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N
o way.
Nothing; Marta doesn’t give up. What can she do? It's going to be a great weekend. We have thought to organize a super party for the promotion of Paula in the bank to Commercial Manager of the provinces of Salamanca, Zamora and León in the Santander. We are more than plethoric with the news and we want to go to celebrate it at the house that Marta has in the province of Ávila. It should be before Valentine's Day, because Marta has just taken a boyfriend - the truth is that she is excited with him, he is a pretty nice hipster, Agus, and we have given her the go-ahead- and they are going to Valencia for a few days. Today is Monday, February 3rd and we only have this weekend ahead. But she is determined that then it will be a disaster like the last time and she won’t have time to clean everything before leaving with Agus on a trip.
“Don't be like that, Marta, come on!” Paula begs “Do it for me! We promise to invite the right people, some... I don’t know... fifty or...”
Marta hits her arm with the palm of her hand, making more noise than hurt.
“Oh!” Paula complains, laughing “I was joking! Come on... Something quiet! Laura invites Jorge, you invite Agus, I will ask to the first one I find in the agenda and we can ask Toño, Paco and Silvia, Lorena... Oh! And Sonia and Pablo if they can find someone who nurses the girl. You see? Everything super quiet, quietly...” Marta is smiling a little, and that encourages Paula to continue planning the party “Relaxing music... cocktails... No alcohol!” she emphasizes when she sees Marta’s face “What do you say? Hey? It has been a good promotion...”
“No way... You will make me conflicts and then...”
“No, We promise we don’t, do we?” Paula says, opening her eyes with the face of I kill you as you don’t support me."
“The truth is it would be great for Jorge and I to get away from Salamanca a couple of days. So I can take this opportunity to present him to you officially.”
“Also, I promise to send a professional cleaning team if you don’t feel yourself satisfied.”
Marta has liked that and it has been the final nail. She picks up her blonde hair with a thick hair rubber band and sighs, overcome by her two insistent friends.
“Well, okay...” she accomplishes to pronounce it before we hug her, full of emotion thinking about the weekend that we will have. In ease mood...
Well, maybe not so much...
We have the right time. We have to be there on Friday and talk to everyone previously, order food and drink, take it there... Fortunately Paula is born to organize parties and she has everything under control. Moreover, she seems to be enjoying it. In fact, she has nine confirmed attendees and the shopping list made in two days. All that combined with her new job, to which she is still adapting. Honestly, I don’t know how she does it.
I've been insisting for three days until I got them to give me free that weekend at work. I had to blackmail a colleague by promising her that I would cover the next three press conferences of the Popular Party. Just imagine it and I get chills. But everything is for Paula.
Jorge has assured me that he will go on Saturday. He can’t go on Friday because he has a session of a very important trial. He took a case of blackmail to a politician and he has not been able to meet me all week or even a moment. I already told him that if it depended on me, this politic could remain labeled as blackmailed. But of course, Jorge is Jorge. Not all are equal, and even if they were, they have the right to a defense. And there I enter. Well, it's okay... But it doesn’t take that long, I need him too.
These last weeks have been very quiet with the divorce. Jorge says it's because the lawyers have to prepare everything to begin the trial. The act of conciliation was an absolute failure and now the worse remains. I will never understand that certain people have their own daughter as a bargaining chip... Last Tuesday, Jorge arrived depressed to my house, I was afraid that he would even start crying. He had found himself on the street with Claudia and Noelia, and she didn’t leave him hug his own daughter, Claudia took a taxi as soon as she saw him. It was quite traumatic, he told me that the girl was crying calling him and he couldn’t do anything because she threatened him with going to the police if he got closer. Jorge doesn’t want Noelia to come through such situations, so he tries to avoid them at all costs; his opinion is that the fewer trials and police Noelia sees the better she will be. But I think that in the end he will have no choice but going to that.
That same day I told him about the party, and when he knew that it was to be away from Salamanca, he was even excited. I think he also liked the idea of being introduced to my friends to include him in that way in my life. To me, it’s very pleasant to see him excited about it. And I think we could continue like this with an infinite loop of reciprocal illusions.
“I will see you tomorrow, princess. Be good until I get there, huh?” he warns me with a kiss when he leaves my apartment on Friday morning.
He goes to work and I go with my backpack to the portal, where we say goodbye before going out to the street, separately, so nobody sees us. I like it when before moving away from me, he caresses my cheek looking at me with those eyes of love in which I lose myself for a few seconds to notice his lips again on mine, as if he couldn’t help but kissing me once again before getting away from me.
Paula is already waiting for me in double line when I leave a moment after Jorge leaves too.
“Damn Lau. Your guy is hotter every day, what an ass he has with those tight suits that...”
“Hey! Don’t look at his ass!” I warn her seriously while I put on my seatbelt and I take a look through the mirror of the co-pilot to my super-hot... Boyfriend? Can I call him like that? Wow, Jorge is my boyfriend?
“Well, tell him not to be so hot, what am I going to do but look?” she shrugs and starts off, heading to Avila.
I watch him walk away in the rearview mirror on my side. Right, he has an incredible ass. He moves as if the whole damn street, or the whole center of Salamanca, belonged to him. And that kind of halo of superiority is very attractive. And if not, ask the women who are watching him with astonishment when he passes by, carefree and without looking at anything or anyone. Anyway, they can look as much as they want, that is inevitable. As long as they don’t touch...
“Park in the back, there is plenty of room” Marta tells us when we arrived, two hours after leaving and losing three times the road that addressed to her house.
We had not come for so long that I almost didn’t remember it anymore. It may also be because when we came, we were so blind that I have its memory blurred. It is a two-level wooden house, typical American cabin in the woods as in the movies. Wooden furniture, fireplace in the living room, an old style coal stove –everything tasted delicious in it...- although, the rest of it was modern; a bathroom, three bedrooms on the ground floor and two on the top floor. It was all very rustic, with a smell of wood, varnish and wet field. I always liked the extra that carpets give to the whole house, although that is the first thing Marta always removes, to prevent what may happen. And today is not an exception.
“The carpets on your back again Marta?”
When we enter in the house, we see Marta and Agus carrying one of them in the direction of the garage.
“Of course, I don’t trust in your quiet parties...”
“Agus, what a cross you have with Marta...” says Paula.
Agus raises his head to greet us and shrugs in silence, to run away from a discussion with his girlfriend for giving us reason; but we all know we have it. A nice boy this Agus: plastic frame glasses, beard, plaid shirt and super good-natured, he is a regular guy. Marta and he match completely. A couple of doctors, I don’t want to imagine how it must be to have a headache with both of them near... They met at the hospital recently, Agus took the job a few months ago and Marta has been working there almost as soon as she finished the career. I think it was a crush at first sight, since the day she met him, I remember that Marta called Paula and me with a stupid excuse, only to end up talking to us for two hours about a five minutes discussion they had about some medical topic I can’t really remember. She extended two damn hours the five minutes chat she had with him. If that's not love at first sight, let someone explains to me its real meaning.
