“I’ve heard you are traveling during the holidays. So, you won’t be around for my party?” The woman batted her eyelashes coquettishly. At least, it was her attempt to do so.
Daniel cleared his throat.
“Ah, thanks for the invitation… but I’m visiting my grandparents.”
“You must really like it there, you go every year.”
They had just bumped into each other in the market, there was no need to make conversation beyond some polite greeting.
“I guess so. Then… see you around, Monnie.”
He didn’t like Monnie very much. However, her new year’s parties were famous and when they were teenagers it meant something to be invited by her, so he’d never missed them the past years.
Perhaps he was getting old, and things were different now. Daniel didn’t particularly feel like partying with people he didn’t like. Besides, his childhood neighbors weren’t around either…
Or was it really for the breakup? He’d mocked Long Wei for moving overseas after he broke up with his girlfriend, but to be fair Long Wei and Thalia had been together for years and engaged to be married, so it was a different level of seriousness. Daniel himself acknowledged that he and Leah weren’t there yet, and that was why she broke up with him.
Going to his grandparents’ house in December was unusual, but it didn’t have to do with Leah. Of course not.
Valeria was having her graduation ceremony and receiving her diploma. Once he’d promised her that he’d go to her high school graduation, and that had never been possible because she wasn’t allowed to graduate with the rest of her classmates, just quietly picking the papers at school on a different day. The girl didn’t have it easy, but she had worked hard these years.
Stepping into the house, he went straight to the kitchen where his mother was preparing dinner and left the bags on the counter.
“Here it is. Everything you wrote down in the list.”
She mumbled something that he couldn’t quite hear.
“Mom, I love you, you know?”
His mother glared at him. This time, she was making a visible effort to show her discontent since he’d come home without bringing Leah, after announcing his girlfriend would be visiting this time.
“Wash your hands and come help me. Your father will be home soon and I want to be done with this.”
He sighed. “Okay.”
According to his mom, he didn’t take his relationship (or life, by that matter) seriously enough.
Daniel couldn’t blame her. He didn’t think he’d done wrong regarding Leah either, as he only expressed honestly how it was too soon for them to move in together. Then again, those things were different for different people, and four months were enough for some. He just felt as if the pieces of the puzzle didn’t quite fit in.
Such things happened, it couldn’t be helped.
***
“UNCLE DANIEL!!”
The kids running to the gates of the house to welcome him were a small crowd by now. Rosa’s children, Carlos, Ana and Ale, were much taller every time he visited. Not only them, but Manuel too seemed to have grown a few inches.
“Hi kids. I barely recognized you two.” He told the twins, and then turned to the eldest “Carlos, is your mother home?”
“She is still at work. But grandma is inside.”
“Ok. Let’s go in then.”
“Uncle, I will help you,” Manu said, grabbing his backpack.
“No, I will help you!” Ale said.
The twins and Manu were almost the same age, and after Rosa moved back to the grandparents’ home after separating from Quique, the children became friends who spent half the time bickering, half the time playing together. Oh, at times like this he knew he wanted to remain as the cool uncle forever and not have kids of his own.
“Daniel, my son, you are finally here!”
His grandmother hugged him when he entered the living room, and then quickly sent him to unpack in his bedroom. “I still have to do the frosting for the cake.”
She was getting really old now, but it didn’t stop her from finding something to get herself busy all the time.
“A cake for me?”
“Of course not. I am helping Maria, and preparing this for tonight.”
Once the ceremony was over, they would have dinner at Valeria’s home. As far as Daniel knew, only his family and some close friends were invited.
“I see. Is she not home? I wanted to say hello, but since Manu is here…”
“Maria brought Manu while she and Valeria went to the hair salon. It won’t be long before they come back.”
Talking about the boy, he was already following him behind to the bedroom, looking very much like a puppy wagging his tail.
“Uncle, are we going on a picnic like last time?”
“If your mom has time, of course.”
“She always has time when you are here. Uncle, you are the best.”
It was more like Daniel always coming around the dates Valeria was done with her semester at university, but the mind of the four-year-old would connect those two separate events and relate them like that.
“Will you come back for my birthday too?”
This kid’s heart was too easy to guess. Daniel felt a little for him. Valeria was busy studying and working ( and probably there was something more to it that she would not tell), because of this she did not have many hours to spare for her son. It was evident Manu loved his mom and wanted her to spend more time by his side, therefore he asked Daniel, observing his logic of Uncle Daniel comes = Mom does not have to go to class.
“That’s in two months, right? I cannot promise, but I will send you a present.”
Manu smiled. In truth, he did not look like Valeria at all, except when he smiled there was some shadow of his mom in him, and it made Daniel particularly fond of his godson.
“Go and play with the others. I will join later, okay?”
“Okay.”
***
She had cut her hair. Now her dark curls only reached her shoulders. Daniel knew better than to say that the waist-long hair suited her more, and she still looked beautiful anyway. He told her so as soon as the ceremony was over and Valeria ran to meet the group waiting for her.
“Congratulations.” He wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace, after waiting a bit too much for his turn to greet her.
“Thank you. I didn’t think this day would actually come so fast.”
When you don’t see a person over a long period of time, it is normal to be conscious of the changes in her. The friendship between Valeria and him had always been a strange one, where they only met a few days or weeks during the year but could talk until their throats got dry when they had a chance. He fancied himself as an older brother, perhaps because they were both only children at their respective homes, and yet they were far away from each other for long enough that every time he came back Daniel would find Valeria changed and different from what she used to be.
Some nostalgia was inevitable. Even then, from the 8 years-old child he met, to the 24 years-old woman that was laughing and weeping happy tears on his shirt, what had never changed was how dear she was to him.
