by Stefania Gil
A Coffee to the Past
Stefania Gil
Translated by Tonita
“A Coffee to the Past”
Written By Stefania Gil
Copyright © 2017 Stefania Gil
All rights reserved
Distributed by Babelcube, Inc.
www.babelcube.com
Translated by Tonita
Cover Design © 2017 La Taguara Design
“Babelcube Books” and “Babelcube” are trademarks of Babelcube Inc.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
A Coffee to the Past
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
XVI
XVII
Stefania Gil
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The characters and events described in this novel are fictitious. Any similarity with real people, living or dead, is coincidence.
"Gratitude is the memory of the heart"
- Lao Tse -
I
New York, today.
Carlota's cell phone rang insistently.
She was in the shower but, from the melody she knew it was her sister. Due to the insistence with which she called, she was sure that something had happened.
She stepped out of the shower quickly and picked up the receiver to respond.
“What's happening to you?”
“I need to talk to someone.”
Carlota sighed.
She could sense what was happening to her sister without having to listen to what she had to say.
“I'm home. Come, I'll make you some coffee and we'll talk.”
“I'll be there in five minutes.”
They hung up the phone and Carlota quickly got dressed. Trousers and a cotton shirt were the first things she found in her closet and that’s what she put on.
She had left Alice a couple of hours ago at the nursery. Like every day, after leaving the little girl there, she did her daily exercise routine which consisted of running an hour and a half through Central Park.
Five minutes later, Isabel entered her house.
As soon as they saw each other, her sister threw herself into her arms and began to cry. Carlota was frightened. She had never seen her sister in that state and was beginning to think that something very bad had happened.
Not a simple fight between her and Luke.
“Shhh, honey, what's wrong?”
Isabel tried to speak, but the tears would not let her.
“I think...” she sobbed and her voice trembled “...that... it’s... it's finally over.”
He looked at his sister in fear.
Carlota wanted to kill Luke, the asshole. How could a man be that stupid? His bipolarity was killing her little sister.
“Don’t look at me like that.” Isabel begged after seeing the fury that grew in her gaze.
“And how do you want me to look at you, Isabel?,” she was very upset, but still comforting her little sister. “Luke is a jerk, who needs psychological treatment, someone to help him define what the heck it is that he wants out of life. As far as I know, you're not a psychologist.”
Isabel took a paper napkin to wipe the uncontrollable tears from her face.
“He has slept on the living room sofa for two nights and...” she sighed “...we have not had sex for over a month.” She burst into tears in Carlota's arms. “He does not want me anymore, Carlota. I have done everything to revive our relationship.” Her words were spilling out now. “And I have not been able to reawaken his desire.”
That had happened on other occasions. Luke was a very demanding and controlling man. A man who enjoyed having the power to move Isabel at his whim.
Despite being such a kind and chivalrous man in the street, he was a real jerk and emotionally unbalanced in his relationship with Isabel.
“Let's go to the kitchen.” Carlota said as she hugged her little sister.
They sat at the kitchen table and Carlota poured coffee for both of them.
“Why do you think it’s over now?”
“Because I asked him this morning if he wanted me to leave his house and he said yes. That it was for the best.”
Carlota opened her eyes in surprise. She immediately wanted to go and kick Luke’s butt, with all her might.
“You realize” Isabel said with fear in her voice. “That I lost, Carlota, I lost it all and now I do not know what I will do because I still love him.”
Carlota sighed.
She tried to think.
She always did the same thing when one of these episodes happened, although she admitted that it was the first time in which they talked about separating.
The previous times, when Luke was in a slump, he was depressed and told Isabel that he didn’t know if he wanted her or not. To just leave him alone for a few days so he could clear his head and by her being in love with him, she did everything he asked her to do just to stay by his side.
For Carlota, that relationship was masochistic and she did not understand how her sister had fallen into this vicious circle of tears and depressions.
Isabel was not like that. She was never like this. She was always the strongest and least sentimental of the two. The sarcastic one, the one who always had her feet on the ground.
To see her there, weeping desperately because the man she loved no longer loved her, led Carlota to think that she was facing a complete stranger.
The Isabel she knew had vanished leaving this new and unhappy Isabel.
Carlota sighed again.
“What are you thinking about doing?” she asked her sister.
“I do not know, I think I'll wait a few days, hoping this is just a nightmare.”
“And if it is not, Isabel? If in a few days everything continues as before? What are you going to do?”
Her sister's eyes filled with tears again.
***
Isabel felt that nothing made sense anymore.
