Chapter 22

'Berto

Tuesday had been important – it was the day Roberto and Toni became engaged in fact if not in name. Thursday was another important day – it was Roberto's 19^th birthday. He'd requested that day off a couple of months before, and Toni had made arrangements the week before the proposal, though somehow both of them had forgotten to say or inquire which birthday it was. So they had the day together, and it was more special than they'd ever expected it to be.

They slept late that morning, and Roberto woke first. He leaned on his elbow, looking at ... his fiancée, he realized. She was no longer just the woman he lived with, or his girlfriend – she was the woman he was going to marry. And he couldn't think of anyone better. She was lying on her back, both shoulders and arms outside the covers, and her skin was a soft brown, the color as soft to the eye as the skin was to the fingers, though Roberto didn't touch her now. He looked down the length of her, knowing even under the covers the slimness and limberness that was so unique to her. Once again he felt amazement that someone so short could look so much taller. It had to be something in her build, something that made her seem to have half a foot more height than she actually did, but he couldn't figure out just what it was.

He leaned down and gently kissed her forehead. Her hair, loose for the night, fanned out around her head, spreading on the pillow. It didn't have the lustrous shine of truly black hair, but its dark brown was beautiful enough. A lock of hair lay across Toni's face, through some disarrangement of her sleep, and he delicately lifted it and laid it down on the pillow. "I love you, Toni," he whispered, and kissed her again on the forehead, and then ever so softly on the lips.

At that she stirred slightly, and he pressed his lips more firmly onto hers. He saw her eyelids flutter, and then she was awake, her arms rising to encircle him and pull him down fiercely into her. She returned his kiss passionately, one hand stroking his head and the other splayed between his shoulder blades and holding him to her with surprising strength.

After a few moments she relaxed her hold, still embracing him but without the powerful strength. "I love you, 'Berto," she said, her lips moving against his.

"I love you, Toni," he answered, and this time his lips brushed hers.

"I wanted for two weeks to tell you I loved you. And now I can."

"You could have told me all along, Toni. I think if you had I'd have had an easier time of it."

"I suppose you did have a hard struggle trying to figure things out." He'd told her, after she'd accepted his proposal, how difficult it had been for him to come to the point of making it.

"Yeah. And if I'd known you loved me, maybe I would have realized sooner that I love you. But it's not a big thing – we love each other, and we know it now, and that's what's important."

"What's important, 'Berto Jorge, is that I'm taking you out to eat." She'd already given him a hybrid nickname to match the one her mother had given her.

"Is that what you're doing? Then you'd better get up."

But she just lay there, smiling gently up at him. "Are you looking at me?" she asked.

"As it happens, I am."

"And how do I look, 'Berto my love?"

"You look like a tawny, smooth, delicious cat. Or like a palomita morena, depending on my mood."

She returned his smile. "I don't look to you like your wanton woman, giving herself utterly to you?"

"I guess you do, at that."

"Then I have achieved the effect I wanted. And now I shall get up, for I'm taking you out to eat, and that's that."

Toni

As much as she and Garry had enjoyed their intimacy – she could now allow herself to remember those days – Toni had never known the joy of her beloved's eyes the way she found she loved having 'Berto look at her. When 'Berto examined her, from head to foot, his face shone with a love that encompassed much more than her body. He loved her, all of her – that she knew, and so his gaze wasn't offensive, but delicious.

But she did have plans, and so she got up, and dressed, and put on a little bit of makeup – more than usual, in fact. Her lipstick made her lips just rosy enough to look kissable. She applied just enough rouge to accentuate her cheekbones, a feature that didn't stand out the way she would have liked, and applied some eyeliner, for she'd learned that 'Berto loved her eyes, which naturally appeared large in her slender face and now would seem positively huge.

Satisfied with the result, she grabbed a rubber band and put her hair up in a ponytail as usual. She had plans for the weekend – she was going to knock 'Berto's eyes out – but for now just a little bit more attractive was the goal she was aiming at, and she thought she'd achieved it. She looked past her reflection, now, seeing 'Berto sitting on the bed pulling on a pair of socks. His wardrobe was about as monotonous as hers – khaki pants, work shirts mostly in blue, socks whatever color had been on sale that day or so she assumed. They were thick socks, for a working man; they'd never have gone with a suit, but then 'Berto didn't own a suit. She'd seen his closet at his apartment – an apartment which was now completely bare except for the booze that he still hadn't thrown away, and a few pieces of lonely furniture. There weren't any suits there, and he hadn't brought any with him.

Putting her makeup away, Toni turned out the bathroom light and went into the bedroom. "Are you about ready, 'Berto?"

"Just about. Let me brush my teeth and put my shoes on, and we'll go."

"All right." She leaned up and kissed him. "Did you know that I love you?"

"Yeah, I did. And I swear, I still can't believe that such a wonderful woman chose to love me. It's like winning the lottery, only about a billion times better."

"And much more expensive. You could never afford my price." She smiled at him, grinned almost.

"I couldn't afford your toenail clippings. You're such a precious woman – precious to me, anyway. Just thinking that someone as special as you loves me makes me go weepy."

Toni didn't know what to say to that, so she didn't say anything. She just wrapped her arms around him and held on, while he held her and kissed the top of her head. She pulled back, putting a hand flat on 'Berto's chest. "Go brush your teeth, my lord. Lunch will be over if we don't get moving."