Toño comes shortly after, prepared with a winter coat as if he was going to North Pole. He brings two bottles of champagne in his hand, which he shakes in our faces as soon as he enters the door, enthusiastically.
“One for Paula and another to toast for my new job... I was hired by Sánchez & Herráez...”
“I didn’t know anything!” I say throwing myself literally into his arms “Why hasn’t anyone told me anything until now?”
“You haven’t spoken with Jorge? They just called me to confirm it when I was on my way here; I'm going to be his intern. You will have to forgive me for the quality of the cava I have brought, but it was the only thing I found in the gas station...”
“Jorge? I saw him this morning when he went to work but he didn’t say anything about that. When did you do the interview?”
“A couple of weeks ago, but I didn’t want to tell you anything either because there was nothing certain. But the interview was not made by him, it was some...”
“Sandra” I say reluctantly.
Sandra usually takes care of those things as she has studies in HR besides carrying labor issues.
“I think so, that one. Well, they both called to tell me that I was starting next week.”
“Wait... Did they call you both?”
“Yes...” he answers, surprised by my exaggerated tone of voice “Something happens?”
“Nothing, Toño” Paula says with a wink “that Sandra is a whore and our Lau is allergic to those girls.”
“Oh, well... Well she seemed very nice...” Toño confesses apologizing “I hope I haven’t messed up by telling you this...”
“Nothing happens” and I try to take out of my head the image of Jorge and Sandra together in the same space “Open those bottles and let's start with the toasts; go.”
Toño's face lights up with my request and he goes running for a few glasses to the kitchen while Marta shakes her head in disapproval.
It's twelve in the morning and we're already drinking.
Sonia and Pablo didn’t find someone to leave the girl with in the end, so in the afternoon only Paco, Silvia and Lorena arrived. Paula finally decided not to bring any boy; she thinks if she introduces her friends, it will become too official. And that situation makes Paula chilling more than me, and I never introduced any of the other guys I had been dating. Even with Jorge I've waited two months to make it official. It's true that my case is complicated and I couldn’t present him for Salamanca as such, but I'm not going to lie to myself; that has been a positive thing. Finally one positive thing in this situation and I wanted to take advantage the most of it.
We finally decided to invite Silvia and Paco after consider it a lot. They had been a couple but they broke up recently, and they were both our friends so we were looking forward to get things normal again to be able to hang out the entire group without problems or strange situations. And this weekend was the perfect time to try it. The three of them came in Lorena's car. We do not want to imagine how uncomfortable that trip was.
Paco enters the house first with everybody’s bags, the girls and his. He's one of the most sociable guys I've ever met. Average height, burnet, somewhat stocky and he had scarce hair on his head. Always laughing and making people laugh. However Silvia, with a similar complexion, except for the abundant red hair that looks, is shyer. She usually prefers to stay at home before going to any party and we thank Paco for the three years they were together to bring her to party more times than we had seen during college. They started dating just after finishing the master's degree of business management that they both did. We met Paco along that time, and Silvia, as I told you, we knew her before, since she studied BM with Paula. Paco had studied the same thing but in León. They looked so good together that it was a shocking to everyone when they told us they broke up. It happened only two months ago. We were all still in mourning but with that hope that is never lost so they can fix their own.
Lorena is practically new to the group. She has studied Economics and she is working with Silvia at Santander for just over a year. She is the youngest, she has not yet twenty-five and the rest we have already turned thirty except Toño, who is still twenty-six but appears to have some more than us even. I don’t know if pretty would be the correct word, although it does result. She is tall, with curly blond hair. She is not very talkative but she is a delight. She is always there if you need anything from her. And we suspect that she is crazy about Toño. We have never seen our Toño with a stable partner, so we encourage him to see if we match him with Lorena. In fact I haven’t seen Toño with any girl since I met him. And I don’t know why, I don’t see them much future together.
When we are all in the room, and after Marta revises the entire house to keep anything that could break, stain or spoil, we started the second bottle of champagne.
The party seems pretty quiet until late afternoon. Laughter, songs, toasts and no problems at all. Even Silvia and Paco participate in the same conversations, albeit with some hesitation. Paula has brought all the cocktail equipment and is teaching us how to make her delicious mojitos after having already taught us her delicious daiquiris and her delicious margaritas. But the thing is calm, I assure you.
Marta, Lorena, Silvia and I are with a Wii boxing video game in a part of the room. We have a wager since few months and whenever we have a party, some of us bring the game. Paula is also part of it, but she goes with Paco, Agus and Toño to the kitchen, I imagine they are preparing a new and exotic mixture to give us soon. I hear them laughing from afar and I go there, determined to enjoy more cocktails. The smell of mint and lime has spread throughout the house and it seems that we were in a green area at this time.
“What cocktails are there, guys?”
“You have all these to choose from” Paula tells me, pointing to four or five jars placed on the kitchen island.
I laugh when I see the display she has mounted, with containers filled with different colored liquids. Marta is going to be furious when she comes and sees all this.
“Agus, but put order” I say “or Marta is going to blame you for this...”
Agus only smiles like a fool. I see Paco has glazed eyes and with the same silly smile as Agus, and I start to wonder at his attitude.
“Lau!” Toño shouts surrounding me with his arm, in a school boy plan “Come on, let's remember old times in El Barco, remember?”
And then I realize what happens. They have a considerable amount of pot on a stool they have placed in the middle of the kitchen.
“How much do you have there? You crazy!” I asked laughing, watching and mentally calculating how many joints can be made with all that. It would last for a week at least.
“Buf...” it's the only thing that Paula can say before bursting out in laughter.
“Now Marta is going to kill you, Agus...”
“I don’t care. This is Paula’s guilt, she leads us astray” and he raises his palms as an excuse.
Toño passes me a bud and places it as he can in my hands.
“Go on, get one, Lau. For old times.”
“You're crazy, do you think I remember doing that?” I say laughing and nudging him to release me. He's holding me too tightly by the neck and he's going to take my breath away as he continues doing this.
“Well, well, it’s decided, I have to roll up another one!” Paco adds, reaching the stool to pick up the material.
“Take a seat, Lau, the party has just begun...”
Paula patted a chair between hers and Toño's so I could sit there. I shrug and take a seat. It will be fun to laugh at the nonsense they are going to say while I am serene. Tomorrow I'm going to blackmail them all by threatening to tell Marta if... Well, I'll think about the blackmail tomorrow. There is plenty of time.
Maybe it was because the kitchen had made submarine and so much smoke that I inhaled I stopped knowing what I was doing, but after a couple of hours I'm already with a joint in my hand and I don’t remember how it got here.
