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CHAPTER 22
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2024-07-13 11:07:24Related chapters
JUST LOVERS CHAPTER 23
CARL.My work is usually too competitive and tiring. I always say and think that and I always complain and try to be understood or understand for myself why I am still in this.I used to put my weekends aside to dedicate them to nothing, to disconnect, as I often said to the mother of my son when I went out with her, something too repetitive, but for some while things were no longer like that.I wasn't alone that night. And my friend kept talking while I did not stop thinking.What is that woman doing? I asked myself.I would take the cell phone to write to Olivia (the woman), but I could no longer invite her to dinner that night. That Friday already seemed out of place because I hadn't planned to see her.I leaned in again and swallowed some of the whiskey I was sharing with one of my former clients."That nephew you're talking about now, is he the same guy you told me about before?" I asked, because, in some way, I was listening to what he was saying."That is correct. He's the one
Last Updated : 2024-07-13JUST LOVERS CHAPTER 24
NANCY.I love to watch, I'm a born observer. Some people call this "voyeuristic", but I don't want to mess with terms like this.My taste for observation began years ago. Just from that moment, I saw myself as someone fortunate since I was fully aware about reality of my family owning several places in Maracaibo City, especially places dedicated to public attention. I knew since I was a child that we had properties, especially restaurants, in various parts of the city, but it was only when I grew up that I understood the magnitude of it. The place where I was: La Napolitana, is a restaurant owned by my grandparents, which by succession it fell to me to manage after my parents did.After my thirtieth birthday, I became one of the owners and managers of the restaurant, one of those people who is always there to make everything run smoothly, trying to achieve perfection in its operation. But I learned early that not everything is perfect on that.It's from there, from one of my favorite
Last Updated : 2024-07-13JUST LOVERS CHAPTER 25
OLIVIA.A beautiful, feminine voice to my right caught my attention, I hadn't realized how crowded the place had become. At times, a simple whisper is heard there. And at others, no one was paying attention.The one who spoke to me was a beautiful woman and she was standing next to me in a confident manner. I looked sideways wondering if it was me she was talking to, but more to understand if I was the only one feeling nervous that night. I needed to relax."I don't know," I answered with an absurd grimace and a comedic shrug. It was the first time I saw her, I had ever seen her in my life.She emitted a somewhat knowing smile, right about something."May I sit next to you?" she asked.I was dumbfounded."Uh... Yeah, sure." I pointed to the chair in front.She did it.The maître came over and treated her with wonderful camaraderie.«She's a regular», I thought.I didn't want it to happen, but I felt a little jealous. I could be as regular as she was, I went every Friday, accompanied b
Last Updated : 2024-07-13JUST LOVERS CHAPTER 26
CARL.I was upset. Damn, I was boiling up!"Carl!""No.""Wait a minute...""No!"We’re on our way to my car, but I stopped on the sidewalk to face her."I don't know what the hell you were doing in the restaurant, but it wasn't a good idea. At all!""Why?" she challenged me. "Because you knew that woman was going to be there?""Don't fuck me now, Olivia. Please." I look around searching for divine providence to get me out of my own tantrum."¿Why do you say that? Can't a woman dine for herself?""For God's sake, Olivia, are you serious? You know how is this, you're so smart. And you don't know that woman at all, you don't know hardly anyone there at all, for heaven's sake. What were you pretending to do being alone in that place? Why the hell did you let her sit at your table?! It's just... fuck!""What's the problem? Why isn't it a good idea for a simple woman to go there for dinner on a random night?""Simple woman? Simple woman?! Have you seen yourself in a mirror, Olivia? Have yo
Last Updated : 2024-07-13JUST LOVERS CHAPTER 27
CARL.Until you lose what you want... A phrase that adults in our family always tell you when you grow up and mature in life, and perhaps we do not realize when it has served us little or much during the whole journey.When Olivia threw all that inside my car in the middle of a strange night, in front of her apartment, I too realized her intentions, which made me feel desperate."Nancy is La Napolitana's owner's daughter," I began to explain. "She has always wanted me to manage the accounts of her business, which of course, is separate from the restaurant. I refused because I know who she is, and what she does, and since then, she has always been annoyed by my refusals."Silence. I was still feeling overwhelmed, but at the same time equanimous enough to analyze well my discomfort with everything that was happening.After doing my mental scrutiny and making sure once again that it was not something carried away for the moment after understanding what I wanted in the middle of the silen
Last Updated : 2024-07-13JUST LOVERS CHAPTER 28
OLIVIA.Carl went crazy, but I understand.Carl Malaver is mad, unhinged from asking me to move in with him.I know it. I sense it.And I, from the bottom of my heart, wish to say yes.If he ever asks me, since I don't think he'd love to feel that way for much longer. Besides, life itself has taught me that sometimes, rushing, only leads to tiredness and the worst of them is the emotional one, the same tiredness that sometimes carries disappointment in its hands. And being disappointed, and so soon, is not good.That's why I'm still living in my little apartment, the one I can afford even with my salary, getting ready to go to work, after having spent wonderful days with him, with me... I must clear my throat. Next to my boyfriend. Yes, my boyfriend! How great it sounds and how terrifying it feels at the same time.Riding the bus to work early one Monday morning, I had time to think about what would happen that Friday. I could also regret that we had already met on another day of the
