Take him!

by Parejo, Sandra

  He outstretches his arm, I take it and go downstairs.

  At the dinning-room, everybody looks at me and Álvaro’s mother burst into tears. I’m shocked and he whispers that it’s nothing, just a mother’s emotions, but I feel awful. Maybe I’m making her feel uncomfortable, and when I find the moment during the night, I ask her.

  “Excuse me Carmen, I hope you weren’t crying because of me earlier.”

  “Oh, yes, kid. Of course it was because of you.

  I freeze and she continues.”

  “Thanks to you I’ve seen my son smile again.”

  My heart skipped a beat when I listened to those words.

  “Thank you Carmen, but I don’t think I have anything to do with that.”

  “Of course you do, you don’t know how good you are for him and all of us.”

  And she kisses my cheek.

  During the dinner, I notice how Álvaro’s cousin and her friend spend the night gossiping about me. I shouldn’t care about those two laughing at me, but I feel some embarrassment about the insecurity they make me feel.. I try to pretend so nobody notices it.

  The dinner was a feast, served by a couple that, according to what Álvaro explained, have been housekeepers at his parents’ home for a short time,

  I feel sad because those people have to serve us on that day, when they should be with their family too. It makes me sad and I feel a lot of nostalgia when I think about my nephew, my niece and my parents, who are no longer with me. I realize I have one of those nostalgic nights.

  After dinner, the two little ones go to bed. They want to fall asleep quickly and Santa comes. The rest remain in the living-room having some drinks and nougat candy.

  Álvaro’s cousin comes where I am and we begin a small talk.

  “Hi Martina.”

  “Hi Noelia.” I greet her very politely.

  “One question, what do you do?”

  “I’m a teacher at an elementary school.”

  “Where are you from?”

  “From Barcelona.”

  I think about ending the interrogation when, suddenly, she asks:

  “Do you hook up with my cousin?”

  I almost choke on my own spit with the question and I think she’s a bit shameless, although I politely say:

  “Your cousin and I are only good friends.”

  Then, from the corner of my eye I see how her friend Irene is flirting with Álvaro explaining something to him and I understand what they’re plotting.

  I feel a bit of rage and cutting her off, I go where Álvaro is. When he sees me coming, he outstretches his hand and asks me to sit down between the pretty Irene and him. None of the two girls like this but I do, a lot.

  Later, finally, we all decide to go to bed.

  I go upstairs with Álvaro, who sneaks in my bedroom. I take the opportunity to tell him the conversation with his mother.

  “I talked with your mom and she told me it had been a long time she didn’t see you like this. She thinks it’s because of me, but I already told her I don’t think so.”

  He sulks and I tell him off.

  “Why are you sulking?”

  “Because all our relatives speak too much.”

  “What do you mean?” I imagine he’s referring to Carla, the little big mouth.

  “Your niece also makes me think you don’t tell me everything .” He confirms my suspicions.

  I roll my eyes, but I think it’s time to tell him something about my story. Otherwise, I think he’s not going to explain what he hasn’t told me yet. So, I don’t have other option but giving in and I say:

  “Ask me.”

  “Ask you? No, tell me what you want to tell me.” He says calmly.

  “Fine.” I say with all the reassurance I can gather and take all my strength to begin.

  We sit down on the bedroom floor and we lean our back on the bed.

  “I broke up with my boyfriend two years ago. We were together for five years. Since I was eighteen until I was twenty-three. One month after my father’s death… “My heart sinks when I remember it nowadays.

  “Did your father pass away?” He asks with a sad face.

  “Yes, and also my mother.”

  “Baby, I’m sorry.” He gets to say and caresses my face.

