Paula Rouco and Susana spent the day shopping and at the end Susana took Paula Rouco to the river in her little white BMW 3-series to blow off some steam.
By the time we got to the river, it was after 8:00 pm and the night was low.
The night sky is clear tonight, with a starry sky and the moon sinking to the bottom of the sea.
A sweltering heat dispersed with the cool breeze off the river as we got out of the car and Paula Rouco walked down to the river and stretched, letting out a long sigh.
Susana opened the trunk and pulled a dozen beers out of the car, “Paulita, look what I brought!”.
Paula Rouco looked back, with startled eyes, “How are we going to drive back if we’ve both been drinking?”.
“Call a driver when you get there.”
Susana loaded up the dozen beers and walked down to the river, where she sat with Paula Rouco on the stone steps of the bank.
The two men grabbed a beer each and when they cracked the lid, the beer shot out.
“Come on, cheers!”
Paula Rouco doesn’t drink much, but it’s not like she didn’t drink when she was younger, and she can still drink a little beer.
Susana, not a good drinker but not a bad one either.
The two sat by the river, blowing in the wind, drinking wine and chatting.
After one beer, the conversation grew in scale and became more and more reckless.
Susana hitched her shoulders and asked with a smile, “Paulita, tell me the truth, are you still in love with Severo Laris?”
“I don’t want to like him.” Paula Rouco said with a forced smile.
“You don’t want to like him, does that mean you still like him?”
Paula Rouco stood up and threw the empty bottle in her hand, forcefully, into the river.
A beautiful arc.
Turning toward the endless river, she exclaimed, “I’ll never like Severo Laris again!”
Susanna smiled cheerfully, “That’s right, the old ones don’t go away, the new ones don’t come. I’ll introduce you to someone better and more handsome.”
Then Susana got up too and shouted to the river, “A hundred times better than Severo Laris! A thousand times better!”
Paula Rouco, clinging to the river railing, shouted at the surface, “Severo Laris! Go to hell!”
Susana cursed next to her, “Severo Laris motherfucker! You’re a blind man.”
By the end of the scolding, Paula Rouco was laughing and giggling with the greatest of ease.
Susana turned to look at her and reached out to hug her, “Paulita, welcome home.”
“I have missed you so much over the years, and many times I have wanted to call you, but when I did I didn’t know what to say.”
Susanna said enthusiastically, “I understand, I understand everything. Now that you are back, you are not alone, you will never be alone again.”
“Susanna, thank you, for still wanting to be my best friend.”
Susanna’s eyes were dense, “You fool, we will be good friends for life.”
…
The night before, Paula Rouco had a few beers with Susana and when she got home it was after eleven at night.
After a shower and some ink, it was already 1 am.
The next day I got up late and slept until dawn, when I was awakened by a call from my assistant, Velazquez Moral.
“Hey Violeta, what’s up?”
Velazquez Moral: “Paulita, there is a benefit dinner this Friday night and you are invited, you may be asked to play the piano, I have agreed for you, is the time okay with you?”
Paula Rouco said, “I thought you said yes for me, I have to do it even if my time doesn’t work.”
Velazquez Moral lamented on the other side of the phone, “My Missy, I know you’re not bad, but at least have a little motivation, we just returned to China, need a lot of exposure and appearances, usually their social and social commitments, unnecessary that almost all put them off, the Universal Group side also has a dead letter, the small mix of food, they do not diligence up, the above do not dare to scold you, but the point on my nose and scold.”
It is not the first time that Velazquez Moral spits this at her, and Paula Rouco understands.
“Okay Ms. Velazquez, I know, I’ll be there.”
“That’s more like it. In all my years at Universal, you’re the only performer I’ve ever hired who’s really lazy. If you were up for it, the notices would have been taken a long time ago.”
Paula Rouco’s ears grew calloused from hearing it from her agent and she pinched her ears.
Velazquez Moral added, “By the way, what about the issue I proposed earlier, how are you considering it? The intention of the group is that you can develop yourself in multiple ways, and with your condition, it will definitely be easy if you go to the entertainment industry.”
“Velazquez, didn’t I tell you that I don’t want to go into show business, I just want to play the piano well.”
“What pianist in the country doesn’t go into show business these days, and if you do, you’ll get paid more than you do now.”
Paula Rouco didn’t want to talk to her about it and just hung up the phone, the typical yo-yo.
Velazquez Moral could do nothing with her.
Paula Rouco recalls that she had one year left on her contract with Universal and when it ran out, she decided not to renew it.
The group has too many things on its agenda and she is not in the right state to take on too many ads, she would be worth more.
Shortly thereafter, Velazquez Moral sent the benefit dinner and Friday’s address to her phone, and that message was followed by Velazquez Moral’s pathetic request.
“Please, please, please, please, Missy must be there.”
He remembered the benefit dinner Susana had told him about yesterday, which seemed to be the same one.
…
On Friday evening, Adam Rouco threw Paula Rouco a car key.
Adam Rouco said, “It’s quite uncomfortable now that you go home without a car and you don’t like the family chauffeur always following you, here’s the car from the garage, take it and drive it, it’s new and I haven’t driven it once or twice.”
It is a red Porsche 911 sports car.
Lucio Rouco rushed over, took a look at the car keys and said with contempt, “Dad, is it appropriate to give such a nice car to my sister, a roadie, to drive?”
Adam Rouco looked coldly at his son, “How can your sister be capricious if there is sailing now.”
Paula Rouco: …
She can have navigation and keep driving in the wrong place and she’s not very good at backing up.
Lucio Rouco raised an eyebrow and said, “Dad, can I borrow that Maserati you have in the garage for a few days?”
Adam Rouco gave him a blank stare, then took the car keys out of the safe, tossed them to him and ordered in a deep voice, “Be careful with that car, I like it a lot, if you scratch it, have it repaired and give it back to me.”
Lucio Rouco made a deliberate gesture: “It’s very unfair, it’s almost the same car, my sister drives it nonchalantly and I have to drive it with a tight skin”.
Paula Rouco reported, “By the way, Dad, I’m going to a charity dinner tonight and I have an announcement.”
“It’s a benefit dinner for the Swift Group, right?”
Paula Rouco: “Yes. Is Dad going too?”
Adam Rouco said, “These benefit dinners are for hanging out and making friends for you young people, so I’m not going.”
Lucio Rouco: “Our dad is afraid mom will make him kneel on the keyboard.”
Adam Rouco: “…”
Would he be afraid? It was clear that he used to be the one who made Estrella Berrocal write the critique.
…
Paula Rouco didn’t want to enter the several levels of subway garage when she drove her car to the Oasis building because she used to have trouble remembering where she was and finding it.
Luckily, the Oasis building has an open-air parking garage and she drove her car straight into it.
As she struggled to back up, a discreet and luxurious black Bentley slowly pulled into the parking lot, waiting for her to move the car and clear the adjoining space.
Inside the black Bentley, Salvino looked at the red 911 with its crappy reversing ability and frowned, asking Severo Laris in the back seat, “Boss, there seems to be a female driver in front of me, why don’t I get out and give her a hand?”
Severo Laris responded indifferently.