Luna took a deep breath and turned the handle to the office at the Madrid Registro Civil. The stark and disorganised government building was awful on its best days, and today, another Friday, it was busy with couples there to get their wedding licences. The last thing Luna needed was to see happy couples with their families, all dressed up for their momentous day. That day wouldn’t come for her. She shouldn’t have felt mad at others for their fortune in love, but she did.
The noisy building was one thing, but the sight that greeted her on the other side of the door was quite another. The room she had visited two weeks earlier, a windowless beige room with about 30 chairs, was empty. The desk where a single staff member worked was unattended. Oh, for Christ’s sake. She had fucked up. The door closed itself behind her while she looked at the piece of paper with the date and time written on it.
Viernes de 1 septiembre. 14:30. Nacimientos y muertes de la oficina de matrimonios. No, she was in the right place. Birth, Deaths and Marriages. Last time it had been full, and now it was dead.
“Luna Montgomery?”
Luna looked up to see someone at the desk, an irritated-looking woman in her mid-thirties. She was attractive, but her obvious disdain for having to be at work during siesta clouded her pretty face. “Sí, soy Luna.”
“I’m Sofía, I can help you,” the woman replied. “Who do you need to find?”
“I need Cayetano Ortega. Born in or around 1914.”
“Full name?”
“Not sure.”
“No date of birth?”
“No.”
“Birthplace?”
“No. Maybe Cuenca?”
“Parents names?”
“I don’t know.”
“Occupation?”
“I don’t know that either.”
“¿Por qué mi hermano quiere que le ayude?” Sofía muttered. “Wait here, I will go and check the records.”
Luna frowned as the blunt woman left the room. Why did her brother want to help? That was a good question. The door behind her banged open, and Luna turned, surprised that Sofía would be that quick. No such luck. There stood Cayetano, the Cayetano she knew anyway, with his left leg bandaged. The man’s strong body now relied on crutches. He looked awkward as he got himself through the heavy door, and hobbled over towards her. “Luna, buenas tardes. Has Sofía met you here?”
“What are you doing here?”
“Enchufe, remember? I asked Sofía to stay and help you. I thought it would help you to find your abuelo.”
“How is your leg after the accident?”
“You saw?”
“I saw the whole ‘El Valiente’ Beltrán fight. How has your wife coped with your injury?”
Cayetano swallowed hard. He hoped to come in here and see Luna again. He didn’t have the courage to ring her after lying about who he was. He hoped that if he helped her today it would maybe ease some of that. He wanted to ask her out again. Now it would be ugly. “Can I explain?” he asked.
“No.” She raised her hand in his direction. “There’s no need.”
The door opened again, and Sofía was back. “Cayetano! How did you get up here on your own?”
“I can walk,” Cayetano replied in his sister’s direction.
“This woman is a friend?” Sofía gestured towards Luna.
“More of a casual acquaintance,” Luna said coolly.
“I’m not much help to you, Luna,” Sofía said. “There are no records. I suggest you go to Registro Civil office in Cuenca for original documents. Anything else I can do?”
“No, thank you so much,” Luna said. “Thank you for staying late to help me. I won’t bother you anymore.”
“Luna,” Cayetano said, and reached out for her. She stepped around him, and he was unable to reach her, and stumbled on his crutches. She was gone from the room in a heartbeat.
“What did you say to her?” Sofía asked her brother. “Did you just get me to do a favour for a girl you’re interested in?”
“Would it matter if I said yes?”
“Imagine what Mamá and Papá would say - the golden child has betrayed his wedding vows.”
“Since when do you ever talk to our parents?”
“I don’t want to have that conversation. Do you need a ride home?”
“No.” He turned himself on his crutches in the direction of the door. “Thanks, Sofía. I need to go and apologise to Luna.”
“So you did say something to her,” Sofía commented and opened the door for her brother.
“It’s more what I didn’t say,” he sighed. “I’ll call you tomorrow. Maybe you could come to family lunch on Sunday?”
