“David.”
“You’re David. It’s just a name I invented to tell the others before I knew you.”
“Why does a girl like you have to rent a guy at all? I don’t understand it. I think you’re beautiful.”
Paula looks at him. Maybe he deserves an explanation. Maybe he’s not so bad, since he’s shown himself capable of asking forgiveness. She begins consciously to breathe more deeply, a technique she’s already had to use many times that day.
“Because I wanted to free myself from my younger sisters, and, more importantly, because I didn’t want my dad to annoy me any more. Going by his code of conduct I’m already old enough to have had a boyfriend, or two, or even three, and when that boyfriend didn’t materialize he started to nag me. I was tired of it. Everyone expects me to behave a certain way, and for once I wanted to do it, because I’ve realized that it’s the best way for them to leave me in peace. The best way to rebel is to be a hypocrite like them. You wanted your daughter to have a boyfriend? Here he is! Are you happy Dad? Yes? Then get lost, and take all your sisters and nieces with you, so they can stop annoying me just like you do!” Paula speaks with bitterness.
“But you could have appeared with a friend and nobody would have realized it’s a lie. Friends are willing to do that. And it would have been cheaper.”
“I suppose so, but I’d need male friends for that, and I don’t have them. I have only one and I wouldn’t dare use him for this. He wouldn’t understand it. He’d put me on the firing line, after saving my neck.”
“I think that... well, maybe in your case I would have done the same.”
“What’s your real name?” Paula knows it, she’s heard it from her friends in the university, but she asks anyway.
“Javier.”
“And why do you do this job?” Paula’s question is inevitable, but it catches him off guard.
“Me?” Javier doesn’t know what to answer. “A lot of reasons I guess,” he stammers, searching for a logical answer. “I couldn’t find much work and it seemed like something I could try. My dad doesn’t have much money and if I’m going to go out with friends, I have to earn a living. My economic prospects aren’t great. Especially for someone like me, who has to repeat the same class!”
“And how do your dates usually go?” Paula continues to hit the bull’s eye with her questions. She asks them innocently, but Javier doesn’t have answers.
“My dates? They’re normal!” He realizes he can’t reply with anything besides nonsense. “Look, there comes the tow truck.” Chance had saved him. “Cheer up, beautiful! We’ll take a taxi and show up even if they’re already at the cake.”
Paula leaves first, forgetting her phone on the table by her coffee mug. A man calls it to the attention of Javier, who puts it in his pocket to return. When he goes out into the street, the cold has become more intense. It’s one of the first days of December, and night has long fallen on Madrid. The car’s appearance reawakens in their memories the fight that caused the disaster, and suddenly it’s as if they’d never had the conversation in the bar.
In the taxi they don’t say a word to one other. Only on getting out does Paula make a comment, which shows that their talk waiting for the tow truck was only a truce.
“Come on, slap on a smile. I want to get my money’s worth. I haven’t up to now.”
“That’s a low blow and you know it. I already said I was sorry! And it doesn’t seem to matter to you!”
Javier doesn’t remember to return her cell phone, and Paula’s words carry his thoughts in another direction. He decides that his counterattack will come from another front, one that she doesn’t expect in any way. He’s realized that she’s passionate about arguing, so he decides to change his strategy, putting her in situations in which, from what he’s seen, it’s far more probable she won’t know what to do. Although in that same situation he has no idea either. Javier grabs one of her hands, deciding to enter the restaurant like that. Surprised, she tries to shake him off, but he won’t let her.
“Part of the contract. Until we leave, you’re my girlfriend and I’m your boyfriend, remember?” he says, smiling.
Paula is nervous. She searches for her friends, trying again to free herself from the hand gripping hers like iron, but she doesn’t see them. Suddenly, amidst the chaos of the reception hall, the figure of Mario appears.
“Guys! Where were you? You had me worried!” says the groom, in an evident state of drunkenness, to his daughter.
“We had a little accident with the car. Nothing happened to us, but I think it will need to spend a few days in the workshop,” Paula responds, more indifferent to the question than to the pathetic state in which she finds her father.
“The car? What happened?”
“Nothing, Dad. A little dent, and it ran out of battery.”
“You haven’t eaten?”
“No. Is there anything left?” asks Javier, flashing a wide smile.
“I think they’re still having cake. Sit wherever you like. I have to keep greeting guests.”
They eat some cake and ice cream, and finish the frugal meal in time to see the newlyweds dancing their obligatory waltz. Paula’s friends come over to talk with her, and Javier asks permission to go to the restroom. He enjoys seeing how uncomfortable Paula is with his new behavior.
“Girl, you have him wrapped around your finger!” says one of her friends.
“Don’t be an idiot, Raquel. He’s just polite.”
Paula is as surprised as they are. Javier is being more cheesy than polite, and the tone he used isn’t one of letting her know, but of pleading, like a little boy who asks permission to go play in the street. Or maybe he was mocking her. Yes, that must be it. He’s making fun of her. When he returns he’ll see! She’ll think of some way to annoy him. But no, she doesn’t want to annoy him, she wants the night to end as quickly as possible.