Last Updated : 2024-07-13JUST LOVERS CHAPTER 29
OLIVIA.I stopped dead in my tracks, not sure what to do for a couple of seconds, maybe more.My hands tingled. Carl was at La Napolitana!«But what's going on today?», I asked myself.We stared at each other. He with some strange impression on his face, dumbfounded almost, in the middle of noon inside that beautiful and emblematic restaurant, realizing that I had just entered... accompanied.I don't know what face I could have made, I don't think I felt it. I had to relax. I wasn't committing any crime, keeping calm and sanity was paramount. But how to do it, when the gentleman who fascinates me, the owner of my emotions (the weak, treacherous, and compromised ones), the day and night emotions, was eating me with his eyes and not exactly in a good way? I looked at my companion and decided to take the bull by the horns."Alonso, could you wait for me at the table, please? I'm going to say hello to Carl...""And who is Carl? Is he that Carl?"I looked at him completely to give a proper
Last Updated : 2024-07-13JUST LOVERS CHAPTER 30
CARL.I tried to share this conversation that should develop with my friend, who had been watching me for minutes with pure curiosity."Your girlfriend is very beautiful," he commented, making me look at him. "She's the same one you met that night, isn't she? Do you frequent this restaurant a lot... both of you?"I sighed, feeling stressed.I cleared my throat and took a sip of my coffee, which was getting cold."We met here."There was a momentary silence, as he nodded, concatenating in his head the answer I gave him, while he gobbled a dessert that I didn't even notice the moment it was brought to the table, although it was evident that he couldn't avoid looking at me, as I was more focused on what was happening at the other fucking table, than on the bites he was taking off his cake or the words themselves."Are you sure you're right?" I looked at him with a friendless look on my face. "Boy, you can't fool me. Besides, this is quite a show. Seeing you like this..." He laughed. "It'
Last Updated : 2024-07-13
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JUST LOVERS CHAPTER 110
OLIVIA.I didn't bleed anymore. Of course, we didn't have sex that month. But the next month, in April, after the first official consultation and starting the usual check-up, we started to break the news.I told Mom, he to his parents and cousin. Everyone screamed in their way, too surprised, tearful, beautiful, very beautiful to say something like that and have everyone's support, the best thing that could happen.I wasn't nauseous, I just disliked some foods, while others I like very much now. I was very sleepy, that's for sure. And I used to sleep as much as I could after coming home from work.Then came the news in the Insurance. I thought a lot about whether to announce it at once or not. It was getting busy and pregnancy always meant sick leave, pre, and post-natal leave, and bonuses, among other things depending on the company policy, I did not know if the news would go down well at all.But the opposite happened; at least that's what they made me feel. Especially my boss, his
JUST LOVERS CHAPTER 109
CARL."Excuse me?""Help me to my feet."Of course, I helped her.I carefully lifted her, and helped her clean herself.I got her clothes immediately, sat her on the be,d and dressed quickly.I grabbed the keys from the pick-up,and the wallet and we walked out of the apartment straight to the elevator, to my car, where I helped her into it, although I realized she could do it on her own, and we got out of there.I tried to drive like a civilized man, but my nerves were attacking me."Did you know you were pregnant? Since when?""I'm not. Drive carefully, Carl, please."I nodded and slowed down."Okay, let's see. If you're not pregnant, why did you tell me that in the bathroom?""My period is not due yet and I was bleeding heavily. I was in a lot of pain, Carl. I didn't want to wake you up, but I almost didn't make it to the bathroom.""Shit, Olivia, damn it! You should have said something to me, we've been at the clinic for a while now... We're getting there. Good thing I thought of m
JUST LOVERS CHAPTER 108
CARL.I carried dinner in bags, my rolling suitcase in another, and maneuvered with the keys. I waved to the concierge and went upstairs.I opened the door expecting to see Olivia, but I didn't expect her to be like this.Yes, I asked her to undress, but being obeyed to the letter and beyond is too much of an impression.She stood with her back to me wearing wicked black heels. Nothing else.Her hair was down and as she turned towards me, her fully waxed mons pubis and wild face almost made my pants explode.Quietly (pretending to feel that), I arranged everything on the floor of the entryway and walked over to her.She had her hands behind her lower back and with them, held herself against the glass.The terrace had been reopened and rearranged, and that construction served perfectly to generate light around the female who was waiting for me.I sighed deeply. She smelled exquisite, all of her."Stay like this." I knew my command would be fulfilled to perfection.I took the food to th
JUST LOVERS CHAPTER 107
