At 5:50 PM, my Uber pulled out of the driveway.
The driver was an older man named Walter with a Braves cap and a dashboard covered in bobbleheads. He looked at me in the rearview mirror.
“Just checking out?”
“Just checking in, actually.”
He nodded slowly. “Rough family trip?”
“You could say that.”
“My wife left me at a family reunion in ’89,” he said. “Took the car and everything. Best thing she ever did for our marriage. Took me about three days to figure out why.”
I laughed out loud. The first time I’d laughed all day.
At 5:58, as the bright blue Gulf of Mexico came into view between the high-rise hotels, my phone started ringing.
Rodrigo.
I let it ring.
At 6:03, he called again.
At 6:05, six texts came in, one right after another.
At 6:07, a text from Lauren.
What did you do?!
That’s when I knew they’d just walked through the front door.
Here’s what happened in that beach house, as Rodrigo told it to me later. Every detail. He didn’t leave anything out. I made sure of that.
They came back from the fishing charter sunburned, exhausted, and starving.
The first thing they noticed walking up the driveway was that the windows had been washed. Then they stepped inside and saw the floors gleaming. Then they smelled the food.
George grinned and punched Rodrigo in the arm.
“Man, I told you your wife was a miracle worker!”
And Rodrigo, by his own admission, actually felt proud. He really believed I’d caved. That I’d done everything on the list. That his plan had worked perfectly.
Then they walked out onto the patio.
A long table with white linens. Fine china. Candles. Hydrangeas. Shrimp cocktail. Grilled ribeyes. Mahi-mahi with mango salsa. Pasta for the kids. Key lime pie on a glass stand. And two servers in black aprons standing at attention.
Lauren’s mouth fell open.
“Daniela made all this?”
The lead server turned around politely.
“Mrs. Ortiz hired our catering service for tonight’s event, ma’am.”
Right then, Rodrigo’s phone finally caught the house Wi-Fi. His banking app pushed through the notifications it had been holding all afternoon.
$450.00. Deep Clean Coastal Services.
$650.00. Destin Fine Catering.
Eleven hundred dollars.
Sophia Rivers is an experienced News Content Editor with a sharp eye for detail and a passion for delivering accurate and engaging news stories. At TheArchivists, she specializes in curating, editing, and presenting news content that informs and resonates with a global audience.
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