David was in his boxers struggling to turn on the stove in the kitchen, and I was watching him delightedly, wrapped in one of my silk robes. Outside, against all odds, it had started to rain, and a beautiful gray light was filtering in through the picture windows overlooking the Paseo de Castellana, one of the main avenues through the center of Madrid.
After the best (goodbye) sex of all time, we had fallen asleep in my bed, and when I woke up, I happened to blurt out that I missed hotel scrambled eggs…and David decided to make me a hotel breakfast at seven thirty in the evening.
“What’s the square footage of this place?” he asked while he put the already cracked eggs to one side and figured out, all on his own, that they were gas burners. “Ah, cunt. These are back in fashion…”
“Three thousand,” I said through a yawn.
David side-eyed me.
“Three thousand square feet?”
“Yes. It’s one of those apartments that used to have rooms and a kitchen for the servants. The previous owners knocked everything down, and an English architect bought it and redesigned the whole thing. I bought it from him.”
“Bought?” David’s eyebrows were about to merge into his hairline.
“Yes.” I nodded.
“Okay.” He sucked his teeth, trying not to comment. “I’m not going to ask anything else.”
“Ask whatever you want, David, but don’t judge me for it.”
“Ah no, of course not. If only you had warned me. Hey…don’t you have the AC up pretty high?”
“I’m going to turn it off in a bit.”
“Or bring me one of those robes like yours,” he joked.
“Then you’d look so delicious I’d have to devour you.”
“If you’re going to devour me like you did not too long ago, please, bring me some kind of restorative tonic.”
“That can’t happen again. Remember that.”
“Yeah, right. Turn off the air.”
I went over to the console that controlled the air-conditioning in different areas and switched off all the ones that were on. Then I went to my closet and got another robe, which I slid across the bar to him, and then sat down behind it. He put it on, and I started laughing.
“Do I look handsome?”
“Very handsome.”
He stirred the eggs in the pan and glanced over at me.
“I can see your nipples through that robe, and I think I’m getting a boner.”
“Simmer down…”
“Can I sleep here?” he asked.
“What are your intentions?”
“To sleep.” He smiled. “And eat you out. I didn’t do that earlier, and now I’m regretting it. Goodbye, cunnilingus.”
“That’s goodbye sex, and we promised we wouldn’t have it.”
“Who cares?” He shrugged, taking a few more things out of the fridge and the pantry. “Hey, why do you have so much food in the fridge when you’ve been away for two weeks?”
I tensed up, and speak of the devil, a key suddenly scraped in the lock.
“Fuck my life!”
“Who is it?” He dropped the spatula, suddenly pale.
I didn’t answer; I didn’t have time to explain that the only two people who had keys and who came in without giving a couple of warning knocks were my sister Candela and Filippo. What if Filippo had decided to surprise me at home? What if…?
All I could think to do was shove David into my bedroom, my heart pounding, but…it was too late. The door swung open, and someone came in and saw me throwing him through the double bedroom door.
“Margot?”
“Hi.” I smiled, my heart in my throat. “How’s it going?”
Candela tossed her bag onto the couch and came straight toward me.
“Who did you just hustle into your bedroom?” she asked with raised eyebrows.
“No one.”
“David…” she called out, commandingly. “Come out.”
David poked his head out. He was still wearing my robe.
“Ay…” Candela laughed, covering her eyes.
“Want some breakfast?” he offered.
I hadn’t noticed, but…he was still holding a frying pan full of scrambled eggs.
He got dressed and set the kitchen island with places for three people, but Candela wisely declined the invitation. She said that she had just come to change her clothes and pick up a few things. I knew that was a lie, so I followed her into the guest room to give her a chance to make fun of me, get mad at me, call me crazy or whatever she came up with in there, out of David’s reach.
I leaned against the closed door while she changed her clothes; the sudden summer storm must have caught her in the middle of Castellana, where there aren’t many places to take shelter.