  “Don’t worry, I’m okay, although it always makes me sad to remember that they’re no longer here.” After a brief pause, I continue. “My mother died first, she always was a sickly woman, I remember her with her housecoat. My dad brought us up the best he could, he worked cleaning the forests near my home village and arrived home very tired, but he always had time to pamper us, cook, take care of my mom and all the rest of things he did.” A smile appears when I remember the great man he was. “He was a very strong man. But one day, after my mom’s death, he got sick, he caught a very strong pneumonia that made him go to the hospital every day. He had horrible cough attacks and one evening, when I was with him, he died in my arms because he asphyxiated.”

  When I remembered that, tears run through my cheeks and I can’t stop.

  “Baby, seriously… I’m sorry.”

  Álvaro hugs me with all his strength and makes me feel protected, as I hadn’t felt in a long time.

  Later, I calm down and I can continue.

  “One month after being alone, my ex-boyfriend asked me to live together. As my parent’s home was too big for me, I accepted. We lived together only for one week. One evening, I got home earlier by surprise, I wanted to make a special dinner for him to thank him for all the support. He was a great guy, understanding, thoughtful, loving. But what I didn’t know until that day was that he was very unfaithful, as I caught him with another woman in our bed.”

  “Seriously?” He asks incredulous.

  “And the best part is that the woman was one of my sisters, not Carla’s mother, but the other, her name is Maria.”

  “What?” He exclaims shocked as he can’t believe it, although I’m not surprised, it also took me long time to believe it.

  “Besides, it wasn’t a one-time thing, they’ve been having an affair for three years.”

  “What?”

  I ignore his question.

  “Everybody knew about it. My friends, my other sister and almost the whole village, but me.”

  He looks at me with sad eyes.

  “After finding out, I left my home village and all those people who weren’t capable of telling me as soon as I could and. I started a brand new life in Barcelona, where I met Angélica, Emma and Lucía. After a lot of efforts from them, I started to see them as friends and I began to trust them. Then I met Carlos, every Saturday I go for a run through Ciutadella Park and when I finished, I usually have a drink at his café’s terrace, he saw me sad and I saw him sad. In the end, one day we told each other our grieves and we became good friends. Carlos has two children that he hasn’t seen in months because his ex-wife took them to another city and doesn’t allow him to visit them. Now, she’s back to Barcelona and they’re spending Christmas’s Eve together and I’m very happy for Carlos, because he deserves it. Carlos made me trust men again. But he knew he was safe as I didn’t feel anything special for him.” When I explain all this, I don’t have more tears.

  “Everything has been very difficult with you and I’m afraid to break my promise.” I confess.

  “What promise?” He asks a bit surprised.

  “No man will hurt me ever again.”

  “Oh! Martina, I don’t want to hurt you. I’m also afraid to start a relationship.”

  “I’d heard something about it.”

  “Something?”

  “Yes, Lucía told me from the start that you didn’t use to have any relationship with girls.”

  “That’s true.” He confess.

  I look at him, I want him to tell me about it. And he does.

  “Three years ago I was engaged to a wonderful girl.” He starts to explain his story, as I feel a chill when I hear the words “engaged” and “wonderful gi
rl”.

  “What?”

  “I had been dating my girlfriend for three years, her name was Paula.”

  “What do you mean her name was?” I ask confused.

  “Six months before our wedding she had a car accident and Paula passed away two days later…”

  “What? That’s horrible.” My heart breaks.

  “It was. At that moment, she was the girl of my dreams. We met at college and we started going out. when we graduated, we decided to get married the following year.”

  “I’m so sorry.” It’s the only thing I manage to say when I think about how bad he must have been.

  “After the accident, I decided to go away from here for a while and I moved to Madrid. Two years later, I felt stronger to come back and be near my family.”

  Álvaro was brief explaining his story and what he told me is really horrible.

  We both hug and cry, we’re so weak that Álvaro gets up, lays me on the bed and curls up next to me until we fall asleep.

  When I get up the next day, he’s awake by my side. I’m not sure about if yesterday’s conversation was real, but by his facial expression, I think it is and my heart breaks again.

