“Well, nice seeing you,” Joan said as she turned and started to walk away.
“Wait, Joan, don’t go. How can I get in touch with you? Where are you staying?”
Her legs didn’t want to cooperate, but she forced them to keep moving. She didn’t look back. She didn’t reply.
At that moment, she wanted nothing more than to meet with him as soon as she could get Hunter back to her sister. She wanted to go to wherever he was staying and never get out of his bed until he had to leave town, whenever that would be.
But, Joan knew better. This was Antonio - he was her weakness.
There was no 12-Step program for her addiction to that man, the best and only option would be never to get started with him again.
She was almost to the exit when she heard Antonio calling out her name, again, pleading for her to wait. But, she didn’t wait. She walked right out of the café, right past her sister, and into the plaza.
“Where are you going with my child?” Lissa said as she moved past her, separated by the waist-high iron gate that enclosed the patio.
“Pay the bill and meet me around the corner, on the other side of the market,” Joan hissed as she rushed past.
Then she took off at a run, with Hunter bouncing on her left hip.
Afraid that Antonio might be chasing after her, Joan snuck into the La Boqueria market, which was crowded with vendors and shoppers, and filled with the smells and colors of one of the largest markets in the world.
She ducked behind a pole between to fish vendors, waving away a merchant’s eager attempt to sell her some of his wares. Hunter was curious though, and he reached out and tried to grab a massive cod, laying on a bed of ice. “No, Hunter,” she said, as she switched him to her other hip. She peered around the pole, out into the La Rambla, scanning the passersby.
After a few minutes, she was all but certain that Antonio hadn’t followed her. Something like disappointment settled in her gut, but she shook it off. Lissa would have paid the bill by now. She needed to get back to the alley. Joan held Hunter close to her chest as she hurried to the meeting spot. She was out of breath when she got there and was still breathing hard when he sister arrived pushing the empty stroller.
“Joan, what is going on? Why did you bolt like that? And who was that gorgeous man you were running away from?” Lissa asked.
Darn it.
Joan had hoped Lissa hadn’t noticed Antonio. “I don’t want to talk about him,” Joan said, stubbornly. Lissa pressed, so Joan gave her just the basics. “Look, I knew the guy, and I didn’t want to talk to him, which is why I left in such a hurry. Can we talk about something else?”
“Sure, whatever. I have more calls to make so let’s take the metro home again. I don’t feel like waiting around for the driver.”
That was fine with Joan. She didn’t want to go back out into the main walkway and risk running into Antonio. Joan put Hunter into the stroller, then after he was all settled she shook out her sore arms.
She gave Lissa a look, hoping she’d take the hint and push the stroller for once, but Lissa was already on the phone, catching up with Abby on that latest status regarding the Milan apartment fiasco – so, Joan blew out a breath and did her job.
As they walked Hunter fell back to sleep as he often did when moving in his stroller, and Joan thought about all the things that had happened since leaving the Torres house that morning. She thought about Lissa and her intense reaction after seeing a lookalike of their mother. She thought about how close she’d come to taking a drink, and how shocked she was to run into Antonio after all this time. She wished she’d cursed him out on the spot. She wished she’d slapped his face and called him out for that cad he was, but, it was as if her body had betrayed her, how it had let her desire for him overtake her good sense. As if what’s he’d done to her, how he’d refused to hear her side of the story – how he’d rejected her, and threw away the magic they’d known together without giving her a second chance, these were the memories that came back to her as she walked.
She should have slapped him. Instead, all she could do was shiver under his gaze and think about being in his bed again.
She was a sick person.
When the got back to the metro and headed towards home, Lissa had started another line of calls. It was as if the trauma of seeing the ghost of their mother was already forgotten. Joan tried to put Antonio out of her mind and reconsidered her hasty decision to postpone quitting due to Lissa’s earlier upset. Clearly, Lissa was going to be fine. But, could she cope with living in the same city as Antonio? Joan rubbed her temple – her head was starting to ache.
A glass of wine would fix that, she thought. “No!” she blurted loudly into the car. Several passengers, including Lissa, glanced at her. Joan muttered an apology, then kept her mouth shut until they got home.
She greeted Mamacita and Aunt Sophia, then put Hunter in his crib, and kissed the other two boys who were sleeping in their cribs. Lissa had joined the others in the kitchen, who were sitting around sipping homemade limonada and munching on caramelized walnuts.
Joan declined to join them and said that she intended to take her lunch break. No one argued with her, and Joan went to her room. She tried to nap, but her mind wouldn’t stop racing. Then she thought of what she could do. The famous bar at the Grand Hotel. She’d never been there.
What the hell?
Joan realized that the thought of drinking was coming up way too much. This was bad. Real, bad. She got out of bed, spent a few minutes fixing her face and making sure she wasn’t wearing her most crumpled and unattractive clothes, then she left the house without saying goodbye to anyone and hurried back to the metro. If she was quick, she could make the twelve o’clock AA meeting at the Catholic Cathedral in the Goth District.
Chapter Three
HUNTER, RYLAND, AND Marco
Back at the house, Hunter was changed and fed and went to sleep fast. When he woke up from his nap, Ryland and Marco were standing in their cribs, fussing to get Hunter’s attention. As usual, since they hadn’t managed to master speaking yet with words using their mouths, Ryland and Marco spoke to their sleepy brother telepathically.
“Wake up, you slacker,” Marco said.
“Yeah Hunter, come on, spill. What happened out there? Anything we should know?”
Hunter yawned, flexed his growing fingers and toes and crawled over to the edge of his crib, lifting himself up. Being the fattest child in the group he wasn’t pressing to start all this moving and walking business like his eager brothers. He’d much rather hang out, lounging around in his crib and on the floor or in the playpen, but sometimes you just had to stand up and be a little man.
“I saw something very interesting,” Hunter began, then distracted by the mobile he tried to stretch his arms and body so he could reach it.
“What was so interesting, Hunter?” Ryland said, bringing Hunter back to th
e conversation. He sucked his thumb for a minute as he tried to remember.
“Don’t hold back,” Marco said, “We need to know!”
Hunter remembered. “Oh, right. Well... there was this guy at a café, and Auntie Joan got all excited when she saw him. They talked and then she ran away, but he came after her like he didn’t want her to leave.”
“Wow! Really? Who was he?” Ryland asked.
“I don’t know, but this guy had all these other people hanging around him, trying to take his picture and stuff and making him write on papers they kept putting in his face.”
“Ooh, sounds like he’s important,” Ryland said.
“Sounds like he’s an athlete,” Marco said.
“Marco, not all important people are sports stars,” Ryland said.
“No, most of the important people in the world are sports stars. Get used to it, Ryland.”
“Will you two shut up and let me finish?” Hunter said.
“Oh, yeah, sorry big guy,” Marco said with a smirk.
“Well, like I said, this guy had all these people trying to get his attention, but when he saw Auntie Joan he looked at her the way Papa sometimes looks at Mama... you know what I’m talking about – when he thinks we’re not watching him...”
“You mean when they get all kissy?” Marco said, his face screwing up with obvious distaste.
“Exactly,” Hunter replied.
All three of the triplets went silent for a while as they contemplated that bit of news.
Finally, Marco spoke, as he gnawed on his fist. “I don’t think Auntie Joan is happy. I saw her crying the other day.”