Looking forward to my first visit to South America, I made sure I had all my assignments for school done and turned in early so I could fly to Colombia with nothing hanging over my head. Sure, I was going to have to take some time now and then to answer work emails, but that was par for the course. Finishing my second year in the program felt good, and so did knowing that I only had one more semester to finally get my MBA.

The second year had been a lot more interesting than the first, but none of it, individually, was all that new. As a whole, though, I did feel that what I was learning was improving my understanding of business economics enough to justify all the time and hassle.

Our last night of classes together (I was going to miss the final week, but the instructors had assured me that I wasn’t going to miss anything but review) I took Myles and Li out for drinks afterwards.

“I’m not much of a drinker,” Li said when I suggested the idea. “But I guess I could have a glass of wine.”

“That works,” I said. I gave them the address and maybe twenty minutes later the two of them joined me on the sidewalk outside the place I’d suggested.

“Tell me what you guys think of this place,” I said as I led the way in.

“This is so cool!” Li exclaimed, looking around the bar, which was styled like an English gentleman’s private club.

The place was pretty much empty since it was after ten on a Thursday night and finals were looming for UCLA students, so we took a booth near the fireplace.

“All these books!” Li said, looking at the shelves that lined the room. “Are they real?”

“Sure,” I said, reaching up behind me and pulling down what turned out to be a copy of Dickens’ Hard Times. Looking at the publisher’s info in front, I saw that it had been printed in London just a few years after World War Two. I handed it to Li, who looked it over in amazement.

“This has to be worth something,” she said.

“These books all came from city library book sales, so that might have cost, I dunno, maybe five bucks, since it’s hardbound and in decent shape?” I said as Myles examined the book. “Maybe fifty for the full set,” I said, indicating the complete works of Charles Dickens that that volume had come from.

“I had to read this in my freshman year at Cal Poly,” he said with a hint of distaste, handing it back to me.

After the waitress came by to set down our glasses of water and hand out drink menus, Li asked, “How did you know about the book sales thing?”

“I own the place,” I said. “When my guy Sandy pitched the idea, books were going to be the key design element. His first idea was like a library in an English manor house, but eventually it changed to more of a club’s reading room.”

“With alcohol,” Myles said.

“I thought you were in real estate?” Li asked, puzzled.

“My company has a hospitality division, too. We have a bunch of restaurants, clubs, bars, even a few boutique hotels,” I told her.

“What makes a hotel a boutique hotel?” Li asked.

“Small size, for one. Less than a hundred rooms- usually a lot less. The second is that it has to be stylish, and located in a hip area. Third, not a chain.”

“But if you have a bunch of them, doesn’t that make them a chain?” she asked.

“I meant not a chain like a Marriott or Best Western. Each hotel has its own identity,” I explained.

The waitress interrupted our conversation to ask if we were ready to order. Myles got some sort of hazy IPA microbrew and Li asked for the house white. As appalled as I was, I didn’t say anything about their choices. As for myself, I went with their B&B with Massenez pear brandy.

“What is that?” Li asked when the drinks were served. I invited her to take a sip and her face lit up when she did. “That’s really good!” she said. “Makes me wish I’d ordered that instead.”

“Go ahead and take it,” I assured her. “I’ll order another one for myself.”

“Are you sure? I hate wasting money like that,” Li protested.

“Li,” Myles said. “If you hadn’t noticed it by now, Leah is rich. I mean, look how casual she is about this bar- it’s just one of the who knows how many she owns, along with her real estate portfolio and who knows what else.”

“I suppose,” she said.

“She might be the richest person you know,” Myles continued. “I’m pretty sure she’s the richest I know.”

“I know Evan Spiegel- he’s a billionaire,” Li replied.

“He’s richer than I am,” I admitted. “I haven’t cracked my first billion yet.”

Myles just shook his head in dismay. “Better get on it, Missy. Time’s a wasting.”

“I know, right?” I agreed.

We were on our second round when Myles confessed that he’d been seriously thinking of taking me up on my job offer. “I talked it over with my wife, and told her that you’re planning on opening an office in Austin,” he said. “She likes the idea of moving back to Texas, but honestly? I’m not so in love with the idea. I mean, it gets hot in the Valley, don’t get me wrong, but when we went to visit her family in San Antonio last fall I thought the world had caught on fire.”

“I promise the office will have air conditioning,” I teased.

“But you also said Denver and Seattle, and maybe New York, too. I kind of like the idea of trying one of those towns,” he said.

“I’d want you in the LA or San Jose offices for at least a year, maybe two, before sending you off to one of those places,” I said. “Corporate culture is a real thing, and I’d want you to understand how we do it first.”

“So if I hired on tomorrow, it’d be two years before I could transfer to, say, Denver?”

“Exactly,” I said. “Maybe less, but probably not. You’d need to be part of the team long enough to carry it with you into the new place.”