And in another temporary jump in my memory is six in the morning and we are on the floor telling us several nonsense that my ribs hurt from laughing so much. Same as in the Contrastes, but with ten more years and having dined a sad pizza heated in the microwave. Let's see who is able to catch a pan with boiling oil in these conditions. Or worse, turn on the coal stove.
Paula has recently gone to sleep. She was not very well and we let her go to sleep until tomorrow. We are no longer at the age for this kind of parties. No wonder Marta is always against coming to this house.
“Boys, I'm going to sleep too, I'm exhausted!” Silvia announces, getting up as best she can “Our room is the one on the right, isn’t it?” she asks Lorena, who is going to share a room with her, pointing to the back door.
“Yes that. Go ahead, I’ll go later.”
Immediately Silvia enters to the room, we see Paco getting up too.
“Well... I'll go to bed myself too... Okay that... I... Tomorrow...” he said while walking in the direction of Silvia's room, with an unsteady and unsafe step.
“Paco, you're in the wron...”
Marta hits Agus with her elbow. Paco has to sleep with Toño, but we decided to wait a few minutes to see if we hear shouts or moans, you know.
After a prudential time without hearing anything, we decree that the thing is going well and that we cannot bother them.
“And now where do I sleep!” Lorena asks, annoyed with the sudden change of plans.
“I think we have to sleep together, Lore” Toño laughs, without noticing how hopeful Lorena has turned with that proposal. She tries to suppress the emotion, but Marta and I realize and we laughed. Toño looks at us without understanding anything and Lorena is so embarrassed that she doesn’t know where look at.
In the end we all ended up going to bed. It's the best, given the circumstances. In addition, Lorena keeps asking us if we are already tired to try to push us to go to sleep before she does. I think she tries not to seem desperate to get into the room with Toño, we all have realized what happens but the other character of the story doesn’t.
I had a small attic room upstairs. Jorge arrives tomorrow, so today I'll sleep alone. I'm pretty hot after all we've drunk and smoked I guess, so I won’t wear any pajamas. I stay in my underwear and get into bed, with those fresh sheets, soft enough to feel a tingling in the skin. The smell of enclosed bed dissipates in a few minutes and is confused with the scent of my perfume, and weed and all the types of herbs with which Paula has delighted us today in her cocktail class. And now I am afraid my intoxication is due to add as a mistake something else than peppermint to those cocktails.
I miss having Jorge by my side. It is not that we sleep together every day, or less. Only some day at week we managed to dodge everyone and we both escaped to their mother's house or, if it is already late and there is no danger of being seen on the street together, we went up to my apartment. Have him next to me makes me sleep well, relaxed, without fear of tomorrow or of what may happen with all the fronts we have open all around now.
I fall asleep caressing the pendant he gave me for Christmas. Since that day I have not removed it again. It sustains me when I wobble on a tightrope. And lately this is how, unfortunately, I constantly feel.
“Laura...” I hear a whisper and someone who moves me.
“Mmmm...”
“Laura, you, hey!”
“Ahh... What's up, what's up...”
I raise my head and open one eye. Is Toño dressed nothing but a pair of underpants and a shirt in his hand.
“Let me sleep here.”
I step aside still half sleepy. Toño leaves the shirt on the chair at the entrance and gets into bed with me, shivering from the cold, and hugs me to get some heat.
“Have you walked like this all over the house with this cold? Your feet are frozen!”
“I went out as I could from the room...”
“But what's up, Toño, don’t you like Lorena or what?” I say laughing.
He gives me a loving boost but in my drowsy state it is enough to wake me a little more than I already am.
“Damn, She has jumped over me like a wolf.”
“I see, we imagined that when we saw you sleeping together at last...”
I turn around to try to catch my dream again but Toño pushes me again.
“Oh, Toño, stop! What do you do?” I complain, turning to him.
He's lying looking at me and he seems annoyed at how he frowns those perfectly shaped eyebrows.
“Did you know and you let me go with her to the room?” he whispers to not wake Marta and Agus, who must be sleeping peacefully in the next room.
“Of course, we thought you would have a girlfriend at last...”
“What a bitch you are, don’t ever do that to me again!”
He has started to laugh and I get his laugh transmitted, it's inevitable, the same thing always happens to us. We heard in the next room that someone shushes to stop laughing. I’m sure it is Marta. Or it is Agus, who surely have pushed Marta to tell us. And we laugh again thinking about the anger she will display tomorrow just to see us.
“What now? I can’t sleep now because of you” I say, stretching slightly with a gesture of weariness “Bah, I'm going to see what Jorge does...” and I approach to the little table on Toño's side, where I have my cell phone.
“Are you crazy? At this hour?” he tells me in low tone while he is being crushed by me in an awkward attempt to get around his body.
I return to my place, mobile in hand, ready to talk to mister lawyer, with Mr. Darcy, with Captain Von Trapp or whoever he is at this time of the morning. I think that the drunkenness and the smoke have not yet cleared, but what the hell! I want to talk to him, period.
“Well, yes, he better holds on, I’m very tired he has been dedicating himself to the blackmailing’s case of the dude of...”
I start looking as I can Jorge's number under the watchful eye of Toño, who doesn’t think I am capable. Jorge is with me for a reason; he should tolerate me, right? He has been barely paying attention to me for days because of the shitty case, so now it seems fair to claim him when I feel so. And he better doesn’t complain.
Are the keys not too soft and fluffy? What a strange touch...
“Hhhhhh... Iiiiii...... Jaaaaa......... Joooorge, here” a burdensome job to look for a name in the phone book when you are in the conditions in which I am, I can assure you.
It rings once.
“You are crazy. If I was Jorge, I would be pissed.”
It rings twice.
“Do you realize that you are going out with the one who is going to be one of my bosses from next week?”
“And my parents too, so flatter me a while.”
Toño starts laughing again while tickling me all over my body.
“Leave me! Stop it!” I tell him the best I can between laughs while the third ring sounds. I don’t tolerate tickling very well “and now... Shhhh...”
It rings four times...
“... Lau?” sounds Jorge's deep, ragged voice on the other side of the phone, faintly.
I'm imagining him rubbing his eyes and I get excited just thinking about it.
“Helloooo!” I say, disturbed to hear him again.
Toño repeats that effusive greeting making me mockery. He tries to laugh but I covered his mouth in time.
“Lau, it is... seven in the morning, has something happened? and a little scared “Are you okay? Is something happening to you?”
“Nothing! I was in bed and I said to myself, well, I'm going to see what Jorge does! So, what are you doing?”
“I was still sleeping... I was not going out until 10 a.m., I've been in the office until late and...” he says in that hoarse voice that I liked to hear so much.
“Aham! In the office! With whom?”
He probably has been with Sandra. I remember what Toño told me and I want to... to...
“Well, I do not know if there was someone when I left, I do not know... Could we talk in a few hours as soon as I arrive? I'm really tired...”
