Page 36 of Andalusia Dogs

“The idiot launched about five of these into the audience like it was a Thai sex show.”

“Launched them from what?”

“Best not ask those sorts of questions, Alex.”

“Noted. You don’t mind if I insist on you washing your hands when you’re done?

Jago laughed, tossing the ping-pong ball away into the water. “We live in a city awash with artists, most of them not very good. But this has been true for the entirety of human endeavour. So what? I’m not saying they shouldn’t try.”

“What are you saying?” In Alex’s brief experience, Jago had not been shy of sharing his opinion.

They spied the beams of two flashlights in a far corner of the park.

“Maybe we should go home,” Alex suggested, noticing his leg resting against Jago’s.

“You mean to our respective homes, of course? Like the respectable, upstanding young men we are?”

They got to their feet, each admiring the playful glint in the other’s eye.

“No,” said Alex. “I mean to mine.”

Jago regarded him with an inviting smile. “I think mine is closer, yes? And larger? And there’s something I wish to give you, if that’s all right.”

Alex was too curious to say no.

CHAPTER SIX

“You moved to Madrid two years ago?”

“Mmhmm.” Jago took another pull from his beer and sank further into the orange couch.

“From Andalusia?”

“No, from Mexico, and Colombia before that.”

“Shit.” Alex sipped more of his drink. He could only imagine such travels. “I’ve never left Spain.”

“Never?”

“Does Barcelona count?”

“That verymuch depends on who you ask,” Jago said, raising his beer. “We are a country cobbled together by history and coincidence. The Basques, the Galicians, the Andalusians, the Catalonians… How did you meet Joanna?”

Alex had learned during their conversation that such an abrupt change of subject was not unusual for Jago, but it still threw him off-guard. “Through Vicente.”

“Ah, and he is your ex-boyfriend? Funny. It so often goes the other way. Girls first.”

“He’s bisexual.”

“I never said he wasn’t. It was just an observation. He protects you like a Golden Retriever.”

Alex didn’t know enough about dogs to answer that. “I wish he’d focus more on protecting Joanna.”

“I think she’s more likely to protect him, no?” Jago corrected Alex with a confidence that bemused him. “She is a remarkable individual.”

“You mean her dancing?”

“I mean everything.”