the wooden door as he lifted the boxes and carried them in, groaning all the way. I was so occupied with my own thoughts of how I would confront my mother, that I barely paid any heed to him. He was soon done with his job and placing his large hand on the door next to me, he suggested, "Come in, have a drink. You'll feel refreshed. What time do you have to be there?"

He shut the door before I could respond, his hands accidentally brushing against my bare arm.

"Oh no, no, don't bother," I said, glancing at my phone. "I should leave really, it'll take time to reach by bus."

My words fell to deaf ears since he had already disappeared in the kitchen. So I began unlodging the latch of the door and stopped when I felt his rough hand on mine. I couldn't fathom why he was rubbing the back of my hand with his palm. Before I could understand, he had removed his hand and I wondered if it had been my imagination. Baffled, I turned and my eyes met with his broad chest. He was standing so close to me with two cans of coke in his hands and smiling at me.

I instinctively backed against the door. "Yeah, I was saying that I should go now. I'll be late."

Suddenly, we heard high-pitched, merry shrieks from outside and loud thuds against the door which rattled the fragile wood. Frowning, I stepped away. Abel placed the drinks on the nightstand and opened the door, his smile broadened and a genuineness which was absent before reached his eyes. Two pre-pubescent children crowded at his legs and hugged him. "Daddy, daddy!"

There were tears of exuberance surfacing in his eyes as he picked the smaller one in his arms while ruffling the bigger one's hair. "Oh, you beautiful angels! You're here!"

"Mama's here too!" The bigger one informed and Abel was ecstatic to hear that news. "She wants you home! She says that she forgives you!"

My eyes drifted to photograph of a typical family placed on the nightstand beside the two cans of coke and an open packet of biscuits where a trail of ants marched towards. I remembered how Abel had told me the first time we met that his wife had thrown him out because he had lost his job and deprived him of visiting his kids. It seemed like she had indeed forgiven him. Abel peppered his kids with kisses and his mirthful, blue eyes met mine. "Did you hear that, Mariana? My wife wants me back! I'm getting out of this shithole and back to my beautiful angels!"

Again, he poured his affection to his kids and finding a gap, I slipped out. Well, good for him that he could so soon find his way out of this miserable penury. I reminded myself that I would escape this soon too, once my abuela's house was renovated, I was going to move in with her and after a couple of months, my father was going to shift us to a better apartment with his savings.

I walked with a renewed sense of hope and peace, so rare in my life that it had a massive impact of rejuvenating my mind. My mind was no longer plagued by how I would react if I saw my mother's wealth in the form of extravagant decorations hanging in her ephemeral celebration or the spread of scrumptious food, excessive for the invited number of people. I took the bus and sat serenely, finding comfort in the way I looked today and the dreams of the future.