Seven Stories for a Summer Afternoon Page 6

  —As if he wasn't aware —she mumbled and stayed at the table, thinking that she should go, otherwise they would not let her in peace.

  She stood up, her head leaning down, and went to the office denying the imposition of her parents and, indeed, there were the tickets along with travel itinerary on her office desk, she took them and didn't even say goodbye because of the great anger she felt.

  The following week she dedicated herself to her work and, from time to time, her father was passing by her desk as if he was reviewing one or another case. Because of these suspicious visits was born the itch to browse the itinerary.

  She went to the page where they had booked the trip and liked what she saw, she wrote a letter to his boss accepting the fifteen days of vacation, got up from the desk and headed to his office, knocked and he let her in.

  —You have won —she said kind of quarreling—. I will go on a vacation, and I warn you, don't hope that my life will change from one day to the next.

  —What I want is that you find yourself again, my daughter. I want back the girl who was battling the trials with fantastic results, the loving girl, friendly with everyone, not this one, indifferent, that I have to look at every day entering the office, and what worries us more, both your mother and me, is that you don't work anymore on your cases fighting with nails and teeth, since each time you are more and more sad.

  —Okay, it's already decided, I will go —she said, resigned to leave.

  —The Tuscany is a beautiful place —concluded his father—. Enjoy it, sweetheart, it will help you.

  —Thanks, dad, see you.

  On Sunday, as soon as she arrived to Florence, she had the idea of seeing this and that and to sleep the rest of time, she wasn't not keen on going through the fields and walking.

  Her flight was late and, therefore, she arrived tired to the hotel, as soon as she opened the door, her first thought was to take a shower. Put the suitcase on the bed, opened it and the first thing she found was a pair of underpants with Pinocchio prints.

  She closed the suitcase again, praying that everything was a dream, but upon opening it she discovered it wasn't and closed it again, looking for any information of the owner and thinking she would have urgently to buy new clothes.

  On the outside, the suitcase had no identification, and the frustration threatened to possess her, she opened it again and after seeing the underpants with Pinocchio, which was disturbing, she went through the belongings of the unknown person and found a small book with phone numbers.

  She sat down on the bed, meditating, she had to call randomly some of those names, but what the hell she should say. "Hello, do you by chance have a friend who has traveled these days to Tuscany, having underpants with Pinocchio prints?", she covered her face, aware that it was ridiculous and began to laugh.

  She looked again at the disorganized suitcase, took her mobile and chose the first number she found.

  —Hello? —asked a stranger.

  —Hello, good afternoon, I don't know how to explain it, but I have in my possession a suitcase of someone who apparently knows you.

  Person on the other side of the line made a pause and she heard: "Héctor, your bag appeared" followed by cheers of another person.

  —Wait —said another voice, and the call happened to be heard by all.

  Without understanding what was happening on the other side of the line, she had to go to the point, to get her belongings as quickly as possible and forget the disturbing underpants.

  —Hello —said a deep voice.

  —Hi, I'm Valeria, I think we have taken the wrong suitcases at the airport.

  —So it seems, but I don't trust my friends, I would like to know if it's just another joke, I'm in a bad mood to play this game. — Valeria snorted, if he needed to know if it was his suitcase, she would gladly tell him what she found.

  —What if I mentioned the existence of certain underpants... —The other side of the line was silent, and in a second, she heard other men roaring with laughter so that her call was removed from the speaker instantly.

  —Did you have to be so specific? —reproached Héctor.

  —You have asked and I have been sincere.

  —I can see it —he said sarcastically—. Where can we meet for exchange?

  —What do you think about the Piazza Della Signoria in two hours?

  —Perfect, one more thing, never again investigate the suitcase of a man, I won't feel responsible if I do the same with yours.

  Valeria was outraged at that statement. "What kind of a pervert are you since it seems you're having fun searching other people's suitcases?", she asked herself. She had done it because she was anxious to know where her things were, she pondered what to answer him and the best she could do was to pester him for not being tactful.

  —I can assure you that you won't find anything similar to your boxers. —Her interlocutor laughed and she began to wonder what was funny.

  —I'll forgive you this time, see you in two hours.

  And hung up, leaving her more bewildered than before.

  "What kind of a guy could wear so rare underpants?", she wondered. "It is pretty likely he was some university guy who arrived looking for a party", she concluded and looked again at the suitcase, arranged it from above in order to avoid further looking and closed it. She took her shoes off, turned on the TV and sat into the chair to wait for two hours.

  Two hours later, on the Piazza Della Signoria, she was expecting a stranger of who she only knew his name and that he had a suitcase like hers.

  ♥♥

  Héctor had to endure two long hours of his brothers' jokes. He accepted to take this trip only because of his family's insistence. Three years ago, that the mother of his daughter had left without any explanation.

