Chapter 4
1300 Words
Vicente
After Father and I took the Diaz family home we tied the extra horse to mine and made our way back.
The journey back was mostly silent, you could hear the crashing of the waves in the distance, crickets chirping and the growing sounds of the night life in town.
There were several pubs open at all hours, along with a brothel, that had continuous parties and gatherings. All for the souls who didn’t rest or were looking for company.
I had been to such pubs and even visited the brothel once. I did nothing more than flirt and tease a couple of women but my father had scared the life out of me when he spoke of disease spread at brothels. So my one visit was my one and only.
Truth was, on the way home, I couldn’t get Ines’s words out of my head.
How could she know what she wanted and see it so clearly without the details? How she picture it without knowing in depth what she wanted?
A woman’s mind would never cease to amaze me.
“Does Dolores have your mind in a spin again?” Father asked me.
I looked at him, extremely confused.
“Why would she?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I saw her about two days ago. She came in to buy more wine for the bar. She asked about you.”
I groaned.
Dolores was the daughter of the owner who owned one of the most popular bars near our port. I had also made the mistake of sleeping with her two years ago after I had attended Enrique and Rachel’s wedding.
I had drank so much, and was in a way still trying to recover from losing Rachel, that Dolores’s blonde hair and green eyes were tempting enough to lure me in for a good night.
A good enough night to keep me seeing her and enjoying her talents in bed for over three months.
However, when I had decided to get to know her, to see if there was something more than l**t, I realized she was a very shallow and envious person.
“I’m surprised she asked about me,” I said. “The last time I talked to her she said she never wanted to see me.”
“Well, you did toy with her feelings for a while.” My dad said giving me a scolding look; I knew he was aware of the sort of time Dolores and I spent together.
“Trust me Father, she is not the woman you would have wanted me to bring into the family.”
He shrugged. “Perhaps.”
We continued to ride for a while. The town was getting closer and the trees were becoming scarce with the more we approached home.
“The Diaz family is a very beautiful family aren’t they?”
“They sure are,” I agreed. “Señor Hector loves his family so much. And Señora Benita is so in love with him, you should have seen her run to him when his ship arrived.”
He laughed.
“It’s been over twenty years and she does the same thing. Real beautiful to see.”
I nodded.
“And Ines..” my father started to say with a weird tone. “She’s gotten beautiful, and she’s such a kind young lady.”
I laughed. “Yes, she’s really fun to talk to as well.”
“I noticed you two enjoying each other’s company,” He said with a smile. “I didn’t know you two were close.”
“We’re not. We’ve only talked a few times, just casual conversations.”
“I see. You two should talk more.”
I turned to him, raising an eyebrow. “Why is that?”
He shrugged again and smiled. “I think it would be good for you, to have someone to talk to.”
I laughed. “I have friends Father. I have Enrique, Rachel, other acquaintances and you and mother!”
“Your mother and I are getting tired of you. We’re so glad you have your bachelor dwellings.”
I nodded, “I know you both love me, but I agree.”
My dwellings were two streets away from where my parents lived. It made it easy for me help manage the business and also have my space.
The last thing a man wanted was to have to sneak a lover into their room and praying that his mother wasn’t awake.
When we arrived home we went to the back of the house to tie up the horses in the small stables. There was open land behind our home which allowed us to garden, have a few horses and ample space for gatherings. Many of the townspeople had rented the land for parties of their own since it was close to town yet provided privacy.
Father was cleaning the mud off his horse when I asked him a question.
“When did you start thinking about your future?”
He looked up at me confused. “What do you mean?”
“I mean at what age did you finally start to think about your future? About what you wanted in life?”
He cleaned his hands and wiped the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve, causing his hair to stick up. Mother said him and I had the exact same hair and I had her eyes, a beautiful honey color.
“I suppose when I was a bit younger than you. My grandfather had already started this family business but needed help expanding it. I was out at sea most of the time, looking for clients and business partners.”
“Did you enjoy it?”
“Being at sea? Oh absolutely. I was just like you, darting from one place to the other. Attending parties with rich friends, going to dinners with high society members and charming them all.”
He smiled when he continued. “But then I met your mother on the port when I was about to leave to Portugal. She was helping her father load some fruits and vegetables into a cart and she was struggling a bit.”
“She said she didn’t struggle at all,” I said, repeating what she had told me when I asked her how she met Father.
He rolled his eyes and laughed. “Of course she did. She dropped a couple of lemons and even though I was in a hurry..I was compelled to pick up those lemons for her.”
Father leaned against the stable door and grinned, reliving the fond memory. “And when I handed them to her and looked into those eyes of hers, everything changed.”
“What do you mean?”
“All I saw was her. I saw a home, her face, those eyes and our future together. In that instant I didn’t want to leave to Portugal anymore, I just wanted to be where she was.”
“But how did you know? How did you see all of that?”
Father shrugged. “I just did.”
I sighed.
He was no help.
“Why Vicente? Did a special lady finally manage to pull you down to Earth?”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course not.”
“Well, trust me, you’ll know when it happens. And you’ll be able to picture everything with them. As if you had already lived it.”
I looked down at my boots, they were wet and dirty.
“That’s highly unlikely,” I muttered.
I heard my father chuckle and as he headed inside he said one last thing.
“Don’t worry son, that moment is coming. Just don’t be blind to it.”
- Writer
