The colorful lights panned over the audience, the energy of the crowd in El Palacio permeated the air. Excitement and emotion filled the venue as LuisMi crooned one of his most famous ballads.
I’m letting you go.
His faithful fans responding with fervor, I can stop you, making him smile.
It was romantic for all there. Couples sang along with LuisMi but to each other. He was cupid flinging heart-shaped-arrows with every word to all those who loved his music.
Except Antonio. Every single arrow speared through him, made him bleed some more. He hadn’t let Arlenis go. She’d left him. He’d begged her to stay, promising to do whatever she wanted. It didn’t matter. She still left him…broken.
“Come on. You know this song.” The voice so close to his ear yanked him from his thoughts. He turned to look at Neri, the smiling brunette standing next to him. She and her friends introduced themselves to him before the concert started.
She was only a bit shorter than him and he’d been drawn to her teasing smile and eyes deep brown as her skin. Years ago, before Arlenis had made him into the sour mess he was these days, he would have chatted Neri up and invited her out.
But he was the lonesome loser at a LuisMi concert because the woman he’d bought the tickets to go with was no longer in his life.
“I’m not in the mood,” he said, not bothering to take the bitterness out of his words.
“But you’re at a LuisMi concert. Come on.” She grabbed his hand and broke out into the chorus of the song, staring right into his eyes. Her gaze was like a magnet, drawing him closer, wiping away his protests.
And he couldn’t help it. He joined in. I’ll walk way, as the sun does every day, when the evening comes.
They ended up singing along together for the rest of the concert. He enjoyed himself, something he never expected. When the concert ended, they walked outside together but people trying to exit like animals, and he lost her in the crowd.
You should have gotten her number earlier, you idiot.
The cloud of bitterness settled back in. Nothing ever went right for him. He found his car and got in. The power went out and darkness covered the ramp to the highway. He drove a couple of miles and that’s when he saw the stranded woman on the side of the road.
What was she doing alone there?
She flagged him and he pulled over. There was no way he could leave her there. He lowered the passenger window.
“Hi. I’m so sorry. I had a fight with my boyfriend and he stranded me here. Can you please take me home?”
He didn’t pick up strangers but he couldn’t leave a woman alone in the dark like this. He nodded and unlocked the door.
She got in, her reddish curls bouncing around her face. “Thank you so much. Guys are such jerks. I’m Darla.”
He shook her soft yet slightly cold hand. “Antonio. A guy who leaves you on the side of the road is an asshole. It’s too dangerous and there are a lot of bad people out there. You need to dump him and never talk to him again.”
Her smile is a little sad. “Yeah. I should’ve dumped him long ago.”
Her hands rubbed up and down her arms so he grabbed his jacket from the backseat and offered it to her.
He drove her home and they talked all the way there. She told him the sad story about her boyfriend. He told her about Arlenis and the breakup. Darla said he was better off.
“You offered to take two jobs to keep her in style and she still went with the old man. Don’t waste your thoughts on her. A better woman was in your future. Someone sweet, with a soft touch, and the kindest eyes.”
She was easy to talk to, like an old friend. He was almost sorry when he pulled up outside her house. She stepped out and smiled.
“Thank you, Antonio. You’re a good guy. You’ve restored my faith in men. But you know what? Don’t pick up strangers on the side of the road, anymore. It’s not safe.”
He smiled back. “You’re right. But I couldn’t leave you there and this worked out well.”
She laughed a little, her eyes sparkling. “You’re right. Just remember my words.”
She walked away, curls bouncing. Only when he pulled up into his garage did he realize she still had his jacket. He would have to get it tomorrow.
The next day, on his lunch break from work, he went to her house and knocked on the door. An older man opened.
“Hello, I am looking for Darla. I helped her out last night and she has my jacket.” He explained. If that was her father, Antonio didn’t want him to think anything untoward.
The man’s gaze sharpened but then he sighed. “No one by that name lives here.”
