Show Me Chapter 35

LAST CHAPTER! Thank you everyone for tagging along on my Coco journey! I hope you all enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it! There will be more stories coming (possibly not Coco fics but never say never).

Read and enjoy!

Date: May 25, 2019

It had been several weeks since Rodriguez's lawsuit against the de la Cruz estate was resolved and everyone was getting ready for the biggest challenge ever faced: dinner with Martinez as Gloria's boyfriend, not as an investigator.

Elena had been thrilled about the dinner, having spent weeks and weeks preparing the dinner menu with all of Martinez's favorite dishes. Gloria and Martinez had tried to tell Elena that it wasn't necessary, but the older woman was determined to make a good impression.

Rodriguez's family had settled with the de la Cruz estate for a huge sum. On top of paying damages for the attack on the shoe shop, the estate also had to pay all court costs as well as any funeral fees. Since Rodriguez also had children from a previous marriage (before he met Torres), the settlement was split between his children's families

"This is big, mija," Elena said. "This is the first novio that we've met, post-ban. And I want to make sure that it goes well."

"I'm sure it will, Mamá," Gloria said as she rinsed some lettuce in a bowl. "He is really excited about this. And are you sure that…?"

Grabbing her daughter in a tight hug, Elena said, "Your papá and I love you no matter what."

Having joined his wife and daughter, Franco added, "It's like we said earlier, Glorita. We just want you to be happy. And we both like Martinez, he's a very good man."

Smiling softly, Gloria left the room.

Martinez had arrived slightly late, apologizing for the traffic, impressing both Elena and Franco with how polite he was, and brought flowers for Elena and Gloria as well. While no one knew too much about Martinez personally, they knew that he made Gloria very happy, which was all that mattered.

"What kind of music do you like, Señor Martinez?" Miguel asked as he passed the tamales to his mamá.

"I like any and all kinds of music, Miguel," Martinez said. "But especially salsa and jazz. I'll have to show you all some of my Louis Armstrong and Coldplay CDs if you like. I collected several over the course of ten years"

Miguel and Rosa grinned excitedly—they already liked Martinez right off the bat. Shortly before the dinner, Martinez had asked Gloria about the things that both Miguel and Rosa liked. Even though Gloria did not have any children, she loved her nieces and nephews dearly as if they were her own and was deeply touched that Martinez genuinely wanted to get to know them. He also did not want to push the kids, wanting them to feel comfortable around him first.

But Miguel and Rosa had instantly warmed up to Martinez, going out of their way to make him feel welcome. Rosa told him about the music camp that she was going to in a few weeks. While Miguel wanted to work on his shoemaking skills (much to Elena's delight), Rosa expressed an interest in wanting to check out the camp. Carmen and Berto agreed to it, under the condition that Rosa was not to bring any of those "crazy libres" with her.

Abel had sent his apologies, mid-term exams were taking up a lot of his time and he did not want to accidentally take the attention off Gloria and Martinez with his return.

"Sounds like you'll both have an interesting summer," Martinez said. "I used to go to camp when I was a kid, Rosa and it was a lot of fun."

The dinner went on for several hours with Martinez answering questions from the children about his life and the crazy things he did as a kid. Elena was very touched by how he treated the kids, not talking down to them and treating them as equals.

Eventually, it came time for Martinez to head out, he left, but not before Franco and Elena had pulled him aside for a private chat.

"I know that I don't have to ask this of you, Señor Martinez," Franco began slowly. "But I want to make sure that my daughter is happy and taken care of. Por favor, promise me that you'll do everything to make her happy. I don't want to see her sad."

Elena had not said anything but her eyes spoke volumes: DO NOT HURT OUR DAUGHTER OR ELSE.

Grasping Elena's hands between his own, Martinez nodded seriously. "Por favor no te preocupes*, Doña. I will devote my life to making Gloria happy and I hope she'll agree to marry me one day. With your blessing of course."

Elena smiled happily, saying "Lo tendrás*."

"Mamá? What's going on?" Gloria asked after Martinez had left. "Why is Jule looking so happy?"

Shaking her head slightly, Elena said, "Nothing to worry about, mija. I'll explain it later."

Still looking somewhat suspicious, Gloria left and headed for her bedroom, not noticing Miguel peeping around the corner as he grinned goofily. Even at 14 years old, Miguel knew what Martinez was planning.

The next day Miguel and Rosa brought Elena over to the computer in the workshop's office. Abel had looked at the website for the shop and gave it a makeover. He even adjusted the shop's social media pages to include images of Héctor's guitar and the notes and poems to Coco. Abel had carefully worded the history behind the ban, setting it up so it said that out of respect for Héctor's memory, Imelda had decided not to have any music in her family.

It had been a labor of love for the past four months and all three grandchildren were excited to show their grandmother. While it had been a whirlwind of activity over the past two years, everyone knew that it was time to bring the shoe shop into the 21st century.

Elena looked at the website in amazement as it lit up with pictures of the various family members who showed up on the screen. ¡Bienviendo! Welcome to Rivera Familia de Zapateros!

At Miguel's suggestion, Abel also included a family tree part of the website with biographies of each family member, even Dante. No one was left out.

Mamá Coco and the ancestors were also included, causing Elena's eyes to fill up with tears. Lyrics from the original Rivera version of Recuérdame and Un Poco Loco were on the website. It even included a very "old" recording of Héctor and Coco singing Recuérdame together (courtesy of Imelda who had recorded it in the Land of the Dead, fixing it with software to make Coco's voice sound young once more). Miguel jerked back, alarmed.

"Abuelita? Qué pàso?" Miguel asked. "Did we do something wrong?"

Shaking her head, Elena said, "No mijo. Esto es perfecto. Absolutamente perfecto.*"

Fin.

Translations:

Please don't worry

You'll have it

It's perfect. Absolutely perfect.