“Would they want their family’s disappointment there?”
“You’re not, not to me,” Cayetano said. “I have to go. Hasta luego.”
Luna stood on the narrow cobbled path and pondered her next move. The next train from Atocha station back to Valencia wasn’t for another hour. When she had got a call from Sofía’s office, she had thought they had something of interest for her. Why couldn’t they have just called her? Cayetano also had her number, and he could have used it. But he didn’t. He didn’t call her. He lied and slept with her behind his wife’s back. So why lure her here under the pretense of having some information, when, in fact, Cayetano Ortega may as well not exist?
“¡Luna, espere!”
Luna shut her eyes and felt a deep ache in her stomach. Wait? For what? She didn’t want to see Cayetano again. She needed to make a run for it. She had thought about him for the last two weeks, about how much she had liked him, and then how dirty she felt when she found out he was married. The man she saw just now was the man she knew, Cayetano Morales, the scruffy man in the bullfighting bar. The guy who took her to dinner. The man who spent the night in her hotel room. But he wasn’t real. She heard his deep, robust voice say her name again, now much closer. With great reluctance, she turned around and there he was behind her on his crutches, his breath laboured. He must have dashed after her on those things. “What?” she spat out.
“I… I just… how are you?”
“Hot. Annoyed. I came today under the impression that there had been an appointment for me because something I had requested had turned up. Only it was your sister who felt obligated to stay after closing time in her office. Why would you do that?”
“I like you.”
“Well, I don’t like being made a fool of.”
“Señor Beltrán? Cayetano Beltrán,” a man’s voice interrupted, and they turned to see an older gentleman approach them. “Señor Beltrán,” he said again. “What an honour! I am such a fan of both you and your father. How is the leg? I hope you recover soon.”
“Gracias, my leg is healing well,” Cayetano said, and watched the man pull a pen and piece of paper from the old satchel he carried. “Would you like an autograph?”
“Por favor. I got one from your father at a fight back in 1967. What a magnificent performance it was. My name is Manuel. I never thought there would be another great like your father, but here you are.”
“Dear Manuel, thank you for the well wishes and support. Regards, Cayetano Beltrán Morales,” he said out loud as he wrote on the paper. “Here you go.”
“Gracias,” the grateful man said, and gestured with his hat. “I’ll let you charm the lady again.”
“A torero’s work is never done,” Cayetano joked, and the man laughed as he walked off.
“So,” Luna said and folded her arms, “your father was a bullfighter, was he? So all night you lied to me about who you were, your job, your family, everything. Not just about your wife.”
“Can I at least explain myself?”
“What for? We had a cheap one-night stand, and that doesn’t need explanations. We will just never see each other again. We don’t need to share private information.”
“I would have thought we have already shared a lot of private things. I think I already know you very well. In fact, I know every inch of you in a very we
ak moment.”
Luna’s eyes flared. Flames were ready to shoot from them. “You don’t know me. You may have seen me, but that is not the same thing. Leave me alone.”
“Hey, who said we were a one-night stand?”
“I don’t know, your wife maybe?”
Cayetano reached out and grabbed her arm when she spun away from him. “Damn it, Luna. Let me explain!” This time when she spun back she looked even more irate. “Please.”
“No, I need to catch the train back to Valencia.”
“They have trains all day. What’s the rush?”
“I would like to get back to see my children.”
Cayetano dropped his hand from around her arm. Mierda. Shit, there was a revelation.
“What do you know, in an instant he has no interest,” Luna said with a sarcastic smile. “Are we done now?”
“I love kids,” Cayetano replied. “I just don’t have any.”
