a thirty-year-old. Perhaps this was partly because he kept himself very fit, that much was undeniable, and at first sight, he looked about forty or so.
‘Why has Javier sent you?’ I asked suddenly, taking advantage of a moment of silence or a lull in the conversation: he either didn’t realize that his courtship was fast running out of steam, along with any chance of success, or else he was invincibly tenacious, once he put himself to the task.
‘Javier?’ He seemed genuinely surprised. ‘Javier didn’t send me, I’m here on my own account, I had some business on this side of town. And even if that wasn’t the case, don’t underestimate yourself, I certainly wouldn’t need any encouragement to come and see you.’ He never missed a chance to flatter me, but got straight to the point. As I said before, he was acting on an urgent whim and had an equally urgent need to see if he could or couldn’t satisfy that whim. If he could, great. If not, on to the next thing; he certainly didn’t seem like a man who would bother trying twice or would linger over a hoped-for conquest. If something didn’t work out after his first and probably only attack, he wouldn’t waste time trying again, for, since he wasn’t particularly choosy, there was no shortage of candidates.
‘Really? But how did you know where I work? Don’t give me that stuff about how you just happened to be passing. I could see you’d been waiting a while. How long had you been there? It’s a cold day to be hanging about in the street, you’re going to an awful lot of trouble on your own account, and I’m not that special. When Javier introduced us, he didn’t even give you my surname. So how were you able to locate me with such precision if he didn’t send you? What does he want to know? If I believed his tale of friendship and sacrifice?’
Ruibérriz slowly interrupted one of his smiles, or, rather, his smile, because the truth is he never entirely stopped smiling, he doubtless considered his dazzling Vittorio Gassman-like teeth to be another of his assets, indeed his striking resemblance to that actor did contribute to making him more sympathetic. Or, rather, the interruption was not slow exactly, it was more as if his backward-folded upper lip became caught or stuck on his gums – which can happen when your mouth is dry – and he took longer than usual to liberate it. That must have been what happened, because he made some rather strange rodent-like movements with his lips.
‘No, he didn’t give me your surname then,’ he answered, as if perplexed by my reaction, ‘but we talked about you later on, over the phone, and he let slip enough information for me to be able to track you down in two ticks. Make no mistake, I’m a pretty good detective, and I’ve got contacts aplenty too, and nowadays, what with the Internet and Facebook and all that, almost no one can slip through the net once you know the odd detail about them. Is it so very hard for you to believe that I fancied you like mad the first time I saw you? Come on. I think you’re a knockout, María, that much must be obvious. I feel the same today, despite meeting you in very different circumstances and attire from that first occasion, but then one doesn’t always strike so lucky. That really was a mind-blower, though. God’s own truth, María, I haven’t been able to get that image out of my head for weeks.’ – And he nonchalantly regained his smile. He was quite happy to refer again and again to my half-naked state, it didn’t bother him that he might appear rude, for he clearly assumed that his arrival had interrupted Díaz-Varela and me in mid-shag, more or less. That hadn’t been the case, but almost. He said ‘knockout’ and ‘mind-blower’, words that already sounded old-fashioned, and the expression ‘slip through the net’ is on its way out as well: his vocabulary betrayed his age, more than his appearance did, for he did preserve a certain elegance.
‘You talked about me? But why? Our relationship wasn’t exactly public knowledge. On the contrary. He was most put out that you should see me, that we should meet, or didn’t you notice, that it really bugged him, I mean? I find it very odd that he should mention me to you later, I’d