Let No One Sleep by Juan José Millás

Author:Juan José Millás
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bellevue Literary Press

11

THEY WEREN’T FAR from Legazpi now, and the man said there was a Chinese restaurant there that Asian people always ate at, a sure sign that it was the real deal.

“They do an amazing lobster in ginger sauce,” he said. “The problem is going to be parking.”

“Don’t worry about that,” said Lucía. “There’s a public parking lot right there.”

From the moment she had accepted his invitation, a tension had grown inside the taxi, generated by his hopes, or expectation, of a conquest. For her part, it was not that she didn’t share those same hopes, but they worked on her without the same urgency she discerned in him. As a consequence, the conversation ebbed in intensity, and the man began observing Lucía’s bare nape and her face, side-on, with an air of appraisal. His eyes traveled across the parts of her body visible from where he was sitting (her right shoulder, her arms, and her hands on the steering wheel) like someone calculating the weight or quality of some merchandise. Just the way it always is, she thought.

When they got to the parking lot and Lucía told him the fare, the man went to pay with his credit card, but as he was about to hand it over, he retracted it, saying he would pay in cash.

“That’s classy!” she said.

“What do you mean?” he replied, flustered.

“Leaving no trace?”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying this is a taxi, not a brothel. Even if your wife goes through your receipts, she won’t find anything out of the ordinary.”

The man said nothing, but he flushed bright red as he took out a fifty-euro note.

“Haven’t you got anything smaller?”

“I haven’t, I’m sorry.”

“Okay, well you’re going to clear me out of change. It doesn’t matter, but just get it into your head that you’re paying for the taxi ride, not anything else.”

“Sure, I know that.”

“Just checking.”

They got out of the car and, when the elevator didn’t come, took the stairs. When they got up to street level, in spite of the cold, the sun was dazzling. As they made their way to the restaurant, the man apologized about the credit card.

“It was just a reflex,” he said.

“Quite the reflexes you’ve got there! What’s your name? If you want, you can make one up.”

“Ricardo. Really.”

“And your wife?”

“My wife’s got nothing to do with anything.” Lucía noted Ricardo growing increasingly cold the closer they got to the restaurant.

“Cat’s got your tongue,” she said. “If you aren’t in the mood, let’s just leave it. Look, since you’ve got my number, you can call me some other time— when you need a ride. And if you’ve got time then, I’ll take you for something to eat.”

The man stopped walking.

“I think you’re being nasty to me because I like you.”

“It isn’t because you like me,” she said. “People always like me; I’m used to that. It’s because when you got the slightest sniff of sex, you turned cheap. Sex makes some men generous, and other men cheap. It turned you cheap.”

“Shall we leave it, then?

“Sure, let’s leave it.

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