The Fitful Sleep of Immigrants by Orlando Ortega-Medina

Author:Orlando Ortega-Medina [Ortega-Medina, Orlando]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bywater Books
Published: 2023-04-18T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

I arrived home past nine to an empty apartment. After searching the bedroom, the bathroom, and the closets, I resigned myself to the reality that Isaac was royally pissed off at me and had left. It was his typical MO, a form of passive revenge he inflicted whenever he felt slighted. But he always came back. This time, I was determined to explain everything to him regardless of how much it hurt.

After finishing an improvised meal of warmed-up rice, black beans, and stir-fried seitan, I padded to the living room and drew open the curtains to reveal our nighttime view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Then I settled into a recliner armed with a tattered copy of Fitzgerald’s The Beautiful and the Damned and a mug of decaf. Sensing my anxiety, Nilo crept onto my lap and curled into a ball of vibrating fur.

After a few minutes of restless reading, I set down the novel and stroked Nilo’s head, forcefully suppressing any thoughts of Alejandro Silva. I must have dozed off because the next thing I became aware of was Isaac standing over me. He was staring at me with an unfathomable look on his face, an expression devoid of emotion.

“Isaac,” I said, rubbing my eyes. “What time is it?” Nilo raised his head and jumped off my lap.

“What’s his name?” Isaac asked.

“Whose name?”

“The guy you went out with tonight.”

I drew myself up. “Remember that sexual harassment case I told you about a few months ago, the one that turned crazy?”

Isaac thought for a moment. “You mean the one where your client went to prison?”

“That’s the one.”

He pulled up a chair and slumped into it. “What about it?”

“It settled a while back, shortly after your mother passed. The plaintiff’s name was Alejandro Silva, the guy I met tonight. He swung by the office a few days ago to thank everyone. He also invited me out to dinner and gave me this.”

I handed Isaac the gift box, which he opened. He stared inside for a few seconds, then handed it back to me.

“That was a couple of days ago?” he asked.

“The day I went to see Phoebe. The day you locked yourself in the bathroom.”

Isaac sat straight up and looked at me sharply. “You told me you were driving around the city that night.”

“I’m sorry, I lied. We’d just had that argument, and I was still sore at you. I thought it would just make things worse if I told you the truth.”

“What about tonight?”

“He wanted to share some news with me. So I agreed to meet him after work. That was before you called me.”

“Where did you go with him?”

“To the cigar club across the street from the office. Why?”

Isaac nodded. “I followed you after you got off from work. I was waiting around the corner and saw you cross the street and go into the club.”

“Well, then you know I’m telling you the truth.” I didn’t like that Isaac had been spying on me as it didn’t say much about the state of our relationship.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.