Page 13 of Cutting Ties
Chapter 7
Anthony
“Mud-bathing?” It didn’t seem all that exciting or appealing to me, but she insisted that it was a wonderful experience.
“Come on. Don’t be a fun-kill.”
“Fun-kill? Is that really a thing? Don’t you mean buzz-kill?”
Rolling her eyes at me, she gave me a nudge with her elbow to my side. “We’ve driven nearly two hours to get to El Totumo. You’ve seen the city, we’ve done two days of sightseeing there, now it’s time to try new things. We will float in the mud bath under the nice warm sun, soak up all the nutrients in the mud, then we will get massages, rinse off and back to the city just in time to eat. A nice relaxing day.”
I looked behind us at the four armed men following us. I imagined they would prefer to be home instead of on babysitting duty, but if they did you’d never know it; their expressions rarely turned from that of indifference.
“Okay, you’ve convinced me. And you are right. I’m just the tourist, you’re the expert.” Bringing her hand to my mouth, I kissed the back of it. My feeling for her were growing by the hour. The way things were going between us I had every intention of proposing the night before I left. Tonight I had a romantic candlelit dinner planned for us on the roof of the hotel. I would tell her I loved her face to face for the first time tonight and if that was received well I’d go ahead with the proposal before I flew back home.
“I called in a favor and we have the mud bath for an hour to ourselves. Normally, there’s maybe twelve people in the bath at one time.”
“That’s sweet of you to do that.”
“I know we only have four more full days and want to make the most of it.” Her smile faded. “I wish you had longer.”
“Me too. But I have clients booked up for the next couple of months. I had to do a fair amount of juggling to make this week happen. My clients aren’t the most flexible of people.”
She frowned. “I know.” We reached a set of wooden stairs that led up to the mud pool. At the top of the stairs there were two women waiting for us. We had already changed into swimwear; hers a yellow bikini and mine a pair of dark swim trunks. “Let’s go.”
At the top of the stairs we were assisted into a pool of mud that kind of reminded me of the mud you find around puddles, in that it was a soft light brown color. When I was a kid that mud was the best mud to play in. “This feels odd, Valentina.” I sank into the pool and the woman who was to be my masseuse guided me onto my back where I floated – in the mud – while the sun beat down on me.
“You look uncomfortable.” Laughing, Valentina sank into the mud beside me.
I reflected that most women would recoil at the idea of being lathered in the substance we were floating in, but she seemed to relish it. “It’s new.”
“It’s good for the skin. And they give amazing massages here.” Closing her eyes, she let her head sink into the mud covering her hair and half of her cheeks. “Just enjoy.”
The woman who was assigned to massage me was indeed good at what she did; she was getting each and every knot I had in me. “I spend so much time working it’s been nice to come here and just relax. Thank you for this, love. I was skeptical, but this isn’t so bad.”
Opening her eyes, she turned her head to look at me. “If I were to move to the United States, would I be home alone all the time?”
“I own the practice and I have surgeries. I do work a lot. I won’t lie to you; my time off can be very limited. But whenever I wasn’t working my focus would be on you. I’m not a young man anymore. I’m getting older and the clock is ticking on having children and raising a family. If I were to have kids today, I’d be over sixty before they graduated high school.”
She smiled. “That’s what I want too.”
Lifting a brow, I asked, “With me?”
“Hmmm.” Her smile became teasing, “We’ll see. I can’t show my full hand yet.”
Valentina
“I’m glad you enjoyed the day. Colombia isn’t the type of excitement that you get in New York or Los Angeles. We live life differently here. The pace is much slower and we try to enjoy our life as much as we can.”
“It’s a refreshing change.”
The elevator dinged and the doors slid open to reveal the roof of the building. If we were to veer right then it would take us to the pool and hot tub area, but we veered left instead. To the left was the rooftop restaurant. There were a few patrons, but it wasn’t close to being busy, which was nice.
The maître d’ greeted us as we approached. “Welcome.” He looked to me and then to Anthony. “Do you have a reservation?” His eyes cut to the four men who trailed behind us, stared a moment, and then went back to us, pretending he never noticed them, but I could see a slight increase in tension within his body.
“Yes,” Anthony cut in. “For Anthony Williams. Table for two.”
“Yes. So good to see you both. Follow me.” He led us to a secluded corner of the restaurant. The guards didn’t follow, but strategically positioned themselves throughout the restaurant, attempting to blend into their surroundings. As usual, they didn’t.