That morning she woke up hoping to see Luke smiling at her, but what she found was an empty bed.
She went into the living room and found him in the armchair covered with a blanket, staring at the TV.
He only moved his eyes to her. In a moment of desperation she asked, if everything was over. He only uttered a few words about Isabel's question over leaving.
“I think it's for the best, Isa.”
It was that moment when Isabel felt that her life was over and that she needed to talk to her sister.
Carlota was always her support. Although, the sisters were very different, from a very young age they were always there for each other. Even when Isabel moved to New York to study and Carlota stayed in Latin American where they were born and raised.
They were always close. For Isabel, there was no one in the world who could give her better advice than her sister, although at times she didn’t take It, believing that she knew it all.
Like at that moment when her sister asked her what she would do if things with Luke stayed the same in the next few days.
She went blank. She was terrified of losing Luke. He was the love of her life.
She tried to calm herself a little, though she could not think clearly because her feelings were overpowering her.
“How are the preparations for the trip?” she asked Carlota trying to avoid the question.
She saw her with a long face and knew she was evading the que
stion.
“All right. It's all settled now.”
Isabel smiled.
“I hope you find the inspiration you need so much,” she said after taking a sip of her coffee.
Carlota sighed... once more.
“Why don’t you come with us? Let’s go to the agency and buy a ticket for the day we leave. I don’t want to leave you here alone with all you're going through.”
Isabel shook her head.
“No, we will continue with our current plan.”
“Isabel, stop being so stubborn for once in your life.” Carlota was getting upset. “Leave Luke's house. Let’s go to Spain, breathe fresh air and concentrate on the estate’s restoration. That will keep your mind busy and you can think about whether you love Luke or not.”
Isabel looked at her with indignation.
Her sister always made her see that she was not really in love with Luke. That what she had with him was a disgusting dependence after having had bad experiences with love.
When Luke appeared in her life, it seemed like she had found the perfect man. He was so meticulous and gallant, and so good at sex that she decided to change everything to please him. She trembled with fear at the thought that she could lose him.
And that was it, it had changed everything for him and nothing worked.
Maybe her sister was right. Maybe it was all dependence. Holding on to the idea that she had a perfect man by her side when she knew well that perfection didn’t exist.
She shook her head as if trying to shake that thought away.
It was impossible dependence did not have to hurt the way Luke's rejection hurt. No. Impossible. She was in love with him. She would find a way to renew it again.
“It's only a month Carlota, you go and in a month, I'll be there as we agreed. Besides, it's not just Luke. I cannot leave the office so sudden.”
“As you wish. Then I'll ask Edward if it's possible for us to change our tickets so we all leave together in a month. I'm not thrilled about leaving you alone with you being this sad.”
“No way. I appreciate your gesture, but Edward has done so much to coordinate this trip and you will not change it. I will be fine. I promise.”
Carlota took a set of house keys from a kitchen drawer
“Take these.”
“What are these for?” asked Isabel.
“Isabel, wake up, Luke does not want anything else to do with you and obviously you're going to need a place to live. We will not be here, so you can use the apartment until you meet us in Spain.”
Isabel took the set of keys and felt the lump in her throat choking her again.
Her sister hugged her once more as she shed more tears.
***
A couple of days later, Isabel was entering her sister's house nearly at midnight, dragging a pair of suitcases. She would get the rest of her belongings out of Luke’s house tomorrow. She arranged to send someone for her things because she was not brave enough to return to her home of almost five years to get her things in the presence of the man that she thought she would marry someday and who would be the father of her children.
How ironic.
She collapsed on the white sofa in the living room. The house was dark.
She looked at her watch. Her sister would be flying with her daughter and her husband to a new country where she hoped to find an exciting adventure to tell the world.
Carlota was a genius at writing. Romantic novels were her strong point and not without reason, she was a world-renowned author. Her books became bestsellers before they hit the market.
After the birth of Alicia, Carlota’s inspiration disappeared. In two years she had barely managed to write a novel, which her editorial agent did not like.
It wasn’t for nothing.
So her good husband Edward, decided to give her a change of atmosphere to see if that helped her recover her wonderful muses.
Isabel looked at the photo on the table to her right. Edward and Carlota were perfect for each other. They were so in love, just like the first day they saw each other.
Isabel knew that those two were destined to be together as soon as she introduced them.
Yes, it was her who united them by chance.
Edward was the accountant at the decorating agency Isabel founded after graduating from university; and Carlota's first book became a Bestseller, making her visit some of the most important cities in the world, New York, being the first.