“Oh no! Weren’t you with Sandrita? Because Toño already told me that you both called him on the phone from the same office...”
“Toño?” he seems to be remembering “Oh, yes, your dinner friend, who was hired... Well, yes, Sandra called me to ask me what curriculum I liked the most to replace Fernando, and as you said he was a good lawyer and has an outstanding resume, well...”
“Yes, yes, but, and Sandra?”
Jorge remains silent for a moment.
“Laura, what have you drunk?”
I laugh, I'm not sure why, because the question was not exactly amusing. Or anything. But I find it funny for some strange reason.
“Have drunk, I don’t remember. Little, I guess... But that was hoooouuurs ago.”
Toño covers his mouth to not laugh with me for the same reason that I'm laughing right now. That is, also for nothing. This reminds me too much my college years...
“Then what happens? You are very strange...”
“Paula, who has brought I don’t know how many marihuana buds and...”
“But, do you smoke?”
Even though I haven’t seen him, I know exactly the astonishment face he must have just for listening the high-pitched tone I have heard on the other side of the line.
“It has been 10 years since...”
I can’t help it, what do you expect, this is all funny to me! I don’t know why Jorge is so serious.
“Are you feeling good, Laura? Do you want me to go now?”
“Buf... You look like my father, Jorge...”
At that moment Toño couldn’t take it anymore and laughs out loud.
“Who is with you?” I hear Jorge's voice in a very serious whisper.
“Here? Toño, say hello” and I give him the phone. Toño keeps laughing and he is not able to articulate a word “Hey, he has given the silly laugh now, but he will tell you something when you come here, I promise. And if you want, he can even give you a signed photo with a dedication.”
Toño bursts into another big laugh and I swear I thought he wanted to throw me into the air because of the way he has caught me, swinging my body with his throughout the mattress.
“But you were not in bed!?”
Why does he sound more and more angry?
“Yes, of course, where are we going to be at this time? What things do you have...”
“Are you in the same bed!?”
He is screaming in my ear and I have to pull the phone a little away from my ear.
“Yes, why, what happens. You were with Sandra in the same room, and?”
“You will not want to compare me and Sandra to yours!”
“Of course I don’t compare it!”
I also know how to shout, to make it clear from now on.
“Lau, girl, hang because we have to sleep some” Toño complains, already exhausted from laughing so much.
“Come on, Jorge, I have to hang up; Toño gets heavy.”
“No way! What do you mean heavy? Do not even think about hanging up!”
“Oh, he's angry at something, what a bad temper he has in the morning...” I say to Toño with irony forgetting to push the phone away from my ear.
“Then hang up now and let’s sleep, you heavy...” my friend answers to me trying to close his eyes to conciliate the dream once for all.
“Aw, Toño, if you don’t stop moving so much, I won’t hang, huh?” and when he turns back, he throws the phone to the ground “Ow! As you have broken my mobile, you pay for it!” I push him and try to reach the mobile.
It doesn’t seem broken, only the battery has been released and, it is at the other side of the room.
“Bah, I’ll get up tomorrow to pick it up...”
“Shut up already and sleep, fuck Lau, I’m tired.”
“But what happens to everyone in that office! What heavy you suddenly turn!”
I turn around and curl up between the sheets. Toño approaches me and hugs me from behind. Still smelling like a mixture of marihuana and sweet and sour cologne.
And I fall asleep almost at the moment with the heat that comes of his body.
I hear Paula on the floor below. Please shut up and let me sleep a little longer ... Toño, meanwhile, is still holding on to me. Let no one move, I want to get back to sleep...
Shit, what's all the noise? Now someone is going up the stairs. The wood creaks in its path and I snuggle up in Toño something else to avoid listening to that annoying noise. Toño is completely asleep but he responds to my movement by hugging me more and complaining in dreams so that no one will wake him up yet. I rub his nose in my hair and we sigh as soon as we get back to the proper position to keep sleeping.
Paula seems to be on the other side. “There, but what happens?” I hear her saying to someone. And then the door of the room opens abruptly.
I stretch a little before opening my eyes. I'm going to kill Paula as she woke me up for nothing, it’s the first long thought I have. But when poking my head into Toño's arms, I see Jorge standing at the door, jaw clenched. Paula is behind him making strange gestures, with her eyes almost out of the sockets.
“Hi!” I say smiling and happy to see him again, although I'm still quite disoriented.
And I think also somewhat drunk.
And high.
What time will it be? He has arrived already and I'm still sleeping?
But Jorge doesn’t say hello. He doesn’t speak. He doesn’t move. I only see him at the threshold of the door raising and lowering his chest, faster and faster every time.
Toño has no idea of anything. All he does with the noise is to complain again in his dreams and he turns around in bed, taking half a sheet with him. And Jorge's eyes are wide open almost going out of their sockets, watching us.
Paula doesn’t stop pointing to Toño and me from behind Jorge. But what does she say? She frowns. Either she speaks clearly or I don’t understand anything.
In that moment Jorge literally pounces on top of Toño and takes him out of bed in a hurry, pushing him against the wall. It's been a matter of seconds. Toño reacts part sleepy still, trying to get away from who is crushing his back against the wall and when he opens his eyes completely, he sees Jorge.
“Jorge! What happens?” he asks surprised.
“What the fuck are you doing with Laura!”
I think the roar has rumbled throughout the house. From behind Paula jumps over Jorge to try to catch him and separate him, and I jump out of bed and I put as I can in the middle of them two.
“Jorge, that is not what it seems!” I say, trying to raise my tone so it can be heard over the screaming that he is giving Toño at this time.
Shit, that sounded awful...
And if that was not enough, the fact of me going out of bed doesn’t help very much, because now he looks more upset when he sees me with the thong and bra. Oh, now I'm starting to feel cold.
“Jorge, listen!” Paula yells, trying to make him turn toward her. Jorge continues looking at Toño and me without giving credit “That nothing happens, it is Toño!”
“Are you kidding me or what? They were cuddling in the same bed in their underwear.”
He says it low voice but with a shrill voice that is still quite scary.
“Jorge, hey, I'm sorry...” Toño starts telling him.
The poor man is scared. Actually his new boss just got him out of bed in his underpants because he was sleeping with his girlfriend. Like there is no reason to be it...
Paula and I have to grab Jorge again because as soon Toño started talking to him, Jorge tried to attack him again. Toño jumps over the bed while the springs of it squeaks and he stays on the sloping side of the room, waiting for the moment to be able to get out of here as he can.
“Can you calm down a moment, please?” I ask Jorge again raising the tone of voice as much as I can.
As if awakening from a trance, Jorge shakes his head and looks at me.
“There has been nothing between Toño and me, we would never do something like that! I already told you the other day that we are just friends. Yesterday Toño was left without a room and had to sleep here, only that. But nothing has happened at all, I swear to you.”
