In the blink of an eye, it was winter and Dulcina Calvo’s belly was already five months along.
Papa Dulcina and Mother Dulcina also came to La Ciudad Santa and couldn’t help but give them a hard time when they saw the big chalet they now live in. Papa Dulcina and Mother Dulcina had always known their son-in-law was capable, but they still clung to their frugality.
Mother Dulcina touched Dulcina Calvo’s belly and said with curiosity and surprise, “I don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl, but if it’s a boy, he’ll look like Esteban, who’s so handsome and tall. Have you asked anyone to see if it’s a boy or a girl?”
Dulcina Calvo shook her head and smiled, “Mom, Esteban Zaragosa and I thought it would be a surprise, it wouldn’t be fun to see it beforehand, and besides you care about the sex, you’ll have to carry it anyway, boy or girl.”
“Girl, I haven’t agreed to help you with the kids.”
“Mom, I know you love me the most, and I’m sure you’ll help me with the children when the time comes so that Esteban Zaragosa and I still have time to go out.”
Mother Dulcina laughed and scolded, “You are thinking of going out before the baby is born, you are a mother-to-be, don’t be more playful like a child.”
“Why, Mother, you get on my nerves every day, why don’t you and my father go back to Ciudad de Ronda, I feel like you’re depressing me by coming here.”
Mother Dulcina laughed and slapped Dulcina Calvo on the back, “Lazy as a bear! And no cooking for Esteban, all day long you make Esteban cook for you!”.
Dulcina Calvo innocently said, “He’s a good cook, if I cooked I’d probably still hate my cooking.”
“Quite an excuse for laziness.”
Mother Dulcina got up, went to the kitchen and asked Esteban Zaragosa to come out, “Esteban, why don’t you go watch TV with Dulcina in the living room, I’ll keep an eye on her.”
“Mom, isn’t Dulcina pregnant now? Naturally she’ll cook when she’s unloaded.”
Mother Dulcina growled softly, “You can spoil her all you want, I don’t think she would have cooked for you when she wasn’t pregnant.”
Esteban Zaragosa rubbed his nose and was pushed out of the kitchen by his mother-in-law.
Esteban Zaragosa sat down on the couch and picked up an apple, “An apple?”.
Dulcina Calvo had a big belly and was well fed by Esteban Zaragosa, so she gained a lot of weight after pregnancy and now looks a little chubby.
“Eat.”
Esteban Zaragosa picks up a fruit knife and peels an apple for his daughter-in-law, asking as he does so, “It’s almost New Year’s Eve, what do you want to do on New Year’s Eve?”
Dulcina Calvo tilted her little head and leaned on Esteban Zaragosa’s shoulder: “With you, of course. With you, however you want to spend it.”
She had said she would spend every vacation with him in the future.
Esteban Zaragosa’s thin lips curved as he handed her the peeled apple pieces. “Do you want to spend time in the City of Ronda or the Holy City?”.
Dulcina Calvo was going to say she would spend it in La Ciudad Santa, since her parents were coming anyway, but then she thought if she went back to town for New Year’s Eve, it would be more festive and Esteban Zaragosa said he had never had a happy New Year’s Eve, and if he went back to the City of Ronda for New Year’s Eve, the streets would be full of children setting off fireworks. It would be very lively.
Dulcina Calvo’s little face turned to look at him with sparkling eyes: “I want to take you to the City of Ronda on New Year’s Eve to experience how I spent it when I grew up.”
Esteban Zaragosa smiled slightly with a frown, knowing Dulcina Calvo was feeling sorry for him. “Yes, we’re taking Mom and Dad to Ciudad de Ronda for New Year’s Eve.”
Dulcina Calvo added, “Esteban Zaragosa, take me to meet your parents before you go back to Ciudad de Ronda for New Year’s. ”
Esteban Zaragosa shook Dulcina Calvo’s small hand with a deep look, “Good. Let the in-laws meet you, the ugly daughter-in-law.”
Dulcina Calvo growled, “I’m not ugly, I’m pretty.”
Esteban Zaragosa watched his little wife’s plump back as he made his way to the kitchen, and the last of the gloom in his chest turned to full winter warmth.
It’s very, very good to have her, to have the children, to have the family.
…
The days were easy and flew by, and in the blink of an eye, it was New Year’s Eve.
Estrella Berrocal had asked Dulcina Calvo to go shopping for New Year’s Eve, while Adam Rouco and Esteban Zaragosa, two men, thought it would save them a lot of time to go shopping online or send someone to shop for New Year’s Eve, especially since it was almost New Year’s Eve and the supermarkets and malls were full of people buying New Year’s Eve products.
But women love to get together and go shopping. They said that they themselves had to go shopping for New Year’s Eve, and that only when they returned home with a full load would they feel like New Year’s Eve, so the two men, who did not like shopping, were dragged along, and Paulita, who also loved to get together, also went shopping for New Year’s Eve.
Adam Rouco and Esteban Zaragosa were in charge of the shopping cart. Paulita started in the cart, but after a while she couldn’t sit still and got out of it.
Dulcina Calvo stroked Paulita’s head and said, “Paulita is a good sister, she buys her snack and buys powdered milk for her brother, she is very understanding.”
Estrella Berrocal smiled and said, “Now that I’m on winter vacation, I don’t even worry much about Lucio if Paulita is there, and Paulita is doing a great job getting Lucio ahead. ”
Speaking of which, Dulcina Calvo asks, “Can Lucio walk yet?”
“He can walk for a while, so Paulita is pretty relaxed with her, the two kids play together without me bothering too much, and Lucio doesn’t cling to me as much as he does to his sister.”
Dulcina Calvo envied, “Paulita is such an intelligent and charming young lady.”
Estrella Berrocal looked at her crossly, looked at her belly and said, “Why are you envious of me, you will be when you get it.”
Dulcina Calvo rubbed her belly, “What if he’s naughty?”.
“You don’t have to worry about that, you have your doctor Esteban to take care of you, and your mother will help you, like Adam and me. I don’t have a mother-in-law or a mother, so Lucio had to be taken care of by me and the nanny. Besides, your doctor Esteban is at home every day to take care of you, and my family is the one who works from 9 to 9, even from 9 to 9.”
“So President Adam is still a workaholic?”
Estrella Berrocal said sympathetically, “He also has his mission and responsibilities, and he cannot pretend that everyone is like your family Dr. Esteban, who is tired of being with you every day.”
“It is also true that in other families the wife watches the husband, in ours it is completely the other way around, Esteban Zaragosa watches me every day, which makes me especially not very free and limits the time I can spend on the phone if I want to.”
Estrella Berrocal smiled and said, “You must be satisfied, you won’t find a man as good as Dr. Esteban, La familia Herran, and if you don’t want him, someone else will take him away from you.”
The two women walked ahead, laughing and chatting about family matters as they shopped.
Two men followed them pushing the cart and Paulita walked between them, steadily grabbing the food.
The two men behind them, exactly as bodyguards –
Adam Rouco raised an eyebrow: “Are you really Dulcina Calvo’s home cook?”.
Esteban Zaragosa looked proud: “What, you have an idea?”.
Adam Rouco frowned slightly and scoffed, “If the Ming organization and the Z Nation knew that you have given up all your glory and power to retire and become a full-time home cook, I wonder if they would think you have a hole in your head. The hand that holds a gun is now a spatula every day.”
“You get up in the middle of the night to make powdered milk for your son, Dad, we’re half crawlers, so we don’t have to laugh at 50 steps, do we?”
Adam Rouco rubbed his nose, “I’m glad.”
“I’d love to.”
…