  Then he decided that he would take care of his little girl, four years old, and learned to leave the bitterness behind, thanks to tenderness he received from his little miracle. However, he didn't forgive to his brothers the shame that he just had experienced.

  A stranger was in possession of his suitcase, and the first and the worst of all, she found the underpants, that, according to the description given by jerks of his brothers, the nose of the character accommodates by a certain specific part of the body when put on.

  A man like him, who was in charge of finances and management in a respectable company, had no explanation for this act of wickedness without limits. He arrived to the Piazza, hoping to find the unknown girl as soon as possible and forget that incident and, if possible, burn the embarrassing underpants, then to plan how to assassinate his brothers in cold blood.

  It was summer, vacation time, the Piazza was bursting, it would be difficult to find among so many people someone with a blue suitcase, or at least he believed so. The silhouette of a woman walking with a trolley, as if everything happening around her didn't import at all, caught his attention.

  She stopped and her gaze was lost among the passers-by and, apparently, she hadn't found what she was looking for, so he noticed that she was becoming impatient. Héctor took two minutes to observe her, she had a long hair with small fringes put to one side, that she adjusted from time to time with her hand, probably to have a better view of her surroundings.

  From far away he could see that she had a beautiful face and her figure was similar to what the poets in ancient times described a beautiful Spanish guitar. To him, it was impossible not to spot her among all the people on the Piazza, she was the first woman who captured his attention for a long time.

  With a firm step he approached her, he wanted to know who she was and thanked the destiny for the joke that had happened.

  ♥♥

  Valeria looked at the clock and, again, removed the fringes from her face, it was a bit hot, although from time to time she felt breeze touching her body, she raised her eyes to look again and spotted a man walking towards her with a trolley like the one she had.

  He was handsome and he was smiling as if they knew each other f
or years, a smile that conveyed and, moreover, she also smiled.

  —Valeria?

  —Yes —she replied with difficulty—. Nice to meet you.

  —The pleasure is mine — Héctor said without hesitation—. I would like to apologize for the mistake, for my behavior, and, above all, for what you had found in the suitcase. —He sighed deeply—. I said that it had been my friends, and the reality is that those were my macabre brothers, you must understand that I'm the subject of a big joke, and I wasn't sure if you were part of this.

  Valeria avoided to smile. It was funny for her to imagine a few adults setting up a joke like this to a man who was terribly embarrassed.

  —We both are culpable —she replied, trying to ease the situation—. I was also clueless.

  —It's my fault —repeated Héctor—. I'm serious. I was on a call at that moment, they took the first trolley they saw, without checking if it was mine.

  The silence appeared between the two, they were like a couple of teenagers getting to know for the first time. Héctor did not want to end it there, since he was drawn to her from far away as if she were a magnet, to look so closely at those beautiful green eyes prevented him from letting her escape in a second.

  —Would you like a coffee?

  Valeria, at first, was going to refuse, and something inside of her said no, you could tell he was a sincere man and the bug that persuaded her to this trip appeared again, asking her to accept the invitation.

  —Yes, I would like to.

  Héctor smiled and sought an appropriate place for a coffee, but finally found something much better: an ice cream parlor.

  He thought that, with a help of a walk, the street performers and the hustle and bustle of the Piazza, he might find out a bit more about the enigmatic woman who had captivated him. He asked her to follow him and she did, when Valeria noticed that they passed a café, she was confused until she captured where they were going to.

  —Weren't we going to the cafeteria?

  —I thought it would be better to have an ice cream and take a stroll around the Piazza.

  Surely, Héctor had never acted that way, he was confused and let the circumstances lead them: for the first time he was ready for "just one night".

  Valeria smiled again, it was the third time that day, thanks to a stranger next to her. They held their own bags, while the hustle and bustle of a language none of them spoke plus the air of the city opened a window into their hearts.

  They walked for two hours talking about what they did, became surprised as soon as they found out they lived in the same city, about their hobbies, favorite foods, spending the remaining time laughing at bad jokes. At midnight, they had dinner and concluded they enjoyed the company of each other, especially the coincidence of knowing they had contracted the same tours created between them an atmosphere of complicity.

  Photos here and there, including selfies during the following days made that, little by little, Valeria and Héctor forgot their sorrows. While the distrust and the fear wanted to make way into her mind, she felt that Héctor was different, except for his brothers who were too witty and funny.

  And precisely they managed to change Héctor's itinerary, discovering that little surprise at the meeting point, since then they hadn't been alone as they were on the night they met. The strong attraction they felt enabled them to accept what life handed to them on a plate.

  They toured south of Florence through the countryside of Siena, discovering the wine route surrounded by hills, vineyards and olive groves, inviting them to come closer and closer to each other.

  They visited medieval villages and in the flea markets bought little details to give them to each other. They were like a regular couple, like those couples who chose to spend their honeymoon in that beautiful place, announcing their love to the four winds.

