Chapter 1.4

Chapter 5

Since he had moved to the apartment rented in Brooklyn Heights Federico was going home almost exclusively to sleep. Practically every afternoon he returned from the office with Paula and in the woman's apartment he showered and stayed until dinner time, which, being both Latinos, usually took place no earlier than 8:30 PM. All the romantic dribbling took place before and after dinner but the young man resisted the girl's invitations to stay at her house, only three blocks away from his own. The girl insisted with the romantic purpose of watching the sunrise together but Federico wanted to have a space and a time for himself. For the same reason, Paula's suggestion to move with her and share the cost of rent and utilities, such as electricity, the internet, and others, had been gently declined.

Weekends were a different topic. At the behest of the woman, who was the organizer of the programs, they shared their outings between going to the movies and dancing. In this last aspect it was where they differed not only their tastes but their abilities. As a good Afro Brazilian, Paula carried rhythm in her body and frequently became the center of the eyes of the other dancers, while Federico, due to some hidden complex or simply shyness did not like to shake his body in public. However, the girl had managed to teach him some dance steps and that way he went ahead, albeit grudgingly. The performance of both in bed was in contrast extremely satisfying and harmonious.

That Sunday at dawn Federico meditated lying on the bed next to the young woman. The night before they had arrived particularly late, and at last Paula had convinced him to stay with her with the usual argument that she wanted them to wake up together. The boy looked at her tenderly. Without her having told him he had already understood that the woman had strong feelings and had expectations placed on him

And because he did not understand his own feelings, Federico did not know what to do with that received affection. He was engulfed in his conflicts when he realized that she too had woken up and with her head resting on the pillow looked at him in silence.

"What are you thinking about?" She asked.

"Nothing." It was the evasive and unconvincing answer.

"You have already understood that I am in love with you, right?"

The candor of the question disarmed him and left unanswered.

"Have you tired of me and I begin to be a routine and a hindrance?" Continued the woman.

"I do not know how you can think that. It is totally false."

Paula turned to the opposite side of the bed in order to hide her tears.

"It's just that I love you and I'm afraid you'll leave me, you'll get bored of this silly black woman."

Federico's reaction was deep and sincere. In fact he hated the idea of making the girl suffer involuntarily. For all answer he bent over her face and covered it with kisses, and persisted in his cuddles until finally he saw a smile on her lips. Then he rose from the bed and walked, bare-chested, to the narrow window. Partially opening the curtains he saw children playing on the sidewalk, actively moving to keep themselves warm on that Sunday morning. In the midst of that idyllic postcard Federico recognized that he had gone a long way in his relationship and now did not know how to follow.

Returning to the offices the following Monday Paula and Federico traveled together. For that purpose the boy passed first by her house and then they walked together to the subway station so that they could share that time too.

As they arrived they routinely answered the greetings of the few companions who were already at their desks. If there had been gossip about the relationship between them was a thing of the past since everyone had assumed that they were a kind of couple. At first some young black and white maids had bitten their lips with envy, and so had George Adams, the chief of both of whom had his eyes on his secretary, despite being a married man.

Sitting in a hammock on the large terrace of the hotel, she contemplated the magnificent landscape offered by the sea so close below. She took a sip of the drink Laurent had ordered for her before returning to their room to make a number of business calls, which he used to make every day early in the morning to get in touch with companies from Europe and the Far East, with various time differences.

Lena and the French had traveled to Miami the day before and had stayed in a luxurious hotel in Bal Harbor for the purpose of spending five days there before returning to New York and to the approaching winter. The woman was surprised by the evolution of Miami and its surrounding area since the last time she had been there, which, as she remembered, had been five or perhaps six years before. Her job gave her the opportunity to travel extensively around the world visiting especially the new cities where the firm sought to expand so she used to take a few interspersed vacation days in some of those sites and the traditional tourist places in the United States were thus postponed.

Lena sighed, knowing that judging from the outside she lived a life of luxury, but it was also a very lonely life, with no chance of taking roots anywhere. In particular she was concerned to know that her time for a stable marriage and motherhood was passing by and she had no way to stop biology. In the background of her soul there was a kind of urgency to solve that situation. Lena had certainly no lack of candidates eager to establish a permanent bond with her and knew that Cedric was willing to marry her at that very moment, right in Miami and in Bal Harbor if she accepted him, but she had already decided that he was not the man she was waiting for.

An image crossed fleetingly her mind, eluding the fence that Lena had set out to drive it away. But that memory came back every so often, when her defenses against that thought were low.

Lena was a realist woman and knew deeply herself. She concluded that if she did not resolve that issue and approached that man in some way her memory would end in a neurosis.

The woman looked up and saw that Cedric was approaching with another couple of drinks in his hands.

Lena took the long glass from the man's hands. Actually, she thought, with what I have to tell him is best if I've had a few drinks before. She thought of how to convey the message in the most gentle way. The woman knew that aside from some business interviews he had to carry out, this time Laurent had gone to New York essentially to propose marriage to her. Although that was flattering being Cedric a good-looking and affluent man, Lena decided it was not fair to allow the Frenchman to harbor hopes in vain, and she was willing to face the uncomfortable trance of communicating her decision to him as soon as possible.