“Where are you coming from?” I asked.
“You didn’t tell me you were coming back today, ho.” She made an excuse while she rummaged through a pile of clothes that looked like a donation pile, looking for pants. “I would’ve knocked before I came in.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“You didn’t warn me you were coming back and David’s here, so I get the impression I interrupted something.”
“No way…” I bluffed.
“You forgot I was even staying here, right?”
“Totally.” I shrugged.
“Sex takes up a lot of energy.”
She put on a shirt that she found discarded on the floor and seemed to find the pants she was looking for in a corner of the room, where I discovered another stash of ugly wrinkled clothes.
“You’re not going to say anything to me?”
“What do you want me to say?”
“I dunno. You’re always giving me shit when it comes to David. Even though you’re such a hippy about everything else”—I pointed at her—“you’re still pretty conventional about certain stuff.”
“Ah, no.” She laughed. “Don’t come at me with that shit. I believe in polyamory. I was giving you shit because you had just met him and he could’ve been a psychopath.”
“What about when I told you I was sleeping with him?”
“I was worried about your emotional well-being. But I’m not going to judge you. I’m not Patricia. Or Mama.”
“But…”
“But I am older than you and, you can probably understand, I do have doubts. What works for me won’t work for you because I need two extra points of security. We don’t hold ourselves to the same standards we have for our loved ones. You’re my little sister. That’s just how it is. But…well, I see you’re back safe and sound, and you told me you had agreed that when you came back, it would be the end of this story, so I know how to read between the lines and leave you the house so you can say a proper goodbye.”
“No, don’t worry, we already…” I smiled like an idiot.
“Gross, Margot.” She laughed. “You’re a pervert. Poor little guy.”
“Tomorrow you might have to help me get rid of the body.”
We cracked up.
“What about Patricia?” I asked her.
“You don’t need to worry about that right now.”
“What about you? When are you coming back?”
“Let’s talk tomorrow.” She gave me a kiss on the cheek.
“Where are you going to sleep?”
“In the ballroom on the Titanic, obvs.” She laughed when she saw my expression. “At Lady Meow’s house.”
“Stay here, Candela. It doesn’t matter… Don’t go to Mama’s house. We’ll be in my room quiet as mice. I promise you.”
Candela smiled and pushed a lock of hair behind my ear.
“That’s your problem, Margot. You always want to make everyone happy, and you know what? That’s impossible. In the end, we all have our own shit, and you…you don’t even know what’s yours.”
She elbowed me out of the doorway and went to stick her head into the kitchen, where David was staring out the window.
“Bye, David.”
“You’re not staying?”
“No way. My internal clock is not ready for breakfast right now.”
“See you soon, then.”
“Behave badly. And make a lot of noise.” She winked.
“What’s she talking about?” he asked me jokingly, pointing at her.
“Ignore her,” I advised him.
Candela slipped through the door and disappeared, closing it stealthily behind her, as if she had never been there, interrupting a dinner that had little to do with the farewell we should have been undertaking. It was like when you leave your homework until the last minute. Like when you’re afraid to rip off a Band-Aid so you leave it on even longer. Like when you realize your heart is breaking and you hold on a little while longer, dragging the whole ordeal out.
Some scrambled eggs, coffee, avocado toast, and cookies later, David and I were back in bed. And it was a good thing Candela had decided to leave.
Waking David up made me really sad. If you could see him sleeping, it would make you sad too. He was like a kid who still needed a lot of sleep to grow. It’s not that he hadn’t had his growth spurt yet; it’s just that he seemed so innocent…
“David…” I kissed his neck, kneeling next to his side of the bed. “You have to get up.”
“What time is it?” he murmured, his eyes still closed.
“Seven thirty.”
“Margot…” he groaned, “it’s not even light out yet.”
“David…” I perched next to him and held out a very milky cup of coffee, just how he liked it. “You have to get up. Isabel will be here in half an hour, and I don’t want her to see you here.”