Toño raises his arms, declaring himself innocent and not daring to open his mouth again. Jorge looks at us both trying to understand what is happening. It may not make any sense from the outside, but if you have had a friend like Toño and me, you will understand that we don’t see anything wrong with being this way or any other. We don’t feel mutual attraction; we are like brothers, so we do things without second thoughts.
Jorge continues staring at us intermittently. The best thing would be to talk to him alone and let the rest come out, so he would pay more attention to me instead of calibrating the movement he would have to do to re-embed Toño against the wall.
I look at Paula to come out and I make the same gesture to Toño. When he moves toward the door, I have to catch Jorge again so he can get out of there by running, closing the room with we both inside.
“Look at me, please” I ask Jorge as soon as they leave us alone, grabbing him by the shoulders and trying to look at me in the eye.
He is gasping and his pulse is going a thousand, but in the end I accomplished him to look at me.
“Jorge, I swear that absolutely nothing has happened. Seriously, we would never do anything Toño and I, he's like my brother!”
My voice sounds even with some disgust but it is the truth, It would be akward to do something with him and he feels the same about me.
“Toño and I have had thousands of occasions in which we could have made out and nothing has ever happened, because there is nothing!” I repeat, emphasizing each syllable.
“Have you both been together in bed together, in underwear, disoriented and drunk... you are very hot, the guy is well-built... and you are telling me that nothing has happened?”
He says the whole sentence in one breath, in low and trying to catch the air that was missing. Well, speaking like that, the situation starts to seem strange to me also, no need to take things out of context...
“Jorge, I swear we would never do anything. Anyone who is here today can tell you. It is absolutely impossible that something could happen.”
I try to transmit to him through my look that everything is certain, although I don’t know if it is working. He drops himself over the bed but he gets up again as if pushed by a spring. He shouldn’t want to sit where Toño has been sleeping next to me until few moments ago. Then he goes to the chair and when he is about to sit, he takes the shirt that Toño left there the night before when he came in, showing it to me and throwing it on the floor without saying anything.
I rub my eyes with my hands. I'm exhausted, I have not slept at all, I still notice that I'm dizzy and I don’t know what to do anymore to make him believe me; a combination that surely will blow up in my face in the end.
“Please, Jorge, tell me what I can do to make you believe me...”
He leans against the wall of the entrance, rather he lets himself fall, sighing. He doesn’t look at me. I step in front of him and try to make his eyes rest on mine but he turns his face.
Helplessness tears are falling from my eyes already.
“Jorge, please! Tell me something!”
I sound desperate, but at that moment I don’t care. I just want him to talk to me, to tell me whatever it is or at least to look at me.
“I have to get out of here...” he announces showing no emotion in his voice, turning toward the door.
I grab him by the arm but he takes me off, shaking my hand off, as if it were disgusting.
“No, Jorge, don’t go, please. Not like this...”
“Do not touch me, Laura. I need to calm down and leave alone...” and he doesn’t even look at me when he told me.
“But Jorge, I...”
He doesn’t even let me see his eyes when he leaves here, giving a tremendous slam.
The room is darker and colder. I press the pendant of my neck tightly and stand there, not even believing that this is actually happening. I think I just lost Jorge, and it is all my fault.
Shit, what have I done...
“Come on, Laura, come...”
Paula tries to cheer me up, but in these moments it is almost impossible.
When Jorge left, the girls went up to the room. The commotion has awakened the whole house, of course. I am stuck in bed and covered to the top without wanting to talk to anyone but they insist and insist, and I am about to lose patience.
“Here, put this on, come on” Silvia says for the fifth time since she arrived, pulling on a sweatshirt and sweatpants.
I pick up my clothes, get dressed and go back to bed so she would leave alone.
“Fuck, what were you thinking?”
Paula looks at Marta, opening her eyes.
“What? It is true, how did you both figure to get half naked in bed, if you have a partner. Fuck, Laura, we're not kids anymore to go around like jerks.”
“Damn! Shut up now!” I scream “I know, but we didn’t realize. Shit, Marta, it's Toño! We are used to this, nothing has ever happened.”
“But imagine that you are the one who gets him this way with a girl and he swears to God that nothing has happened. Would you believe him?”
No, I wouldn’t believe him. Shit... I would not believe him; I would leave him to never return... Where has Jorge gone? I have to find him and beg him to stay with me.
I try to get up but Lorena and Paula sit me down again, it seems that they guessed what I want to do at this moment.
“Leave him now. Toño and Agus have gone to look for him and to talk to him.”
I cannot hide the terror in my eyes. Toño?
Lorena shrugs as soon as she sees that this explanation has served nothing more than to make me more nervous.
“He insisted he had to talk to him.”
I lie on the bed face down, sinking my face into the mattress. And I start crying inconsolably.
“Come on... You'll see how everything will be cleared...” Marta says calmly.
“Leave me...”
“Laura, come on...” I hear Silvia now telling me with a pitiful voice.
“Leave me alone!”
I can’t hold this anymore. I know they try to help me but I can’t keep listening to anyone else. There is silence and I hear that they leave the room at last, closing the door.
I don’t know how long I've been in that same position crying. I feel I die. What am I going to do now for Jorge to believe me? I have ruined everything. I had a wonderful man with me and I've ruined it in the worse way that something like that could be ruined; me and my habit of not thinking. Shit, Laura, of course he had reason to get angry, he has seen you in bed wearing underwear with another man. I get to see the same setting with Sandra and him and they cannot get me out of the room until I burst at least one of her eyes.
What if I can’t do anything to fix it? What if he never believes me anymore? What if I lost him because of me? Neither Claudia nor anything, it's been my fault. I don’t think I can take a single day without Jorge, I need him. It is strange, isn’t it? Until two months ago I didn’t have him in my life and now, eight weeks later, he is absolutely essential to me.
I have to go down and check if Toño and Agus have returned. I need to know what Jorge told them, how he was, where he was, if they think he is going to forgive me. I put on some thick socks and go down to the living room. I don’t see Toño, nor Agus... neither Jorge. The rest is turned when they see me appear. They are sitting on the sofas of the great room, chatting in a voice much lower than usual, I think not to bother with laughter that at this moment I could not stand.
“Laura, do you want to eat something? We've saved you some pasta” Marta says kindly, getting up and going to the kitchen, as if I didn’t scream at them in the room a while ago.
“No thanks... Haven’t they returned?” I ask anxiously, wringing my hands against each other, with the excuse of the cold that I don’t really feel.
They shake their heads, seemingly hoping I won’t get upset or start screaming and throwing my hair on the floor. Marta then comes to me and takes me to sit on the couch, in the middle of them all. And a second after sitting down, I feel better, more wrapped up and less unhappy than a moment ago. What makes the proximity of a friend...
“I'm sure that's because they are talking about and everything is fine. Otherwise, they would have returned. Agus is a good negotiator...”
Marta cannot help letting out a little pride for Agus. She rubs my back encouraged by my smile.
