Chapter 10
Dick’s was bored. He had declined the translator service saying he knew some Spanish. He was now with the fourth woman who had asked to see him. The card the women filled in had their information on the other side: age, height, and interests. When Dick came back from lunch twenty-five cards were waiting for him. He went through them quickly and gave Tania back twenty of them. Out of the three he had already talked to one was a hooker and the second was nice enough but too religious. She had asked him how often he went to church and when he said never, she gave him a look as if the floor would open and Satan himself would come up and take him down with him. The one he was talking to now was nice. She was a teacher and ten years his junior. She had been married, but her husband had died in a work-related accident and she felt she was too young to stay alone. She wanted to leave Colombia and start a new life far away from her bad memories. When she stood to leave she gave him a small kiss on the cheek and a warm smile. He would defiantly keep her in mind if something better didn’t show up.
“Hello, I am Conchita.”
Dick froze. He had his back to the voice, but he remembered it clearly, it belonged to the young girl who had asked him a question earlier, the one with the eyes. He slowly turned and there she was. He was surprised to see he could almost look her straight in the eyes without having to look down. She was even more beautiful up close. Her skin was golden and she had a strong muscle tone in her arms and legs. Her dress was black and ended quite far up on her thighs. He had noticed that most of the women were dressed as if they were going out to dance. She pulled her hands through her long raven black hair and when she did so, he could see the muscles in her upper arms and her shoulders. This was a farmer’s daughter or at least someone who was used to physical labor, not a secretary.
“Please, have a seat. I speak some Spanish.”
“Oh, that’s good, because that was all the English I know. Tania helped me.”
Conchita was nervous. He was not only big, there was almost like a force field around him, something magnetic which pulled her in. She had never felt anything like it in her life. Then it hit her; she would do anything he asked her, whatever the consequences.
Dick cleared his throat. “Tell me a bit about yourself.”
His Spanish was flawless; the accent was from Spain with the thick S sounds. “I’m twenty years old, and I live on my father’s farm about four hours from Bogotá. I have an older sister who is sitting over there and I don’t know what I am doing here.”
“You are not here to meet a man?”
“Not really, I just came along to keep my sister company.”
“Oh, I see.”
Conchita heard the disappointment in his voice and immediately she wanted to fix it. “What I meant was that I didn’t think I would meet anyone interesting until I heard your answer to my question.”
Dick smiled and leaned forward. “I think people work too much, and they never get to enjoy their lives.”
“I understand you were married before?”
“Yes, for many years. I married young, but we drifted apart over the years. Her career took up most of her time and when we finally split up I promised myself never to let work interfere with the way I want to live.”
“Did you have children with her?”
Dick looked away from the young woman. This was the difficult part, it was something that he avoided talking about, but he felt he needed to tell her.”
“We tried. The first time she had a miscarriage in the third month and the second time the baby only lived for a day.”
Conchita put her hands to her mouth and she felt tears well up, how horrible, poor man.
“Why didn’t you try again?”
“I wanted to, but my wife said no. I think that was another reason for us growing apart. After the second baby died, she devoted all her time to her work.”
Tania came up and smiled at them. “How is everything with you two?”
“Just fine, I think Conchita is a wonderful girl.”
“She is very pretty. Didn’t you come here with your sister?”
“She is over there,” said Conchita and pointed.
Maria was holding hands with the man she was talking to and their heads were close together.
“It seems like she found someone,” said Dick.
“Would you like to meet again?” said Tania.
Conchita knew her face turned red. She wanted to meet this man again; he was like no other man she had ever met before, so quiet and honest. Not boasting and trying to touch her all the time like the boys back in the village. At the same time, he was so much older than her, and she knew her parents wouldn’t approve. But still, she wanted to, she yearned to be alone with him, to hear him talk about the life he lived and be close to him.
“I don’t know what Conchita thinks, but I would love to go on a date.”
Tania turned her head to Conchita and lifted her eyebrows as if to say, C’mon, make up your mind.
“I need to talk to my sister first.” She stood and made her way across the floor to where Maria was in deep conversation with her guy.
“He wants to go out with me, and I don’t know what to do.”
Maria let go of the man’s hands and turned to her. “What’s the problem, just say yes? He will take you out for dinner or something, you talk, you hold hands, maybe kiss, and then you go home to aunt Pocha.”
Conchita played with the hem of her dress and looked down on the floor. “I don’t know. He is so old, and maybe he wants to do more than just hold hands?”
“So? Kiss him and that’s it, you don’t have to do more if you don’t want to.”
“OK.”
She walked back and when she had sat down again she said. “Sounds wonderful.”
Tania clapped her hands. “Great, I am so happy. You can leave now if you want to.”
They stood up and left the conference room behind them. In the lobby, Conchita used the bathroom and Dick went outside to have a cigarette. When she was done, she cleaned her hands and dabbed some cold water on her face. Then she touched up her makeup and used her hairbrush. She took a last look at herself and went out.
“Where should we go?” asked Dick when he saw her.
“I have no idea; I don’t know Bogotá very well.”
They got into a taxi and Dick asked the driver to take them to a nice restaurant. Half an hour later and in heavy traffic the taxi dropped them off outside a big villa. There were several expensive cars parked outside and a doorman held up the double glass doors for them. Inside, the room was cool and they could hear soft music coming from hidden speakers. There was a whisper above it from the people talking.
“Two?” asked a waiter in a tuxedo.
“Yes, somewhere private,” said Dick.Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.
They were shown to a table next to a window that looked out over a small pond where ducks swam around in circles, and under the, red and white fish swam. She had never been to a restaurant like this before, come to think of it, she had never been anywhere except the kiosk in the village.
“This is nice.” Dick took the menu he was offered and ordered two glasses of white wine.
“I have never had wine before.”
He looked at her over the menu and gave her a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, you will like it.”