“That makes sense,” Myles grudgingly admitted.

“So, why don’t you turn in your notice at Angel City and start with me?”

“To tell you the honest truth, I’ve actually been planning on it for a while,” he said, sipping his beer. “I just wanted to wait until I have my MBA in hand so I can hire on in an upper bracket.”

“I hate to tell you this, but that first year or two? You’d be in the trenches, learning the ropes before I moved you into management. It’ll probably still be a pay raise, especially with the profit sharing, but you wouldn’t come in and immediately expect to be running the show.”

Stolen story; please report.

“No, I get that,” Myles said. “And I’m O.K. with that. But if there’s a chance I can maybe take over one of the new offices…”

“There’s a chance. You putting yourself through Anderson is proof that you’re willing to put in the effort to do better for yourself, right? It could well be that in a couple of years, after you’ve settled in to the way we do things, that you could be assigned one of the new offices.”

Just then, our waitress came by to tell us she was going off-shift, and Jorge, one of the two bartenders, would be serving us.

“You’re planning on being nationwide, right?" Myles asked. “So, if in two years, I could go potentially anywhere?”

“Yes, but with a caveat. If you want to transfer to a city where I’ve already got an office up and running, you wouldn’t be able to come in as office head. That position would already be filled, unless , well, you get the idea. But if it’s a new office, then yeah, you could potentially start the office up,” I told him.

“I think you should do it,” Li said. “You don’t like Angel City and you’ve said there’s no way you’re moving up there, right? Well, Leah is offering you a job with vertical possibilities as well as the chance to relo out of LA if that’s what you want. Sure, she’s not gonna hire you to run her LA office, but honestly? Nobody would do that just because you have an MBA from Anderson. You’d have to prove yourself anywhere you go.”

“Yeah, I know,” Myles admitted. “O.K., I’m gonna do it. I’ll turn in my notice tomorrow,” he announced. “They’ll probably want me out the door immediately, so I can probably start on Monday.”

“No, don’t do it like that,” Li admonished him. “Take tomorrow off. Call in sick or whatever, and go to Leah’s office and get all the HR stuff done. Don’t turn in your notice until everything is taken care of at your new job.”

“The onboarding process is reasonably quick, but Li’s probably right,” I agreed.

“I could do with a few days off between jobs,” Myles replied. “Tammy and I haven’t had a decent vacation in years.”

“Whatever you want, but I think that Li is right about getting the paperwork at Loeltz done before taking that time off. That way all the HR stuff can happen while you’re in Orlando,” I said.

“Huh. Orlando. No, that wouldn’t be where we’d go,” Myles mused. “Hawaii, maybe, or even just San Francisco. But yeah, you’re right about signing all the papers first. I’ll be in tomorrow.”

“You might, but I won’t,” I said. “I’m headed to Bogotá in the morning.”

“Columbia?” Li asked, surprised.

“Colombia,” I corrected. “Yeah, I’m going to catch up with Emmy on tour.”

“Wow- that’s cool,” she said.

“Yeah, it’s been a few weeks since the tour left, and I want some honey time,” I said.

“So you’re flying to South America for a booty call?” she asked, smiling.

“Absolutely,” I agreed.

Unfortunately, flying to South America meant leaving from LAX instead of Burbank, with a layover in Miami. If I were with Emmy and Angela I’d love to stay in Miami for a little bit, but since I was by myself there was no reason to leave the airport. I did use the time to walk around and stretch my legs after the five hour flight from Los Angeles, but that was as far as my sightseeing went.

After a surprisingly easy pass through customs in Bogotá’s El Dorado airport I spotted Angela and her father waiting for me.

“Welcome to my country,” Angela said with a big hug and kiss, which drew a few looks, but less than I’d expected.

“Thanks for coming to meet me,” I told her, then turned to shake my father-in-law’s hand. “Papá, good to see you.”

“It has been a long time,” Rafael laughed as he pulled me into a hug without any prompting. When we’d hugged goodbye at LAX he’d been stiff at first, but relaxed into it. This time it was comfortable from the start.

“Emmy is at the hotel with the rest of the family,” Angela said, wrapping her arm around my waist. “Are you hungry? We’ve already had dinner. We can stop somewhere if you want.”

“They served dinner on the plane, but I could go for a little something,” I said.

“We should get some empanadas,” Angela suggested, then a quick conversation with her father confirmed that there was a great place near the hotel that should be open.

Thankfully, it was open, but since it was late the choices were few. Still, a couple of slightly stale but still amazing empanadas later, my hunger was sated.

The hotel was a typical modern glass Hyatt, nice enough but without any real individualistic charm. It was a businessman’s hotel, but that was fine. It was clean, had all the amenities, and was reasonably close to the venue. What more could anyone ask for?

Emmy was talking with the rest of the band in the dining area when we entered the suite. She looked up to see who’d just come in and when she spotted me she jumped up and rushed over to give me a hug.

