Page 102 of No Darker Temptation

If I wasn’t wearing a seatbelt I think I’d fall out of my seat. “Thirteen years? How old are you!”

At that he cracks a grin and runs a hand along his jaw. “Why, how old do I look?”

“Pedro, be serious.”

“Relax, jefecita. I’m thirty-three and my little viejo’s forty-four.”

“That’s a pretty big age gap.”

“I always had a thing for older men.”

I nod and at the same time, we say, “Daddy issues.”

“Exacto. You know, had I never met Don Lisandro and gotten a job, I would’ve never found Oscar.” He looks over at me and manages a smile. There’s something wistful and melancholy in his voice when he speaks. “Their dad would’ve loved you.”

I smile back and there’s a feeling of longing and mourning that swirls around inside my chest at the thought of there being a man so important in Alejandro’s life I will never get to meet.

“Anyway, there I was, a fresh-faced baby alone on the streets in Mexico City. Nothing but an old, busted taxicab I inherited from my dad and a dream. I was about eighteen, almost nineteen when Don Lisandro found me. He was in town on business and in a rush to get somewhere. I’ll never forget it,” Pedro tells me. “He was standing outside of Torre Mayor. At the time it was still a very new, very beautiful skyscraper. I loved driving past it. Used to fantasize that one day, somehow, I’d be up there. In an office with a view.

“Then one afternoon this man steps out onto the street and my God…he just takes my breath away. I’m not sure how else to explain it. There are so few people in the world who have that kind of presence; are surrounded by a kind of magnetism so compelling you simply can’t look away. They’re people you either encounter once or twice in your life and sometimes, never at all. I’ll never forget it,” he says again. “It’s seared into my memory.”

“He was wearing a cobalt blue suit with a matching waistcoat and dark red tie. Don Lisandro was allergic to modern technology which is why he still had a beeper. He looks down, checks it. Then runs to the curb and starts to wave down a taxi, any taxi. I was behind him so I drove up and he threw the door open so quickly I thought it would fall off its hinges.”

I lower the music and now it’s just his voice filling the car.

“If you think Alejandro’s a sight to behold, you should’ve seen his father. I can’t explain it. I wish I had the words to describe it. I wasn’t attracted to him, not in that way, but I just couldn’t stop looking at him. It took me ages to snap out of it and by then, he was getting ready to hail another taxi. He needed to find the nearest pay phone. So I told him I could take him. Then he needed to go somewhere else so I took him. The rest I don’t remember. However, what I do remember is I ended up driving him around the city for hours.

“I hadn’t minded it. Don Lisandro was good company and a great conversationalist. At the end, I dropped him off at someone’s house and when he went to pay, he was so embarrassed. At some point in the afternoon, he must’ve lost his wallet, and I knew he was telling the truth because I’d seen him take money out for the pay phone. He kept telling me to come back first thing in the morning and he’d pay me but I couldn’t because I had classes the next day. I offered to come at a different time but he was leaving the next afternoon.”

“What did you do?”

“I gave him a shitty business card I made myself with white envelope paper glued to cut up cardboard so it would be stiff.”

I laugh.

“Told him that if he’s ever back in the city to give me a call and I’d be his driver again. Six months pass and I get a call. I pick him up from the airport and drive him around for a whole week. At the end, he asks how much he owes me and I tell him. But he shakes his head and asks to include what he owed me from his last visit but I said it didn’t matter, that what I made from driving him around for the week would last me a whole month.”

“Were you—? Well, actually, what I mean to say is⁠—”

It’s his turn to laugh. “Yes, Dahlia. I was poor. Dirt poor. Only a single pair of shoes poor.”

I smile gently and movement in my peripheral catches my attention. When I look outside my window I notice we’re already back in the city. Gees, was the drive that quick or were we too lost in conversation to notice?

“He gave me an envelope with twenty-five thousand American dollars in it. Swear to God I almost shit my pants right there. He offered me a job with him and I jumped on it. And I’ve been with the family ever since.”

“That’s how you met Oscar?”

He nods. “Oscar was a fucking closet case if I ever did see one. Married. To a woman.”

I nearly jump out of my seat but the seatbelt yanks me back. “To a woman!”

He snickers. “To a woman, baby. By the time I joined the club, they were working things out. Four months later they were divorced, and I jumped on that man so fast I almost broke a knee in the process. He didn’t think much of me at first. I was way too young and he still hadn’t come to terms with his sexuality yet. So I seduced him.”

I laugh so hard I roll forward in my seat. “Seduced him?”

“Seduced him, baby. And thirteen years later I still got him right where I want him, asi.” He gestures with his hand. “In the palm of my hand.”

I’m about to ask how the seduction played out when my phone vibrates. Excited for a text from Alejandro, I read the notification and find it’s for the lounge’s security system instead.