“Well, at least that makes me a little less of a home wrecker.” Luna turned and left. It didn’t matter how much she liked him, there was no need to drag this out. She heard him call her name out again, this time in anger, but she didn’t turn back until she heard him call out in pain. She looked over her shoulder; he was in a heap on the path. She cringed, that must have been extremely painful for him. His bandaged leg stuck straight out in front of him on the uneven cobbles. The dozen or so people between the two of them rushed to his aid, but he looked up at Luna. She came back over and picked up his crutches for him.
Cayetano thanked the people who had helped him, and he sighed. “That was not how to win over a lady,” he said to Luna. “I’m sorry.”
“Are you all right?”
“No.”
She looked at the defeated look on his face, lined with the pain that came from his leg. She realised she quite liked the cheeky smile that usually graced his face. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“I need to get a taxi home.”
Luna helped Cayetano into a nearby taxi outside the building, and she was genuinely concerned at how much pain he seemed to be in. She could imagine what the wound he had looked like. How many ways could she mess up with the man?
“You aren’t coming with me?” he asked. He sat in the taxi with his crutches over his lap. “Please? It’s not far.”
Luna glanced from him to the driver, who seemed rather proud to have Cayetano Beltrán in the back of his car. Cayetano would need help to get inside his building at the other end. With some reluctance, she got in the taxi, and they set off through the busy Madrid streets. The driver wouldn’t shut up, and he barely even looked at the road. It seemed he had caught every second of Cayetano’s performance in the ring, and was more than happy to offer suggestions on how to fight next time. Cayetano sat there and spoke to the man, despite the discussion being about how much he had fucked up in the ring. She may not have known who Cayetano was, but everyone else in Madrid did.
The day was one surprise after another. When the taxi pulled up outside Cayetano’s building, she couldn’t believe it. So he was wealthy. Of course he was. The restored building was a marvel, only a few blocks away from the hotel that Luna had been a few weeks ago. It was one of Madrid’s treasures. The grey and white stone work was as beautiful as the day it was built. The moment they stepped out of the car, the portero came out to help. Cayetano didn’t want the aid of the doorman, and he told the older man that his friend would help him upstairs.
Luna sighed and got in the elevator with Cayetano, and watched the doorman slide the metal door shut and hit the button for the sixth floor. The old elevator was slow as it took them up the centre of the winding staircase to the top of the building.
“Thank you,” Cayetano said when Luna pulled the metal lattice gate across, and helped him over the gap onto the white floor of the dark hallway.
“If you’re fine now, I will leave you. I need to catch my train.”
“You won’t come in?”
“Yeah, your wife and I can have coffee,” she scoffed.
“My ex-wife lives across town with her parents,” Cayetano said. “Which you would have already known if you had let me talk.”
“I’m sorry! Look, this isn’t even about you. I’m embarrassed by my behaviour enough.”
“I see, you used me and now you don’t want to see me again.” A smile spread over his face while he unlocked the front door to his apartment.
Luna couldn’t help but return it. “Cayetano, I’m sorry. I’m just outside my comfort zone here, for a lot of reasons. Reasons you don’t talk to strangers about.”
“Then why don’t you come in and not be a stranger anymore?”
“Is your leg even sore?”
“Yes, I have 36 stitches. Every one hurt like hell when I fell over like a fool.”
“Does it hurt enough that you needed me to help you up here?”
“Maybe. Don’t hate me because I didn’t call. I was in the hospital!”
“I never expected you to call.” She stepped into the entrance way of the huge apartment, and watched him hop over and close the door behind her.
Cayetano gestured for her to turn right into the kitchen, and he hobbled without his crutches into the large room with her. The place was immaculate; the all-white marble kitchen sparkled in every corner of the room. They sat down on the stools along the island counter in the centre of the kitchen. Cayetano was eager to rest his injured leg, and more eager to have the lovely lady next to him. “How did you find out I was married?” he asked.
“I saw your fight on the news. The presenter mentioned your wife was there.”
“I can see why you hate me. I didn’t mean to lie to you about so many things. It’s like you say, you don’t tell your life story on the first date.”
“Was it even a date?”
