“It’s okay, son. You don’t have to answer me, but you know the truth.”
By the time he arrived back at the hotel, he had already tucked his mother’s words safely away. He quickly found Valeria at the hotel swimming pool where he had a hunch she’d be. His radar for her seemed to be intensifying. As she stepped out of the kidney shaped pool full of joyful tourists, her voluptuous body in a lilac bathing suit that brought out her sienna color, he flagrantly gazed at her. When she saw him, she waved excitedly at him.
“I’ve been swimming all day,” she gushed as he reached her.
“You must love to swim.”
“You don’t understand,” she explained, her voice emotional. “I used to be deathly afraid of swimming.”
“You were?”
“I almost drowned as a child, but now I’m cured thanks to—“ She stopped herself.
He understood what she was about to say. “Thanks to Kate.” He finished the sentence for her.
“Yes, thanks to Dr. O’Leary,” she said quietly.
An awkward silence ensued until he broke it. “What do you say if we go swimming in the ocean?”
Her eyes lit up. “I’ve never been in the sea.”
“Never?”
“Are you kidding me?—a swimming pool was scary enough.”
“You don’t know what you’ve been missing. It’s time for you to experience the magic of the ocean.”
After changing into swimming trunks in his room, he and Valeria hit the beach. Vendors sold their wares, jewelry and the like, while tourists from all over the world crowded the sandy shores. Lorenzo held Valeria’s hand tightly as they traveled further and further into the water. She chuckled loudly with every huge wave threatening to tumble her down.
Sitting happily on a blanket on the sand, they stared far into the horizon where there was no end to the dark blue of the water. Valeria put her head on his shoulder, the material of his blue T-shirt soft and wet under her cheek.
“Can I ask you something?” she asked.
“Go ahead.”
“Why didn’t you take off your shirt to go in the water?”
The question completely took him aback.
“Sorry,” she expressed after he didn’t say anything. “It’s none of my business but . . .”
“But what?” he asked, finding his voice again.
“I know lots of men don’t like going shirtless, but I have a strange feeling, just one of those weird vibe things, that you have a big reason why you don’t.”
He stared at her with an astonished expression. “I do.”
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
Lorenzo took a long breath, his dark eyes fixed on hers, and then started taking off his shirt as if he’d made a snap decision. Horrified, she eyed the vicious scar on his skin.
“What happened?” she croaked, her voice barely able to keep an even tone.
Explaining the whole incident with Gloria, he took very few breaths. She listened attentively to the tragic story. His voice stayed in the same quiet space, not going up or down when explaining even the most crimson details. When he finished, she wrapped her arms around him tightly.
“A nightmare like that never goes away,” she stated.
“It’s hard to forget that someone tried to kill me.”
“Especially when it left an ugly scar to remind you . . . Incidentally, what are these?” she asked, pointing to the marks on Lorenzo’s shoulders.
“Oh, those,” he said, looking at them. “They're birthmarks.”
“Birthmarks?”
“Like the one on your leg,” he stated.
“We both have birthmarks that look like whip lashes,” she declared. “Weird.”
“I guess stranger things have happened.”
When Lorenzo had suggested that they have a quiet dinner in his room, Valeria had readily agreed. After an emotional day at the beach, her heightened senses needed to be away from the crowds with all their eclectic energy or she would start acting like a frenzied chicken trying to peck all the grain from the ground.
After stepping into his elegant suite, she abruptly stopped her motion. Her mouth flew wide open. A table for two had been set up in front of the window that overlooked the city. Shimmering lights sparkled from every direction of the picturesque tourist destination. Soft, burgundy rose petals were strewn all over the gold tablecloth. A chilled bottle of sweet champagne she recognized the label to and two succulent dinners of lobster and steak waited for them.
“I hope you like it,” Lorenzo murmured.
“It’s perfect,” she expressed, overwhelmed.
“Perfect?” he asked, his incredibly attractive face wholly on her.
“Yes, it’s absolutely perfect,” she replied, her almost-black eyes leaving the surreal scene in front of her and gravitating toward his attentive sight.
Chapter 38
In the dream, Lorenzo was getting married. But it wasn’t in the present time. There were horse carriages and people wearing outfits he had only seen in the movies. He patiently waited for his bride in a small church. Valeria suddenly appeared. She didn’t wear a white fluffy gown and he wasn’t in a tux but it was no less a wedding. He bolted upright when he heard a scream, trying to get out of the fogginess of the dream world.
“Lorenzo! Lorenzo!”
A frantic Valeria sat next to him on the bed, her nude form trembling and outlined on a sheet as she clutched it fiercely
“What happened?” he asked, disoriented and still having doubts about being awake.
“We . . . We . . . “
“Calm down,” he murmured, trying to be soothing.
“We drank too much champagne,” she declared, distressed.
“Is that why we’re . . .”
“Yes!”
“I’m sorry,” he said, still very confused.
“How could this happen?” she blurted. “I barely know you.”
“Valeria—“
I don’t go to bed with men just like that.”
