Page 32 of Until You Came Along

“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 becauseit 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.