Chapter 6
Exactly two weeks have passed, and Violeta feels nervous. Her bags are packed, and tomorrow at this time, when she leaves work, instead of going to lunch with Teresa as she just did, she'll get in her car and eat a sandwich while driving to the village with her mother.
"You could try to hide how eager you are to leave all this behind," Teresa says after taking a big sip of water and wiping her lips with a napkin.
Violeta smiles and keeps chewing.
"Your mother must be thrilled about your arrival. How is she?"
"Much better. Hiring that Olga woman was the best thing that could have happened to her. They've become quite good friends, and my mother has found a lot of distraction with her. Thank goodness, because the idea of her being so alone really stressed me out."
"Doesn't she have friends?" Teresa asks, surprised.
"Yes, of course, but they're all friends of hers and my father's who only meddle instead of listening to her. Olga takes her for walks when they can, helps her with the oven even when it's not her turn, and listens without stirring up trouble."
"What if she's a psychopath who wants to kill her to get her money?"
Violeta looks at her, horrified.
"Don't talk nonsense."
"I don't know, all that selfless attention, you can't tell me it's not a bit strange."
"She's just a grateful woman, and apparently very lonely, according to my mother. She's new in the village and doesn't know anyone, and she needs the job to live, just like you and me."
"Okay, okay," Teresa says, raising her hands.
"The truth is, I'm looking forward to meeting her so I can thank her for what she's doing for my mother," Violeta says, fixing an intense gaze on her coworker.
"You're right, people from small towns are very different from city folks. Here, they can see you dying on the street and not even flinch. Anyway, changing the subject, are you going to stop in Huesca?"
Her friend's face transforms into a mischievous expression that sets Violeta's heart racing as soon as she understands the double meaning of her question.
"Don't be dirty, no, of course not."
"Why not? If I were you, I'd go back to that bar just out of curiosity. It doesn't cost you anything to stop by. Imagine if that mysterious woman is there and you can repeat that incredible night you talk about so much."
Violeta blushes until her face burns.
"I don't talk about that night that much."
Teresa raises her eyebrows and clears her throat. Now even Violeta's ears are burning.
"Okay, maybe a little," she admits, laughing.
If she's honest with herself, she thinks about that night daily. She hasn't forgotten that woman, much less everything she did with her. In her mind, that sick desire that awakened in her with every touch and the ease with which pleasure spread through her body over and over until she was exhausted is very present. Violeta is sure that this type of connection or chemistry in bed can only be had with one person, and that woman was hers. She's convinced that she won't meet anyone else capable of awakening such passion in her, but she doesn't mind either. Life is made up of all kinds of experiences, some better and some worse, and now she knows that when it comes to sex, she, at barely thirty-two, has already had the luck to experience the most pleasurable.
"A little, she says," Teresa laughs. "By the way, have you talked to Marina yet?"
Violeta's expression changes. At the end of last week, when Marina called her again, she decided she would meet with her and settle the matter once and for all. At least that's what she told Teresa, but the truth is, as always, she's been letting the days go by, postponing something she knows is inevitable.
"No, not yet."
"Damn, Violeta, you're going on vacation and she's going to keep bothering you. Is that what you want?"
"No, of course not. It's just that since she seems to be spacing out her calls a bit more, I don't know, maybe she's getting the hint."
"If you say so."
The two friends finish eating and, as if the stars had aligned and Marina had heard the conversation between them, coincidence makes it so that when the two are walking out the door, they run into her face to face.
"Marina," Violeta says, surprised.
"Hi, Violeta. Teresa..."
Teresa is the one who breaks the awkward moment between them by greeting Marina with two kisses.
"Are you here for lunch?" she asks Marina out of mere courtesy.
"No, actually I was just passing by, but since I'm here," she says looking at Violeta, "Do you have time for a coffee? I promise I won't keep you long."
Violeta looks at Teresa with some discomfort, but she knows she must face this moment and won't have a better opportunity than this.
"Alright."
"Well, I'll leave you girls," Teresa says goodbye, leaving them alone.
"It's hard to talk to you," Marina says as soon as they sit down across from each other.
"We broke up, Marina," Violeta answers, "and in our case, I think continuing to keep in touch isn't good for either of us."
"I don't want to keep in touch, Violeta, what I want is for us to try again. Listen," Marina extends a hand across the table to try to take Violeta's, but she pulls it away and hides both in her lap, "I know I might have overwhelmed you a bit, but I've changed, I swear, I'm trying to prove it to you, but you won't let me."
"The thing is, it's always my fault," Violeta sighs. "You haven't changed at all, Marina, you're still as controlling as before, and your insistence that we get back together is just another way of overwhelming me even now that we're not together. I ended the relationship and you refuse to accept it because it's not what you want, and that's the problem, that things have always been done the way you wanted."
Faced with Marina's stunned expression, Violeta falls silent and decides it's not necessary to keep throwing things in her face. She has made a decision and Marina simply has to respect it. In the middle of this uncomfortable silence for both of them, the image of the mysterious woman from the hostel comes back to Violeta's mind, making her wonder why with Marina everything can't be as easy as it was with her. Good sex, some laughs, and then each to their own.
"I think you're being a bit unfair and that you're rushing the decision," Marina says, coming back to the charge.
"Look, my parents are having problems," Violeta says suddenly, not quite sure why she's explaining this. "Tomorrow I'm going on vacation to the village and I might stay there again and work in the bakery with my mother."
Marina's mouth opens into a circle and Violeta, amazed at what she has just said, wonders to what extent she's saying it to get rid of Marina without needing to be very rude, or if really, at some remote point in her brain, this idea that she has sometimes thought about when she gets overwhelmed at work, is starting to have more and more chances of becoming something real. Maybe the time has come to leave the stressful life of Madrid to the Madrile?os.
"You in the village?" Marina asks as if it were impossible to imagine. "But you're the most urban woman I know."
Violeta feels offended.
"It's clear you don't know me well if you think that way."
"Maybe it's because in all the time we've been dating, you've never taken me to meet your parents even once."
"Look, Marina, I think we've already said everything we needed to say and continuing to stretch this conversation will only serve for us to say things we might regret later."
Violeta stands up, leaving her coffee untouched.
"I wish you the best, but don't call me anymore. You and I are never getting back together. Please, move on with your life."
Marina looks at her without saying a word and then turns her gaze back to her cup, ignoring her presence. Violeta leaves the restaurant feeling uneasy, but with the certainty that she has closed the chapter with Marina.