Chapter 12: A new life

Leaving the country, but with hope.

When I reached the door, with great difficulty given the weakness I began to feel, and opened it, I was totally surprised. At the door stood Lucia and my cousin Grace.

Grace started to greet me, “Hello, To...” but stopped in shock at how pitiful I must have looked. Lucia stared at me with a look of pity and surprise on her face. I turned and, without a word, headed for the living room. They followed me.

When I got to the living room I was aware of how deplorable it looked: dark, unventilated for a long time, smelling closed, with the remains of the packages of the food I had been eating for the last two weeks ... I must have looked no better, uncombed, unshaven and unwashed for two weeks, in the same clothes I’d had at the time of the fight with Stephen, wrapped in a crumpled blanket and filthy. Embarrassed, I thought for a moment that the only advantage was that since the room smelt bad, my body odour might not be noticeable.

Lucia and Grace looked around the room and then back at me. Lucia’s face went from one of surprise to one of pity and compassion. When she managed to articulate words, she said to me, “Tom, we have to talk ... But not like this...” as her hand pointed around the room and ended up pointing at me.

She put her hand on my shoulder and gently guided me into our bedroom and into the bathroom. There she sat me on the toilet while she filled the tub with hot water and added soap. When the tub was full, Lucia helped me undress and carefully get into the tub. The feeling of stepping into the hot liquid was delicious and helped me a lot to regain my energy.

With a sponge, Lucia began to wash me tenderly and gently; I felt enormously relaxed and as if I were in heaven. She said nothing but looked at me affectionately and cared for me warmly as if she were my mother, although sometimes a shadow of seriousness crossed her face. For my part, I let myself be cared for and looked at her with devotion. I felt like a child whose mother has found him after being lost for a long time, a child who doesn’t know whether his mother will hug and kiss him or berate and give him a terrific scolding.

When Lucia had finished washing me, she helped me dry off and then sat me back on the toilet and started shaving me. I realised that if she hadn’t done all that, I would have been unable to shave for lack of energy. Once I was ready, she brought me some clean clothes and led me into the living room, where I could tell that my cousin had unleashed a flurry of activity. The living room was already clean and tidy; the curtains no longer covered the windows, which let in the afternoon light. There were no remains of the food containers or the blanket that had served as my shelter for the past two weeks.

I sat down on the sofa, and at that moment there was a knock at the door. Lucia opened the door, and in came Grace, who must have gone shopping, as she had several bags of food with her. She and Lucia went into the kitchen, where I guess they set about tidying up, cleaning up and preparing some food. I started to smell a delicious aroma that activated my taste buds and made my stomach start to secrete gastric juices. I began to realise how weak I had become and how ravenously hungry I was.

After a while, they came back with a steaming tray with a big bowl of soup, a plate with two eggs and a lot of fried potatoes, bread, cheese, a glass of orange juice and bananas. At first it seemed too much, and I thought I would be unable to eat it all, but as I ate, I regained energy, and my body asked for more food. In the end, I didn’t leave a single crumb of bread, and the plate was clean.

As I ate, Lucia on my right and Grace on my left looked at me with satisfaction and tenderness. When I finished eating, Grace stood up, gave me a kiss and a hug and said, “Well, I’m going to go. I think you two have a lot to talk about. And Tom, I give you permission to tell what happened to me and Stephen that only you and I know about. I know Lucia will be discreet.”

“Thank you so much, Grace. Thank you very much indeed. I don’t know what happened, but whatever it is, I know I owe it to you,” I said wholeheartedly.

When Grace left, Lucia looked at me and, in a serious tone, said, “Now I want you to tell me everything that has happened with Stephen and me since the beginning. Go back as far as it takes: high school, college, or kindergarten if necessary. I want to know everything.” And she added in a serious tone, “And I don’t want a lie or an omission. There have been enough lies between us. Tell me everything, even if it’s embarrassing, painful, or humiliating for you or for me.”

So I started to tell her everything. How I had always liked her, how I never dared to tell her, how Stephen had been changing (corrupting?) from a noble child to a selfish manipulator, how I saw her start dating Stephen, and what I saw through my window when she and Stephen started having sex. Hearing that, Lucia made a shocked face and asked, “Did you see us?”

“Yes,” I replied, ashamed.

“But, if you liked me, it must have been very painful for you to see me with Stephen.”

“You don’t know how much. I was dying of jealousy and pain. But I was so attracted to you that I couldn’t help looking, even if it was very painful. The first time I saw you naked, you seemed to me the most precious sight in the world.”

“Ahh, my little voyeur,” Lucia said, sketching a smile, the first I’d seen since she’d arrived. “Well, I must tell you, it wasn’t at all satisfactory for me. Stephen just wanted me to give him a blow job, and when we had sex for the first time, he left me unsatisfied and a little sore in my pussy, he didn’t care about me, just about sticking his cock in, cumming, and that was it. As I told you long ago when I explained to you that I had already had sex before I was with you, it was not at all satisfactory.” And she added, caressing my face, “You were the first man that I came with, and enjoyed”