“It’s our first month anniversary! We met a month ago,” I say, trying to make him feel my own enthusiasm while I walk past him into the flat.
“I wasn’t expecting you.”
“Well, of course you weren’t, if you were it wouldn’t have been a surprise…” I reply.
Alejandro doesn’t seem to get the point of my visit. “I’ve never told you I live here.”
“I have my resources. Why don’t we relax a bit, now? I’ll help you dry yourself…”
I reach out to close the door behind me, but what I touch isn’t wood: it’s something warm and soft.
“Help dry who?” The warm thing has got a female voice.
I turn round and I see a girl, also Latin American. She’s naked, and I notice that my hand is on one of her breasts. I pull it back sharply, shocked.
“Alejandro! Who… who is she?” I ask, horrified.
“I am Shoanah.”
“It’s Shoanah,” he echoes.
“Okay, it’s Shoanah, but what is she doing here naked?”
“She’s my wife,” he replies, most naturally.
I would like to disappear at once. I’m standing here in a thong and stockings in front of who I thought was my boyfriend and his naked wife.
“You never mentioned you were married!” I accuse him, while I pick up my coat and put it back on.
Alejandro looks at me without blinking an eye. “You never asked.”
My jaw drops open and I’m speechless. Shoanah looks at me from top to toe and says: “She can stay, she’s very pretty. I like her.”
He seems to love the idea. “Sure, now that you’re here, you could join us…”
“How revolting!” I reply, buttoning up my coat quickly. “Alejandro, you’re a bastard!” I shout and that’s all I can manage to say before running down the stairs and leaving that grotesque scene behind me.
Happy first month anniversary, Jemma. Didn’t you say you like surprises? Well, this serves you just right.
As the freezing cold comes up my legs, I feel more and more stupid. I curl up on the first seat I find in the Tube, pulling down my coat to cover the lace of my stockings.
I feel exposed, as if everyone could see what I’m wearing under my coat. I wallow in self-pity.
While I was setting up the surprise, and I was so happy, Alejandro was revising theKamasutrawith Shoanah!
At home, I enter through the building’s front door and head to my parent’s flat, stomping angrily up the stairs.
“I’m so stupid!” I announce, without even saying hello, while I collapse on one of the cushions placed on the carpet.
My mum stretches her neck from behind the kitchen door. “What did you say, angel?”
“That I’m so stupid,” I repeat, muttering.
“You know that I don’t like it when you spread negativity at sunset, it’s almost time for meditation.”
Big tears start running down my face. “Can you do it later?”
“Sure, I can synchronise with the Azores time zone. Why are you crying, then?”