  Upon her return, Valeria gave the first step, kissing Héctor's lips, who immediately responded passionately, she hesitated whether to go beyond and reproached herself for being impulsive, but Héctor stopped on that kiss and she thanked him for that.

  She was not prepared for something unexpected, the doubts kept on appearing, she was afraid that if her heart will build hopes it might end up buried back in the sadness again. Héctor's brothers didn't overlook what was happening between them and went back to doing their thing, pushing them to the reality that everyone saw.

  They left several condoms with a small note on his belt, explaining: "may it never be enough". Héctor was immersed in a huge embarrassment when he realized that she had read the note and, instead of being offended by a bad joke, she continued the game.

  During their stay they made a boat trip to Vernaza, traveling along the Italian Riviera, carried away by the atmosphere of romance written on every wall. Between alley and alley, they began to kiss shyly, his caresses were like when they were young teenagers who were discovering their bodies and ended up in a hotel with a beautiful sunset in the background.

  Valeria was nervous, it had been a long time since she had been with a man; the last time was humiliating. In a discussion with her ex, he threw her in the face that she wasn't as good for him as another, and that fear invaded her now being alone with a man.

  Héctor realized that something was happening, Valeria was tense, it was not the smiling and loving girl she was some hours ago, he thought that the sadness she was wrapped in when they met was a product of that failed relationship. He approached her and took her hand ready on that night to forget everything and make it unforgettable.

  —What's going on?

  —I think we've gone too far —she replied after hesitating for a minute. Héctor frowned his eyebrows seeing that his intuition was correct.

  He had to erase from that heart, glued with adhesive strips, those painful marks. He wanted her in his life, and if he had to attach it piece by piece, he would. Valeria was beautiful in all aspects and he was not going to lose her from one day to the next.

  He put his hand to her face and stroked it, then started kissing her eyes, cheeks and lips. Valeria let out a tear, Héctor stopped to wipe it with his fingers, went back to kissing her with tenderness and, finally, she surrendered to him.

  The kisses that followed later made Valeria forget her doubts and her fears.

  —You're gorgeous, never forget it —he whispered to her ear, and she was lost in that dance of seduction.

  The swaying of the bodies joined them, moving them away from their sorrows, their fears, making their hearts healing completely. That night they confided to each other their most intimate secrets and Héctor turned to love Valeria, deleting everything that made her doubt.

  When they returned to Florence, some nights Héctor stayed with Valeria, loving her without barriers, exploring every inch of her skin, enjoying her moans and how her body started crawling with every touch.

  The last few days they traveled to Portofino, a marvelous place. They changed again their itinerary, spending the night there, enjoying the beautiful views of the sea and this gem of stunning landscapes of the most ancient part of Italy.

  —I don't want to lose you—confessed Héctor after making love—. I never thought that I would be happy again.

  Valeria knew that he spoke with sincerity, and after a long time she felt loved, wanting that feeling never to end. She never imagined happiness could come in such a form and that statement turned her heart to believe in love again.

  But the day before returning to Spain, the old doubts returned to invade her, that momentary fear made her conclude that her story was about to end. She had suffered so much in the previous relationship that she decided to bring forward her flight before facing what for her would be all that happened, leaving Héctor in Tuscany as the lover of summer, who she believed he was.

  Two weeks passed without Héctor being able to understand why Valeria had fled as she still refused to respond to his calls, he believed that he had healed the wounds of her heart, but realized he had not.

  He picked up his daughter
after work, turning back to their daily habits, remembering all the time Valeria's smile and body. He also recalled that they urgently needed to refill the pantry, so they went straight to the supermarket. The girl decided to explore the supermarket aisles, bored since her father was trying to think of what he had forgotten, doubting what to put or not in the shopping cart.

  Valeria didn't stop dreaming about Héctor and when he gave up calling her, she assumed that it had been for the best. Her mother was worried about her daughter, she thought that the trip would help her to be reborn, but it was quite the opposite.

  Her daughter was even more sad than before and that distressed her, so she tried to find a way to cheer her up and decided to invite her to dinner again. For that she asked Valeria to accompany her to the supermarket and she, to avoid any rebuke, accepted.

  They arrived to the supermarket to buy some things for the dinner, walked for a while among the aisles and found a little girl sobbing.

  —Are you lost? —asked Valeria, coming closer.

  The girl confirmed and Valeria's mother decided to take her to the information center with the certainty that the parents would be worried, but when Valeria took her by the hand, she bumped into Héctor, the girl let her hand out and ran to her father, who was speechless.

  Valeria was just as surprised with this unexpected meeting, Héctor came closer to her and, without saying anything, kissed her. A kiss that she has longed for and accepted without hesitation. The world stopped turning for them and Valeria understood that she had a new chance.

  Valeria's mother coughing made them set apart, resuming the composure.

  —I'll go to finish the shopping —said her mother, knowing that she should leave them alone, she was sure that they needed it, they will have enough time to tell her the story.