Antonio’s gaze drifts beyond him to a large photo of the woman he dropped off the night before. “There she is, I dropped her off last night.”
“Young man, you couldn’t have. My daughter has been dead for five years now.”
“It can’t be. I’m telling you. I dropped her off. Look, I don’t have any romantic interest. She was just a nice girl I helped out. I just want my jacket.”
“She’s dead and I’m really tired of this thing,” the old man yelled.
“What’s going on here?”
Antonio turned to see Neri, the girl from the concert behind him. What was she doing here?
“He’s one of the regulars.”
Regular? Regular what?
Neri’s gaze went soft. “Antonio, right?”
He nodded.
“I got this Mr. Mendez. Antonio, come with me.”
They hopped in her car and drove away from the city. “I’ll bring you back to your car later.”
“Where are we going? Why did that man call me a regular?”
She sucked in a breath. “That man was Darla’s father. Every certain amount of time this story repeats itself. A man comes to the door with the same story. He was driving down the highway and found Darla stranded. They went to a motel and had a night of sex and drinking then they drop her off. They all come back the next day looking for seconds.”
Antonio frowned. “Wait wait. I didn’t go to any motel with her. I picked her off where her boyfriend left her stranded and took her home because it’s not safe. I came back because she has my jacket. I’ve had it for years and it’s my favorite.”
She blinked a few times, then her eyes narrow. “That’s hard to believe.”
“Why? Is it so hard that someone can give another person a ride and not have sex with them? I think the other story is harder to believe. Darla didn’t seem like the type of girl to do that. She was sweet and gave me advice.”
Her eyes mist and lips pressed together. “That was her. The sweetest person in the world.”
They rode in silence the rest of the way, another three miles. They made it inside the cemetery. Antonio’s stomach pitched. He stayed inside the car, even as Neri stepped out. She didn’t press him, just waited for him patiently.
Don’t be a coward. He opened the door and went to join her. His heart was trying to pound its way out of his body with every step they took. They walked past tombs, until they found one with beds of Dahlias on both sides.
“Dahlias were her favorite,” Neri said.
But he wasn’t looking at the flowers but beyond them, at the tombstone with the name Darla Mendez, loving daughter, granddaughter, and friend. On the corner of it, hung his black jacket. The one he’d last seen draped around her shoulders.
He sank to his knees. “How did she die?”
Neri sat on the ground next to him, her shoulders hunched, her gaze on the flowers. “Her boyfriend left her on the side of the road after a fight. They had gone to a concert at El Palacio. He came back to get her but someone had picked her up. They found her dead three days later.”
“Oh my God.” He couldn’t fathom it. And his own words came back to haunt him. It’s too dangerous and there are a lot of bad people out there.
“Ever since then, strangers keep showing up with a story like yours but they always say they seduced her and took her to the same motel. Your story ends so different.”
He buried his head in his hands. “We talked about our breakups and gave each other advice. I told her to dump the boyfriend. She told me not to waste time thinking about my ex, that I would find someone. Then, I just dropped her off at home. Wait, she told me not to pick up strangers. It’s not safe.”
She shook her head, as if not believing it. “The guys she picks up usually go crazy and end up in mental institutions. Her boyfriend killed himself and the others all have tried. But your story is not like theirs. What makes you so different? Did she say anything else?”
He started to shake his head but stopped and looked at the tombstone. It was all too surreal. “She said I was a good guy and restored her faith in men.”
Neri’s finger ghosted over his. “Because you didn’t try to sleep with her. Darla didn’t know a lot of good guys. Men were always trying to get in her pants. I hope you gave my friend some closure. I wonder why she kept your jacket, though.”
He turned to look at her then, intending to say he didn’t know but got caught in her rich melted-chocolate eyes
A better woman is in your future. Someone sweet, with a soft touch, and the kindest eyes.
He knew then. “So I could see you again, Neri.”