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Ciao finished explaining a sculpture to Miguel. As she did she looked over at Carlotta and flashed a slight, slow smile that clung ever so faintly to the edge of her lips. She extended her arm and drew Carlotta to her. Carlotta didn’t resist. The embrace was a side-to-side kind of thing, much as the way friends might do. She gave Carlotta a peck on the cheek, and looked at Miguel.
“All this talk has made me thirsty. Why don’t you go to the bar and get us something to drink? You do want something don’t you, dear?” She nodded her head at Carlotta.
“I want my usual,” replied Carlotta.
“And I will have what she has.” Ciao’s faint smile had developed into one that widened her lips like spreading oil. “We will be here getting better acquainted, okay?”
Carlotta looked comfortable, cozy, and reassured as Miguel left them to go to get the drinks.
The line for drinks was long. For some reason, Miguel was nervous about leaving Carlotta alone with Ciao. After that remark about how attractive Carlotta was to her, it was obvious Ciao was either bisexual or straight-up lesbian. Why would that make him nervous? Was it the fact that he so coveted Carlotta, her body, her soul, her sex, that he was that insecure about leaving her alone at a party with another woman?
“What the fuck, bro?” he began to reason with himself. “I mean, first of all, it’s a party. There are lots of people around, what could they possibly do? Plus she’s one of the hosts, so she can’t devote all her time to Carlotta. Plus you know Carlotta ain’t really into that type of action.” Or is she? Miguel had never been filled with so much doubt and distrust. While the line slowly diminished, he noticed the two women standing in front of him. They were arm-in-arm, laughing. One of them had short dark hair just like Carlotta. And the other one had long dirty-blonde hair just like Ciao. They were laughing, and every now and then they would whisper into each other’s ear and one or the other or both would laugh loudly. They were thin, but not skinny.
Humph! Models, he surmised. They must be friends or something.
Before the thought could fully develop, the blonde who resembled Ciao moved her face closer to the dark-haired one and kissed her full on the lips. At first it seemed as if the other one was a little resistant. But after a little probing the dark-haired one opened her mouth and their lips met in a brief flurry of eroticism that got an immediate rise out of Miguel.
“Girl, you better stop that!” the dark-haired one said as they broke the kiss. Both of them laughed, but began kissing again. This time the kiss was deeper and it appeared their tongues were really probing each other, like they were excavating for something. Their interplay increased until they reached the bartenders. There they abruptly stopped. As they ordered their drinks, Miguel looked around the room trying to see if anyone else was as intrigued with this exchange as he was. As he quickly scanned the room, he noticed people just milling around doing what people do at parties. It seemed as if they were oblivious to what these two ladies were doing in full view of everyone.
They ordered their drinks, leaving Miguel up next. As he prepared to order, up stepped Carlo, one of the architects of the newly renovated building.
“Hey, Miguel.” Carlo had a broad smile on his face and a lovely Latino-looking woman on his arm. Carlo was a tall dark Brazilian with a broad nose and a great wide smile. His friends teased him that he was Pele’s illegitimate son, since he bore a slight resemblance to the legendary soccer star. His companion was a chestnut-skinned woman with shiny, thick, black hair piled on top of her head. She wore a dark blue knit dress that hugged her wide hips.
Like most of the women at this affair she was also a knockout. “Miguel, this is Clarissa. Clarissa, this is the writer I told you about earlier. With his help, he’s going to make us known to the entire artistic community in America. He’s also the boyfriend of Carlotta.”
Clarissa’s smile grew even wider and her eyes seemed to get big as she said, “Oh, yes, that pretty lady who was with Ciao! You should be happy, Miguel,” she went on. “I too would love to be able to have a lady like that to play with like Ciao was doing!”
It must’ve been the puzzled look on Miguel’s face that prompted Carlo to say, “Oh, you must’ve gotten in line long before they started their antics over there!”
Miguel tried to play it off as the butterflies in his stomach began to flutter and take on a life of their own. “Uh…what, er, ah, what do you mean…antics?” he stammered.
