by Kris Buendía
“Okay, I wil let you know. But do not give yourself il usions.”
“I am already excited. I hope you tel me everything about this boy.”
“Mom, you are exaggerating. He is not even a boy.”
“Is he older?”
“Yes, wel not so much. He is not my boyfriend, wait. He is no one special!”
I do not know why I am saying this. And so nervous. I hear the laugher from the other side.
My mother is not a fool. And she knows it. I know she knows, surely Mona has already told her.
“It he the handsome man you met at Mona's party?”
Why that does not surprise me?
“Yes, mom. I can not believe that Mona told you.”
“If no you do not tell me, she does. So, now you can tell me everything. But not today, honey. Enjoy your night.”
“Bye, mom.” I give up and shake my head.
Mona will pay for it. My mother should have no illusions, let alone with Gideon.
I type a message for Mona:
…
Mona
I can not believe you told my mother about Gideon
She has powers and has found out by herself
It has been you. Stop talking behind my back with my
mom. I am supposed to be your best friend! Best
friends do not do that. There are rules!
I know, I know... but I could not resist the emotion expression of her face. And I am also excited!
You will be even more excited when I tell you where I
am.
No way! Is what I am thinking about?
It depends, but yes. I will tell you later.
Use a condom! We do not want another grumpy little guy in the office.
Fuck off.
…
I enjoy taking a look in his closet. Tailored suits ordered meticulously by colour. Although al are dark. I guess every one is worth a hundred times my salary.
A man quite confident of himself same and connoisseur of good taste. Starting with his shoes perfectly aligned. Ties, shirts and more.
His little fashionable paradise amazes me and makes me envious.
I leave the closet before he realises I am not here and runs to look for me in the bar. The face that Paris must have put when she did not find him when leaving woman's dresser had to be fun.
Damn crazy. I can not believe she was capable to do something like that.
“El a...”
Gideon’s voice scares me in the dark. There is a deep silence and I can only hear his and my breathing. Not even outside cars are heard from here.
I approach his face. He has one hand on his head and the other on his stomach. I pul his hand away from his face and I stop for a moment that gets longer looking at his face.
His beautiful and long beard. His perfect and upturned nose and his lips... Thick and soft.
At least in the car he took off his jacket. My hands tremble too much to be able to unbutton his button-down shirt.
I do not know if I can go after see what is underneath.
“Please, do not run away...”
He talks to me again. What does he mean by that?
“Do not run away from me, Cinderella.”
Cinderella?
He has put my two names together. I have always hated my name for that. But now, I can not feel the same hatred coming from him. Because I know that for a moment, he has seen beyond what anyone in years could see.
Even my family and the people who are now gone. And I do not blame them. I have never been an open book and I do not know how Gideon can see that, what can not be seen .
“Gideon.”
“Please, stay… do not leave me too.”
Too?
Someone has already abandoned him. Any ex girlfriend? Of course, but I do not understand how someone could leave him, break his heart.
Because I know that he once had one and he stil has it but it is stained by alcohol. He told me that I can or rather, I am more addictive than anything. I wish he would consider stopping drinking and if he accepts me as I am, then I wil stay. I would stay long enough to save him from the darkness that torments him. I would stay to give myself a real chance. I do not expect to be together forever and I am certainly not in love. But if I stay long enough that could happen… and I am afraid it will be painful. Because even in a mil ion years I could not be with someone like him. But at least tonight.
I can stay.
I go with him to bed. He seeks my warmth and entangles his fingers in my hair, hugging me and breathing in my neck. I am not used to being this close to a man, let alone in his bed. This madness has to end, tomorrow I will tel him who I am and if he stil want me to stay, I wil stay, but even if that happens, there is stil a bigger problem.
Paris and her obsession with him.
8
This morning I was the first to wake up. Gideon is still in a deep sleep, I have barely been able to sleep for a couple of hours, but at least today I only have to work in Le Dome.
I go into the kitchen and look for something to prepare him some breakfast, he wil need it after the night he had. I prepare some scrambled eggs, a bit of ham as my mother taught me and I look for bread, a fruit, juice, a couple of aspirins and water.
I doubt that he cooks, he must have someone for that because everything was perfectly packed and new. I search between the cupboards for a tray to take everything to his room when I hear the sound of a door closing a little loud and the steps of Gideon approaching.
“Who the hel are you?”
I stop doing what I am doing and a knot forms in my throat upon hearing that tone of voice.
I turn around and I find him standing in front of me, shirtless and I avoid looking beyond what it is not al owed. Looking at me the way he does is the same as when he looked at me in the caffe.
With disgust.
“I asked you a question.” Mumble, glaring at me.
Last night his eyes shone with excitement, but this morning, every fantasy has come to and end and it hurts.