“Come on you fool, you'll see... Surely they come back in a while.”
I keep my head down. The tears fall back from me irremediably, like an endless torrent from which the tap has broken and there is no way to close it. I don’t understand where I am taking so many; it seems that I have an infinite source of them somewhere. When they see me crying again, they all approach to me and start hugging me and dry my tears. I still feel more than terrible but I'm glad to be sad with my friends nearby.
“I’ve screwed...” I recognize aloud.
“No...” I hear that they say to me some hesitating. I look at them very seriously before answering their condescending and untruthful words.
“You know I did. I screwed up, and so hard.”
“Well, okay” says Paula “you've screwed up, and? It is done. Now we have to think about how we can solve it.”
“Laura, I don’t know Jorge” Paco says “but considering what you've told us, he's a reasonable guy. Surely something can be done, you'll see.”
They encourage me and make me laugh with nonsense. They pamper me and don’t let me think of anything other than the anecdotes that Paula tells us about the clients she has had to attend sometimes; she expands the story with some and exaggerates the attitude of others, but always makes us this show, she has even stolen the guffaw. And this time, luckily, she also makes me laugh, of course.
When it seems that I feel better, we see from the window of the living room that Toño is all bruised, followed by Agus, who brings Jorge leaning on his shoulders. And I feel again to die instantly when I see that Dantesque scene. My heart is going to come out of my mouth as soon as they approach to the door.
When they enter to the house, I see that Jorge also comes with a couple of bruises on his face, some blood on his lip and he complains, shrinking. Toño is also a mess. An eyebrow bleeds, his lip does too and he comes holding his arm. He goes straight to the kitchen and returns with a napkin soaked in water. Even Agus is disheveled and with scratches on his face. When Marta saw him she ran to the kitchen to look for a wet cloth to be able to heal him. Simple remedies for a doctor like her, but effective after all, for this type of injuries is not needed anymore.
I'm immobile. I do not think Jorge wants to heal his wounds right now and that saddens me even more. The desire to cry as soon as I think about it increases.
Agus sits Jorge in an armchair in front of us and goes with Marta to cleanse his wounds.
“But what...!” says Paco giving no credit to what he is seeing.
Three full-made men who have been sticking like children is not something we thought we would see again at our age. In adolescence it can be, but that stage we all have overcome more than enough.
“Laura, can I talk to you for a moment, alone?”
I turn and see Toño addresses me, asking me to accompany him.
I look at Jorge, who still resents the wounds. Lorena has brought ice and cloths to clean him a little and I wince when I see that. I want to be the one who cleans his wounds, not another ... I hate Lorena for a moment and the second later I thank her for doing that for Jorge, even at the risk of dying in my hands for it. Sweet and sour feeling for a moment like this.
Jorge looks up and looks at me, but it seems that he did it without even seeing me.
“Go, I do not care anymore” he says, gesturing with his hand for me to leave, as if he wanted me to disappear from his sight as soon as possible. He doesn’t care what I do anymore. Is that? And I think my heart stopped when I heard him say it.
I follow Toño to one of the rooms on the floor where we are. We enter it and close the door.
“Toño, I don’t think this is the best considering how things are...”
“Come on, sit down, Laura. I have to talk to you.”
I sit on the bed focusing my gaze at him. He comes to me and sits next to me. He takes my hands and looks at me with a kind of anguish that I had never seen before in his eyes. Something like guilt for what he's going to tell me next.
“Toño, you are very injured... Can I know what you've done?”
“Fix things, nothing happens. Everything is cleared already.”
“What do...” I say not brave enough to ask. I only scrutinize my friend to investigate his gestures if that means that things are good or that on the contrary they are terribly worse than a few hours ago.
“Yes. At first, as you will understand, your beloved boyfriend was not very attached to talk...” and he laughs. Above all he laughs! “But when I explained why nothing could have happened, everything was fixed.
“What did you tell him? Did he believe you?”
My heart is running very fast. Please, make him believed it...
“Well, of course he believed me. But I told him that first of all, I had to tell you about it. Then I'll go out and tell the rest.”
“Toño, what's wrong...?”
He is downcast, as if he didn’t dare looking me in the eye. But what is happening!
“I have not been honest with you and I ask you to apologize. I've behaved like a kid. You're my best friend, Laura, and something like that I should have told you before, but I was a bit confused. I thought that in my profession that would be an impediment and...”
“Toño tell me what it is, you're scaring me.”
“Well” he takes air and sighs deep “the fact is that...” and he looks into my eyes as if he was going to drop a bomb “I'm gay, Laura.”
Toño stares at me, trying to figure out if my reaction is going to be good or bad.
“But, why didn’t you tell me anything?”
“I do not know. I was a bit confused. In my profession there is still a lot of prejudice and I wanted to find a good job. Salamanca is very small and you know how some of them can be... I have always been very careful with the few relationships I have had. I know I had to have been honest with you and told you but...”
I think my head is going to explode. At this point of madness, I have to interrupt him.
“But then...? I'm sorry Toño, but I don’t understand anything.”
“I should have trusted you, you're not like the rest; you are my best friend but...” he rubs his head nervously before speaking again “I'm sorry, really, I hope you can forgive me...”
“Toño, I don’t understand why you didn’t tell me this, you know that I don’t care if you like guys, girls or a vase...” and I imitate his gesture unconsciously, running my hand through my disheveled hair, sighing of anxiety “And I don’t know... Shit, this is very... Tell me something... Are you with someone?”
Toño smiles at me to try to forget the bad time he just spent telling me that. Yes, I am angry with him for not trusting me but I understand that there are things people need to say when they are ready.
“Well... a few months ago... I'm with someone, yes” he confesses.
“Who is it?”
I am still astonished. When was he going to tell me all this?
“His name is Javi, I met him in the library.” he looks at me askance “He is... The truth is that he looks like Jorge physically” and he smiles a little more relaxed.
“Hey, so you will like my boyfriend now, huh?” and I give back the same smile.
“According to how he left me, unless I turn sado-attached, I think I won’t.”
We both laughed, now, completely relaxed.
“Toño, you've been having a bad time, you should have told me. I just want you to tell me if you have a problem.”
“I know, I promise I will not do this again.” he squeezes my hands, still holding me “I'm really sorry. And I'm sorry I provoked this mess...”
“Don't be silly, this is also my fault.”
“Don't worry about Jorge, I've fixed everything.”
He seems proud of himself. He smiles with a sufficiency of a lawyer precisely.
“Yes, of course, based on punches! What a way to fix things you guys have.”
Toño laughs and then takes the napkin soaked with water to the lip to notice that it still hurts.
“Come on, give me” I say, grabbing his napkin and washing his wounds “You have become aggressive...”
