Café Rouge

Chapter 11: Tipping Point

Chapter 11

The morning is a welcome time for Carlos as it means he is released from the prison of his dreams, which last night featured Valentina. Sleeping with Lola, those had somehow been repressed down but now without her, combined with the image of Anna, they have resurfaced. Robotically, he wipes his face as if wiping the fatigue from entire being, yet not quite being able to. Mentally, he calculates the length of time since he last visited Valentina, realising it has been far too long.

Shuffling into the living room, he's surprised to see that Lola is awake and up. Which means that he has slept in far too long.

"So when did you get back, yesterday?" she casually asks, an edge to that all too casual tone.

She'd heard him come in very early that morning, shuffle to her door and then back away. And maybe it was wrong, nosey and completely overstepping her boundaries but when she'd heard the pitter-patter of the shower working from behind his bedroom door, she'd snuck in. She'd snuck in and she'd picked at his clothing, searching through his pockets to try and gain a better understanding on what he was doing so late at night. She knew within herself that she wouldn't want to know. That she wouldn't like what she found. But she hadn't expected that.
She'd expected to be surprised with bloodstains on his clothes, not the scent of a woman's perfume. Not the distinctive scent of sex.

Anger and fury had overcome her, so much so she just wanted to waltz straight into the bathroom and...kill him. How could he do this? How could he just live with her, sleep in her bed almost every night and still be keeping another mistress?! And then to not tell her! That's...urgh!
She couldn't even see straight for a few minutes, the blood lust too strong. But then she gathered her senses and slinked back out into her own room, plotting to confront him head on.

It's for that reason exactly she'd woken early so as to not give him a chance to sneak out.

"Late," he grunts grabbing a coffee only and slumping into the couch seat adjacent to her.
Lola spins towards him, rising her eyebrows as she evenly asks, "and what were you doing?"
"Tending to my own business," he retorts calmly but firmly.

It's an answer that only infuriates Lola further.

"Oh? Not just your own I bet. So who was she Carlos? Where do you keep her? Another kidnaped victim I imagine. Did you force her or was she actually willing?" spits Lola, the venom in her voice emphasising each point she makes.
Before she can continue further he quickly interrupts, his own temper snapping from the interrogation and from the lack of sleep. Had he been in his sane mind, this conversation wouldn't even be happening because she is most definitely not his keeper.

"Yes-okay! Yes I was had sex with another woman is that what you want to hear Valentina?! I'm sorry okay! I'm so sorry!" He cries not realising his slip of tongue.

Lola however has noticed it and she's stunned. For starters she hadn't expected him to apologise for the extracurricular activity and for another he certainly hadn't expected for him to mistake her for his other lover! At this point she can't decide which is worse. But then again, why choose?

"Did you honestly just call me Valentina?" She rhetorically hisses as his eyes widen at his mistake.
"I-I-" he doesn't know what to say to that. He hadn't meant to. God...everything is falling apart and so spectacularly.
"Jesus! Are you serious? Who even is Valentina, Carlos?! Another Mistress? Your wife?!"

"She would have been," whispers Carlos his gaze sliding to a spot on the floor and focusing intently on it.

"What?" she exhales in disbelief. She would have been his mistress or she would have been his wife? Either way, both sounds as bad as each other.
"Valentina was my fiancé," he states, causing more questions to arise in Lola than become answered.