Chapter 4
"She wasn't afraid of difficulties: what frightened her was the obligation to choose a path. Choosing one path meant abandoning others"
— Paulo Coelho
On Saturday I was restless because I didn’t hear any news from Baco until the afternoon.
Around five in the afternoon, I sent him a message to find out how his meeting with his family had gone, and he replied: “All ok.” So, feeling more at ease, I called Serafina and suggested we go out for drinks and then to a movie or dancing.
My friend immediately jumped at the plans, and by nine o’clock that night, she was at my place ready to go out and have fun.
Seri loved doing my makeup and fixing my hair, so I let her experiment on me with the latest trends in makeup and hairstyles.
The hairstyle consisted of beautiful waves, and the makeup featured smoky eyes that highlighted my blue gaze.
For my outfit, I chose a black jumpsuit with a halter neck that left half of my back exposed.
Serafina had put on a dark red sleeveless dress that looked elegant and sensual on her.
I was closing the apartment door when, behind me, the elevator doors opened and a familiar whistle of admiration startled me.
“Whoooo wheeee! Where are these beautiful women headed?”
I turned with a genuine smile to respond to Baco, but my smile instantly vanished. He was accompanied by his brother, who was looking at me with his eternally serious gaze, unabashedly scanning my body.
“Hello, Baco; Mr. Darwich,” was my curt greeting.
“I’m Serafina, Delfi’s best friend,” my friend introduced herself.
“Nice to meet you, Serafina,” Baco greeted her, but his brother only nodded his head in greeting and then returned his gaze to me.
“And where are you beauties going?” Baco asked again.
When I was about to respond, my friend took the lead and lied shamelessly.
“We’re going on a double date with some friends.”
I gave Serafina a serious look.
Hermes looked at Baco and then at me.
Baco looked at me with a mischievous smile.
Serafina observed Hermes carefully.
It was a very suspicious exchange of glances.
I knew my friend very well and knew she had said it to observe Hermes’ reaction to her comment, because she kept insisting that this man was crazy about me, something I didn’t agree with, because I was certain that this man only wanted to get me into bed like so many other women.
“Enjoy yourselves. Delfi, remember about the adjoining wall,” Baco pointed out, widening his smile.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I responded, also smiling.
“You allow her to go out with others?” Hermes asked, without any reservation and looking at his brother in astonishment.
“Why shouldn’t I?” Baco asked, looking at him in surprise before bursting into laughter.
“I find it surprising that you, of all people, would ask that question,” I commented, unable to contain the ironic tone in my voice and disregarding the rest of the spectators who were watching us without blinking.
He, who opposed exclusivity, was amazed to believe that there was some kind of relationship between Baco and me and that we were going out with others. The cynicism of that man knew no bounds! He looked at me, and it was obvious that my comment took him by surprise.
“Yeah, truly. I don’t think you’re the right one to be shocked that a couple takes such liberties,” Baco said, and Hermes glared at him.
“But you two aren’t a couple,” nosy Serafina asserted, “you’re just friends.
Delfi would never date others if she were in a relationship, and she would never accept her partner seeing other women,” she clarified, looking shamelessly at Hermes.
“But let me tell you that it’s very likely she’ll lose her single status tonight because the guy we’re meeting is crazy about her.
I have no doubt he’ll propose to her, and obviously as his exclusive partner,” she concluded with that completely imaginary and ridiculous grand finale.
I kept looking at her, not believing what I was hearing.
That woman should have been an actress and would surely have several Oscar awards to her name by now.
She invented stories and conveyed them with such credibility that no one doubted what she was saying.
Hermes was clenching his jaw so tightly that I thought he would break all his teeth.
“If that’s the case, I hope you don’t forget about this friend who needs you so much,” Baco said, playing the victim.
“Rest assured I won’t,” I responded. “Excuse me,” I said, looking seriously at Hermes, who was standing in front of the elevator door and not allowing me to press the button.
He barely moved.
“May I call the elevator?” I requested, looking at him with the same furious gaze with which he challenged me.
This time he moved aside, but he didn’t stop looking at me.
“Enjoy, girls!” Baco said goodbye.
“Thanks,” we responded in unison.