“It’s one thing to say politely that he’s going to the restroom. It’s completely another to say that if, if it doesn’t bother you too much, he would like to visit the toilet for a minute,” says Marta.
“I wish I could find a boy like that! I would dance with him all night,” Raquel dreams aloud, returning suddenly to earth. “Tonight, best case scenario, I’ll get to dance with Marta.”
Javier returns soon after from the bathroom. The waltz has ended and the musicians continue with the typical wedding repertoire. The guests, brimming with alcohol and emotion, want to have fun. Even the smallest guests tunnel paths between the adults on the dance floor of the immense hall. Raquel and Marta dance together, as always, and near the end they even take turns with a cousin of the bride, who isn’t bad-looking at all. But Paula and Javier don’t dance. The afternoon has been too full of incidents, and it seems that the mood isn’t right.
And yet Javier feels like he should do something. He has the impression he hasn’t carried out his job very well, and he’s afraid that if she complains about him to the agency they’ll fire him. More ideas come into his head. Along with wanting to measure up to what’s been asked of him, it tempts him to do everything just the opposite, teaching a lesson to this girl who doesn’t really know what she wants. Even if that means losing his job, which he still isn’t sure he wants to keep anyway.
He has to do something that lets him keep his distance when they see each other at the university. Something that makes Paula stay silent about his identity. The music takes on a smooth tone and couples begin to pair off. Javier gets up.
“Do you dance?”
“No.” She doesn’t look at him when she answers. She’s tired.
“That’s alright!” he answers. “Then I’ll go find your friend... that girl, what’s her name?”
“Who?” asks Paula. She’s afraid she knows whom he’s referring to.
“Yes... the one in the bizarre dress. I think I’ll go dance with her. With you like this, it seems less like a wedding than a funeral.”
“I’ll dance!” says Paula. And she gets up. They�
��ve only known each other a little while, but Javier has quickly figured out her weak points. He knows that this is the only way he can manipulate that stubborn and willful girl it’s been his luck to get for his first date.
They dance before the attentive gaze of many of the guests. Paula’s friends don’t understand anything. First the two arrive seeming like inseparable lovers, then they leave the ceremony really abruptly, finally appearing again at the end of the banquet, and not exactly looking like the best friends in the world. During the song Javier grabs Paula forcefully, so they’re glued together. That tight embrace makes them both feel strange. In their bodies and their minds a new sensation is emerging. A feeling that they hadn’t expected.
Susana comes up to Raquel and Marta, who are watching the couple, while glancing every so often at the time. It’s almost the hour to go home. Their parents aren’t flexible about when they return on Fridays, even if they are at a wedding. And Marta is already an adult! But Raquel still has a few months to go.
“What Paula’s done is in very bad taste, and on the day of her father’s wedding too,” declares Susana.
“What has she done?” asks Marta.
“You know. Go off with that boy all of dinner, and come back pretending it was nothing. It’s not in any way elegant. Everyone is probably imagining what they’ve been up to!”
“I’ll admit that I haven’t been able to imagine anything,” says Raquel. “Maybe it’s because I’ve never skipped a wedding dinner to go off with a boy, and so I can’t get my imagination in gear. What does one do when one skips out on a wedding with a boy, anyway?”
Raquel’s naughty thought and well-aimed comment frighten Susana. She doesn’t answer, and instead retreats. They watch her moving away, furious at the cut Raquel has given her. They always make fun of her. But why should she care, she thinks. They’re just two rude little girls, worthy friends for the hated sister of her little sisters!
“Doesn’t Paula’s story with that boy seem strange to you?” Marta asks Raquel.
“Yes, it does. I have no idea when they met each other. She says that they’re in the same class and that they’ve been going out for a month or so, but until just a little while ago she hadn’t even mentioned him.”
“You know what? As soon as I can, I’m going to ask him how they met. Maybe Paula hasn’t told us the truth,” says Marta.
“What are you thinking?” asks Raquel.
“I don’t know. I think there’s something strange in all this, that in some way it has to do with that girl from the university Paula talks about so much. Maybe he’s a friend of hers that she’s brought only to pretend in front of her family, and she doesn’t want to say so.”
“Marta, don’t be silly! You’re talking about Paula, not Susana. Why would she lie to us? We’ve been friends forever!”
“But what if the person she wants to lie to isn’t us? What if she’s brought him only to make an impression?” asks Marta. She’s not even conscious that she’s brushing the truth, only missing the bull’s eye by a few millimeters.
“I think we’re asking too many questions. Anyway, if it were like you say, he wouldn’t be kissing her now.”
Paula hasn’t made the slightest gesture to separate herself from him. Her lips remain pressed against his, and she’s spellbound by how good he smells. She can’t shake her amazement. Only a few minutes ago they were throwing each other murderous glances, and now he’s kissing her and she doesn’t want it to stop. Obviously it’s not convenient to raise a scene either. When Javier separates his lips from hers, she looks at him, trying to ask with her eyes why he’s done it. His only answers are a wink and a smile. As if destiny wanted to add a touch of the fairytale to their already fantastic story, somewhere a clock sounds, signaling midnight.
