Isabela wasn't waiting by the gate for Sofía or anything. 'Cause that would be pathetic. So what if Sofía had completely won her heart through bold smiles and shy love letters? And maybe Isa pressed flower petals into the letters she sent back and dreamed of a life where she could be with Sofía without her family thinking twice about it. So what?
That particular day, while she definitely wasn't just waiting but the door for Sofía, she noticed something about her knight in shining armor.
"You're bleeding!"
"Oh, it's fine, Isa, I was just scraped by a branch on the way here."
"Nonsense," Isabela said, extending a hand to help Sofía off of the donkey. Sofía didn't need help getting off the donkey, but she accepted it anyway, unsure of where this was going.
"Come inside and let me get you something for the scrape."
"Right, magic healing… I'm still not used to your family's powers," Sofia said, feeling a touch out of place here.
"Me neither," Isabela said with a laugh, "and I've been dealing with it my whole life."
"I can't imagine what it must be like, to one day suddenly have powers. How do you live up to that?" Sofía asked as they walked inside the house, emboldened by Isabela's beautiful laugh.
"Well, it's hard. For such a long time I felt all this pressure to be perfect, to do everything for the benefit of my family. But now things are easier. Now I can do things for myself." Isabela took Sofía's hand again and led her into the kitchen and Sofía felt practically delirious.
"Yeah, well you deserve to get to do things for yourself. Because you're pretty incredible." They were still talking as they entered the kitchen, not noticing their audience.
Julieta noticed Isabela and Sofía and sent a glance at Agustín to not interrupt the two. Seeing Isa this carefree and happy made Julieta feel the same, as well as… Nostalgic. She glanced at Agustín once more to see if he saw it too.
Agustín leaned over, watching his daughter take one of Julieta's arepas and use it to heal the delivery woman.
"She takes after you," Agustín whispered, confirming what Julieta had been thinking. It had been a sudden realization but it was clear as day, that Isabela and Sofía reminded Julieta of herself and Agustín. All the other realizations that came with that fell into place from there.
She discreetly dragged Agustín out of the kitchen.
"What?" Agustín asked, "Did I do something wrong?"
"No, uh… I just wanted to give them some privacy." Julieta was still mulling it over but she had to see if Agustín had noticed it too.
"Do you think Isabela likes the delivery woman?"
"I don't see why she wouldn't, Sofía seems like a very nice young woman and Osvaldo clearly trained her well."
"No," Julieta said, trying to figure out what to say.
"You said she takes after me, right? Well, they remind me of us. Back when I was dragging you into the kitchen to heal a scrape or sprain."
"Oh." Realization dawned on Agustín and then he broke out into a grin.
"This is good! Isa was unhappy with Mariano, she doesn't need to get married to be fulfilled but if she has found someone who makes her happy we should be encouraging it."
"Of course, but…" Julieta had no true objections, she was just trying to get her head around the idea of Isabela liking another woman. It was not the norm, in the village, but the Madrigal family had always stood out…
"They will be so much better than us one day if they have the support we didn't have when we began dating," Agustín said wisely. He was part of the family now, but Alma hadn't liked it at first. He'd promised himself when Isabela was born that he would always support his children. He had slipped up sometimes, but he was determined to keep that promise.
Julieta smiled, "You're right. I'm very happy for them. Of course… We can't let her know until she's ready to tell us… We could be wrong about this."
Agustín nodded seriously and then, with a smirk, took his wife into his arms and kissed her.
In the kitchen, Isabela was facing the feelings she and Sofía had only ever written about, taking Sofía into her arms and kissing her. If there had been any doubt before that this was real, now they knew for sure.
