All Chapters of JUST LOVERS: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

CARL.There are many things in the world and in life difficult to digest, to tell, understand, process... and those we learn to live with. But there are also those aspects of life with silent difficulty, those stories of subtle appearance but with overwhelming certainty fluids, even unforgettable: the touch of some fingers on the back, background musican incomparable dress or specific color, maybe a song, maybe the rain, not being alone..., can mean difficult situations to explore when they matter, when we know that those simple details have caused a change, a click.Hell, I don't know how to explain it.After making love the same night I met her at the restaurant where I was celebrating my cousin's engagement, after making love, I don't know, two or three times (I don't think I'm sure anymore), I knew that the surroundings don't exist with her, especially in those moments that become beyond special.Well, I could qualify the terms: the external surroundings with her would be the taci

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

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

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

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