Chapter 13 #2
“I’m here, Niky,” I responded with a smile.
“That means...”
“Exactly what you’re thinking,” Henry confirmed.
“Yesssssssssssssssss!” she exclaimed with a scream that made me laugh and caused Henry to look at me as if his sister had lost her mind.
“Niky, stop screaming like that, you’re going to be responsible for me having an accident.”
“Daliiiiiii, you can’t imagine how incredibly happy I am to know you’re with Henry. You two are made for each other, I have no doubt,” she said, and very uncharacteristically for Henry, he snorted while rolling his eyes, resigned to his sister’s excitement.
“Thank you, Niky,” was all I said, because I had no intention of talking to her in “friend mode” with him present.
“So you’ll come with us to the wedding we have next Friday. Had you already told her, Henry?”
“I see that won’t be necessary now,” he said without looking at me.
“Our cousin is getting married and we’re invited, so you’re coming with us,” Niky said, very enthusiastically.
The fact that Henry hadn’t mentioned it to me yet made me think that perhaps he didn’t want me to accompany him, and I wasn’t going to be offended by that either. We had only resumed our relationship a couple of days ago, and it was understandable since it was a family gathering.
“Thank you for the invitation, Niky, but I’m not sure if I can join you. I’ll confirm during the week.”
Henry turned his face and, for a few seconds, looked at me very seriously, but didn’t say anything.
“I hope you can make it,” Niky said. “Well, I’ll let you go because I’m doing some shopping. Love you both.”
“Niky, you didn’t tell me why you called,” Henry reminded her.
“Ohhh, that’s right. I was so pleasantly surprised about you two that I forgot. I just wanted to tell you that I talked to Mom and she’s having a wonderful time with Aunt Roxi.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
“Hope to see you both soon.”
“Behave yourself,” Henry said.
“Talk to you later, Niky,” I said goodbye.
When she ended the call, we were pulling into the hotel parking lot.
As soon as he parked and turned off the car, he turned, leaning his back against the door, and looked at me seriously.
I was about to open the door to get out, but seeing that he had no intention of doing so, I remained seated and looked at him.
“What do you have going on Friday that prevents you from coming with me?”
“I didn’t say no, I said I wasn’t sure yet.”
“What’s preventing you from knowing?” he insisted.
“Do you want me to go?”
He didn’t respond immediately, just looked at me with narrowed eyes.
“I understand,” was all he said.
“Understand what?” I asked, confused by his response.
“You were bothered that I wasn’t the one who invited you,” he stated confidently.
This man was light-years ahead of me with all his experience. With just one question, he had caught me and clearly understood the reasons for my hesitation.
“I wasn’t bothered, I simply understand that you might have reservations about my presence at a family gathering, and I don’t want to impose myself on you. Really, I don’t want to force things.”
“Do you realize you’re always making assumptions? Why don’t you just ask me what I want?”
And he was right, it wasn’t the first time I’d drawn incorrect conclusions by not asking.
“What is it that you want?” I asked.
“That’s better,” he said, and smiled. “I don’t know yet, that’s why I hadn’t mentioned it to you. I don’t know if I’ll be able to go.”
“Do you have another commitment?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he said enigmatically, and although I had told myself I wouldn’t make assumptions, I did it again, and assumed he was saying this to avoid the obligation of taking me.
We got out of the car and, as we were heading to the elevators, his phone rang.
—“Waylon, how are you?”
—“…”
—“I wasn’t planning to go to today’s game, but if you need one more player, count me in.”
—“…”
—“I’ll be at the field in an hour. Who are we playing against?”
The elevator arrived and we went up while he continued his conversation.
—“We’ll see about that later, I don’t know if I’ll join you after the game.”
—“…”
—“See you.”
We reached our floor and headed to the suite.
—“Do you have a soccer game, champ?” I asked, while opening the door.
—“Yes, I usually play on weekends, but I had told them I wasn’t coming this time. The problem is they don’t have enough players and they asked me to join them.”
—“It’s always good to meet up with friends.”
—“It is, but I need to leave now because I’ll have to stop by my place to change clothes,” he said, heading to the bedroom.
He put his phone on the table and went to the bedroom.
The phone remained unlocked and at that moment a notification came in from someone named “Anabel” and I immediately remembered the woman we had run into.
I wasn’t going to do it, really I wasn’t, but remembering what she had said made me pick up the phone and read the message. My mood plummeted.
“Want me to remind you how good a time we had?
All this is yours”
The message was accompanied by a photo of her in lingerie, lying on a bed in a provocative pose.
I put the phone down and went to the kitchen for some water. I needed to wash away the bitter taste in my mouth and calm the anger growing inside me.
A second later Henry was by my side with his bag in hand.
—“I’m leaving, I’ll call you later,” he said, approaching to give me a kiss on the lips, but I instinctively moved away. “What’s wrong? Are you upset that I’m going to the game?”
—“Your phone rang. If I were you, I’d check it,” I said, and it was obvious I was angry. I had no reason to hide my fury.
I noticed his expression change as he looked at the phone screen.
—“Dalina, this doesn’t mean anything,” he stated, coming closer to me.
—“It may not mean anything to you, but to me it means a lot, and above all, it’s clear that things weren’t made clear.