“Oh, nothing, really,” Clarissa chimed in before Carlo had the opportunity to explain. “They were just doing a little kissing and flirting with each other when I met your lady. I’m sure it was all just girls playing around in fun,” she concluded.
Miguel was dizzy as he managed a weak “glad to meet you,” got his drinks, and proceeded to make a beeline back to Carlotta and Ciao. The room seemed hazy and surrounded by a London fog as Miguel quickly made his way through the party to where he’d left the ladies. In this fog or mist or whatever it was, Miguel almost dropped his drink as he saw Ciao and Carlotta locked in the same face-to-face, tongue-down-each-other’s-throat action he’d witnessed with those two models in line just a bit ago. He was again amazed at how everyone else seemed to simply drift in and out of the activity of the party, seemingly unaffected by the lusty exhibition going on in their midst.
The ladies’ arms were entangled around each other like ancient serpents in some kind of mythological maze. As he approached, he started asking himself what he was going to do. What could he do? He was almost upon them and he could see it all clearly, his woman and Ciao making out like shameless teenagers in the back of a car in a secluded park. They stopped kissing long enough to look at Miguel and smile.
Carlotta spoke first. “Miguel, Miguel, what’s wrong, what do you want?” She reached out her hand to touch him. It seemed like the closer he got to them, the more inaccessible they became. It was if they were dissolving into the fog or mist that seemed to surround Miguel. He got closer and it was at that moment that Carlotta’s voice became more pronounced and the mist disappeared.
“Miguel!” she said. “You’ve been standing here all this time?” It was Carlotta without Ciao. He was still in line. The bartender had an impatient look on his face; Miguel had one drink in his hand. The bartender spoke.
“Is that all you want, sir? I thought you said you wanted three drinks. Will that be all?”
Carlotta reached out her hand, and as she finally touched Miguel it all became clear. He had allowed his imagination to get the better of him. It was all in his head. Carlotta, not knowing what was going on in Miguel’s mind, was attempting to communicate with him.
“What’s wrong, baby?” she inquired again. “Are you feeling okay? You seemed to take so long coming back, and Ciao had to talk with some potential investors, so I figured I’d just find you.”
And then Carlotta added the kicker when she said, “When I couldn’t find you at first, I thought you had been captured by one of these hot-assed women.” Her eyes began to sparkle. “And I had this overwhelming fit of jealousy that just had me fantasizing all kinds of shit about you and some other woman. So I was really trying to find you.”
Even though he hadn’t yet returned completely to reality, Miguel was relieved on some level to hear what Carlotta had just said. This synchronized incident of jealous imagination reinforced the desperate situation these two lovers found themselves in. On the surface, they would verbally boast their willingness to allow each other a wide range of freedom.
For example, in Carlotta’s case, because she was married and still maintained this long-standing relationship with Miguel, she really believed she allowed him to have all the freedom of a single man while accepting his declaration of allegiance to her.
On the other hand, Miguel would claim he had no problem with Carlotta’s marriage. Initially, that might’ve been true. It was all about providing her with what she wasn’t getting at home: attention, romance, and real good loving. She needed to be appreciated and Miguel would do that for her. But as the relationship transitioned from its innocence of emotional irresponsibility to something possessive, controlling, and literally boiling over with lust, it became obvious to them that their hearts were between their legs. At this point their commitment to pleasure outweighed anything else.
It had all been a dream, and Miguel had his Carlotta back as opposed to being caught in some perverse fantasy that had yet to manifest itself. He pulled her close to him and as he ignored the now exasperated bartender, they began a mini-make-out session right in line.
“My goodness, can’t you two wait until you get alone?” It was Ciao. “I’ve been looking for you. And Ms. Carlotta, I’m surprised at you. Here I thought you were going to be my little plaything for the evening, and here you are taking up with the likes of him!” She then broke out in a high-pitched combination of giggling and cackling.
