Emmy And Me

It was still plenty hot when we stepped out of the house, but at least the sun had gone down. The restaurants and cafés surrounding the plaza a half block to the south had already brought out the tables and chairs for outside dining, but I steered Katrina past them.

"There's a place I want to check out," I said, as I guided her across the plaza and around the corner. "Here we are," I said as we came to a coral-stone archway in an otherwise unmarked building. The archway led us into a long zaguan and into an interior patio filled with tables.

Since we were relatively early for dinner, the hostess had no problems seating us immediately.

"Greek food? In Colombia?" Katrina asked, looking over the menu.

"Well, Greek and other Mediterranean," I said, pointing out the chicken tagine.

"Yeah, I guess," Katrina conceded.

Dinner was good and the place did fill up after a while, despite the fact that it was midweek. Our conversation revolved around work- Katrina's at first, then mine. She told me about how the shipping industry is ninety per cent simply making sure nobody loses anything, so verifiable records are of paramount importance. It also meant dealing with customs inspectors, who are universally a pain in the ass, no matter what country. I told her about real estate and how the market was cooling now that it had recovered from the Great Recession.

At nine or so the bar on the second floor above us opened, and a fairly steady stream of patrons made their way past us and to the stairs leading up.

"Wanna go check it out?" Katrina asked as we finished our dinner.

"Absolutely!" I agreed, so we headed upstairs. The bar was a rough horseshoe shape, open to the atrium balcony on two sides, while the third, rear-most area was more intimate, with low banquettes and dim lighting. The street-side part was wide open to the balcony over the street as well as the interior balcony, giving it a breezy, informal feeling.

"This isn't like any bar I've been to down here," Katrina said as we found some seats out on the balcony overlooking the street below.

"No?" I asked as a tattooed, pierced young man came to take our drink order.

"There's a place in Miami kinda like this- well, I mean, the vibe is similar, you know? Music like this, a DJ playing real vinyl records, too, but I think they only play jazz. Somebody told me that bars like this are a thing in Japan, but…" she said, holding up her hands in a 'I wouldn't actually know' gesture.

"Yeah, they're called 'listening bars' or sometimes 'Hi Fi bars'," I confirmed.

We sat and talked for a while longer, enjoying our very well-made cocktails and listening to classic soul at a reasonable volume but impressive clarity.

"I like this," Katrina admitted after a while. "I mean, there's no dancing, but on the plus side, it's one hundred per cent not a pick-up scene, either. This is like the kind of place you go to just to relax and chill."

"Exactly," I agreed. "Even if it is still hotter than a crack pipe tonight."

"Did you just say that?" Katrina demanded, laughing.

"My security guy said it this morning, and it's been stuck in my head all day. He says funny things like that every now and then."

"Like what?" Katrina asked, smiling.

"The other day he said something was harder than Chinese geometry," I told her with the first thing that came to mind.

"You call him your security guy," Katrina said. "He's not just a guy who changes locks?"

"No, he's my full-time security guy. He ran the protection for The Downfall's tour, he was involved in the remodels of our houses to make sure they were nice and safe, stuff like that," I said. I wasn't too concerned with potentially spilling secrets if Katrina really was working for a letter agency, since they really should have that information on file already.

"And he's here to make sure your new place is secure?"

"Exactly," I confirmed.

"Hey, we thought it was you up here," Jody said as he and Maggie made their way to our table.

"Hey, you two," I said by way of greeting. "Katrina, this is Jody and Maggie. Maggie, Jody, this is Katrina. Are you guys planning on staying, or did you just spot us and come up to say hi?"

"We were thinking we were gonna go dancing," Maggie said.

"We've been here before, and it's cool and all, but it really isn't our scene," Jody confirmed.

"Alright," I told them. "See you on Friday?"

"For sure," Jody agreed and gave me a fist bump as the two departed.

"Friends?" Katrina asked.