We left after a few minutes. I carry Toño's napkin in one hand and when we get to where everyone are, Toño grabs my other hand and squeezes it. Jorge looks at us but he doesn’t make any gesture showing that it bothers him. Maybe because he doesn’t care about anything I do, no matter what Toño told him. Jorge remains very serious while Lorena holds over his eye a cloth which must be fulfilled with ice so it doesn’t swell and next week he prevents of explaining in the firm the reason for that purple eye.
They all turn toward us and stare at us, waiting for someone to tell them something at last.
“Well, guys...” Toño takes a breath as he feels the pressure of my hand on his. He looks at me and I smile, encouraging him to tell the rest everything he just told me “I wanted to tell you that... Well, I have a partner...”
Everyone is shocked. They look at the hands that we have intertwined and then, look at Jorge who remains impassive. Seeing that they are looking at him, Jorge gestures with his hands to look at Toño again, as if this was not with him.
“No, guys!” Toño hurries to clarify “It's not Laura!” he swallows and clarifies “His name is... Javier.”
Everyone is silent. They seem to be waiting for Toño to continue talking.
“And... I've been with him for a few months.”
Nobody dares to say anything until Paula, looking at ones and others as if waiting for something to happen, cannot take it anymore and has to take the floor.
“Okay, and the other day I had sex with some Ernesto, but what that has to do with today, Toño, finish now!”
Marta laughs out loud when listening to Paula's anxious tone and immediately everyone does the same, relieved to be able to laugh again.
“You would tell us before and we would have invited him to the party too” said Marta in a cheerful tone, talking to everyone in a relaxed manner.
I release his hand to make room for the rest, who start to joke as always. I stand aside looking at them. My friends are great. They are the best. Forever.
A hand grasps mine tightly.
“Let's go.”
That hand is from Jorge, who pulls me toward the stairs.
I leave Toño's cloth on a table that we passed on the way and I follow without protesting much less. I am focused on the touch of that hand that for hours I thought I would never feel in mine again.
We went up to the room. We enter. Close the door. He sits in bed with an atrocious calmness and gestures for me to sit next to him, something that gives me some kind of hope. I go to him and I seat still looking at him. He takes his time to start talking and I am already beginning to despair. My heart is going to come out of my chest, it's even hurting me. At that moment he stares at the pendant on my neck.
“You are wearing it.”
He seems surprised by this finding, which is not unusual on the other hand.
“Of course, I told you I was never going to take it off.”
He looks down without saying anything more about that and enters directly into the subject that concerns us.
“Laura, I am still angry. Or hurt; whatever you want to call it.”
And serious, he is also very serious. His forehead is tense and his eyes tired. I duck my head trying to escape unconsciously of all this, hoping that when I look up again, everything is arranged in one way or another. Jorge takes my chin so that I look into his eyes before I can continue to immerse myself in those childish but comforting thoughts.
“The fact Toño is gay does not detract from the fact that you were half naked with another man in bed, who was also half naked.”
“But it's Toño, we wouldn’t...”
“I know, and now I understand why you told me he did not like you. It seemed strange but certainly, in this case... But you cannot go messing with men because they do not attract you or tell you that you do not attract them.”
“I only do that with Toño! I wouldn’t think of doing it with another. But I'm sorry, please forgive me” I'm so pathetic, right? “I must realized that, in spite of my relationship with Toño, I have to respect you. And do that, well...”
“...Exactly...well” he repeats, nodding.
I don’t see in him even the shadow of a smile. He keeps impassive for my misfortune. He focuses himself again on my pendant and brings his hand to it, caressing it for a moment, but his face remains undisturbed.
“Tell me what I can do to make you happy, I can’t continue seeing you like this. I find myself terrible because of everything that has happened...”
“And you should continue feeling terrible much longer. And even then, it is not even a thousandth part of how badly I had it before” he sighs, trying to calm down the irritated tone that his speech was taking “Laura, understand that when you called me in that condition, telling me that you were with someone else in bed and I do not know what I was hearing about doing it ... I called you a hundred times and you had it off. I ran down to the car and I do not know how I arrived without killing myself.”
He seems very distressed. And it's my fault. I don’t want to give him the displeasure that Claudia gives him and this has been a dislike of the great ones.
I move my hand very slowly to his bruised face and I rejoice in silence to see that he doesn’t move away. I put my thumb in my mouth and pass it through a scratch on his cheek. He utters a plaintive groan but keeps letting me do it.
“It hurts?”
He shrugs his shoulders in silent response.
“You're a ruffian, I've already told you many times.”
“What did you want me to do, Laura... Furthermore, I saw he was coming behind me...”
“Of course, and look how you both ended.
“Very close friends”
And there's his bright half smile. I can’t help but smile back. Sometimes Jorge is like a child. Well, in this case as a teenager with too much testosterone, enough to fight for his girl any place he has to...
“Seriously, Laura. Do not ever do something like that again, please.”
He sounds still tormented and it hurts me infinitely to see him like that because of me.
“I promise that I would never do anything to you that could hurt you, believe me.”
He sighs and brings his hand to my cheek. I lean on it, closing my eyes. It gives off heat and a delicious aroma that transports me away from here, and completely calms my anxiety. I take his other hand and start kissing it. He doesn’t move and yet he watches carefully how I kiss his two hands with affection now. I caressed his cheek too, careful not to hurt the wounds, and I approached him. When we are a few millimeters away, I pull back a little to ask him with my eyes if I can kiss him or if he is still angry. I think he's funny about my objection and he finally approaches me, kissing me sweetly. I can’t take it anymore and I hug him tightly, somehow making him hug me in return.
“I thought you were going to leave me...” I confess, returning to mourn without being able to avoid it.
Jorge separates and looks at me, incredulous.
“But Laura, why are you crying?”
“Because of that, I have told you already. Because I thought I had lost you.”
“Did you really think I could leave you? You know that for anything in the world, princess.”
His words display so much love that I have to hug him again to catch that feeling that is generously wasted only for me. Jorge seems overwhelmed with so much hug and so much emotion in the environment that he is not used to and doesn’t know very well what to do. He squeezes me hard against his chest and I keep crying until I let go of everything.
We remain in silence a while longer; I cried and he stroked my back while we hugged. I don’t know how long we've been like this, although I do know that it's enough to make us both feel good again.
“Lau...” he tells me in low voice “Lau... Are you better?”
I finally break away from him. Well, rather I have to take off his arms, although he seems not to bother too much the situation.
“Are you still angry?” I ask, crestfallen.
He looks at me for a moment, through the corner of his eye, still frowning.
“I will find it hard to get rid of the memory of you two in bed half naked... I am not very flexible with my ideas, I know, but I assure you I try” and he shakes his head, as if he was really trying to get out of his mind that horrible memory.
“I get it. I was jealous only because Toño told me that Sandra and you were in the same office...”
“Why were you going to be jealous about that?”
“I don’t know. I've never liked that girl. And besides, since no one knows we are together, she thinks she has a chance.”
