Ana Oliveira Part 2

“Yeah! You already told me about that Friday in detail…” she said. “You know he reopened the studio, right?”
“Yeah! I saw a line of bitches coming over here. Harry picked them up at the gate,” she told me, biting the corner of her lower lip. “Speaking of Harry, where does Josiah know him from?”
“Marta said it was from the military… They were both discharged together. I mean, ‘retired’,” I said, making quotation marks with my fingers.
“Uncle Marquez used his connections to keep his son from getting kicked out, huh? I heard Josiah even got locked up in the military jail for those things he did. I didn’t know the piercing hottie was also a soldier…”
“Yeah, he is,” I confirmed, biting my nails as I spoke. “Isabela is constantly going up and down the studio stairs. I’m even sleeping down here in the back room so I don’t hear those laughs.”
Luana snatched one of my grapes, raising her eyebrow and making a small grimace.
“She works there, right?”
“I think she’s the receptionist. I’ve seen her in a uniform shirt with ‘Ravina’ written on it and that ridiculous raven logo,” I murmured.
“I know you’ve got a lot of history here, but I think you should distance yourself a bit from this place,” she suggested, heading to my fridge and opening it. “We could go on a trip! There are some cool lodges that are great for kids…”
“That would be nice, but I don’t have the money to spend on anything. I’m counting every penny,” I confessed.
“Why don’t you accept Josiah’s alimony?” she asked, emerging with a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. “You don’t need to keep me company. I’m going to drink this bottle with that cheese.”
I nodded, watching Luana cut the Minas cheese with a small sky-blue knife, and then I watched her get a wine glass. I grabbed the orange juice bottle and poured some into a glass. I drank the liquid, contemplating the idea of the alimony.
“I don’t want anything from him!”
“Oh, my mom said Josiah always deposits the alimony for the daughter, and you return the payments every time.”
“Marta loves gossiping to your mom, doesn’t she?” I grumbled, bitterly.
“You’re being way too soft on this asshole!” she said, dragging a chair to the sink and sitting down, her tall frame wrapped in a dark-colored long dress. “Here you are, raising a baby alone, supporting a house only with the alimony from your deceased relatives… You can’t even work. Josiah should be paying a percentage of the money he’s making from those stocks. You know he’s got a lot of money, right?”
“I know! I know everything, that Cristian is a corrupt rich guy who loaded his kids with stocks and money to wipe his ass,” I explained. “But accepting alimony from Josiah is like giving him consent to have father’s rights.”
Luana cleaned her teeth with her tongue and fixed her sharp, judgmental gaze on me.
“I’m not going to pat you on the back for your shitty choices!” she warned.
“I know…” I whispered.
“It’s his damn right. You gave in, Josiah got you pregnant. Do you understand that it’s not fair to carry all this weight alone?”
“I…”
“I’m not finished!” she cut in, making me gulp. “It’s not fair to you! Understand that, friend! You didn’t even finish your Letters degree. You could be finishing it now and then teaching if you were sharing the responsibility of caring for your daughter with him. Because now you can’t write anymore, but that doesn’t mean you can’t focus on your other career… You could also be going out, meeting people. You deserve that, Ana.” She stood up and held my face in her thin hands. “You’re not to blame for what happened, and you don’t deserve to live a life of suffering.”
“I’ll think about it…” I said, looking down.
“Yes, think!” She smiled, showing her smile framed by braces with pink rubber bands. “Now, I have to tell you some gossip…”


***


The night flew by with laughter and gossip, reliving stories from our adolescence and Luana’s future plans. I felt good, re-energized, and finally motivated to get things done.
When Luana left for her aunt’s house, I started organizing my home, taking advantage of Júlia’s deep sleep. I tidied up the dishes, cleaned the floors, put away the scattered toys, and decided to do the laundry before going to bed.
I climbed the wooden stairs to my room to grab the basket of dirty clothes from my bathroom. Heaven, the place was a complete mess. It was full of Júlia’s clothes scattered on the desk, toys all over the floor. I started putting everything in its place, leaving the dirty laundry for last, until I began to hear people leaving the studio. I heard Isabela and Harry shouting goodbye to Josiah, laughing and slamming the front gate.
I began folding my daughter’s clothes, resting my knee on the office chair and trying not to look at Ravina. But it was impossible not to fix my eyes on the huge glass window on the other side of the wall, as sensual laughter escaped from there. I yanked the curtain hard, closing it when I saw a young woman strolling under the red light filtering through LEDs on the wall.
All I felt was rage, folding the colorful dresses while cursing a storm. The woman was flirting, smiling with those full, red lips while looking at something outside my line of sight.
I put the little girl’s clothes away in the brown wooden dresser next to the bathroom door. I held the light bamboo basket with both hands, taking it out of the small bathroom of my suite.
Was that woman just a client of the studio? Was it Josiah who was with her? It could be Bill or some other jerk from my ex’s gang. I walked slowly toward the bedroom exit, but the curiosity was killing me, so I sneaked up to the window, pulled aside the cream voile curtain, and began to spy.
I shouldn’t have looked.
It would have been great not to have seen that crap!
But I did.
There he was, sitting on a black leather armchair, staring directly at me with those damn green eyes full of desire. The woman was naked on his lap, her back pressed against Josiah’s chest, while she rode his penis, her... her... her vagina exposed to me, flaunting what seemed to be a... God! The woman had a damn clitoral piercing. And he looked crazy as he ran his finger over the jewel, with his other hand roaming over her breasts.