In another week, their guests would be going home. Felipa would be leaving as well and things would get back to normal - whatever that was. Alex was still preoccupied with his secret. In fact, he was spending more and more time in his office, working on his computer. It crossed her mind that she might find the answer there when he was gone to work. It also crossed her mind that pilfering through his things to get information about something for which he had sworn to be silent would be a great invasion of his privacy. People did have a right to privacy, even if they were husband and wife, contrary to what Katie thought.
If Alex was a big question mark right now, Jonathan was an exclamation point. The issue of a phone had virtually disappeared, but in its place was a fashion problem. If he had simply wanted different clothes, she might have complied, but what he wanted to do was slice his clothing up with a razor blade and get jeans so long that they shredded from being walked on - like the other band members.
"You want me to dress like old people," he told her one day.
"No, I want you to respect the clothing you are given and not destroy them."
"I'll get me a job and buy my own, then."
Carmen gave him a level look as she stirred the pot of fresh green beans.
"It isn't about money, Jonathan. I don't want you running around in tattered clothes. Your friends will like you for who you are, not what you wear. Friends don't try to change you."
He eyed her clothing and spoke hesitantly, as if not certain whether he would be punished for his words.
"Then how come you dress like Katie tells you to?"
Warmth crawled up her neck and spread into her cheeks. As Dad used to say, a hit dog always hollers. She turned on him.
"Go to your room!"
That's what her parents would have said if she had sassed them that way and it slipped out of her mouth before she had time to think about it. He was right, though. She had been dressing the way Katie told her to - acting the way Katie said she should.
Jonathan ghosted out of the kitchen and when he passed through the living room she stopped him.
"Jonathan?"
He looked up at her, obviously afraid she would further chastise him.
"Don't go to your room. You're right. I shouldn't let anyone tell me how I should dress so that I will look like someone I'm not. It's one thing to buy clothes that are in fashion because you like them. It's quite another to do so only because they are the current trend. I still don't want you to cut up your clothes, but if what I buy you to wear isn't what you want, you're old enough to select your own clothing."