Soon, she arrives in the imperial quarter.
Paula Rouco parked the car, unbuckled her seat belt and turned her head to look at Severo Laris in the passenger seat.
His eyes were closed, as if he were asleep.
Paula Rouco called out to him, “Severo Laris?”
The other side is not awake.
Paula Rouco padded over, “Severo Laris, go home.”
That’s when Severo Laris opened his eyes slightly, somewhat drunkenly, looked uncomprehendingly out the car window and said, “We’re home.”
“Well, here it is.”
Severo Laris said, “I seem to be drunk, help me up, please.”
He clearly said he was in trouble, but he didn’t give Paula Rouco a chance to refuse.
As soon as he got out of the car and approached her, Severo Laris collapsed, as if drunk and losing his strength, and pressed an arm against her shoulder.
Ritmo, sidetracked.
Paula Rouco, seeing that he looked really drunk, grabbed his arm with one hand and held him by the waist with the other, helping him toward the building.
Through the fabric of his shirt, she could feel the heat coming from the palm of his hand.
Severo Laris pressed his head against her shoulder and opened his eyes for a moment, looking at the side of her face with a clear, lingering gaze.
Paula Rouco helped him into the elevator until he reached the entrance to his home in the Imperial neighborhood.
Paula Rouco turned her head and said, “Severo Laris, enter the code.”
Severo Laris stroked the back of her neck, his voice low and intoxicated, as if he were unconscious: “Password? Forgotten.”
Paula Rouco looks to the sky, hoping Severo Laris is a serious and thoughtful man, but drunk and no different than any other man.
He even forgot the code to his own front door, so how come he didn’t also forget the code to his bank card.
Paula Rouco tries to enter the string of numbers she remembers.
In a corner out of her sight, Severo Laris watched her slender fingers, pressing one correct number after another.
After Paula Rouco entered the code, the door clicked open.
She stood in the doorway, holding a drunken Severo Laris, for a moment stunned.
Seven years and he does it again.
Just standing in the doorway, those familiar and unfamiliar memories strike again with sweetness and cruelty.
It was here that he spent the countless sweetest nights of his life, ate the best rice in the world with minced pork and pickled beans, and loved the person he once thought was the best.
Her eyes, a little sour.
Paula Rouco took a deep breath, helped Severo Laris and went into the house.
Severo Laris hooked the backhand and took the door in front of him.
Close the door, it’s his world for two, no idle people.
Paula Rouco helped him over to the couch. Severo Laris was thin, but all in all, so tall and bulky here, he weighed Paula Rouco down, and when she helped him onto the couch, the man didn’t let go, wrapping his arms around her waist as they dropped together on the soft fabric couch.
Paula Rouco lay on his chest and Severo Laris, seemingly unresponsive, reached out and pulled her arms between his as if hugging a pillow.
She was forced to lean against his chest.
With her ear, pressed against the point of his heart, listen carefully and you can hear the strong, powerful beat of his heart.
“…”
The whole world fell silent and, to his ears, the only sounds were his ragged breathing and the beating of his heart.
“Severo Laris?”
No answer from the other side.
Paula Rouco braced and tried to rise from his embrace and was restrained again.
A drunk, still apparently impatient, frowned and ordered, “Don’t move.”
“…”
After a long while, when he seemed to be really asleep, Paula Rouco moved her arm to the side, disengaged herself from his arms and stood by the sofa, looking at the hearth.
The furniture, the decor, everything had remained the same, even the potted plants in the corner, as if they had always been there.
She couldn’t help but glance around the house, at every nook and cranny, evoking memories from seven years ago.
In the open kitchen, it was as if he could see them playing in the old days, when she always got into his arms and wouldn’t let him cook properly.
In the window there is also a picture of them together on Mount Pullo.
At that time, she was leaning into his arms, smiling so sweetly.
In the studio, he was working and she was always sitting on his lap like a child, getting in the way of his work.
I remember once when he was holding her in his arms while he was working on a file, she wobbled on his legs and accidentally kicked the mainframe, and all the documents he had done were not saved and were immediately lost.
I think he was very angry and cold for a long time then, and ignored her when she apologized to him several times.
As a young girl, always impulsive and fussy, she threw up her hands and ran off in slippers.
She sat in the 24-hour store, waiting for Severo Laris to come to her, but from late afternoon until dusk, he didn’t come down to get her, which made her hungry and want to cry.
I bought a bucket of instant noodles and sat in a 24-hour store eating them while waiting for Severo Laris to appear through the window.
Then, at nine o’clock in the evening, Severo Laris appeared, approaching her with a face colder than ice.
He said in a cold voice, “Is it fun to run away from home?”
It was the first time she had seen him really angry and it scared her to death, so she looked down at her sandal-sheathed feet like a child who has made a mistake and said, “It’s not funny, I made a mistake.”
Severo Laris calmed down for a long moment, as if repressing something, and stoically drew her into his arms and hugged her tightly, kissing her with his head down, his voice softening as he said, “No more of this.”
With eyes moist with resignation, she stared up at him and asked, “Why have you come to see me now?”
Severo Laris cackled for a moment at the way she was acting and said, “Leave you alone.”
She puffed out her little mouth and pouted, “I don’t want to be quiet, I want you to cajole me.”
Severo Laris grabbed the back of her neck with one hand and her soft waist with the other and lowered his head to seal his lips.
After the kiss, his voice was hoarse as he asked, “Is this cajoling enough?”
Paula Rouco’s eyes widened and her small hand covered her mouth as she unconsciously glanced at the customers in the store and hurriedly ran out.
Severo Laris touched the corner of his mouth with his thumb and looked at her flighty back, his eyes flooded with a pale smile of affection.
His legs were long and after three or two steps to reach her, he drew her into his arms and the two of them came home in a half embrace.
She asked, “Those papers of yours, are they more important than I am?”
Severo Laris’ big hand grabbed the back of her neck and said, “Not as important as you, but how can I support you if I don’t work.”
She was so happy that her eyes curved into a smile, her little arms wrapped around his neck and rewarded him with a kiss.
Then to be pulled back into Severo Laris’ arms, deeply, and kissed for a long time.
…
Those sweet and astringent memories flooded the mind like a flood with an open valve.
Paula Rouco approaches the sofa and looks at the sleeping Severo Laris.
It was the first time, after seven years, that she looked at him so closely, so intensely.
His eyebrows, his nose, his lips, his face, as if carefully engraved and carved by God, are impressive and lasting.
His brow is slightly furrowed at times when he is asleep.
Paula Rouco reached up and gently brushed the crease between his brows.
Just as she tried to remove it, a man grabbed her wrist.
Severo Laris took her in his arms, turned and squeezed, kissing her on the lips.
Hard to contain, deliberate and long planned.
Finally, she waited for this opportunity and he, for his part, didn’t want to let it pass.