"Friendly enough, but they actually work for my non-profit," I told her.

"He looks…" Katrina said, thinking about how to describe Jody as the two waved goodbye from the street below. "He looks tough, I guess."

"He used to do MMA," I told her. "He was a state wrestling champion in high school, too."

"And now he works for a non-profit, building schools in South America?" Katrina asked.

"Life is funny that way," I said with a shrug.

Walking back to the hotel, Katrina asked me if I was going to spend the night at my new house.

"No, not tonight. I'll check out of the hotel in the morning but for now, all my stuff is still in my room."

"Not all your stuff. Not your wine," Katrina laughed.

"No, not my wine," I agreed.

"Want to come in?" Katrina asked when we got to her room. "I have a fully stocked mini bar."

Laughing, I told her no. "I've got to get my beauty sleep. I need to be up early to beat the heat to go inspect some construction sites." I don't know if she really had been hoping I'd spend the night, but I wasn't going to encourage that at all, if that is what she was hinting.

"Alright. Well, maybe see you tomorrow?" she asked, hopeful.

"Maybe," I hedged. "It's going to be a busy day."

I was back out on Tierra Bomba by eight o'clock the next morning, talking with Ricky and the job site supervisor about the renovation of the old waterfront compound into the school we'd planned. Now that it seemed we weren't going to actually try to create a full-service school for children, some of it needed to be modified a little bit. Not much, really, but some.

"We still need the staff housing just as planned," I explained. "But only half as many classrooms. Instead, we need a much bigger meeting hall."

When Ricky translated for the construction manager, he said that it was going to be a change order and he needed architectural plans. It would set things back a bit, too, he said, but all that was obvious.

"I think this is gonna work out in our favor," Ricky said as we inspected the nearly finished gymnasium. "We'll get to narrow our focus, but at the same time expand our offerings."

"Yeah, that's my thinking, too," I said as I shot video on my phone to send to Emmy later. "With a decent soccer field and gym we can encourage participation, and of course our language and culture classes can be open to adults as well as kids."

"A lot of the old folks are really looking forward to it," Ricky said as we stepped outside into the already hot day.

"I don't want to replace their social club in any way," I told him. "I just want to add something new to their lives."

"I don't think you could get them to give up that place if you wanted to," Ricky said with a smile. "They seem pretty well rooted to the spot."

"That's actually good," I told him. "We want to build on the existing community."

"Well, I think that's exactly what's gonna happen," he said.

Stolen story; please report.

At lunch Mamá gave me a hard time for not coming for dinner the last couple of nights, but in a good-natured way.

I told her and Papá about the dinner with the school's leadership, and neither were surprised.

"I don't like to admit it, but this is common," Rafael said, ruefully. "Part of it, of course, is that these people aren't well paid and so feel the need to… add to their income when they can."

"I get that, I do," I admitted. "But everything that they skim comes at the expense of the kids."

"I doubt they see it that way," Rafael countered. "They see an American with deep pockets, perhaps naive to the ways things are done here, and think that perhaps there is a little bit extra for them."

"Yeah, I guess," I conceded. "In any case, things are going well on all of our construction projects. We'll have to hire staff pretty soon. I want to get them onboard and up to speed before we actually open our doors."

"You are going to hire locally, yes?" Rafael asked as Mamá loaded more food on our plates.

"For all but the Night Children history teachers," I confirmed. "They'll be coming from Spain."

"The father of Emmy is giving you teachers?" Mamá asked.

"Yes," I told her. "They're ready to come down here any time."

"Perhaps they should come now, and learn our customs before school starts," she suggested.

"I'd like that, but we don't have living accommodations for them yet," I explained. "Well, not in Bocachica, anyway. We have a house in Albornoz where some of our people are staying, and that's where our teachers will live until they decide if they want to stay or not."

"I am curious," Rafael said. "What have they been told? What have they been promised?"