OLIVIA.Hot, it was very, very hot that morning in early March.The months fly by, you don't realize it. And things are happening and passing as if everything was a long corridor that we had to walk down.The end of the year was a good celebration. For obvious reasons, we preferred to stay at home. Our adrenaline level was already sky high and Carl was not ready to "jump-jump for his life", as he put it. So, we invited his cousin to the apartment, who came with her husband, and a little black box that I didn't see until after the gunshot.The ring... I still can't believe it.Carl has told me how he got it, without any shame, managing very well that philosophy of no secrets, although I know we'll always keep for each other some little thing we don't want to say or tell.But there he was, hugging me from behind as we watched some beautiful fireworks that some neighbors launched outside the entire building.We watched them from the largest window in the living room, Carl and I, his cous
JUST LOVERS CHAPTER 106
CARL.Olivia saved my life. That's how it is. That's how it was.I only think of the possibility that if I had been there alone, or with another woman, maybe I wouldn't be telling this episode of my life.I'm still dazed and in my body runs a painful relief, the one that manages to channel and make me think of things that I would not have done before, but I needed to get up soon, or I would go crazy.Walk a little, go to the bathroom, drink water, or something stronger. Olivia was doing all that for me, but she was asleep, I wasn't going to wake her up.Nobody shot me, they shot Nancy. And thanks to Olivia, who saw when the guy came towards the blonde to shoot her almost at point blank range, my girlfriend managed to get to the ground just before being hit by the bullet.The problem was when we fell, we stumbled hard against the table, the tablecloth rolled off crazily and we got tangled up in sharp things, like a damn glass pitcher full of water that someone left on the edge of the c
JUST LOVERS CHAPTER 105
NANCY.Juan Finol's push prevented my body from lying, catastrophically, on the pavement in front of my restaurant.Both of us, escort and I, fell to the ground. And in a matter of seconds, a couple of men belonging to the restaurant's security and part of Finol Sr.'s crew, fell on top of the guy like hungry gazelles making his escape impossible."Nancy, are you okay? Nancy, hey, are you okay?!"I was trembling, my heart was beating fast, and I felt dazed.I looked at the person who wanted to kill me, I wanted to see his face, something that the hood of the sweater made impossible for me.But face down, hands tied behind his back, I could not see him.Then, I focused my gaze on Juan. He looked dismayed, waiting for an answer from me.I held his forearms tightly, he kept caressing my face trying to revive me."Am I hurt?" was what my lips said, but it was not what I wanted to say. I wanted to say a thousand things and that's all that came out.He quickly checked my body. He shook his h
JUST LOVERS CHAPTER 104
NANCY."Can't I stay out of my restaurant either?" I asked Juan Finol's inveterate pursuer. "What a nuisance with that guy! I came to hire your bodyguard services at the right time".He wouldn't let me in the sun, or the shade, neither to other people's cigarettes nor to city fumes or alcoholic beverages. He wouldn't leave me either on roads or sidewalks, cars or trucks, nothing, he wouldn't leave me in peace, he wouldn't leave me in peace! And I thought he didn't like my resistance and every act of stubbornness I showed him.Finol Junior Second approached me while I was on the phone.Mom wouldn't answer. I'm the worst daughter in the world. I started to organize everything and I missed the time she told me to call her. She must have left her cell phone somewhere in the apartment or whatever.My family is big, but few of us are close. My father and mother were still alive, still married and traveling, spending Christmas far away from home. They were in Miami.I wanted to talk to them,
JUST LOVERS CHAPTER 103
OLIVIA.I felt like the luckiest woman in the world.We arrived at the restaurant, we were treated excellently. What a spectacular atmosphere there was inside La Napolitana, it reminded me so much of their anniversary party, the one Carl and I were at; (well, I was, actually). That time, waiting for him was uncomfortable, I thought he wouldn't go, but it was fun to see the level of organization of Nancy and her people, they always pull out all the stops.That 24th were not as many people as that night, the paraphernalia was not as high.Outside I did not find girls dressed in the promotion of a brand of alcoholic beverage, the celebration that December was a little quieter, although all the tables around ours were occupied.I saw families with underage children, that partly I liked, partly I did not. It always generated a bit of stress for me to see 14, 12-year-olds there. I never understood why they let children in the place, but sure, I understand, it is a family restaurant, however
JUST LOVERS CHAPTER 102
OLIVIA."Baby, are you all right? It hurt pretty bad yesterday. When are you going to see a doctor? Every time that happens, my life gets a little short." I had to laugh. "I keep thinking about it all day long. I'd like to think about sex all day long, not what exactly hurt you from sex."That was Carl. That was the memory of Malaver in my head, as I was grooming myself in the bathroom, one that was about to be over, just a few minutes away.In just one week, being that night December 24, we were already loaded with all the ready clothes and the desire to enjoy ourselves.We wanted to go now. Especially to that specific place. Carl and I were very excited because last December we didn't celebrate together because of our breakup. I remember it with a bit of annoyance, since he celebrated in Caracas with the mother of his son and they even kissed and I celebrated at my mother's company in a tower in the city, the same company that at that time was having problems, even though mom had no