“I hope you know that I don’t bed women just like that either.”
She closed her eyes and cradled her face with her hands. “We were so drunk last night. I barely remember . . .”
“What?”
“Barely remember . . .”
“What do you remember?”
“It can’t be,” she said, her voice becoming frantic again.
“What?” he asked, catching the panic in her voice and trying to keep calm.
“Did we get married, Lorenzo?”
“Married?”
“Yes.”
“No . . . of course not . . .” he mumbled. “Where did you get that from?”
“So it was just a dream?” she asked, relieved.
“A dream?” he questioned, realizing they had traveled a similar journey during the night.
“Yes.”
As he turned his face to deliberate on the odd situation, his eyes caught a piece of paper on the dresser. He slowly picked it up, examining it with shock.
“This is impossible!” he blurted, his voice shaking.
“What is?”
"Impossible!"
"What is?" she repeated with alarm.
“We’re married,” he said with disbelief as he handed her the marriage certificate with chaotic fingers.
Chapter 39
It took a full minute for Valeria to get her bearings after seeing the certificate.
“This can’t be happening,” she managed to murmur, her voice croaking in a frog-like sound. “It’s got to be a dream.”
Lorenzo finally found his own bearings. “We’re awake, Valeria,” he said, fumbling with the words.
“It’s impossible.” Then she noticed a cheap wedding ring, one that resembled those from a candy machine, on her ring finger. “How can this be?” she cried.
As Valeria looked on with mortification, Lorenzo made some phone calls
to determine the authentically of the certificate. By the grave look on his face, she could tell what the answer was.
“We can get this annulled, right?” she asked, her voice cracking.
“Yes,” he answered. “I’ll get my lawyer on it as soon as we get back.”
“We need to leave Acapulco ASAP.”
Lorenzo nodded gravely. Relieved that he understood the importance of getting home, she let a long breath out. Even if it was the weekend and little could be done at this point, she needed to get back to familiar ground. He seemed to feel the same way.
On the airplane neither said more than a few words. Too much had happened for any type of speech. As Valeria peeked out the window to the filmy, cotton clouds, she started trying to jog her memory. What had happened the night before? Blurry vignettes began coming to the forefront of her mind and becoming focused.
Starting to feel fuzzy with the champagne and Lorenzo’s intoxicating proximity, she reasoned that she should return to her room. But the more determined her mind became to leave, the less her emotions cooperated and the less able she was to turn away from his deep eyes that seemed entirely focused on her.
“You’re so beautiful,” he stated. “I know you’ve probably heard it a million times, but you need to hear it from me.”
“Thank you,” she responded, not knowing what to make of his sudden show of emotion.
“Everything about you is beautiful—everything. Inside out—outside in, it’s all dazzling.”
“It’s all the alcohol making you say this,” she asserted, chuckling.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” he stated, seriously. “The champagne didn’t make me say it as much as gave me the guts to speak.”
She eyed him carefully. “I’d love to know what’s deep inside you, Lorenzo.” Usually, he kept who he was under lock and key.
“What do you want to know? I’m open to you.”
“For starters, I’d like to know what you want from a woman.”
“What I want?”
“Yes, I’ve told you what I look for in a man. What are you looking for in a woman?”
He let out a long breath as he eyed her.
“Is it such a hard question to answer?” Valeria asked.
“No.”
“So?” she persisted.
“Kindness, compassion and intelligence sound good.”
Valeria frowned. “You’re just repeating my words.”
He chuckled. “I can’t want the same things you want?”
“I want more originality from you, buddy.”
“Okay, here goes. I want those qualities I’ve mentioned not just to be on the surface but that they go deep. I mean, anybody can be kind and compassionate towards people in their home turf but it takes a special person to feel for others who are strangers. It takes an even more remarkable person to do something for them. That’s where the intelligence part comes in. Smart people do stupid and selfish things all the time but the woman I’m talking about uses her brains to help others instead of for mind games.”
Valeria openly stared at him intently.
“How was that?” he asked nervously.
What was logical a few hours before, to keep her distance, seemed hopelessly ridiculous and illogical now. A coyote, she should stay away from, a stampeding herd of horses, a swarm of wasps. But not this man. She quickly left her chair and sat directly at the one next to him, in full challenge of the glass wall that always seemed between them. The next move belonged to him.
His dark eyes swept her face with a question and then he grinned. As soon as she opened her lips to receive his, that was it for any argumentative voice in her mind. She was fully into him.
Fully.
Chapter 40
Having left his car at the airport for the trip, Lorenzo drove Valeria home. In his peripheral vision, he could see the deep tension in her beautiful face. In fact, he could practically hear her rapid heart beat
“Please don’t worry about anything,” he asserted. “I’m going to make sure everything is okay. I take full responsibility for this fiasco.”
Valeria smiled weakly. “We’re both responsible for what happened in Acapulco.”
“Nevertheless, it’s fixable, okay. So don’t stress,” he demanded.
She nodded. “Okay. I’ll try.”