“Easy, by your side, no woman has the slightest chance.”
“This is very difficult, Jorge...”
“What?”
“All of it. Being with you trying Claudia not to find out, lying to my mother, having to be in the office near you and not being able to touch you...”
I see a cloud of sorrow on his face that sets in as I speak out loud all our current problems.
“This is hard for me too. But, what do you want to do?”
I do not know if he's upset again or he really asks me. The fact is that I don’t have the strength to keep talking for another minute. I yawn and rub my eyes again with my hand.
“Are you tired?” he asks, lowering his tone and cocking his head to look at me.
“A little... I haven’t slept more than a couple of hours.”
He leans back and lies on bed, taking me with him. I embrace his body and he wraps me with his arms, making me feel loved again, in peace, happy.
“Do you want to rest a little before going down with everyone?”
I nod slowly without opening my eyes. I feel a sigh in his chest and fall asleep while I follow my breath to his, finally calm.
He is very handsome when he sleeps. I don’t have many opportunities to see him like that, since normally he is the one who wakes up before me. It may be because of the displeasure of this morning but I haven’t been able to sleep too much now either. And yet he is there, sleeping peacefully while holding me with his arm. I would like him to wake up to see that intense green in his eyes, but asleep I can enjoy those marked cheekbones, that emerging beard... At this moment I feel I could do anything to be with him. But it is too difficult and I notice myself each time with less strength.
He moves a little and puts his hand to his hair to scratch it. He moves his head from one side to the other. He seems so carefree... Who would say it. When he's awake he has to be taking care of all those boring cases of the firm, trying to get his divorce done soon and putting up with my nonsense. Why will he be with me? I haven’t given him more than problems. Sometimes I think that his life would be calmer if I was not in it. I can’t help feeling guilty about what is happening. An idea has hammered my brain for days. Should I disappear from his life? At the moment of making that decision, I don’t know if I would be able to do it. I'm being selfish, right? But love tends to be, and I can’t help it.
He moans and keeps moving. He frowns without opening his eyes yet and moves his nose in a funny way. He squeezes me against him in dreams and I see him smile and unfrown immediately. I would love to know what has made him relax his muscles; I wish he was dreaming with me.
I adore him and yet I know him so little... He doesn’t usually tell me about his past life. I don’t know anything about his parents, his childhood, his university days, his dreams of the future. I don’t know anything and I don’t know how to make him open to me. Jorge is too difficult. I think he's still seeing me like years ago: he's the adult and I'm a girl who feels intimidated by him. And in the end it is like that. I cannot believe that I am living this situation and I think that until I accept this reality, we will continue in the same way. He dominates the situation ninety percent of the time and I... I cling to the other miserable ten percent like a burning nail.
He moves the eyelids and little by little I see again those green and enigmatic eyes that I have always loved. There is a slight smile on his face when he sees that I am looking at him so intently. He doesn’t seem angry. The truth is that I don’t know if I would have been able to forgive him if I was in his place, no matter how lesbian the other one told me.
“How long have you been awake?” he asks with his voice still asleep.
“Just few minutes.”
He blinks and looks at his watch.
“But it is three in the afternoon; you should have woken me up.”
“You were sleeping so calm... I don’t usually see you that relaxed.”
He stretches to compose himself and takes advantage to press me hard against him with his arms.
“That is because I sleep with you and I know you are not going to mess me up if I have you like that.”
“Jorge!” I protest, although I love when he is affectionate and playful.
“We should go down now. You have to properly introduce me to your friends, right?”
“So funny...” I lean aside to look at him “Are you sure you want to stay today? If you don’t want to, we will leave...”
“Nothing happens. You want to be here, so I do too.”
“But if after Toño's you think that...”
“Seriously, Laura” he says, interrupting me “It is fine; we have already talked about it. And honestly, I prefer to be somewhat away from Salamanca. We should spend more time like this, do not you think?”
“I hope so. I miss you very much when we can’t see each other in days.”
I get close to him and he gives me a little noisy kiss.
“Me too. I wish I could take you away from there, but...”
“Well, let's go, let's look for a job in another city, in another country!”
Jorge smiles in an enigmatic way while he caresses my chin with his finger.
“Where would you like to go?”
“Anywhere. I've always wanted to work outside of here. Salamanca is too small.”
“Your parents would not be happy to take you on their side” he seems to imagine for a split second even “Anyway, no matter how large a site may be, it usually ends up becoming small at the end of time, I assure you.”
He seems relaxed after all this morning. This is my chance to get some information out of him...
“Where did you work before the law firm?”
“And that?” he asks surprised.
“I don’t know anything about you, you never tell me anything and I'm curious...”
He looks up at the ceiling, thoughtful.
“Well, I came back from Cambridge to Edinbourgh when I finished the career until...”
“Wait, wait, did you study in Cambridge?”
“Yes, I already told you that I lived in Britain for many years” he looks at me a moment before looking back at the ceiling and keep talking “I was in Edinburgh a few months at the Royal Bank of Scotland but banks are not my thing, so I took a kind of scholarship to move around Europe in different cities, giving classes in their universities. When the scholarship was finished, I went to the City of London until...”
He remains silent at that precise moment, remembering. And it doesn’t seem like a happy memory.
“Until...” I encourage him.
“Up to twenty-five, I came to Salamanca with my mother. She was from here and she still had the family home” he looks at me again “The one we usually go to, you know. So I asked her to validate the titles and I went to work in your parents' office. And the rest you already know.”
“Did you like to work in London?”
“Yes, I like that pressure in the work they have in the City. Also, there were really interesting cases there. I got to take several penal, which is my thing actually” now he seems melancholic. He smiles for a moment and then the darkness settles in his gaze “It was a challenge, but I liked it. Sometimes I miss it, partly.”
“So, why did you leave?”
“Because... Well, things were kind of disturbed at home. It was the best.”
“You don’t want to talk about that...”
...as a change.
He nods with a neutral gesture on the face, giving me the reason.
“But, why?”
“Because that was the past and I already told you that I do not want you to see me in any other way than what you see me now.”
“And your father stayed there?”
Jorge sighs and turns to look at me in the eyes.
“Professional deformation?”
Okay, he will not answer me, but at least he smiles.
“I just wanted to know something about you. Actually I know almost nothing...”
He gives me a quick kiss with those soft lips and gets up from the bed.
“Other day, now we must go down and continue celebrating.”
Seeing that I don’t move, he grabs my hands and pulls me out of bed.
“Oh! But I wanted to stay here...”
“Come on, do not be lazy” he says, slapping me on the ass.
“Hey! Stop it!”
I don’t sound too upset and he laughs, grabbing me from behind and kissing my hair.
“Other day we continue” he turns me and looks at me in the eyes, as a promise “okay?”
With Jorge you cannot even answer when he sentences. Sometimes he is more judge than lawyer...