The Foreigners - Maxine Swann [78]
After that experience, she stayed away for a week or more. He didn’t press her. When she finally came down again to visit him, she had a different awareness. Maybe it was this she’d been afraid of, that had been keeping her at bay. She watched him cook. She noticed everything, the way his hair dipped to one side at the back of his neck, his smell. As she watched, she wondered, does he have girls? Then she remembered. She’d seen him often with a girl in the early days, small, cute, dark-haired. What had happened with her?
“What happened to that girl you were always with?” she asked.
He looked over his shoulder. “Sofia? We didn’t fit together,” he said. “I was trying to force it, but we didn’t fit.”
That night, Isolde went back upstairs, but as she lay in bed, her mind on Hernán, she began to feel impatient. She got up and went back downstairs in her nightgown. He’d been sleeping but, seeing her at the door, he took her hand quite simply and led her inside. For some reason, she’d imagined that he wouldn’t know what to do with a woman but, to her surprise, he actually seemed quite knowledgeable on the subject.
twenty-eight
The grant people wrote again. My time was almost up. They were expecting my final report, at which point I’d receive the last installment of money. I printed out my half-term report, gathered the rest of my notes and lay them out all around me on the floor. I wasn’t at all sure that I’d collected the kind of information they wanted. Nor was I sure how to present it.
I wrote an e-mail to my friend Brian to get some pointers about presentation and in the meantime settled down to work.
Gabriel rang the bell as I was dozing on the floor in my sea of notes.
“Oh, boy,” he said, seeing papers all over the floor, “what’re you up to?”
“Writing my water report,” I said. “What about you?”
“A funny thing just happened. A guy just wanted to watch me typing naked. Yeah, I swear. He brought his computer with him. For one hour and he gave me a hundred pesos.”
“Sounds great,” I said. “Do you think that could work for me? I could type up my report and make some money in the process.”
“Of course,” he said. “You just have to find the right person.” He sat down in his favorite spot on the chaise lounge. “How’s everything else going?” he asked.
“Good.” I smiled.
“Wait, you’re up to something.”
“Yeah,” I said, sitting down across from him. “I figured out a way to get my revenge. I’m attacking Leonarda, without her knowing it. It’s cool, I swear, I sort of have her in my power.”
“You’re kidding.”
“No, really, I can’t believe it. It’s like she’s my little prey now. I came to the conclusion that it’s the only way to deal with her, the only thing she’ll respond to. She’s gripped, she’s totally gripped.”
“What’s the secret?”
“Simple, really. I realized I just need to have a second life besides her, somewhere else to go. Sometimes I really do have somewhere to go. I go to that bar we went to.”
“No kidding.”
“Yeah, I’ve been taking your advice about getting more sex in my life.”
“You pick up people?”
“Sometimes. But often I don’t. I just go home. Still I pretend to her that I have a date. It’s the need to leave. If you’re always fleeing, she doesn’t have to.”
He paused for a moment.
“It sounds like you’re enjoying this.”
“I am. But mainly I feel like I’ve broken free. I’m not in her power anymore.”
There was a flicker in Gabriel’s eye. Was it doubt? I registered it, but only took the time to think about it much later on.
“And what about Miguel?” he asked.
“Out of the picture. As far as I know. But now I don’t even care.”
“I can see that, comparatively speaking, your water report might be less than compelling.”
“Yeah, well.” I looked down at the sea of papers again.
Outside, dusk was falling. Silky darkness creeping in. Soon I would be on my way.
I slithered through