  “Merry Christmas!” He exclaims, and this time he doesn’t kiss me on my hand but on my neck. I shiver.

  “Do you feel like going downstairs and eating breakfast?”

  “Yes, the truth is that I’m a bit starving.”

  “Get dressed, I’ll be back for you in a minute.”

  I’m in the bed for a while, thinking on what he told me last night about he was going to get married and I think that’s what his mother referred to. That girl, Paula, was the love of his life.

  Full of insecurities, I get up to take a quick shower and change my clothes.

  Fifteen minutes later Álvaro shows up.

  “Come on, they’re waiting for us.”

  He takes my hand and we get to the living-room where everybody opens some presents. They’re very happy with their gifts, but I haven’t bought anything for anybody. I would have never imagine this situation.

  Suddenly, little Georgina gives me a small bag.

  “Your name is on it, look: Maaaaarrrrrrtttttiiiiiiinnnaaaaa.” She reads.

  “Thank you.” I tell her.

  “Don’t thank me, but Santa.” She states.

  “Oh, sure, of course.”

  Álvaro looks at me with his beautiful smile.

  I open the small package, it’s a necklace with a heart-shaped pendant, one of its sides is polished and it had a small diamond. It’s amazing, I think it must be quite expensive, but I love the little gift. Although I don’t know if I should accept it, I finally do.

  “Thaaaaaanks.” I say lowly, I kiss him on his cheek and tell him sadly “I’m sorry, but I don’t have any presents for you.”

  “The best present is that you’re here with me today.”

  The tickling I feel in my stomach hurts.

  We spend the rest of the day eating and playing with the little Georgina, who is hanging on to her uncle all the time.

  I watch them and I feel more relaxed at his family’s home, although I’m also scared of this situation, because I don’t want it to go too far. Since there aren’t any secrets between us, I feel as if a wall that separated us had fallen and I had built it myself.

  Álvaro doesn’t take his eyes off me, he touches me and speaks constantly to me.

  Irene isn’t in a good mood today and the cousin hasn’t come closer to me again.

  At night, after eating dinner and chatting with the family, he whispers to my ear, with that imperative tone he has

  “We’re going to sleep.”

  We say goodbye to his relatives. Some of them look at us with smiley faces and, however, some other two not so smiley.

  Holding hands, we leave the dining-room and go upstairs to my bedroom. We sit down as the previous night, leaning our backs and suddenly, Álvaro tells me:

  “Now that I know your secret, could you be my girlfriend?”

  I laugh.

  But I see he’s being serious by that look he has.

  “Look Álvaro, I should get over my mistrusts and insecurities first.”

  I’ll help you to get over them, while you help me to overcome my fear to fall in love again.

  “The problem is that I made a promise to myself.”

  I notice he gets tense, he looks at me and adds:

  “I know what your promise is, but I want you to know I’m not that bastard that let you go.”

  I love the words he says. There’s something inside me that doesn’t want to continue listening because I feel hypnotized and I can’t let that happen, although I finally drop it and say:

  “Besides, we have another problem.”

  “Do we? What problem?” He looks at me so seriously again that I almost laugh.

  “There’s a miss out there that asked you not to be my boyfriend.”

  “Are you talking about Madga’s daughter?” He laughs. “Poor sod whoever ends up with her.”

  “Alvaro!” I tell him off.

  Then, he comes closer and kisses me.

  And I like the way he kisses. It’s so soft and sweet… and I love its taste. It has been a long time since someone has touched my lips after the jerk of Ruben.

  We want to kiss each other so badly that we continue to do it for hours, as if we were two teenagers. With our mouth hurting, finally, he tells me with a roguish face that turns me on.

  “You can be satisfied for today with my kisses, but this is going to be continued.” He warns and gets me in the bed as the previous day. He lies by my side and I hide my excitement.

  Week 9

  I wake up when I feel my body being covered with kisses.