"They've been told that there's a large local community that has lost its history, and they are to teach the language, the customs and the history of our people. They've been told to expect a level of poverty, but that the people here are very agreeable and want to learn. They're being signed to two-year contracts with options for renewal, knowing that their pay is better relative to the local economy than they would get back in Europe," I told him.

"That is reasonable," he nodded.

"So, you know, a surprising number of my people here have said that they want to stay when the initial push is over. The lifestyle here agrees with them," I told him.

"Well, of course," Rafael said, puffing up with pride. "This is one of the most beautiful cities in the world."

I stayed there that afternoon, doing my work from the kitchen table while Mamá bustled around. I got the distinct impression that she enjoyed having me there, even though we were doing our separate things. To be fair, I enjoyed the simple domesticity just as much.

I did my best to not dwell on the loss of the woman who would have filled that role in my life, but it was hard to not think of Angela when her mom did or said something that reminded me of her.

"I miss her, too," Mamá said, sitting across from me. She had somehow divined that was where my thoughts were, and I didn't try to deny it.

"Mamá, I miss her so much," I said, and just admitting it like that brought tears to my eyes. "I wish…"

"I know, mi hija," Mamá said, coming around to my side of the table to hold me and let me cry. "I know. It is O.K. to feel sad."

"I failed her, Mamá. I told her I would keep her safe, and I failed her."

"You did more than anyone else could do," Mamá assured me, still holding me tightly.

We stayed like that for quite a while, until my tears finally stopped. When Mamá took her own seat I could see that her eyes were wet, too.

"El tiempo cura todo," she said, and even with my limited Spanish I understood her to mean that time heals all wounds.

"Quizas," I replied. "Pero duele todavía."

At dinner, Cecilia asked how long I was going to stay in Cartagena, and if she could come see the new house the next day.

"Can I bring some friends?" she asked.

"I have to be in London on the sixteenth," I told her. "And yes, you can come over after school, if you want, and bring friends. Not too many, though. I still don't really have any food or drinks in the house."

"London?" Cecilia asked. "I want to go to London someday."

"You have next week off for vacation, right? It's Easter break, isn't it?" I asked her. "Maybe you could come with me. It'd only be for a few days, but…"

"Mamá? Papá? Es que puedo ir con Lee a Londres? Por favor?" Cecilia bagged her parents.

"How would she get back here in time for school on Monday?" Papá asked me.

"KLM has two flights a day," I told him. "It's a lot of travel time for not much time there, but…"

"No, I mean, will you bring her back?"

I thought about it for a moment, then said that I could do that. Really, I was probably going to be done with everything that really needed to be taken care of by the end of the week, but still… If Cecilia wanted to come to London without her parents it would give everybody a taste of what to expect when she came to live with us in Los Angeles. 'Family does for family', I thought to myself. I certainly wouldn't feel right about simply handing her a boarding pass and telling her to text when she got home, so I was going to have to escort her back.

I was inaugurating my new home office that night, just answering emails when Katrina texted me to ask if I was home, and did I maybe want to go out.

"Home, yes, out, no," I replied. "Just relaxing by dealing with work stuff."

"Sounds like fun!" she texted back. "Want some company? My brother wants to go out and I need an excuse to ditch him", she added.

Sighing to myself, I replied, "All right. I'll be there at the hotel in fifteen minutes. Dress to relax here and maybe help me drink a bottle of wine."

Sure, she could have come over on her own, but I was thinking maybe we could grab some street food on the way back. Besides, I didn't feel really comfortable about her walking alone. Yeah, the walled city was pretty safe, but still…

Katrina was waiting in the lobby when I arrived, and she immediately hustled us out the door.

"Paul said he wanted to come. I don't want him to see us leave," she explained as we snuck away. After a couple of blocks she relaxed a bit and stopped looking over her shoulder to see if he'd followed us.

"Hungry?" I asked as we entered a small plaza with several food carts.

