Chapter 23: Alejandra

SATURDAY PROMISED TO BE HOT. Daytime temperatures that were unpleasant but as compensation the evenings were mild until midnight, sometimes later.

I found Aída in the stands and sat down beside her.

“Why aren’t you out there today, Aída?”

She made a face. “I twisted my ankle a couple of weeks ago, Michael. I’ve got to take it easy for another ten days at least.”

She laughed.

“Otherwise I’d cream her, and Alex knows it.”

My lizard brain immediately wondered exactly what kind of creaming she had in mind. I rubbed her back between her shoulder blades. She smiled and purred.

“I think I’d like to see that, Aída.”

She poked me.

“I’ll bet you would, Michael.”

I kept up my mini-backrub until Alejandra and her opponent came out on the court for the coin toss. Alejandra won and chose to serve.

It was a three-hour slugfest. Alejandra finally won, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, but she had to fight for every point because her opponent, a sixteen-year-old kid named Deborah from somewhere in the north, never gave up. When the two embraced at the end I saw Alejandra whisper something in the girl’s ear that made her smile and then laugh out loud. The two walked over to the judge’s stand hand-in-hand to a standing ovation from the crowd, Aída and me included.

After a quick hug Aída towed a sweaty Alejandra off to the dressing rooms. An hour or so later we dropped Aída off at her house on our way back home after she declined Alejandra’s invitation for a post-match swim and dinner.

“I asked the cook to prepare a light supper for us, Michael, nothing special, is that OK?”

Of course it was, and I told her so.

“What about a swim, Alex?”

She grinned.

“Yes.”

I liked the gleam in her eye. I liked it even more when she invited me to hang my clothes in the pool house and not to worry about a swimsuit.

“The staff won’t care, Michael, believe me. And even if they care they’re not going to say anything.”

She leaned close. “They like me.”

I laughed at her affected innocent look. She almost carried it off.

“How about your mother, Alex? She around tonight?”

She grinned again.

“She’s out and I don’t know when she’ll be back. It doesn’t matter to me.”

“Is your dad around?” That did matter to me.

“Out of town until next week. You’re safe.”

The best part was when Alejandra emerged from her side of the changing rooms. Tennis and swimming gave her the long firm curves that look so good on a woman and shoulders that caught the light as her arms moved.

“Hey, Michael.” She poked me. “Close your mouth, please.”

I complied.

“You look great, Alex.”

She kissed my cheek. “Thanks.”

With that she led me over to the edge of the pool and, laughing, pushed me in. Stole my move right out from under me, in fact, but she made up for it by coming into my arms to kiss me and press her breasts against me while my erection was solid against her pubic thatch as we stood in the shallow end.

“Laps first, Michael.”

“Is there a program, Alex?”

She chuckled.

“Not exactly. Let’s just do some laps, OK?”

So we did. Not all that many, but enough to loosen our muscles and for me to enjoy the view. I was pretty sure she did as well.

As if she were talking about the weather, Alejandra turned to me as we stretched at the side of the pool before getting out.

“I’m not a virgin, Michael.”

She left the ‘any more’ unspoken.

“Oh, yeah? Who’s the lucky guy, Alex?” I wasn’t jealous, not really, but the devil on my shoulder wanted to know.

“Bruno Castellote, one of my classmates. I don’t think you’ve met him.”

“And?”

She laughed.

“What do you think, Michael? It was kind of awkward, like it is for everyone, at first.”

She gave a salacious chuckle.

“And then it got really really good.”

I pulled her into my arms and kissed her.

“Congratulations, Alex.” I kissed her again and palmed her breast. “Really really good, you say?”

Another chuckle.

“Yeah.”

She freed herself and grabbed my hand and waded over to the steps.

“Come on, Michael, I’m hungry.”

While we’d been in the water the cook and her assistant had set out plates of bocadillos, olives, slices of warmed Spanish omelette, along with marinated artichoke hearts and more slices of ham and cheese on a low table at the side of the garden. An opened bottle of wine and two bottles of mineral water along with a bowl of oranges completed the spread.

It was as though the gods, those ancient gods who approved of Javier, Sofía and me back in the village, were watching over Alejandra and me. I heard their voices, low and unintelligible but they sounded good, as we ate and drank and laughed, Alejandra’s curves highlighted by the garden lamps turned low.

We’d finished the wine and I was reaching for a second bottle I’d spotted on a side table when Alejandra put her hand on mine.

“Let’s save that for later, Michael, shall we?”

Her eyes were invitations plain as day, or night for that matter, and needed no words, and I responded by leaning close and kissing her. I stood up and offered my hand. When she rose I pulled her into my arms and renewed my kisses. She pressed herself against me and moved to put my thigh between hers.

“I’m still a little stiff from the match, Michael.”

She rubbed on me as she spoke and I didn’t need a decoder ring to understand this invitation. We lay down on the spikey grass that was surprisingly comfortable in the evening warmth and my hands found the knots in her back as she alternately purred and groaned and sighed when I worked my way down over her firm bottom and further to her thighs.

It was easy and right and what those gods, whoever and whatever and wherever they were, wanted for me to turn her over onto her back when I finished my stroking and pressing and to return her smile and kiss her and move on top of her and enter her, slowly, to find her wet and welcoming and eager.

The gods barely had time for whatever they did while watching humans before Alejandra climaxed and I followed her in a thrusting tangle of hands and legs and mouths that sought lips and tongues and flesh and I released and filled her. We lay joined together, with kisses and unintelligible murmurs that really didn’t need translation until the moment came when I rolled off her and we lay side-by-side, our fingers touching.

My laugh came from nowhere. It startled Alejandra and she leaned over to look at me. I think she couldn’t decide whether to join me or take offense.

“Michael, what is it?”

It took me a minute to contain myself.

“I don’t know where that came from, Alex, but I was remembering a novel I read years ago where the lovers finally come together, and their consummation is described as two boxcars crashing into each other and the noise echoes from the nearby mountain tops.” I kissed her. “It seemed such a fantastic description at the time. Real literature, even.” I kissed her again. “Now, it seems ludicrous.”