CHAPTER ONE
It was spring. Fragrance and sunshine wrapped me in a warm cloak while birds chorused in newly greened trees. Wednesday is my favourite day of the week; it is when I get together with the girls at Antonio's Coffee Palace and my smile brought several stares as I walked towards the mall.
Antonio's has a nice view of the harbour and already I could see several yachts leaning away from the brisk breeze, their hulls skipping the choppy water. Everything was blue and new out there, the water, the sky…even the smell of the sea was blue today and my body tingled with delight at the sheer thrill of life.
I love alfresco dining and so I was pleased to see that the girls had commandeered a table on the piazza with one of those quaint Cinzano umbrellas shading us from the sun. Marlene waved and smiled her bare arms white after a winter of long sleeves and overcoats. Today she was wearing a summer frock of greens and yellows that swirled in a dance of colour broken only by the bright red belt around her middle. She had changed her hair; decided to be strawberry blonde this summer. Carol sat next to her nursing her first café latte and smiling through shocking red lipstick. She batted her green eyes as I approached and sipped at her brew. Next to her sat a new girl. She was frowning slightly though still wearing a smile. I noticed she wore a plunging mauve blouse that showed the curves of her bosoms to great advantage. Her hair was dark, cut almost pageboy style with a bob at the collar, and her eyes were dark and mysterious. Those eyes made me think of Spain.
I took a chair next to the new girl. As I seated myself, Carol put her hand on the new girl's shoulder.
"Say hello to Kalina Del Rosa. Kalina, this is Sue Mallory."
"Pleased to meet you." Kalina pronounced it 'djoo' and her accent was definitely Latino.
"
Buenos dias,
Kalina
. Encantada de conocerle
" I replied, smiling and reaching for her hand. Her eyes opened wide as saucers and her smile beamed like sunlight.
"
Hola. Habla Espanol
?" She asked.
"That was about the limit of it." I confessed and took her hand in mine, giving it a brief squeeze. She felt so warm and I could smell her perfume. It was based on roses, but such a subtle bouquet as to be almost a whisper.
Lunch was lovely. We decided on a seafood plate for four that was positively Mediterranean complimented with a crisp Riesling from the Australian Hunter Valley region. As we chatted I kept sneaking appreciative glances at Kalina. She spoke fast and used her hands, carving invisible sculptures in the air to demonstrate her point. Carol was smoking again and I frowned my disappointment at her when she lit an Alpine lite without so much as a 'beg your pardon' to the rest of the table. I saw that Kalina was not a smoker when she batted at the resulting blue drift that assailed her pert little nose.
Marlene Powell nodded at the Spanish girl's chatter but I saw she was rather distracted, her look distant and troubled. I noticed that there was a dark shadow under the make-up of her right eye and my heart went out to her. My husband can be a boorish pig at times, but he has never ever hit me in our nine years of marriage. Her Gary must have gotten drunk again. Last time he had gotten drunk he visited her in hospital and knelt by her bed, crying like a schoolboy and promising her he would never, ever drink again. Well, I guess never is a much shorter time for a man, because that had been less than six months ago.
My attention drifted back to Kalina who was on about Roberto. I tuned in and caught the gist of her story. Roberto was her husband, a property developer with a lot of money and a roving eye. She had found out about his latest mistress just yesterday and was retelling the scenario with hot tears in her fiery Latin eyes.
"I catch him…" She hissed. "I catch him, I take off his
salchicha
with a very dull knife! Him and his
puto
!"
She spat on the ground … the sound almost rhyming with that Spanish word for 'slut'.
"What I do?" She asked, her eyes roaming our faces in turn. "How do I teach him a big lesson?"
I had finished my latte and so I pushed my cup aside. She was beautiful in her anger and I caught myself glancing down at her slim legs protruding cheekily from a lilac skirt. My mind must have drifted momentarily as I suddenly started and looked up to see Kalina looking at me expectantly. By the expression on the other girl's faces, it was obvious Kalina had asked me a question. I felt myself go red as I know they had all seen where my eyes had been.
"I'm sorry, Kalina. What was the question?"
She sighed and gave me a huge grin, showing her perfect pearly white teeth.
"I was wondering about your husband." She repeated. Was it my imagination, or did she cast her eyes over my waist and legs quickly before meeting my eyes again. Her smile stayed in place and her eyes were warm and inviting.
"Oh, he is a dental surgeon and has his own practice in the heart of the city." I replied.
"Does he have girlfriends like my Roberto?"
I looked at Marlene. She just smiled and cast her gaze over the bay, and when I looked at Carol she was busy digging for another menthol.
"I don't think so…" I wasn't sounding too sure. Paul was a very handsome man, very attractive to the girls and he did spend a lot of time away from home. I'd never really thought about it much, but in retrospect, sex was a little sporadic these days. I tried to remember the last time he had made love to me, and came to the realisation that the last time he had made love to me was over a month ago and that had been a 'quickie' before he dashed off to work. I also remembered that it had been in response to my complaint of not 'getting enough attention'