Page 25 of Out of Office
The patrons all started clapping at the beat of the drums, same as the claps of the townswomen singing with Doña Petronila. My hands matched the claps. I couldn’t understand the song, but it was lovely all the same, and I found myself humming the response, imitating the words as close as I could understand them. Different men and women approached the center of the circle, each couple taking their moment to shine, bringing a new flair.
My heart skipped when Adrián came out, his hips moving with such grace and force, reminding me of how well he moved and surged inside of me earlier. He had no shoes on, the same as other dancers who had taken theirs off, as well. He danced all the way to where I was and I froze, uncertain of what it all meant. Was I supposed to dance with him? I wasn’t sure I was ready.
“Dance with me, Preciosa,” Adrián whispered, and even though the drums were loud I heard him perfectly.
Hot Girl Gen came to the rescue again. I took off my sandals, stood up, and followed Adrián to the middle of the circle. The excursion guests started whooping and hollering as the drummers beat their instruments even faster, their dexterity and talent impressive. My heart hammered in my chest as I tried to follow the movements I’d seen the other women do—the maxi dress I had on a poor substitute for the beautiful skirts.
I didn’t fully understand what to do, but I had noticed the women seemed to lure the men; then, when the men tried to get close to kissing, the women either raised their hand, turned, or danced away. So, with that in mind, I tried to do the same.
Adrián’s predatory smirk tempted me as I gestured him to come closer, and Claudia shrieked a high-pitched “yeeeee,” nodding along in encouragement. My entire body became one with the music, and even though I wasn’t the best dancer, I was giving it my all, my hips and waist moving along the beat of the claps and drums. I grinned with Adrián, his joy contagious, both of us ecstatic to have these last moments together.
This last night together.
When he approached me with intention, my chest tightened, and I froze, missing the beat. My limbs decided to stop moving without my permission. Adrián’s scent greeted me, his body heat singed me as his warm lips crashed into mine. The whole party went up in a roar as we pressed together, I threw my hands around his neck, and we let ourselves be taken away by our passion and the beautiful night in Aguimar.
Twelve
Adrián
Without opening my eyes, I knew she was gone. No need for my legs to search for hers, for my hands to feel the coldness of her pillow, fragrant with her scent. I only required the quiet emptiness in my chest, the knots of my stomach, and the ache in my soul to tell me the truth.
Even though every sign of her departure mocked me as I hastily put my clothes on, I refused to accept the truth. What if the empty drawers I offered her to put her intimates away haunted me while I looked for my underwear, or the sad clink of my toothbrush in the holder that used to host two reminded me of how happy we’d been these two weeks?
I refused to accept the truth.
Even when I ran out to find Claudia’s eyes full of sad sympathy and a hint of pity, I refused to accept the truth.
“Did she leave? I... I need to talk to her, she...”
“Se fue. Mario and Chichi took her to the airport.” Claudia rested her hand on my shoulder.
“Damn it. I just wanted to...say...”
“I know. I know.”
Claudia embraced me, attempting to erase the truth that I was finally compelled to accept. Accept the screaming in the back of my head, and the sorrow that had captured me even before falling asleep last night. That my days with Genevieve were a thing of the past. That all I had left were her memories. That she did not want anything else from me anymore.
Thirteen
Genevieve
Starlike particles illuminated the air around me, the edges of the room soft and blurry, the feel of my body cloudlike as Adrián’s slick body surged on top of mine, the wet heat just what I needed to soothe my already lonely heart. His golden-brown skin glistened under the moonlight as he pounded into me right there on the lounge chair outside of his room.
Just when I was getting ready to come, Adrián’s body shifted. The starlike particles coalesced together creating beams of light. My heart raced, and I fought the restraints around me.
What was tangled around me?
Adrián’s hot flesh dissolved in the balmy air. The heat morphed into a sticky cold as I thrashed and turned in bed, waking up from another dream. Or was it a nightmare? My heart disintegrated as I fought to stay in the dream, stay close to him, the memory of his woodsy scent lingering in the air, the last vestige of Adrián abandoning me to my reality.
Fuck, not again.
For three weeks, I’d been dreaming of Adrián and our last time together.
Our last night.
After dancing in La Buenona, everything seemed to happen in a fog of desire and yearning. We drank with Claudia and Mario, chatted with the ladies staying at Villa Bonita, and danced some more. Made out like no one was watching. We made our way back to his cabin in a fit of laughter and heavy-handed petting and kisses; we ended up naked outside his cabana under the moonlight, making passionate love.
I burrowed into my bed now, hoping for sleep to catch me again, to escape into the dreamland where Adrián waited for me. At this point, I wondered if he was haunting me.