Page 2 of Now and Forever

“What games are you talking about?” Raquel asks.

Fernando and I look at each other. He’d better bite his tongue!

But we understand each other, and he says nothing.

“Don’t do anything foolish, all right, Judith?”

My sister shakes her head and snorts. Excited, I take the paper from him and give him a kiss on the cheek.

“Thank you. Thank you very, very much.”

When I’m alone in my room that night, I reach the height of my fury. Just knowing that with a little luck I’m going to get in Marisa’s face the next day makes my heart beat faster. That witch is going to find out what I’m made of.

I wake up at seven o’clock the next morning, and my sister’s already up. As soon as she sees I’m getting ready to go on a trip, she clings to me like a limpet and starts in with her incessant questioning.

I’m going to Huelva to see Marisa de la Rosa. I try to avoid Raquel, but she is too much! In the end, seeing I can’t get rid of her, I surrender and take her with me. Although later, I might come to regret that.

She doesn’t know what happened between Eric and me. Someone like my sister wouldn’t understand my games with Eric. She’d think we’re depraved, and maybe even worse.

When I talked to her the day everything happened, I left out the key details. I told her these women had poisoned our relationship and that was why we had argued, and, as a result, Eric and I had broken up. I couldn’t tell her anything else.

When we arrive in Huelva, I’m surprisingly calm. We get to the street noted on the paper Fernando gave me, and I park. I look around and see Marisa lives very, very well. This is a luxurious area.

“I still don’t know what we’re doing here, Cuchu,” my sister protests as she gets out of the car.

“Stay here, Raquel.”

But she ignores my command and closes the car door decisively.

“Don’t even think about it, cutie. Where you go, I go.”

“Does it look like I need a bodyguard?”

She comes over to my side.

“Yes. I don’t trust you. You’ve got quite a mouth on you, and sometimes you can be pretty rough.”

“Fuck!”

“You see? You already said ‘fuck’!” she says.

Without another word, we arrive at the address written on the paper and step onto the beautiful porch. I press the intercom, and a woman answers.

“Mail,” I say without hesitation.

The door opens, and my sister, stunned, stares at me.

“Oh, Judith, I think you’re going to do something foolish.”

I laugh. I glance over at her and hiss as we wait for the elevator. “She was a fool to underestimate me.”

“Cuchu ...”

“Look,” I tell her, because I’m not in a great mood now, “from this moment on, I need you to be quiet. This is between her and me, all right?”

The elevator bell dings, the doors open, and we get on. When we reach the fifth floor, I look for apartment D and knock. Moments later, an unfamiliar woman in a service uniform answers the door.

“How can I help you?” she asks.

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