House of Beauty. Melba Escobar

make a habit of catching up once a week. I decided not to let him smoke at my place again. I raised the calendar and marked the date: 23 July. From this day forward, no one smokes in here, I said to myself, circling the date with the same red pen that I used to correct drafts of his books.

       5.

      Sabrina was in her uniform. That’s why they didn’t let her into the hotel bar where she was meant to be going on her date with Luis Armando. She would have liked to go for a drink, or for him to take her to a restaurant, or at least to go for a walk. But he insisted on seeing her in his room.

      ‘I can’t wait to cover you in kisses,’ he said.

      And that phrase was enough for Sabrina to feel her heartbeat quicken.

      ‘Do you love me?’ he asked in the voice that often murmured over the telephone how much he wanted her.

      ‘A lot,’ Sabrina said, turning red. It was the first time a man other than her father had asked.

      When she went up to his room, she saw that Luis Armando was drunk. She was drunk, too, from the brandies she tossed back earlier so that she could bear the pain of the waxing. If she’d been sober, perhaps she would have reacted faster. But she wasn’t. She realised that coming here hadn’t been a good idea. Nevertheless, instead of leaving, she stared into his eyes, searching for the spark of love she thought she’d detected in them once. She was ready to become a woman.