“I…”
Who the hel are you and why are you wearing that ridiculous dress in my kitchen, barefoot and also cooking?” I do not have time to answer when he throws my jacket to the floor. “I found this in my room. You are going to answer or I will cal security.”
My resentment wants to know more.
“And what will you tel them?” The question is thrown to the air and his expression is harder that I expected.
“I will tel them to get the damn mad girl coffee out of my house right away.”
Mad girl coffee?
Oh my God. He does not remember anything. He does not remember that I found him at the bar and saved his life “more or less”
and brought him home. He does not remember anything, he does not remember me.
His drunkenness last night had to have given a signal that it was a bad idea, a stupid idea to stay long enough till he woke up. And I will be disappointed to know that I only exist in his mind when he drinks.
“I am talking to you!” His scream has left me stunned, the tears have begun to sting my eyes, but I wil not allow it. So I run, I take my jacket and I do not mind leaving here barefoot.
“Go fuck yourself, Gideon.”
When I pass him by, he suddenly stops my by the arm, this time I do not feel any spark and the only ones that will come out are the sparks of hatred I feel for him right now.
“What the hell were you doing here?” He inspects my face with much fear of knowing.
“Did you and me?”
“You have done me a favour by falling unconscious in your bed.” I release a single pull of his grip. “You asked me to stay and I did that.”
I walk away from him looking for my bag.
“Only a fucking fool would take home a woman like you. I do not even know you and you act strangely. If we have not done anything, I demand that you tell me what are you doing here.”
His words pierce my chest like bulle
ts. The first tear slips down my cheek and I clean it abruptly. He looks at me in all types of expression but that look he gave me last night.
It is just the answer I was looking for, he can go to hel right now and I, where I belong.
“You were right.” I say opening the door and looking over my shoulder. He is still standing and now he cross his arms, on another occasion I would say it is the hottest image I have ever seen, but today will not and never will.
“I had not imagined how much darkness you could have, in fact you may be very full of dark shit... But no, I am not willing to look at it.
Goodbye, Gideon.”
I close the door without looking back. I immediately reconstituted myself and part of me feels a great relief to get out of this situation as soon as possible.
To think that he recognised me from the caffe and not like last night, when he remembered that I was El a, breaks the little il usion that was in me.
How right she was. I did not run away because of fearing him this time, I run out when knowing the real man who was hiding under those blue eyes.
But no more.
The story ended before we started. And this morning when I got home, there was nothing to tel my mother.
“He is an idiot, mom. Like al men. But do not worry, nothing happened. I stayed at Mona's house.” I lie knowing that when she finds out the truth, she wil look for him and hang him.
I also could not get to the house barefoot, so I went to my friend's house and stole a pair of shoes in exchange of tel ing her everything.
“Wel , he lost it, honey.”
“I wil take a shower before I go to work to the caffe.”
“I wil make you something to eat.”
“I am not hungry, mom.”
“Shut up, you wil eat and you wil feel better.”
Half hour later I am on my way to work. My mother was right. Eating helped a lot. Now I just need to work and spending a night with the guys. No more distractions from reality.
Every time I heard the doorbel of the caffe, I felt a mini heart attack to imagine that it was Gideon coming through the door. But it was not like that.
I do not think he would come looking for me, remembering that I was the woman he begged to stay. Twice, to be more precise.
I knew that when he found out the truth, he would change his mind instantly.
But it is not time to think about that. I have arranged with the guys to celebrate the promotion of Mona tonight.
This morning, after bad news, I forced her to tell me the good news about her promotion at Graysson Publicity.
Now she wil work more closely with Gideon, which means that my visits to her office are nil, or maybe not.
Although one of this days I will not mind that he also knows that I am the girl who cleans the floors of his famous company. What is the worst that could happen? Humiliate me more? As if that would help.
“But how beautiful you are today.” Gracie says when she sees my attire. I wear another dress, casual and I do not use converse.
I
encouraged myself to wear one of my high-heeled shoes that were pretty forgotten in my closet.
“I did it for Mona. You know, she has wanted this promotion so much that it was worth it.”
“Well, I hope they give us promotion to everyone now, you look beautiful and I could get used to seeing you like this forever.”
“What are you talking about?” Jimi comes to my defence. “Everything that Cinder uses fits her well. She is the only girl I know who even dressing as a teenager looks great.”
Gracie and I stare at each other. She rolls her eyes and accepts Jimi’s words.
“What happens between you both?”
Gracie moves nervously and Jimi can not hear my question.
“Nothing. What do you mean?”
“After what happened between you two.
Everything is fine?”
She puts her beer in her and nods her head.
“Yes, everything is fine. It was something casual and we got over it. Best friends again.
Do not worry.”
Jimi stands up when he sees Mona arrive.
I end the conversion although it does not convince me at al . But if they are here, that means that, at least, they do not hate each other and it is good sing.
