Table of Contents

+ Add to Library

Next
Passion Under Conditions

Passion Under Conditions

Cuevasb09

Last update: 2023-01-21

Chapter 1

  • Four months earlier:
  • Love was not for her.
  • That was what Valeria thought, ordering another drink, which she consumed with surprising haste. That day she had broken up with her boyfriend after a relationship of more than six years. It was devastating to realize that she had wasted six long years of her life, and not only was it devastating, but it was not the first time it had happened to her. She had reached a point where closing herself off was her only alternative, closing herself off to love was the logical thing to do, why on earth would she want that to happen to her again?
  • “Give me another," she asked, pushing the glass towards the pourer. A dark dress covered her slim body, as her old boyfriend had told her she looked better that way.
  • “Don't you think you've had too much to drink?” Valeria turned suddenly, hearing a voice behind her, meeting a man.
  • “It's none of your business," she spat at him, averting her gaze from him, the scarce -almost null- lights that were in that place, did not allow her to observe the subject's face clearly enough, but the little she had seen, indicated to her that he was someone young. "At least that", she thought in mockery, remembering the bunch of older men who had approached her to propose a night together.
  • “Are you alone here?” he asked, moving closer to Valeria.
  • “No, and don't come near me.”
  • He laughed.
  • “Don't lie.”
  • “Who says I'm lying?”
  • “You're lonely, and apparently, scorned," he commented, observing how another glass of liquor was poured to the twenty-eight year old woman. “Am I wrong?”
  • She kept silent, taking a sip of her liquor and sighing.
  • “Rebound is hard," the man continued.
  • “Believe me, I know.”
  • “What's your name?”
  • She took another sip from her glass, unwilling to answer.
  • “Why do you want to know? I don't even know you.”
  • “All the more reason”, The man laughed slowly. “My name is Mateo," he introduced himself, holding out his hand, which she accepted with distrust. “And you?”
  • “Valeria," she answered barely.
  • He settled down, she looked at him in more detail, observing a thin beard that covered his thin face, over that beard, rested some fleshy lips that from time to time made grimaces as they looked at her, although, she had to admit that the most attractive thing about his face, were his eyes, of an intense blue, they seemed to shine like two diamonds in the depths of the darkness.
  • “And tell me, Valeria, what made you want to be here?” She gave him a quizzical look. “You don't look like the kind of woman addicted to liquor.”
  • “Well, I am," she answered, evidently not going to talk about how much she had been hurt by her separation this morning with a complete stranger she had just met less than ten minutes ago. “Besides, I have to go now.” The woman left the money on the table, and then stood up, heading for the door of that place.
  • “Infidelity, right?” Those words, said by Mateo, stopped Valeria's clumsy step, causing her to look at him cautiously. “Am I wrong?”
  • “I don't even know what you're talking about.”
  • “I've seen many women scorned by infidelity, they act just like you.”
  • “I'm not scorned, I told you I'm just an alcoholic.”
  • “An alcoholic wouldn't stagger after drinking a few glasses, it's obvious that you've drunk very few times in your whole life.” For a second, she swallowed saliva at the intelligent deductions of that complete stranger, although, soon, she erased that small expression of perplexity and drew her same apathetic face.
  • “How do you know I've only had a couple of drinks?” she asked defensively. “You barely came near me, what the hell is wrong with the men in this bar?”
  • “Actually, I've been watching you for a while," he admitted. “I was the one who bought you those glasses.” Valeria raised her eyebrow, she remembered that a waiter had told her that someone had bought her some drinks, she, apathetic, had consumed them without bothering to know who it was. “You just drank them, you didn't even bother to know who had sent them to you.” He laughed. "What if I had drugged them?” She kept silent, agreeing with him. “But you don't have to worry, I didn't drug them.”
  • “I wasn't even worried," she lied, turning her back on him.
  • “Where are you going?”
  • “What do you care?”
  • Mateo laughed again in that way that was starting to annoy Valeria.
  • “I don't care where you go, Valeria," he said, turning his face to the brightness where she looked at him. “But now that I can see you better, I'd like to buy you a drink.”
  • “What makes you think I'll accept a drink from a stranger like you?”
  • “You accepted the ones a little while ago.”
  • “Because I didn't know they came from someone like you.”
  • “How is she supposed to be someone like me?” she didn't even know the answer to that question herself, only that the cunning revealed by his eyes seemed uncomfortable, annoying, mocking, as if he could know all her reasons just by looking at her. “Are you going to accept my drink?”
  • She looked at him, hesitantly, little by little she was beginning to turn in the direction of the other side of the table, watching as he ordered a simple drink for her. At that very moment, her mind sent her an image of the way she had found her former partner fornicating with another, in the same bed where he had sworn he loved her, before these memories, her eyes were lost for a moment in sadness, in hatred.
  • “So?” he asked, smiling at her.
  • She relaxed her muscles, giving him a small smile that was barely perceptible.
  • “Just one drink," Valeria told him. “After that, I'll leave," she assured, taking a seat next to Mateo.
  • She held the glass in her hands and took a delicate sip.
  • “I guess I was right," Mateo commented, then ordered a drink for himself as well.
  • “Right about what?”
  • “You're scorned.”
  • She twisted her bright red lips.
  • “Maybe.”
  • He smiled.
  • “Welcome to the club," Mateo joked, taking a serious sip from his glass, even though he was smiling, in his eyes she could see the same expressions she recently felt; sadness and hatred.
  • “Are you also scorned?” she asked, allowing him to confirm that he was right.
  • “Thirteen years of relationship and she got pregnant by another man," he said, biting his lips and then smiling bitterly.
  • “Why are you laughing?” she asked, genuinely curious.
  • “If I cry, I'll end up dying," he said, finishing his drink faster than she did. “On the other hand, laughing at my own misfortunes makes me less vulnerable to the grudge I hold against both of them” His gaze was fixed on a null point. “I met her when I was twenty, now I'm thirty-three.” He laughed louder, although it was only necessary to see in his eyes the bitterness of his soul. “A full life and she didn't decide to give me a son, but to another man she did.” He knew it was perhaps not a good idea to tell those vulnerable points to a complete stranger, but since he had discovered it precisely a week ago, he had not been able to get it off his chest, for no one seemed to understand it well enough to comment on it. "And a complete stranger does?" he asked himself in his head.
  • "Maybe she was being unfaithful to you for years," Valeria guessed, realizing that it hadn't been appropriate to say that. “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to...”
  • “It doesn't matter," he said, "I thought so too.” A sigh escaped from Mateo's lips. “I guess I have to forgive her and move on.”
  • Valeria laughed.
  • “First time going through this?” she asked with a hint of mockery, “That's what I said to myself, "I have to forgive and move on, I can't chain myself to him" and it's the insistence to forgive that keeps me tied to the memory of every failed relationship, I'm tired of looking for forgiveness, I'd like... something different.
  • “Something like what?” Mateo questioned, raising an eyebrow.
  • She smiled flirtatiously.
  • “A kind of revenge.”
  • “Revenge?” Mateo settled back. “What do you mean by that?”
  • “Just as he slept with the first girl who crossed his path, I could do the same, couldn't I?”
  • Mateo smiled sideways, settling back in his chair, understanding the message she wanted to send him.
  • ***Hey! I hope you guys like this book! Its an original book, no plagiarism allowed. The content is a bit explicit, its a romantic-erotic book.