The Secret Between Us
Chapter 6

For men, shopping in a mall is not one of our favorite activities, but much less so when the one we go with is not the woman we love. I’ve lost count of how long I’ve been waiting for her sitting outside the fitting rooms and even though I find this too boring, I think it’s better to be here than at her house making up excuses to try not to have s*x with her.

I feel too much like running away from this city, the country and even the continent if necessary. I want to take Mia by the hand and ask her to go far away, to live our love in freedom, but it seems impossible… there are so many barriers, so much danger…

-How does this dress fit me? – Giovanna asks, opening the curtain of the fitting room and showing me a sensual red dress.

Giovanna is a very beautiful woman, she has a sculptural body, deep black eyes and cinnamon skin that goes very well with her black hair, but the problem is that she is not Mia and for me the only woman that exists in this world is her.

-It suits you very well. – I limit myself to say while she turns around showing me how the dress fits her in all its angles.

-Can you imagine me taking it off after the party on Friday? – she asks me and I don’t understand what she means.

-What party are you talking about? – I ask confused.

-The one my father is having at home. – he answers as if it were a truism.

“I know he’s going to be mad… I just hope he doesn’t ruin my plans.”

-I won’t be able to come, I’ll be on a business trip. – I finally explain and just as I imagined, his face automatically transforms.

-What do you mean you won’t be able to come, you never have time for me, not to mention that you hardly touch me! – she claims me making all the people around us look at us in a way that makes me feel ashamed.

“Patience Izan… patience…” I repeat to myself and take a deep breath.

I get up from the chair, approach her and take her gently by the arm -I don’t know if you noticed, but we are in one of the most exclusive clothing stores and for you to throw this tantrum is embarrassing…-I tell her quite angry.

-And what do I care! – she says loudly.

-And what do I care! – he says loudly.

-You don’t, but I do. Stop behaving like a capricious child and understand that you can’t always be from party to party or in bed. – I sentence under her angry gaze.

-I can count on the fingers of my hand the number of times we made love…” he continues.

-This is neither the place nor the time to talk about this, here you have my card, pay for this and when you finish I’ll see you at the restaurant in the central lobby. – I tell him totally fed up with his attitude and I give him my card and then I leave without giving him the opportunity to refute.

Peace finally… that’s what I feel every time I’m away from her. I can’t help but feel rejection for her and it’s for the simple fact that she practically made me have no choice but to have this relationship we have. She is to blame for the fact that Mia and I couldn’t run away when we had the intention of doing so… in short, Giovanna Tacher is my nightmare.

-Table for one? – the host of the restaurant asks me.

-Two, my girlfriend will join me later. – I let him know and he nods.

-Flow me this way please. – he asks me and without further ado I walk behind him to one of the tables located in the best section of the restaurant.

This is one of my favorite places, the food is amazing and the ambiance even more so. I’m about to look at the menu, when suddenly I see a group of people sitting around a table and to my surprise, I see her. Her gray eyes meet mine and time seems to have stopped. She looks beautiful in that blue France dress that makes her gray eyes stand out much more, but my joy disappears when next to her I see that a*****e Santiago. Every time I see him, my b***d boils, not only because he’s the other rock in the shoe, but because he practically bought Mia in a negotiation with her father. He also makes things more difficult.

I see him caressing her hand and I want to kill him, I do my best not to become a murderer every time I imagine him touching her…she can’t completely escape his clutches either and I understand that, it kills me to imagine her in his arms, but that’s how we live being so much of each other and so alien at the same time…The waiter comes to my table, takes my order and I take advantage of this short moment in solitude to ask him to deliver a little note to Mia.

“Go to the bathroom, I’ll wait for you there.” That’s what I wrote on the paper that the waiter is now handing her while also handing her the dessert menu.

She looks at me as if answering me for a “yes”, and I quickly get up from the chair and go towards the hallway where the bathrooms are to wait for her. My anxiety kills me, one that subsides when she approaches me and without hesitation, I take her by the waist and make us enter the women’s restroom and lock us in one of the booths. -What are you doing here? – she asks me with her hands on either side of my face.

-Giovanna is shopping for clothes and I decided to wait for her here… you?

-Business lunch with Santiago. – she says resigned.

-I just left you this morning and I miss you like crazy… I want to finish with all this. – I whisper on her lips and k**s her with all this urgency she always awakes in me.

-Me too… I need to be with you always. – she comments on my lips.

-Did you think about Miami? – I question desperately.

-Let’s go to Miami. I want to be alone with you and love you without you leaving my side in the morning. – He answers and I am the happiest man on the planet.

-We leave Friday morning, I’ll pick you up at the same place as always, ok? – I inform.

-I’ll be there, I love you. – I’ll leave before they come to pick me up…” he says and gives me one last k**s before leaving the cabin and then the bathroom.

“That was all I needed…a yes from him to get me through the rest.”