“Who’s Isabel?”
“She takes care of the house. And she knows Filippo.”
He sat up and blinked and then rubbed his eyes with his fist.
“Okay, okay. Um…is that for me?”
“Yes.” I smiled, handing him the mug. “Sorry for the assault.”
“What are you talking about?” He smiled. “It’s your house. It’s normal.”
He took a sip of coffee, kissed me on the mouth, and stood up. We both froze.
“I have to stop doing stuff like that,” he murmured.
“Um, yes. You really do.”
“Do I have time to take a shower?” he asked, pointing at the bathroom.
“Of course. Hey…your phone was going off last night. Messages, I think.”
“You’re shitting me. I thought I turned the sound off.”
He went over to the bedside table and checked his phone. He was right in front of me, still half asleep, super cute, and one part of his body more awake than the rest. He repositioned it with some discomfort and then discovered me looking at him.
“You can’t want more. It’s physically impossible.” He smiled.
“I don’t want more.”
“Uh-huh. Right.” He went back to his phone. “Wanna shower with me?”
“Yes.” I nodded vehemently. “But I’m not going to.”
He side-eyed me.
“We can shower without doing anything.”
“Yeah, right,” I teased.
He put his phone back on the bedside table and went into the bathroom. Man, that ass…
“Anything important?” I wanted to know.
I had spent half the night lying awake, wondering if it was Idoia texting him so insistently at three in the morning and resisting the urge to get up and find out. But I had to let go of jealousy. I had to let go of everything about David.
“No. Nothing. I’ll tell you in a sec.”
I took some sweet buns out of the freezer and heated them up in the oven. When David came out with his hair wet and fully dressed, he didn’t waste two seconds shoving one in his mouth.
“What are you doing this weekend? Do you have plans?” he asked me.
“Is getting my act together a plan?”
“No, it’s a bummer.” He smiled. “What if I suggest one?”
“I probably shouldn’t accept.”
“As friends.”
“I know your ‘as friends,’” I spluttered.
“Come on, woman. This plan couldn’t be more innocent.” He held up the palms of his hands. “It’s one of my best friend’s birthdays. I was so caught up in our trip I had completely forgotten about it. She’s throwing a barbecue at her parents’ house this weekend.”
“It sounds so teenager-y, I think I’m going to have to pass.”
“We’ll spend the weekend in the village. It’s less hot out there, her parents have a pool, and my friends are fun people.”
“I won’t know anyone, David.”
“I’m sure they’ll adore you, just like I do.” He smiled. “Come on…let me show you a little more of my life. If we’re going to be friends, you need to meet the rest of the gang.”
“And you can just go around inviting randoms?”
“We’re very open people. Come. Her parents’ house has like two hundred rooms.”
“But…will they be there?”
“No way! Cristina’s parents have a bar, and they never leave Madrid until it closes in August. Come…it’ll be fun.”
“I don’t know, David.”
He pulled his phone out of his pocket and started to text.
“I just said I’m bringing a friend, so now you can’t back out.”
“David!” I yelped.
“Don’t think about it.”
“We agreed not to see each other for a month when we came back.”
“Well, the month starts on Monday. Come on. I’m leaving.” He came over with the half-eaten bun in his hand and looked at me. “I’m going to give you the final kiss, okay? So you can spend the day regretting not lathering up my back while I was in the shower.”
“Don’t even think about it.” I smiled at him.
His lips were sweet, and they left a grain of sugar on mine that I rescued and let melt on my tongue.
“Bye.”
“Aren’t you working this weekend?”
“Well, no.” He turned back to me while he slung his backpack over his shoulder and grabbed his suitcase. “Because I’m going to tell the club to go to hell.”
“This trip really did a lot of damage to you. You’re all bougie now.”
“Go to hell, princess.”
He winked. He left. I missed him before he even closed the door.