And I’ll tell you that I’m not the type of woman who looks at other people’s phones, but it was unlocked and I saw it was a message from her, and after what she said the other night, I couldn’t help myself. I can’t deal with this…”
—“No!” he exclaimed, throwing down his bag and quickly approaching me. “Don’t give it importance. I’ll respond to her right now so this ends once and for all. Let’s not have problems because of other people’s actions.”
—“The problem is that others act this way because you weren’t able to tell her not to call you.”
—“You’re right, but I’ll do it right now,” he said, and started typing on his phone.
—“Enough, Henry. Go to your game, I don’t want to argue anymore.”
—“I’m not going. I don’t want you to stay angry or have doubts about my faithfulness,” he said, extending the phone to me so I could look at it.
—“I’m not going to do that.”
—“And I’m asking you to do it, please.”
I looked at him, sighed, and took the phone.
The message:
“Anabel, I have a girlfriend and I’m faithful to Dalina
Please don’t contact me anymore”
I returned the phone to him.
—“I don’t want to be with anyone else. I assure you that no matter how many invitations I receive, I won’t accept any of them. Do you believe me?” he asked, taking my hand.
—“It’s not easy, Henry. Put yourself in my place.”
—“What matters is that you trust me. I want you to do that, please.”
—“Alright, I’ll give you my vote of confidence, but I assure you I’ll also be on alert.”
—“That seems fair.”
—“Now go to your game, they’re waiting for you.”
—“I’d rather not go and…”
—“Go, Henry, let’s stick to what we had planned. I want to go to the gym for a while too.”
—“Alright, we’ll stay in touch.” He gave me a kiss and left.
It was hard not to think about that message.
I needed to do something to calm the anger I felt.
After going back and forth for a while, I got ready to go to the gym for a bit.
I changed clothes, grabbed my gym bag and left.
Since it wasn’t far, I decided to walk. While on the promenade, I thought I saw Sol passing by in a car again, which was strange because she didn’t own one.
Still, I could have sworn it was Sol and that, once again, she had looked at me with fury.
This began to worry me and I kept walking, but I must confess that I did so while continuously looking around me.
I was almost certain it was Sol and I began to feel like I was being watched.
At the gym I concentrated on doing my routine and then did some yoga.
When we finished, I stayed chatting with some acquaintances, and by the time I left, it was already dark.
I started walking toward the hotel, but I still had that unsettling feeling of being watched closely, and a chill ran down my spine.
I was alert, tense, and on several occasions I stopped and looked around, convinced that someone was following me.
“I must be paranoid because of everything Henry has told me,” I thought, and continued walking, though I quickened my pace.
When I arrived at the hotel I was out of breath; I had walked extremely fast and I was annoyed with myself for letting Henry’s and my brothers’ ideas get to me.
Upon reaching the suite and checking my phone, I saw that I had messages and missed calls from him from two hours earlier.
“The game went longer than expected.
I don’t think I’ll make it to the hotel today”
A little while later he had sent another:
“Going to have some beers with a couple of friends
Talk to you later”
Last message:
“Why aren’t you answering?
Where are you?”
My response:
“Just got back from the gym.
Enjoy your time with your friends”
Within a minute I was receiving another message and I picked up the phone, convinced it was him, but the message was from an unknown number and they had sent me two photographs.
My heart stopped. In the photos, Henry could be seen sitting in an armchair in what appeared to be a bar or pub, but the big, painful detail was that he had a woman sitting on his lap.
My vision blurred with tears I didn’t want to shed, but, as he had rightly told me, I didn’t want to assume or jump to hasty conclusions, so I began to look at them very carefully.
The photograph seemed recent, Henry was dressed casually, and at the same table as him, with their backs to whoever had captured the image, were two men watching the situation.
In the first image, Henry was looking at the woman, and in the second, they were kissing and the woman was holding his face with both hands.
While everything matched up because he had told me he was going for beers with friends, I preferred not to think the worst. After all, I didn’t know who had sent the message, so I did what seemed best. I forwarded the two photographs to him with the following text:
“Can you explain this?
Or does this need no explanation?”
I sat with the phone in my hand waiting for his response, but he wasn’t online. After ten minutes, my trust in him began to crumble. How could I be sure he wasn’t with another woman? Much to my regret and to be honest with myself, I couldn’t be sure. Suddenly I felt sick.
I left the phone on the kitchen counter and sat on one of the stools, not knowing what to do.
I rested my elbows on the counter and held my head in my hands.
We had only resumed our relationship a few days ago, and we were facing another problem already.
At that moment, I began to think that we would always have too many complications to keep the relationship afloat.
“This is insane,” I murmured.
I looked at the phone again. Henry was still not connecting. In my head, the idea began to form that he wasn’t doing so because he was enjoying his time with that woman. Another message came in and I nervously picked up the phone. It was another message from the same unknown number.
“Bar Very Much”
I read the message several times. I didn’t know what to do.
It was probably the place where Henry was with that woman, and whoever it was was informing me so I could see it with my own eyes.
I paced back and forth not knowing what to do, but I ended up taking my phone and searching the internet for the bar’s address.
Once I was clear on how to get there, I grabbed the car keys and left.
Since I hadn’t heard from him, if I wanted to clear up any doubts, I had no other option.
I knew it was reckless, but I had to do it. I was going to that bar.