“Like DJing was your dream job, Liza? Like you wanted a podcast? Ay bendito, it’s six figures. And I can learn it just like you did.” Chicho fussed with Liza’s collar. “Okay, here comes the senator and Colin.”

“Senator De Berg, I’d like you to meet my lovely esposa, Lucia Ochoa-Gruthers,” Colin announced loudly, then mumbled, “and her friend Liza.” Liza pulled her mouth upward in her best imitation of a smile. “Everyone, your state senator.” He wasn’t Liza’s state senator, but she didn’t press the point.

The senator nodded deeply and encircled Chicho’s hands with his large ones. “Excellent match! And a Latina too! This is great for the Thirty-Fifth District.” The senator kissed Chicho’s hand. “A real accessible beauty. Excellent. None of that beauty queen nonsense you were talking earlier.”

Liza rolled her eyes. Did Colin really think he could have pulled Janae Bennett?

“And you must be the woman we’ve all been hearing so much about.” The senator raised his eyebrow. His eyes traveled around Liza’s face and body as if he were a cat following a laser pointer. He smiled tightly. “Don’t see what all of the fuss is about, really.”

Liza straightened her shoulders. Attacks coming in on all sides, I see.

“Liza, stop by my offices and see some of the work we’re doing with affordable housing in Virginia. Some of the progress you’re protesting has transformed Alexandria,” the senator said.

“Oh, I agree, the city has transformed. Depends on how favorably you see those transformations,” Liza said.

“Higher tax revenues, full occupation of formally abandoned buildings? How can you see that transformation as anything other than favorable?”

“Progress for you seems to mean pushing off those who can no longer afford to live in your district to other districts, so they aren’t your problem anymore.”

“Liza! Excuse me. Everything he has done for our community! He is an Obama Democrat, I would remind you,” Colin said with a sneer.

“Congratulations on your allegiances, Senator.” Liza turned to Chicho, wished her well, and stalked out of the courthouse. She heard the phrase “dodged a bullet” muttered behind her.

When Liza got home, her mother was on a tear. “i tell you what, I better not see her little Puerto Rican ass here again. She’s a skeezer, bottom line.”

“Momma,” Liza warned.

“A skeezer! That girl was waiting like a dog at the table for what you threw away. She’s always been like that. I wouldn’t be surprised if she got a picture of you up with some pins in it.”

“Ma, that’s enough.”