28. Tomas
28
TOMAS
I ’ve taken to texting Alina every evening to make sure she stops working . If I don’t nag her, I’m pretty sure she won’t leave until closing, and despite what Alina thinks, other people can do it for her. Like for example, the new instructor she hired.
I’m just concerned about the business, I tell myself, though that’s complete bullshit. This has nothing to do with Groff’s and everything to do with the beautiful, stubborn woman running it.
And increasingly, I’m okay with it.
On Thursday, I message Alina right before I head to teach my accounting class at the Ca’ Foscari.
Go home.
You’re starting to sound like a stuck record, Tomas. How do you even know I’m at the gym?
I roll my eyes.
It was a lucky guess. Stop changing the topic and go home.
And if I don’t, you’ll quote the contract at me? As scintillating as that sounds, I’m leaving. I have no food in my apartment. I have to make it to the store before it closes.
Good. Text me when you get back.
That’s definitely not in the contract.
Text me anyway.
It’ll cost you. One hundred thousand.
I laugh out loud, causing several students milling about in the hallway to give me curious looks. The gym is Alina’s baby, and she’s going to take every opportunity to remind me she wants me out of there. And I love it. I love her relentlessness, her passion, her fire.
Done. It’s a deal.
Estela was beautiful in a fragile, ethereal way. She never saw me fight—fighting disgusted her. She would have swooned into a delicate faint at the first sign of blood. And she never made me laugh. She never saw the real me.
Ali does. I can lose myself in accounts and investment details, and she doesn’t complain that I’m boring her. I can tell her I want to tie her up and her eyes sparkle with anticipation. I can suggest going to a sex club and she’s all in.
With Ali, I don’t have to pretend to be anyone other than who I am.
For five years, I’ve used the way things ended with Estela Villegas as an excuse to avoid intimacy. I’ve used my hurt as a shield and built a wall around my heart. The heart I thought Estela killed.
But maybe it isn’t dead after all.
Maybe it’s been lying dormant.
Waiting for Alina to walk into my life.