  “Good morning, baby!”

  I sigh very loudly as I open my eyes and I see what seems a wonderful mirage about Álvaro.

  “What do you feel like doing today?”

  “I’m dying to go for a run.” I say.

  “Do you want to go running? I warn you that it’s very cold.” He says in a nice tone.

  “I’ll only be out for one hour.” I tell him.

  “I’ll go with you, I won’t let you get lost in these snowed mountains.”

  “Suit yourself.” I say as a challenge.

  “Are you challenging me, miss?” He says with an unsteady face.

  “No, let’s see what your pace is.”

  We take the equipment to go out and go downstairs to the ground floor, which is still in silence as nodoby has woken up yet.

  We start to run and I love the feeling of the cold on my face. Álvaro follows my pace and I like his silent company. He knows I need this, he lets me meditate and I think he does it too.

  Evidently, you can tell he also runs, he keeps the pace and I even think he’s better than me, although I don’t tell him anything, as I’m not sure he knows already.

  When we’ve been running for one hour, we’re exhausted and we stop at a small café located in the square at the village center. We eat breakfast and, between sips of coffee, we devour each other with kisses discreetly at a corner at the back of the establishment.

  When we get home, his family is ready to go skiing. They have been calling us, but Álvaro left his phone in the bedroom on purpose so nobody could interrupt our morning moment.

  Álvaro joins the group delighted but I, however, prefer not to go.

  “I can’t ski.” I tell them apologizing.

  “We can teach you.” Nearly everybody offers.

  “Thank you but I’d rather wait here. I’ll take the opportunity to rest in the house, if you don’t mind.” I tell them.

  “Do you want me to stay with you?” Álvaro asks.

  “No, go and enjoy yourself. I’ll be fine.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Of course.”

  Then, the little Georgina comes near me.

  “I want to stay with you, I don’t want to go skiing. Can I?” She tells me.


  “Georgina, don’t disturb. Come with us, it’ll be fun.” Her father says.

  “Nooo, I don’t want to go. I’m staying with her resting here.”

  “I don’t mind if she stays.” I say.

  “Do you really not mind?” Claudia, Álvaro’s sister asks.

  “Of course I don’t, we’ll do something together and we’ll have fun, won’t we Georgina?”

  “Thaaaanks.” She adds and jumps on my arms and hugs me.

  “We leave then, it’s settled. We’ll be back at lunch time, thank you a lot, child.” Álvaro’s father says.

  Álvaro comes near me and kisses me on my forehead.

  “I’ll see you in a bit, okay?” He tells me.

  And he goes away with his family.

  Noelia and Irene are the last to go and say out loud so I can hear them:

  “So cool! We also have a babysitter as we go have fun.” Noelia says.

  “In fact, it’s what she does every day, she cleans snots to brats.” Irene adds, making fun of my profession.

  When I’m alone with the girl, I ask her:

  “What do you feel like doing?”

  “Well, I feel like playing with the new toys here at home.”

  “Don’t you feel like going outside to play with the snow? Because I do.”

  “Playing with the snow?” she asks a bit skeptical.

  “Yes, we can have a snowball war or build a snowman. I warn you I won a snowman contest one year. You can’t imagine how cute they are.”

  “Not as cute as mine, my uncle Álvaro says they’re the most beautiful in the village.” She says challenging me.

  “Oh! Really? I’d like to see that.”

  “Let’s do it now!” She says excited.

  This way I make the little girl go outside and we spend the whole morning playing until the rest get home.

  I notice Irene comes hanging on Álvaro’s arm.

  When Georgina sees them coming, she jumps on her mother’s arms and tells her she had a great time playing with me.

  Then, Irene, when she passes by my side, says in a not very loud tone so only I can hear it:

  “I also had a great time playing with Álvaro.”

  My blood boils, I’d pull her hair right there. But I repress myself.

  Álvaro comes to me the moment he sees me.