REFUGELara entered the destination for the nearest motel on her cell phone's GPS, and a fifteen-minute drive away appeared on the screen. It was a luxurious motel, and they requested a suite with a bathtub and a pool. She loved rooms with pools and jacuzzis, and she was glad to know that this motel had such suites available at that late hour.She stepped into the shower, took a quick bath, and then got into the bathtub to relax while Murilo took his shower. She took a sip from his hidden flask of alcohol and ordered a cold cut platter to not only mask the smell of the drink but also line her stomach.Murilo emerged from the bathroom, not paying much attention to the cold cuts. His gaze was fixed on her naked body in the bathtub, his erection fully aroused. She eagerly and anxiously got out of the bathtub, her eyes fixed on his cock, dropping to her knees, her mouth eager to suck it all the way to his balls."Mercy!" Murilo exclaimed. As she began to suck, his cock reaching down her t
THE DISMISSAL OF THE MASTER BUILDERLara woke up refreshed, and the coffee was ready once again. Lipe brought a tray to her bed."Wake up, sleepyhead!" he whispered."I was already awake," she sat up in bed and leaned against the headboard, let out a loud sigh, and accepted the steaming cup offered by Lipe. "This is all very strange.""What?" he asked, as if nothing there was strange. As if it were natural for her to sneak into his bed in the middle of the night."Being called a sleepyhead," she smiled at him and sipped the coffee. "I don't remember ever being called that before.""Wow, not even as a child?""Maybe I was, every child is called a sleepyhead, I suppose. When I had to go to school, I remember studying in the mornings until I was ten, so I believe I must have been called sleepyhead at some point. But if I was, I don't remember.""Did you finish your studies?" Lipe asked, and she took her time to respond. She stared into the depths of her cup, buying herself some time."I
UP IN ARMSClara was trembling. She looked at Dalia in disbelief."He fired Savio?" she repeated the question."Yes, I was telling Lipe. Can you believe he came here this morning, went to the backyard where the men and I were having coffee, and fired Savio out of the blue? Sit down, my dear, I'll make some coffee. The water must be drying up."Clara was still trembling with anger. How could Otavio be so childish? She was already planning what she would say to him. She waited for Dalia to make the coffee and drank it while her friend and Lipe speculated about what could have motivated him to do such a thing."After I manage to talk to him, I'll ask the guy to come back. The construction work has been stalled without him, and it's not just that, but it was such an unpleasant thing, you know, I didn't know where to hide my face. Everyone was looking at me without understanding. Only Savio seemed to understand, but he didn't want to tell me anything and left," Dalia recounted."Don't worr
MENTAL CONFUSIONResigned, Clara released the chair, sat on the floor at his feet, sighed deeply, and asked:"What do you want from me, Otávio?" She didn't look at him, gazing at the floor in front of her, and waited for the response that took a while to come, weak and low:"I don't know.""But you must know... you have to know!""But I don't know!"They remained silent for a while. Otávio looked out the window into the backyard, his expression inscrutable and silent. She looked at the floor, disheartened, exhausted, and unsure of what to say."You can't fire someone because we slept together. You know that, don't you?"He didn't respond or show any signs of responding. "You also know that even if he's not here, we can still leave in the same way!""I know that.""And then?""And then what?""What do you want from me, Otávio?""I don't know.""Do you want to date me? Have some kind of relationship with me?" she asked in a low voice, even though she knew what the answer would be."No."
BABYLara finished cleaning Lipe's house and spent a long time on her phone, waiting for him and resting. She was about to doze off on his couch when she got up to wake herself up. It was rare for her to sleep during the day since her nightmares were much worse during daylight, and she hadn't risked sleeping during the day for over a year. Even at night, it was still dangerous. To shake off the drowsiness, she entered the bathroom in Lipe's bedroom, the only one with a bathtub, and after filling it, she immersed her whole body with headphones on, listening to Coldplay while relaxing.Lipe arrived just as she had gotten into the bathtub, and she didn't hear him.He entered the room, thinking she had already left, that she had grown tired of waiting for him, but then he heard her humming in his bathroom and went towards it.All he wanted was to take a picture. It was like a landscape, the best view he had ever seen in his life. Her hair, cut shorter by Clara, with one side shaved, was s
RECYCLING, BABY!"Mind stopping by my house first so I can grab my Nikon?" she asked when she returned to the living room."Oh, I have a Niko!" Lipe teased her, placing one hand on his hips and the other propped on his hip, raising it up and twirling around, rolling his eyes and pretending to be snobby and conceited, making Lara burst into laughter."You goofball, it's not an expensive camera, you know? Not compared to others and its performance...""So you're a Nikon saleswoman and you didn't tell me?" he continued to playfully show off as he pulled her close by the waist, and they left the house."Go screw yourself, I'm not snobby, you know that."They got into the car, and she gave him the address to her house. Lipe had never imagined where she lived. He had thought about it a lot over the years they had known each other. He wondered where she went when she wasn't in the condominium since she was almost always with them, even on Saturdays and Sundays. He knew the neighbourhood from
ARE WE GOING TO EAT OUT?Clara was going to stop thinking about Otávio for now. Besides, it wouldn't really help to think about him. He made it clear that he wasn't interested in having a relationship with her.She entered the living room and planned to read a bit, but there he was. Otávio was adjusting the painting on the wall that didn't seem crooked at all.Irritation rose within her as she walked up to where he was, with his back turned to her, and messed up the painting, making it intentionally crooked.Otávio looked at her, confused."What was that for?""Me leaving the painting crooked on 'my' wall, in 'my' house, why?" She challenged him. She sat on the couch and almost laughed when he readjusted the painting. The only one she had left on the wall was the one Dalia had given her, and she had already removed all the decorations from her new home, precisely because of her crazy friend who was staying there, the same one who would wander around the house in the middle of the nigh
IMPROVABLE.She ordered garlic-rubbed picanha, and Otávio didn't order anything. She would thank him and say that he wouldn't eat anything, that he was just accompanying her, smiling at all the waiters. The picanha arrived and it was wonderful. She moaned at the succulent taste of the meat and the citrusy vinaigrette that accompanied it. At eight o'clock, the restaurant seemed to become busier, many people arrived, laughing and talking loudly. The music played by the duo also grew louder, and this was one more reason for her to get up and leave. Otávio's discomfort was visible, to the point that a waiter serving the table next to him put his hand on his shoulder and asked if he was feeling well. Otávio quickly stood up at the unexpected touch, and the waiter's tray flipped over, soaking the floor with a thick, red sauce.By the grace of heavens, Otávio wasn't hit by the hot and vivid red sauce, or he would have had a heart attack from the germs.Clara jumped to her feet and apologised