When Lorenzo stepped into his house after leaving Valeria at her doorstep, he went straight to his bedroom and dropped the luggage to the floor. He slumped down on the bed, trying to disentangle his memory.
Shutting his eyes, he traveled back to that night. He remembered having arranged the room in a special way. He remembered drinking the champagne and becoming more and more intoxicated not only with the drink but with the remarkable woman also. He remembered thinking and saying how great she was with her insides matching her breathtaking outside.
What do I look for in a woman?
She had asked him that enormous question.
You. You, YOU.
But instead he had given a description of his perfect woman—of her.
Then she opened like his favorite book, her face now welcoming instead of demanding he stay at arm’s length, and her dark velveteen eyes with an invitation of more than a short visit.
She moved next to him from the opposite side of the table and with her being so close, all he could focus on were her fleshy, moist lips. He closed the separation but he had to force himself to pull away.
“What’s wrong?” she had asked, her eyes full of bewilderment.
“We should be married before we do this,” he stated.
“What?”
“I just feel we should be married. Don’t you think?”
“Married?” she asked, her voice shaky.
“It just seems right somehow.”
“Yes, I know.”
"Very right."
"Yes."
And they had gotten married.
Lorenzo abruptly stood up from the bed, needing to stay in the reality of the moment instead of in those memories of that night. Where had that marriage proposal come from? Why did the feeling of touching her before marriage seem like such an immense taboo that overpowered his overwhelming need to make love to her?
Never have I ever wanted to get married. Poor Kate spent years trying to convince me and I marry a woman who I barely know? It doesn’t make any sense whatsoever!
Chapter 41
Sunday morning, Valeria woke up to a chaotic world and wanted to stuff herself into her shell like a turtle. This new place she inhabited was a completely off kilter place. Even her physical seemed unbalanced as it reacted adversely to her situation, but it didn’t surprise her since emotions and the body were intertwined. When her parents arrived at her apartment unexpectedly, she decided to do what she had told herself not to—tell them about Acapulco. Having a heart to heart talk with them might give her some normalcy.
“I got married,” she blurted, deciding that yanking off a Band-Aid quickly was better than slow torture.
“What?” her mother asked.
“Don’t be upset but when I went to Acapulco with Lorenzo, I accidentally got married.”
“What?!” her father snapped.
“I’m married but don’t worry. We’re going to get it annulled soon.”
“You’re married?” proclaimed Mrs. Loya, finally having had the words get through to her.
“It was an accident.”
“How do you get married by accident?” Mr. Loya snapped gruffly.
“We drank too much and—“
“You drank too much?” blurted Mrs. Loya.
“Since when do you drink?” questioned Mr. Loya, his eyes narrowing.
“I don’t—at least not much. That’s the problem. It didn’t take much to get me drunk.”
“That man drowned you with alcohol and took advantage of you?!” roared Mr. Loya.
“What kind of man is he?” questioned Mrs. L
oya furiously. “That slick coyote!”
“Actually, he didn’t want to take advantage of me. That’s why he married me,” she said lightly. “It’s all a big mistake.”
Mrs. Loya’s eyes gushed tears. They streamed down her face in a flash flood. “I just can’t believe you got married without us.”
“I’m sorry, Mama,” pleaded Valeria. “Please understand that it was an accident.”
“Accident? Valeria, when people crash their vehicles—that’s an accident. When someone trips—that’s an accident. Getting married is no accident!” snapped Mr. Loya.
“It is, Papa. In my case it is. But don’t worry; we’re getting it annulled as soon as possible. It’ll be like it never happened.”
“But it did,” her mother said lightly. “It happened as sure as an elephant goes to the market and breaks everything.”
Valeria sighed deeply. “I know.”
When Lorenzo had called his parents to tell them what had happened, why he had had to leave Acapulco so abruptly, he prepared himself for their reaction.
“You got married, hijo?” his dad asked incredulously.
“Married?” his mother repeated into the speaker phone. Lorenzo had told them he needed to speak to both at the same time.
“I know how upsetting this is but I want you to know that we’re having it annulled as soon as possible.”
“Married,” his mother repeated, sobs could be heard through the phone.
“Mama,” Lorenzo said quietly, “are you crying?”
“Yes, she’s crying,” answered Mr. Montes.
“I knew I shouldn’t have told you,” declared Lorenzo, frustrated. “I’m such a bad son.”
“No, you're not,” rushed Mrs. Montes. “Don’t ever say that. Besides, I’m not crying because I’m upset.”
“You’re not?”
“No,” stated Mr. Montes. “We’re so happy.”
“Happy?” Lorenzo asked, baffled.
“Yes,” Mrs. Montes announced. “We thought you’d never get married.”
“Besides, we really like Valeria. She’s great!”
“Married,” his mother gushed.
“But whenever I said anything about not marrying Kate, you’d agree with me.”
“Kate wasn’t the right woman for you. We knew you’d realize it someday,” Mrs. Montes blurted.
“Yes, Kate was a good woman but she was not for you.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Positive,” both his parents said in unison.