13. THE NIGHT OF HER PARENTS

Laura drove with extreme caution because she felt a great responsibility for the passenger who accompanied her. During the return trip, hardly a word was exchanged about the destinations of the escapees. Laura still felt guilty, but she didn't have the courage to tell him about the photographs that motivated the getaway. She herself did not understand how she had consented to pose for a pornographic magazine. Her ex-husband's presence reminded her of a different Laura, who would never have accepted that proposition. Barely conscious and pressured by her employment's flawed environment, she gradually accepted increasingly scandalous proposals until she fell into pornography. She only found one justification: to pay for her daughter's music education and to indulge in some expensive quirks, such as expensive clothing from well-known brands, outings to restaurants and shows, or those dramatic beach vacations. But with an exceptional witness from her past, she believed that the price had been very high.

When they divorced, Laura was already a fan of nightclubs and fancy restaurants, and her husband a depressed and unmotivated unemployed, who was never in the mood to share her wishes for fun. There came a the time when the separation was inevitable because Laura already had a substitute as a lover, her own boss, with whom she shared fun and had sex.

He was the one who induced her into pornography. How could she not accept her own daughter's censure of her immoral behavior? Perhaps, she thought when they were already making out the small coastal town; it is not too late to rectify.

From that moment on, Laura decided to deny everything that had been her disorderly life in the last ten years and try to make Nina forgive her and accept her again, even if it cost the job and she gave up all her whims.

“Maybe he can help me.” She told herself, thinking of her unknown ex-husband.

“We are lucky,” said Laura when she reached the apartment, “the restaurant is still open, but it won't be long before they close, we can have something to eat if we hurry. I guess you will be hungry.”

They parked the car and headed straight for the restaurant. They settled at a table next to the beach, and Laura herself decided the dish to choose: sea bass fished the night before. Her ex-husband agreed to the choice.

Laura hadn't realized that Marc's parents were at the next table.

“Brilliant choice, my dear, these sea bass are delicious. There is nowhere better prepared than here. I see that our husbands have agreed and enjoyed this wonderful place. Do you like this town?” She asked the unsuspecting ex-husband.

“I love it,” he replied, recalling his sarcasm from the old days, “my wife and I were thinking of buying a villa here, but they are too cheap for our budget.”

“What a wonderful sense of humor your husband has, my dear, mine only smiles when their shares go up on the stock market!”

“And when they come down, does he cry?

“Worse than that, he gives to sing opera.

“Perhaps the Donizetti area, A sneaky tear.”

“Ha, ha, your husband is hilarious, my dear, you must have fun with such a man.”

Laura was about to burst into tears. This was the young man with whom she fell in love. Nothing had changed, just a few grays at the temples. A sneaky tear escaped her, too. Her ex-husband noticed her embarrassment and asked, puzzled:

“Is something wrong with you, Laura? Did I say something inappropriate? This woman is a busybody; her gossip is not worth taking seriously.”

“No, nothing's wrong with me. I should have gotten a mosquito in my eye, but it is already out.”

“By the way,” Marc's mother insisted, “how is your lovely daughter, Nina? Yesterday she did not sing at the piano-bar. We have never seen the hammock boy again; they were such a good duo!”

Laura had to get up abruptly and lock herself in the sinks, where she couldn't help crying. She tried to make up and wipe away the tears, but they spilled out of control. Meanwhile, her ex-husband answered to the nosy:

“Thanks for your interest. My daughter is perfectly fine, just yesterday she entered a cloistered convent, and Nano, I think he has enlisted in the Foreign legion.”

The woman understood that they were mocking her and, with an angry y the gesture, turned her back on her and said something to her impassive husband without his making the slightest gesture. Laura's ex-husband got up and asked the waiter to serve him at a table inside. Moments later, Laura joined him and said, more calmly:

“The good woman was only interested in Nina, how could she know that she had run away with Nano?”

When that rough dinner was over, they walked back to the apartment on the beach. The moon was in a waning quarter, and only the distant glow of the lights from the restaurant terrace lit their way. They passed by the piano-bar, but there was hardly any animation. They missed Nano.

“This is where Nina sang,” Laura said to her ex-husband. “She and Nano formed a magnificent duo. You don't know that Nina studies music at an academy and already knows how to write the songs she composes. Nano also studies classical guitar at the Conservatory. They understood each other very well. I suppose if they have gone together, it is because they are united by their love for music.”

“I didn't know that Nina wanted to be a singer. The last time we saw each other, she told me that she wasn't sure what career to study when she finished High School. She seemed very confusing.”

“It My mother encouraged her to study music and singing because she believed that she had natural qualities and talent. It was fate who put her in contact with Nano. I wouldn't be surprised if they became famous.”

never have imagined! I advised her to pursue a law degree, but she had no interest.”

When they got to the apartment, Laura felt uneasy because she wouldn't have minded sleeping with her ex-husband, but she let him take the initiative, and he preferred to sleep apart.

“I can sleep on this couch, I just need something to cover myself, although it doesn't seem necessary.”

Laura está resigned.

“You don't have to sleep on the couch; there's another room; The one Nina occupied. ”

He retreated to his room with a simple “Good Night.” When Laura found herself alone in the room that she had occupied hours before with the repudiated lover, her ex-husband's attitude made her think that perhaps he had remade his life with some other woman, which explained her reserved behavior, and that possibility further aggravated her remorse.

“I deserve it!” Censored herself.