“Welcome to South America!” she said, burying her face in my chest. “I am so glad you are here- Angela and I have missed you so much!”

I kissed the top of her head, enjoying the scent of her hair. “I’m here now, babe. Let’s kick everybody else out and get right to the sex.”

Emmy let go and stepped back, laughing in that pretty way she had. “Soon, I promise,” she said. “After this meeting.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” I said. “And by that, I mean I’ll hold you to me,” earning me another laugh.

After dropping my luggage in the bedroom and taking a quick shower to clean off all the travel funk, I made my way back out into the living area to look for Angela.

“Angie is with her parents in room 1207,” Emmy said when I asked her where Angela had gone. “I am certain that Mamá would love to see you.”

Taking the hint, I grabbed a key card and found my way down to the suite that we’d rented for the Castros. Cecilia was the one who opened the door when I knocked, her eyes wide with surprise.

“Hola, Cecy,” I said. “Está Angela?”

“Sí, po’ supuesto,” she replied, opening the door for me to enter.

“Lee!” Mamá said, rising out of her chair for a hug. “You look good. Too thin, but good,” she said, holding my face in her hands and looking me over.

“I’m glad to see you, too, Mamá,” I said, actually meaning it.

“Sit, sit,” she commanded me, leading me to the couch in the suite’s living area. I sat down next to Angela, taking her hand in mine.

“We were just talking about what we want to show you here in Bogotá,” Angela said. “I wish we had more time here- there is no way I can show you everything,” she lamented.

“Ange,” I said. “We’ll be back plenty. There’s no need to try to see everything in just a few days.”

“I know,” she sighed.

“La Candelaria,” Mamá declared. “And Monserrate. Everything else can wait.”

“That is really all you need to see in Bogotá anyway,” Papá said dismissively. “The rest is like any other big city around the world.”

“Papí,” Angela said reproachfully.

“It’s true,” he said, defending his position. “But Lee, Cartagena is the jewel of Colombia. When you see her, you will never want to leave.” When this got a chuckle from me, he said, “You will see it is true.”

Cecilia had gone to her room to be away from the old people, so it was just the four of us visiting together. It was nice, and since it really hadn’t been that long (only a few short months) since we’d seen the Castros last, there wasn’t a lot of need to reacquaint. After a while, Angela looked as if she was tiring, so I took her back to our room. Emmy and her bandmates were still deep in conversation and it seemed as if they would be for a while, so Angela suggested I go back downstairs when I told her I wasn’t ready for bed.

“I think my father wants to talk to you,” she said.

“What about?” I asked, surprised.

“Nothing bad,” she assured me. “I think he feels… I hate to say this, but he feels that… He thinks…” she said, trying to find the right words. “I know it isn’t right,” she finally said, “and he knows it, too, but I think he feels like you’re like his son-in-law and you two should get to know each other better. He knows it’s old-fashioned , but he sees you as the head of the family and even if you aren’t actually a son-in-law, you’re in that position,” she explained.

“Honestly? I’m pretty sure that Emmy’s dad thinks the same thing,” I assured her. “I’ll go down and visit with him some more. All other things aside, I like your dad- well, and I love your mom- and I wouldn’t mind getting to know him better, too.”

On my way back out of the suite, I explained to Emmy that I was on West Coast time and it was early for me, so I was going to go back down and visit with the in-laws.

“Shoot me a text when you’re ready for bed and I’ll come back up,” I said, giving her a quick kiss.

Rafael answered the door when I knocked. I told him that it was still early for me, so I was thinking of heading down to the hotel’s bar and asked him if he’d like to join me.

Pleased with the invitation, he grabbed his jacket and told Mamá he’d be back in an hour or two, and soon enough we made our way down to the lobby and the bar I’d noticed when we arrived.

The place was nice and low-key, just perfect for a quiet conversation. Thankfully it was mostly empty, too, so we could talk with some degree of privacy.

“I cannot believe I will soon be a grandfather,” Rafael said once the bartender had brought our drinks. “I still in my heart think of Angela as a little girl, playing with her dolls.”

“I’m still amazed every time I see Angela’s belly,” I agreed. “Seeing proof that our daughter is almost here makes me feel…” I said.

“I understand,” Rafael confirmed. “Watching the mother of your child as she goes through her pregnancy is a truly wonderful time. And you, you have two. Emmy is starting to show as well.”

“She is, but you have to know to look,” I said. “In another month there will be no question, but now, if she wears a loose shirt she can still hide it.”

“My Angela, no,” Rafael said with a wry grin.

“No, there’s no mistaking her condition now,” I agreed. “She has been complaining, but to me, she’s more beautiful than ever.”

Rafael smiled, lost in the memory of his Marisa bearing their daughters. “Yes, they don’t understand how beautiful they become.”

“No,” I agreed. “They don’t.”