Under The Watch Of An Angel

Syl insisted they walk back to the hotel after his show, and typical of his easy-going, laid-back manner, he humoured her with a smile and complied. She couldn't help smiling herself at this, knowing he'd prefer a limo or at least a cab. But he put up with her every little quirk and laughed off every minor (and not so minor) discomfort she put him through; he wasn't about to make a fuss about something as simple as a walk now.

She led their leisurely late-night stroll through downtown Mexico City. She knew the streets, though not as well as her extended family did. Her mother grew up here before moving to Canada to make a new life for herself.

That was a concept Syl couldn't understand for the longest time: To leave your family and friends and everything you had ever known to start all over in some strange, distant place so far removed from where you began. She had often wondered what would lead someone to make such a drastic change in their life.

It wasn't until she had to do it herself, that she finally understood. It was about freedom, even if the oppression you were escaping from was just in your head.

When her friends started following her to Rio though, she began to wonder if it really had been just in her head the entire time.

Holding Jon's hand, she laughed as she ran across a street at a roundabout, dodging a car as she tugged her boyfriend along behind her. When they reached the safety of the sidewalk, she grinned up at him mischievously while they took a moment to catch their breath.

Then she looked up, and pointed to indicate to Jon to do the same.

An 'angel', with her gilded skin glowing from the spotlights positioned on the ground, was watching them from the top of a monumental column in the center of the roundabout. "El Ángel de la Independencia," she explained, as she turned to see the awe on Jon's face. "Pretty cool, eh?"

He turned to her, but before he could reply, she leaned up and kissed him, long and passionately.

"So, I was thinking, ya know, on what you asked me about a while ago," she said as she playfully tugged on a dread. "I love you, but..." She paused and looked away as she slipped a hand into her pocket, "...I don't know if I want to be your wife." Turning back, she bit her lip at the look of disappointment in Jon's face.

"I do know one thing though," she said as she leaned into him again. Her lips met his again in another passionate kiss, as she pulled something out of her pocket and slipped it into his hand.

She smiled as he looked down at the golden ring in his palm.

"I do know I want you to be my husband," she grinned, teasingly.

Esperenza Design

Sylvia led Beth down a pedestrian-only stretch of Via della Spigga in the fashion district of Milan, watching her friend stare in awe at all the designer clothes displayed in the windows as they passed. Her friend's expression was priceless, like that of one of the kids on Christmas morning.

When they arrived at a little haut couture boutique called "Esperenza Design", Sylvia grinned proudly and opened the door for Beth, then laughed when she heard her friend gasp and followed her inside.

At first glance, it appeared as if the shop had very little stock. Most of the dresses in the boutique were on mannequins, only a few hung on hangers along the wall. But it only took an observer with a discerning eye to realize each dress was a one-of-a-kind original. No two were alike, and none were like anything found in any other shop anywhere in the world, like the works of a master painter hanging in an exclusive art gallery.

Syl approached a sales girl dressing a new mannequin for a window display and exchanged a few words, before the girl nodded and waved them towards a door at the back of the shop. Smiling, Syl thanked her and led Beth to her mother's work room.

Esperenza sputtered some Spanish, dropping some of the pins she held in her mouth at the sight of her daughter coming through the door. Turning away from her current project, a white wedding dress loosely draped over a dress-form mannequin, she welcomed them with a smile so bright it was almost blinding.

"Sylvia! Where have you been? You don't visit enough, niña!" Quickly taking the remaining pins out of her mouth and stabbing them into a pin cushion on a nearby work bench, she came over and hugged her girl long and hard, before turning to Beth. "And you must be la niña who's stolen Neil's heart that I've heard so much about. Ah, muy guapa!" She hugged Beth as warmly as she had hugged her own daughter. "But then I wouldn't expect anything less from that heartbreaker."

"Moooom," Sylvia hissed under her breath, "You're being embarrassing."

Esperenza waved her hand with a hearty laugh, "Nonsense, chica! I don't embarrass you enough! If you visited more often, then the embarrassment would be stretched out much thinner and it wouldn't be so painful. Now, ven, ven!" She grinned, as she ushered them back into the front of the store. "I bet there are many dresses you want to see before you have to go!"