Poor Gracie.
“Oh, Cinder how beautiful you look! Have you done it for me?”
My friend approves my attire and approves it immediately.
“Yes. I told you it was your night.”
“Oh, friend!”
The four of us had fun dancing, drinking and talking about men. Except for Jimi, he came out in defence of everyone. But when I told them about my little stupid adventure, they wanted to break Gideon’s face.
“He is a son of a bitch. A snob.” Gracie’s insults make me laugh.
“But we do not have to talk about him. It is Mona's night so everyone go have fun.”
I never drink. And for a moment wanted to know Gideon’s world. The one who longs for caresses without regret.
I made a mistake last night with the guys.
I do not want that world.
I feel terrible. I feel the head three times more than its real size. Merit serves the majority of customers while I take the second pill of the day.
“Dear, you should have a well-loaded coffee.”
Merit’s advice would not hurt, but there is a problem. I do not like coffee, although if I have to drink it so that my head returns to its real size, I will do it.
“What kind of coffee?”
“Irish.”
I explode in a big laugh. She does not understand the reason.
“What did I say?”
“Nothing, Merit. I hate Irish coffee.”
“Well, it is good for a hangover.”
And I do not doubt it. There is a reason it is Gideon's favourite.
There is stil one hour left until my turn ends. I will go straight home to sleep and forget about the world.
And also of Gideon, that although it has been little time, it was enough for me to put my world up side down.
“Go home, dear. I will only serve the clients and I wil close. Today is grandson’s birthday, so I promised to bring him cake.”
“Do not you real y want me to help you? If you want, you can go, I can stay. This gives you more time to choose a good cake.”
“Would you do that for me?”
“Merit, you are like a second mother to me.
Is not really a problem. I will close the caffe.”
Merit gives me a hug, the kind that I rarely let myself be given. She looks excited. She has not stopped talking about it last week. It is the least I can do. Also, in an hour the caffe will close. It will serve me to meditate.
Only one girl and a couple remain in the caffe.
Meanwhile, I am setting behind the box counter drawing sketches.
“An Irish coffee” Says someone. “With five cups of coffee instead of six, without the twelve tablespoons of sugar, with all the whisky glasses. To drink here.
That voice makes me goosebumps and I
am not sure if I have the courage to look him in the eye. Not because I am afraid, but I do not know if I can contain myself.
I take a deep breath and I do what I know how to do best. Pretend that everything is fine.
“Immediately, Mr.”
Without looking at him, I turn to serve his coffee. I look at the clock and in five minutes I will close. The only customers have left almost at the same time. So it is just him and me.
“Here you go, Mr. It is twenty with thirty dollars.” I still do not look at him in the face. I have my eyes fixed on a button of his jacket. I try not to cross looks with him and treat him like a client, that is what he is. He also knows how to pretend after al .
like last time, he does not give me the exact exchange for the coffee, but he does not give me the most humiliating hundred dol ars I have ever seen either. In its place, leaves
a fifty dollar tip.
“Keep the change and bring my coffee to the table, please.”
The tone of those last two words fill me with rage. He can be a person with manners when he proposes it and a son of a bitch the next second.
I take the change from his fifty bill and leave it in the charity jar in front of him.
I hurry to take his cup of coffee to the table in the back where I see Arsen waiting for him standing. I look at him and he gives me a look, saying hel o.
“Hello, Arsen” I whisper under my breath.
At least he does recognise me. I wonder if he told Gideon. Although I do not care anyway.
Gideon takes a seat and for a moment, our eyes connect. I hate the sensation of seeing him straight in the eye. It is as if he hexed me in some way.
“You have less than five minutes to enjoy your coffee, sir. The caffe closes at eight o’clock.”
He does not say anything and I do not wait either. I return to my place behind the bar and continue drawing. It will be the longest five minutes in history.
It was the longest five minutes of my life. I was about to fall asleep when I heard the doorbell. I hurried to close the door and turn the «Closed»
sign in case he decides to come back.
I go to the table where he was and I see the coffee intact.
“And he says I am the weird one” I say out loud.
I take the coffee cup and leave it to the kitchen. I take off my apron and hang it next to the others. I check everything is ok before leaving and look all the doors before leaving through the back door.
The night is a bit cold and I hate not having brought my jacket tonight. The darkness of this al ey makes me goosebumps and when I listen footsteps behind me, I am alert to run at any time.
My heart is going to come out of my chest.
I run and I look backwards for a moment and I do not see anyone. Someone was following me, I am sure of that.
My body collides into a strong chest and I scream with all my strength.
“Easy, it is me!” He takes my face so I can look at him.
“Gideon.”
I have said his name out loud. I am shaking and I can not control it. I thought someone would hurt me. Like those typical horror movies where they stalk the girl appearing from god knows where and who takes the shortest route.