Isabel was in charge of telling everyone she knew that her sister would be presenting her book in a major bookstore in the city. That's how Edward came to be at the bookstore and introduced himself to her sister.
Since then, they have been together and Ed was the main reason that Carlota decided to leave her beloved Latin America to live in the cosmopolitan American city.
Isabel sighed.
How beautiful were love stories when they started.
She and Luke’s were beautiful too.
She felt a tear trickle down her cheek.
They met in an eventful manner. They tripped and the three coffees that Luke carried in a cardboard tray fell on Isabel’s white skirt and jacket.
That day, they both were in a hurry to reach a scheduled meeting. They were both late and all they were thinking about was how to get to their destination as soon as possible. That's how they ended up colliding.
Luke felt sorry for Isabel, but she let out a string of curses that made Luke's head turn in shock. Even with being bathed in coffee, the woman who shouted so outrageously was beautiful. The truth was that it did not mix with all the disgusting things coming out of her plump sexy mouth.
“You should not curse so,” Luke said to her as she glared at him and walked on.
Coincidentally, they continued on their separate ways without knowing the appointment that both had scheduled for that day was with each other. And Luke’s partner, of course.
He was the only one waiting in the meeting room in Isabel's office. They had scheduled an appointment with the decorator because they wanted to remodel their office and Isabel's company was highly recommended.
Isabel entered the meeting room enraged without realizing that Luke was right behind her.
Frank stood up as soon as he saw her enter.
“Good morning,” she said with as much professionalism as she could and held out her hand to Frank. “I am Isabel Alcalá. Excuse me, an idiot who was not looking where he was going decided to overturn the three coffees that he was carrying on me.”
Frank smiled sideways when he saw his partner behind Isabel.
It was then she realized that someone was behind her and turned her head and saw the “idiot”. All the color drained from her face.
He held out his hand.
“Luke Miller better known as: The Idiot.” He winked, and at that moment, Isabel felt her heart beat faster.
Since then, they have not stopped seeing each other. They went out to eat, traveled, went to movies, until one fine day, Luke decided that it was a good idea for Isabel to move in with him.
She was so happy she felt like she was floating. She knew that the marriage that she had dreamed of since she was a child would only be a matter of time.
Isabel closed her eyes and rested her head on the sofa.
How it hurt to be in love. Above all, how it hurt to have changed everything about herself so that in the end, no change would be sufficient in the relationship.
She was not even a shadow of the pre-Luke Isabel. She knew it.
That Isabel was a relaxed woman, calm and passionate about her work. She hated to exercise and loved chocolate more than her life. Well, at least that's what she believed. After Luke, she understood that her love for chocolate had not been so great since she almost abandoned it. One day, in a pastry shop, her eyes almost popped out when she caught a glimpse of an immense chocolate Easter egg , and at that moment Luke came up to her and whispered in her ear-while pinching the curve of her hips
“Remember that all that
fat will end up accumulating here, and you already have enough.”
While I was with him, I was stressed because I was afraid that nothing would be perfect for him.
She got up every day at 6 a.m. -even in winter- to kill herself with an exercise routine that gave her a model’s body.
Just like Luke liked.
She woke up before Luke, ran to the bathroom and from there she came out made up for when the love of her life woke up, she would be beautiful. He hated to see her in pajamas and disheveled.
She did not care about having to change, about becoming a woman with fears and insecurities because she thought love changed you and you had to adapt to your loved one in order to be happy. That was what love was all about. True love always spoke of sacrifices and well, she considered her sacrifices well worth it.
Sigh.
She wanted to get her love back. But she could not deny that she felt exhausted from the many times that she had already struggled to make him stay with her. To make him love her again. By increasing their libido along with the security of loving Isabel like no one else in the world.
Even if he did not express it to her, even though in all their time together, he would never say "I love you" she knew deep down he loved her.
In his own way, but he loved her and that was enough for her.
She would wait.
She wanted to hope that the waters would settle down. That Luke’s new depression would disappear and allow them to be happy again, because she was convinced that they were very happy with each other.
II
Edward smiled when he saw his wife’s face as they arrived at the estate.
Their trip was good and their little girl behaved wonderfully during the flight from NY to Madrid and then, on the connection to Valencia.
This trip filled Edward with excitement and expectations.
It all began with the desire he had to see his wife glued to her computer filling it with words, hundreds of pages of words that would form the wonderful stories that were created in her head.
She did not show it openly but he knew her well. He knew that Carlota was on the brink of depression if she did not find something to inspire her.