“We have to go! It’s time!” says Paula, breaking the spell.
They get in a taxi, remaining silent the entire way. Neither of them dares to speak, because all the times they’ve tried things have gone badly. When they arrive at the street where she lives with her mother, she gets out. She thinks a few moments after opening the door of the car, and before getting out completely she turns to him.
“I’m sorry,” she says. To say goodbye, it’s her who kisses him this time. Once again that sensation is there, the same one that was there during the dance. But she can’t let herself be swept away by it. He’s not a boy like the rest. She’s rented him. She closes the door, after getting out hastily, and moves away without looking back once. She’s afraid of feeling something for a boy like that, whom she doesn’t even seem to get along with at all. But it’s always like that in her life. What happens is never what is convenient, and even her disasters aren’t the usual ones. She doesn’t have a normal family or a normal life.
“Lovers’ quarrel, no?” asks the taxi driver, a good-humored Andalucian who hasn’t been unaware of their attitudes during the ride. He’s been watching the faces of the two in the car’s rearview mirror.
“If only it were that!” says Javier. “Next Monday I have to see her again in class. I don’t think I’m going to return to the university.”
“No, man, no! The rage has already passed.” The taxi driver is used to situations like that. “It’s nothing, tomorrow morning you’ll go to her house, bring her some flowers, and everything will be fixed. You’ll have her eating from your hand. All will be good again. And if you encourage her a little... if she likes the flowers and you tell her four pretty things, in less than a week you’ll have her in your bed. It even works for me, and I’m not so young anymore!”
Javier smiles. How he would have liked for it to be so easy! Some flowers, a smile, and her in his arms. But no. This wasn’t a date, but a job. If he was never going to see her again, maybe it would be simpler. A story that could fade in their memories with time. But she’ll be in class Monday. They’ll run into each other again in the hallway, and she won’t want to talk with the idiot she shares a professor with. Paula isn’t the girl for him. She drives an Audi, and he has a motorbike that’s worse than any bicycle. She’s perfect, and perfection isn’t within his reach. He begins to think about what story he’s going to tell Ángel. Distracted, he puts his hand in his pocket. There’s Paula’s cell phone. He didn’t return it! And now it’s too late. The taxi has already moved two streets away from her house.
* * *
In the morning curiosity gets the better of Ana, and a little after twelve she dials her friend’s phone number. She wants to know all the details of the date, and can’t wait until Paula gets in touch. It’s strange, the calls go through but no one picks up. Finally she chooses to call the house’s landline.
“What’s going on with your phone?”
“My cell? I don’t know. Did you call?”
“Twenty times! But you didn’t answer.”
“Wait a minute.” Paula rummages through her bag from the previous night and looks through the pockets of her coat. Nothing. It’s not there. “I must have lost it!”
“What bad luck!”
“You don’t even know how much, Ana! It’s not just a phone to me. I also keep birthdays and all my exam notes in it... What am I going to do?”
“For now, try to remember what you’ve done with it. Now tell me, how was the date?” she asks. Ah, thinks Paula, so that’s why she called.
“You’ll never guess.”
“Why?” asks Ana.
“Give me your best shot.” It’s a difficult challenge, taking into account all the things that have happened.
“Let’s see...” says Ana. She begins to speculate. “He was ridiculously handsome and fell madly in love with you. And you’re still together this morning...”
“No,” Paula smiles. “Forget it! It was a true disaster.” She’s going to tell her that it’s a boy from their class at the university, but prefers to keep quiet. If Ana knew his identity, what she’s about to tell her now would lose all its magic. Javier doesn’t fit the profile of a Prince Charming.
; “Did your Dad find out?” Ana continues on the wrong track.
“No. We spent the night arguing. I’ll be without a car for a few days. And at the end we kissed. Twice!”
“I think you’re going to have to explain more clearly because I don’t understand anything,” says Ana, amazed by what she’s hearing. She had really been hoping that something would happen during the mystery date, and from what Paula’s saying it seems that the money was worth it.
“I don’t understand anything either. The only thing I know is that when we meet again...”
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know! I’m pretty confused. In the end I don’t think it was a good idea to rent a boy.”
“Okay, we’ll talk Monday. You’ll have to think about what to tell your friends, when they don’t see you with him anymore. And figure out what you did with your phone!”
“I don’t remember! Maybe Javier does...”
“Wasn’t it David?”
“Well, that was his real name,” and she bites her tongue, because she’s let it escape without meaning to. The truth is that she’s spent the whole night dreaming of his name.
* * *
Javier, like nearly always, is at Ángel’s house. It seems more like his house than the place where he really lives. It’s harder to be comfortable at his own house. He’s gone to return the shirt Ángel lent him, and while there to tell him the story that he’s spent the whole night inventing. In it, a gorgeous 29-year-old lady has invited him to a romantic candlelight dinner in one of the most expensive restaurants of the city. She’s an impulsive executive who likes to go out with twenty-year-olds, and has asked him to stay at her place until the early hours of the morning. There she ends by teaching him what it means to be a man. It seems that Ángel deserves a story like that in return for the small confidence he’s always placed in Javier.
Boy For Rent Page 5