Robles that morning He woke up with the decision to end the relationship with Agapita. They had been five wonderful years: two of dating and three of marriage. Agapita’s beauty remained undisputed: her skin, her body, her features. Still young, she anticipated a woman who would become more beautiful as her life went by.
They hadn’t become parents. It was the right time to bifurcate their destinies. Robles deduced that Agapita’s interests, the lack thereof in the strict sense, clashed with her job promotion.
Agapita’s dedication to ceramics, both in her vein as a teacher and as a producer, glimpsed horizons too close. Agapita had no shortage of talent, creativity and initiative.
But Robles had just received a senior position as a legal expert and public relations manager at the international citrus company. Trips around the world were sponsored for him, a radical change in status; for starting a new house, at the expense of the company.
The future was a fertile and available field. It wasn’t a prize winner who wanted to change partners in a fit of selfishness: but the discovery of two different aspirations, in a somewhat unexpected situation.
Agapita’s resignation, or affability, in accepting the news surprised Robles.. Maybe even a little, against his will, she disappointed him.
Robles senses in the face of what was almost his ex-wife, not the prediction of that specific moment of rupture, but the calm wisdom of knowing that everything, from love to good fortune, can end suddenly, precisely because, as it happens. the dinosaurs went extinct or Krakatoa exploded.
Closeness, attraction, stability need no excuse to disintegrate, Agapita seemed to assume, in her sad, modest smile. What could oppose it? She didn’t love her anymore, she understood it. Somehow, Robles’ statement chilled her. What could have been a scandal, a premature reaction, crying, was calmed by the simple conclusion that there was nothing more that could be done.
In love, prayers are useless. It is not possible to direct them to the Almighty, much less to the escaping interlocutor. Those wishes cannot be requested.
Marriage assets were frugal, right at the middle class level; but they divided them rationally (the “but” is appropriate because scarcity is often divided more brutally than opulence). They sold the house. They agreed for a time not to frequent common places.
Soon Robles had to embark on his own tour of duty. He worked in Marseille, Toulouse, Nice, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Munich. Every point of the tour was jubilant for him.
On the outskirts of Ráfaga, a small town in the Italian Mediterranean, he had to consult with the managers of an agricultural complex where grapefruits and oranges of hitherto unknown quality and flavor were grown.
I spent a few hours in a small restaurant by the sea, a place dazzling in its rusticity, made of stone, with a small variety of dishes, each more inviting, and an Edenic red wine. It would then be transferred to the reference site, about 40 kilometers away. Then he saw her: it was Agapita, subtly embellished by days and distance..
Her hands appeared to be held by the man sitting in front of her. But careful observation disillusioned the viewer. The man was Fabrizio, the famous Italian actor, for whom many women loudly expressed their admiration, love, devotion. As an actor, he looked for films in which he could express his ability with tragic or comic characters. But invariably the cinemas were full of worshippers.
What was Agapita doing there with Fabrizio? Robles wondered, “Did you discover my career path and follow me?”
Was she crazy? A stalker?
But then why did Fabrizio accompany her? Suddenly, without deciding, Robles found himself on his feet and left. But he had to return and leave the money to pay the large bill, without waiting for the change. He apparently hadn’t registered it.
Robles carried out his task in the orange groves eagerly, but without distraction. He managed to put off his speculations until after work.
He had to wait two months but finally, in Buenos Aires, to his shame, out of curiosity, he arranged a chance meeting with Agapita, in a place where Robles was not supposed to attend. He asked her, trying not to reproach her, about her appearance with Fabrizio in Ráfaga.
Agapita replied perplexed, was he following her? Robles confessed that he thought the same thing vice versa. Agapita explained that she met Fabrizio in Chile, shortly before she became a star. It had been a passionate love story. Fabrizio had not been able to forget her, but she had preferred Robles.
And why did you choose me? -Robles asked in a broken voice.
The international contracts were already arriving – Agapita recalls with a bewildered look -. I never wanted a life under the lights. I like discretion, intimacy. I’m happy with my ceramics, with myself, even if it seems presumptuous. I don’t make wishes during the holidays.
Robles calculated the infinitesimal possibilities that had to come together for that chance meeting in Ráfaga to take place. He took her hands, as Fabrizio had not done. But Agapita quickly took them away, she made it clear that everything between them was over, like a piece of ceramic that can never be put back together again if it breaks.
Source: Clarin
