Someone I can make a life with in that old grey house.
I shake my head as I pay the bill, well aware of how ridiculous I’m being, but I feel like a different man here. The future feels more wide open, like the endless desert roads, like I might be able to separate my life into the man I was before all of this, and the man I’ll be after I return home. To put the pain of my past firmly behind me and leave it there.
“Where would I go if I wanted to buy a piece of jewelry?” I ask the waitress as she scoops up the bill and my credit card. “Nothing too fancy, just something sentimental.”
She pauses, frowning in thought. “Well, there’s the usual diamond dealers and fine jewelry stores, but I’d honestly recommend Encanto,at the end of the next street over. They make beautiful pieces, but more unique than the average store. Something your lady will remember and cherish, and it’ll look different than anything her friends have. Not as gaudy, maybe, but special.”
“Thank you,” I tell her sincerely. “That’s exactly what I’m looking for.”
“Lucky lady, then,” she says with a smile, and I catch a hint of warmth in her gaze as it flicks over me appreciatively.
The day is warming up quickly as I head down to Encanto, and I shrug off my leather jacket, draping it over my arm as I walk and rolling up my shirtsleeves. The city has the usual smells of businesses, restaurants, vehicles, and a great number of people pressed together. There’s something else too, a warm dusty scent that I’ve come to associate with the desert since I’ve been here—and Gabriela, too. The air is dry and thick with it, and I breathe in deeply as I walk towards the pretty storefront, the light wooden doors surrounded by wooden latticework and a script sign bearing the name.
“What can I do for you?” A short, thin woman with slick black hair pulled back into a knot greets me as soon as I walk in and the bell chimes behind me, and I smile at her. “Handsome man—you must be looking for an engagement ring, hmm?”
“Nothing quite that permanent,” I tell her with a widening grin. “Just something simple for a friend.”
Her eyes twinkle, creasing at the edges. “A lady friend?”
I can’t help but laugh at that. “Well, yes. Not a girlfriend, though. Just something for her to remember me by.”
“Ah.” She gives me a knowing look. “Oh, to be young again. Well, come over here, young man, and I’ll show you a few things. Is there a particular type of jewelry you wanted?”
I hadn’t thought about it—the idea to purchase something for Gabriela at all had been a spur-of-the-moment decision. Earrings felt too impersonal, a ring too likely to send the wrong message. “A bracelet—or a necklace, I think.”
“I have some things here you might like.” She stops in front of a case holding a variety of jewelry set in deep, antiqued gold, some of it smooth and others matte or hammered, but all of it looking weathered and natural instead of shiny and new. The woman taps her fingernail above a necklace on a stand, long with a string of dark blue gemstones set in a string dangling from the center of it.
“What about this?”
I shake my head. “Too flashy, I think. I want something delicate, like her. Something she can keep without drawing too much attention to a new piece.” I don’t want Gabriela to have to explain to anyone where her new jewelry came from or for it to really even be noticed. I’m loathed to admit it even to myself, but I want it to be something small and secret, something she can keep to herself, like our nighttime trysts. Something to remind her of that.
“Let me see this?” I tap on the glass above a necklace a little further down. The woman slips it out, laying it on a black velvet tray atop the glass.
It’s a thin gold chain with what looks like a raw, pale-colored gemstone in a teardrop shape hanging from it, set in that antiqued gold. “What gemstone is it?” I ask, and the woman smiles.
“Topaz, mined here.” She nudges it with her finger. “Stands for beauty—and gives the wearer protection. A good gift for a lover,” she adds, looking at me knowingly.
There are cases full of jewelry I haven’t even looked at yet, but something about the necklace feels right to me. It’s delicate and beautiful, just like Gabriela, and simple. Nothing that she couldn’t pass off as something she bought herself, or just had never worn before. Something that she could wear with anything.
“I’ll take it. Could you box it for me?”
“Of course.” The woman gathers up the necklace, and I follow her to the register, where I pay what seems like an absurdly low price for something so beautiful.
But I hadn’t wanted to buy Gabriela something ostentatious. I feel a little silly for purchasing something for her at all, but I wanted to leave her something to remember me by. Something she could wear from time to time or tuck away, and keep the memories of our brief time together tucked away with it. I feel oddly honored that it was me she chose to be her first, even if she hadn’t intended to tell me—she’d trusted me, wanted me, and it means something to me.
It’s stupidly sentimental, more so than I’ve ever been, but I let myself enjoy the feeling. Our fling will be over soon, but she gave me what I needed, and I hope she’ll remember me fondly. The necklace is just that—a talisman to hold those memories.
Tonight, I plan to take her on something resembling a date. And after that, if I never see her again, I know at least I’ll have given her a night she’ll never forget—one last time.
18
NIALL
That night, I wait at theSangrefor Gabriela. She doesn’t come, and it’s hard not to feel let down, even though I never had any guarantee that she’d be there. It highlights, though, how little I truly know about her. I don’t know what her life is like outside of this bar or the hours we’ve spent in my hotel room. I don’t know what she does for work, what her time is filled with, what she’s doing tonight. And that’s how it was supposed to be. A fling on my supposed “vacation.”
So why does her absence make me feel hollow?
“Añejo tequila, as usual?” Manuel grins at me as he approaches, wiping off a glass. “No señorita tonight, eh?”