The elevator doors opened and we both entered.
I turned to press the parking garage button and, as the doors were closing, Hermes and I kept staring at each other, or rather, challenging each other with our gazes.
The doors closed and I had to lean against one of the walls because my whole body was trembling.
“That man is crazy about you. I think he must be having a jealous fit right now,” Seri affirmed, laughing.
“That man is a lunatic, and you went too far with your comments.”
“A handsome lunatic, and his brother isn’t far behind in the looks department,” she stated, ignoring my comment about her behavior.
“Hermes Darwich drives me up the wall!” I exclaimed.
“I can see that. But if it makes you feel better, I think he was more furious than you. When I made that comment about couples, I almost had to go pick his jaw up off the floor because it completely dropped. There’s no doubt about it, you’ve got Hermes Darwich head over heels,” she stated with conviction.
“Nobody has that man head over heels. He’s colder than ice.”
“For someone so icy, he was giving off way too much steam from the fury that came over him when he found out you were going out with someone else.”
“You say that because you don’t know him well,” I assured her.
“I say it because I just saw it with my own eyes.”
The elevator doors opened and we walked out to the parking garage to get into my car. We decided to go to a restaurant with dancing. We ordered food and, while we were eating and talking, I received a message from the man who was testing my emotional stability.
“Where are you?”
I had to read it several times. I couldn’t believe it.
I looked at Serafina who was watching some guys who were looking at our table, and I decided not to mention it to her and, obviously, I also decided not to respond to that authoritarian question.
I put my phone away and resolved not to look at it again.
“Delfi, those handsome guys who were at the bar watching us are coming over here. Please, be nice and sociable. You promised me you would try to meet them.”
“I remember,” I replied.
“Good evening. May we join you?” asked one of the guys, though both were smiling at us.
They looked about 30, were tall and handsome. One was blond with brown eyes and the other had chestnut hair with blue eyes.
“Of course,” Serafina answered.
They sat across from us and immediately introduced themselves.
“My name is Nicolás,” said the blond one, “and this is my friend Gaspar. Pleased to meet you.”
The chestnut-haired one nodded; he seemed to be the shyer of the two.
“My name is Delfina and this is Serafina,” I introduced us, because my friend seemed mesmerized by the blond guy and had lost her usual chattiness.
“Do you come to this place often? It’s our first time here and we really like it,” commented Nicolás.
“We’ve been here a couple of times and we think it’s a good place too,” Seri explained.
After that we started talking about our professions and hobbies, and the four of us relaxed quite a bit.
It turned out that Nicolás was a businessman and Gaspar was a veterinarian.
After chatting for a while, they invited us to dance.
Serafina immediately positioned herself in front of Nicolás, and I started dancing with Gaspar.
We danced and talked, but to talk we had to get quite close because the volume of the music made it impossible to speak while standing apart.
“Would you like to go get a drink at the bar?” Gaspar asked me.
“Yes, that sounds good,” I replied, because I was thirsty and because I wanted to give my friend some privacy as she seemed to be getting along very well with Nicolás.
We sat on two stools located at the corner of the bar and ordered two Margaritas.
“I wasn’t really in the mood to go out tonight, but I’m glad Nico convinced me because I got to meet you,” he said, looking at me intensely. It was obvious that the moment of seduction had arrived.
“I’m glad to have met you both too,” and I spoke in plural because I still wasn’t comfortable with all the flirting.
“I like you a lot,” he said straightforwardly, and it was evident that he had lost all the shyness I thought he had.
You promised yourself you’d get to know him to try to forget that pedantic jerk! Do it!, I encouraged myself.
We kept looking at each other without saying anything and, gradually, he leaned down toward my face to press his lips against mine.
I closed my eyes and tried to give myself over to that caress, but it lasted very little because he pulled away abruptly.
I opened my eyes looking for an explanation for his behavior, but I was petrified.
I had to blink several times to make sure what I was seeing was real.
Hermes had pushed Nicolás away and was looking at him like he wanted to kill him.
I watched the scene without understanding what was happening.
What is he doing here? was the first thought that came to my mind.
“Let’s go,” he said, looking at me seriously.