I ignore her question and move around her so I can say hi to my mother—and get to the snacks.

Because she knows her daughter, Mãe has already opened the case and is waiting with steel tongs in hand. “O que você quer comer?”

“Coxinha de frango e empadinha de queijo.”

She places the savory morsels on a paper plate and hands it to me, a folded napkin tucked between two fingers. We make the exchange smoothly, as if we’ve done this a thousand times; considering my slight obsession with salgadinhos, we probably have. I groan as the intense garlic aroma wafts around me, then I squeeze my eyes shut when I bite into the coxinha. Yeah, sex is good, but this perfectly seasoned chicken wrapped in golden fried goodness never disappoints. Bonus? You don’t even have to engage in conversation with anyone to enjoy it.

My mother, her deep brown curls peeking from under a silk kerchief, sets the tongs down and shifts items on the counter for no apparent reason.

“So what’s with the long face and nonstop movement?” I ask between hearty chews.

My mother’s always been a nervous Nellie around people she doesn’t know; she’s rarely this fidgety around me, though, which means something must be up.

Tia Viviane zigzags across the aisle to our right as she places items on the store shelves. “Might as well tell her, Izabel. She’s going to find out eventually.”

My mother grits her teeth at her older sister, then takes my arm. “Come. Let’s sit.”

Oh God. We talked two days ago. What the hell happened in the interim?

We claim a small table in the corner of the café, our chairs positioned so we’re facing each other. Since the unease in my gut is messing with my appetite, I set aside my snacks and reach for her hand instead. “Whatever it is, we’ll get through it together. I promise. Just tell me.”

She nods. “Okay. This is what happened: Lina told Mariana about the wedding yesterday, then Mariana went on WhatsApp and told the family in Brazil about it. So they called, and we were all on the phone, and we got to talking about all the kids and what they’ve been up to. Lina and Max. Natalia and Paulo and the pregnancy. Rey and his latest boyfriend. So Cláudia started yapping about how you’re never going to settle down, and somehow I told her that you were seeing someone and that it was getting serious.” She drops her head. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know why I lied, but she was being such a metida about it, and I just wanted to shut her up.”