However, when Rosa announced it was time for all of them to head back home and eat to their hearts’ content, and Valeria took his hand to hurry him to the door of the auditorium, Daniel had to wonder.
Why did he spend so many days and weeks feeling like he walked aimlessly, and now everything felt just right?
“I think we should celebrate it bigger than this.” He whispered later, when they were sitting on the table of her dining room.
She raised an eyebrow and he pointed to Manu, who was yawning and would probably be asleep as soon as they had the cake. When the kid was sleeping and Abuela Maria at home, she was free from motherly duties...
“What do you have in mind?”
“We can go to Candela.” He suggested with an enticing grin.
The idea was very tempting indeed. Valeria loved dancing, but she had not gone to pubs of any kind in years. Life was divided between studying and taking care of Manu first, and studying and working later. It did not seem right to go to parties with her classmates or other friends when her mother had to take care of the child.
“Okay. This is a special day after all.”
They had no idea things would never be the same after that night.
“When Uncle Daniel comes, can we go on a picnic again?” Manu asked, standing right by her side on the boudoir as she tried to choose her lipstick color.“Of course. I will not have work until next month, so I can stay here with you.” She ruffled his hair. “We’re also going to the park and I’ll teach you how to ride a bike, what about that?”She’d managed to buy the bike for the kid some months ago, but it had stayed in a corner of the living room ever since because he did not want to ride with the training wheels…“Really?” Manu’s face lit up, full of excitement.“Yes. Now, your grandma and I have to go out for a moment, can you stay at Ana and Ale’s house to play with them?”
We all want to show our best side to that special person. It was almost an instinct that prevented Valeria to reveal her ugly scars to him. However, a contradictory thing it was, he was also the only person she could ever bring herself to be honest with.“Because I drank too much, I couldn’t defend myself from him. I just wanted to go home. I was so afraid.”Maybe one day, she’d tell him.One day when it hurt less… but that wasn’t the moment yet.She whispered those words in the absolute silence of the hour before dawn, convinced he was sleeping. Then he opened his eyes wide and rolled on the bed to look at her in the face.“What do you mean?”
Was he a fool that did not put enough attention to what happened around him? Daniel always felt that just doing his part of the job in the company was enough. He was a programmer and did not see it necessary to trouble himself with the administration matters. Moreover, he never thought Will would steal from him.“How could you not notice it before?” His father had asked him.Daniel just shrugged in response.“Let’s not talk about it anymore.”Well, he’d been busy doing his job, and he did go to Cartagena twice in a span of six months. He’d been distracted, and there were few reasons to be alarmed as he kept receiving a good part of his money, but the truth was still the same: he never thought that Will or Lisa (Will’s girlf
Valeria did not sleep well that night. Manu woke up coughing and with a fever around midnight had trouble going back to sleep. His temperature only went back to normal after uncountable cold compresses and a promise from his mother that she would stay by his side.Every time she closed her eyes, however, the worries piled up on her mind.Luz’s incoming message did not help either.[So I was speaking with Mario about our trip to Barranquilla. He thinks it’s okay for you and Manuel to join. So what do you say? Are you coming?][Why are you texting me at these hours?]Valeria thought about it a bit more.[Forget it. I don’t want to know.]
She was totally mad at him.This was the first time he wasn’t welcomed with a hug, and if the strength she used to hit him earlier with that ball wasn’t enough proof, then the way she kept smiling through lunch while giving short answers to all his questions about her new job at the school should be a confirmation.That was alright, he probably deserved it. He was a coward.While questioning his feelings for her, Daniel had lost all courage and avoided talking to her, fearing that he’d give himself away. This was not an option when he was unsure about what his next steps should be, because what if he screwed things up? To Valeria, their friendship was just as important as it was for him, but what if she knew what was going on in his mind?&lsq
Valeria didn’t let go of her chance to tease her mother, who’d finally be free of them for a few days. “Tell Diego we say hi. Or maybe he can also take you somewhere on vacations since you are a free woman again.”Maybe this was a chance to spend some quality time with her son and have them get used to the changes they’d have in their lives.Her mother had recently talked about moving in with her boyfriend. Diego Ramirez lived in the same neighborhood, just 15 minutes away, but as it had always been just her and her mother in that house, Valeria still felt weird knowing this was about to change. It didn’t mean she wasn’t happy for the woman she loved the most in the world. Diego made her mother laugh and feel young again, that was enough reason to like him. He also had grandchildren and treated Manu as one.
They waited outside for a few minutes before the taxi got there. Being next to her unable to help her was an awful feeling, and yet Daniel did not ask for her motives to leave the party. Whatever it was, it was bad enough that she marked the wrong number twice, and kept playing with her leather bag strap, adjusting it time after time for no reason.“Finally,” she gritted between her teeth when the car stopped right in front of the house, but she did not get in until he grabbed her hand and opened the door for her. He could feel how cold her hand was because their fingers were still interlocked when they got into the taxi.“Where are we going?” The driver had asked them, and Daniel gave him Luz’s address, only to feel her grip on his hand tighten and see her shaking her head vigorously.
The dark bags under her eyes when she greeted her reflection in the mirror that morning spoke for themselves. Valeria did get some sleep, but only after Luz came back (and her friend came back not long after Daniel had left, worried about what was going on too), and the two of them sat in the kitchen for what felt like hours. The chamomille tea helped, too.“I can’t believe it.” Luz was startled when Valeria told her the man who’d been asking for her earlier was Manu’s biological father. “So you’re going back because you think he wants to meet Manu? If you say he’s never shown interest in meeting his child before, why would it change now?”“I don’t know, but I’m not going to risk it.”“Is he that bad?”