“Don’t ask me, it’s been years since I have been on one,” Cayetano half-smiled. He realised how pathetic that sounded. “I liked that you didn’t know who I was, and I didn’t want to ruin it. But I realise that was selfish, especially since you were very clear about who you are.”
“What do you mean that I didn’t know who you were?”
“I meet women, and they know me as the bullfighter, the famous guy. Their intentions are never genuine. My wife and I split eight months ago, and she moved out. But no one knows that, other than our families. But I’m single. It’s complicated.”
“Clearly,” Luna sighed. “I watched you hurt your leg. Did you really mess up with the bull because of exhaustion, as was suggested? They said that you were late for preparation the day of the fight. This all happened because you were with me?”
“I knew what I was doing when I went out with you that night. Trust me, if a man is interested, he doesn’t care if he is busy the next day. He stays the night anyway.”
“You could have been killed.”
“It’s my job. Please don’t worry, I will be fine in a few weeks, and other than the public humiliation and the anger of my father over me losing, there is no harm done.”
“That sounds like a lot of harm.”
“It hasn’t been my best few weeks, I will agree with you,” Cayetano said. He stood up from his seat and shuffled across the room to the fridge and opened it. “How about we have another date here in my kitchen? I suggest lunch.”
“You can cook?”
Cayetano pulled an enormous chocolate cake from the fridge. “Cake counts as lunch doesn’t it?”
Luna chuckled while he placed it on the counter between them, and pulled two forks from the drawer. “No, I can’t cook at all, I won’t lie,” he said. “My Mamá made it and put it in my fridge.”
“Ah, a mother. That explains how a man can have such a beautiful home.”
Cayetano scoffed lightheartedly and pulled a bottle of red wine from the rack and sat back down with her. “As I said, my family is around me all the time. Mamá was only 15 when I was born, and she has been … how you say… sobrecompensando…”
“Overcompensating?”
“Sí, overcompensating my whole life, by trying to do a good job. My father, he is much older than her, and her family were not happy when they found their daughter was pregnant to a bullfighter twice her age. She felt she had to prove that Papá was good for her and that she could raise my little sister and me.”
“And your parents are still together now?”
“Sí, very much so. I work with my father and uncles every day, and my mother is the protector of everyone. And since María left me, she has fussed over me, even though I’m 40.”
“You’re her baby. Mothers will always love their sons.”
“Do you have a son?” Cayetano asked with caution.
“Two. They’re five years old.”
“Twins?”
“Yes.”
“Wow… that must be amazing. What are their names?”
“Giacomo was born a few minutes before Enzo.”
“Italian. Like their father,” Cayetano commented. “Luna, I’m sorry.”
“What?”
“I mean… you told me all about Fabrizio’s death, and now I find you also have children.”
“Trust me, I didn’t tell you even half of the story. But… Fabrizio died only a few years ago, and it’s been hard. So when I threw myself at you the other week, it… forget it.”
“How can I forget it?”
“I’m angry at myself, not you, please don’t get me wrong. I feel guilty for cheating on my husband, and I know that sounds ridiculous…”
“Not really. At least when your wife of ten years cheats on you, you can kick her out without feeling bad. I can’t imagine what it’s like for you, to raise the children alone after the one you love dies.”
“I don’t raise them alone. My friend, Darren, lives with me. He took Fabrizio’s place… on the cycling team. He is the boys’ godfather.”
“He is your… lover? Boyfriend?”
“No! No… maybe. Christ, I should go.”
Cayetano reached out and grabbed Luna’s hands when she stood up from her stool. “Can I just say something first?”
“Okay.”
“I like you. I thought you liked me. I thought we had a good time. I had an amazing time. I just don’t know what to do, you’re a widow, and I didn’t know how far I could push. Then I had my accident, but if I hadn’t I would have called you. I want to see you again, but I can understand if you don’t like me.”
Blood in the Valencian Soil (Secrets of Spain) Page 6