"I could eat," Katrina admitted, and soon we had a couple of paper plates folded like tacos, each containing skewers of grilled beef, potatoes and chunks of bell pepper. In a separate bag we had a couple of cobs of roasted corn- all in all, quite a feast.

When we got to the house I grabbed us a couple of bottles of sparkling water from the fridge and a bottle of wine selected at random from the cellar. We ate our late meal on the upper deck, enjoying the sultry breeze off the Caribbean. Sure, it was still quite warm, but that was fine.

Katrina complained about her brother for a while, and all I had to contribute were the occasional 'I'm listening' sounds one makes. Eventually Katrina realized that she was monopolizing the discussion and she apologized.

"God, I'm sorry I've-" she said. "Look, he is my baby brother and all, and I really do love him, but he can be such a pain in the ass sometimes. Thanks for letting me vent. I promise I'll shut up about Paul now."

"No, it's alright," I said, since it really was. If she needed somebody to talk to to get it off her chest, I was fine with being that somebody.

"What about you? I never asked- do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"One little sister," I told Katrina. "She's eleven years younger than me. Well, ten and a half, but close enough," I said.

"What's she like?" Katrina asked pouring herself another glass of the decent (but honestly, not great) Colombian wine.

"She's at that awkward stage where she's not really a kid anymore, but not quite a young woman yet," I said, holding my glass out for a refill. "She's a good kid and all- I really should spend more time with her- well, her and Mom, too."

"Trade you," Katrina snorted.

"No, thanks," I said. "I'm happy with the sibling I've got."

Katrina leaned back and looked up at the night sky. "Don't tell my dad this," she finally said, "But I don't think Paul will ever amount to much. No, I mean it. He's just sort of an idiot. Dad just needs to give him an allowance and let him go do his own thing somewhere else. Preferably in Seattle."

Finishing off her glass of wine with a final swig, Katrina poured herself another. "You know, I had no idea they actually made wine here," she said, holding up the bottle so some of the light filtering through the plants shone on the label. "I have no clue where this even is," she said, reading off the winery's location.

Changing topic again, she said, "Hey, I have an idea. It's still really warm out- how about we clean up dinner, then go for a swim in your new pool? You haven't swum in it yet, have you?"

"No, I haven't," I replied, remembering the conversation I'd had with Emmy about breaking in the new house.

"It's settled, then!" Katrina said, stacking up the plates and empty food containers.

I was going to object, but just gave in. I collected the items that Katrina hadn't managed to wrangle and followed her back down to the kitchen. Her idea of cleaning up was nothing more than throwing out the trash and piling the dinnerware in the sink, but she rescued the two glasses from me before I followed suit.

"We need another bottle," she commanded. "This time I get to pick."

Shaking my head, I followed her down to the wine cellar, which had to a be a solid forty-five degrees cooler than what we'd been experiencing up on the deck.

"It's freaking freezing down here!" Katrina complained. She didn't waste any time, more or less grabbing the first bottle of white wine she spotted and shoving me back out the door and up the stairs.

"You do have towels, right?" she asked as it suddenly occurred to her that I might not.

"Yeah, we've got towels. Nice, big, fluffy ones," I confirmed as we rode the elevator to the upper deck.

I thought to make a detour to the master bedroom to grab my swimsuit, but I had more than a sneaking suspicion that Katrina wasn't planning on wearing one. Katrina opened the wine and poured us a couple of glasses while I got us a couple of towels from the linen closet in the weak-ass home gym. Back poolside, Katrina was standing there with our two wine glasses in her hands, suddenly looking a little shy.

I took one of the glasses and had a sip, then set it down and draped the towels on two of the chaises. I kicked off my sandals, then glanced up and saw her chewing on her lip.

"Kat," I said. "I've already seen you naked plenty."

She smiled at that. "Yeah, I guess you have," she said. "You did tell me you liked what you saw."

"I did," I agreed.

"You did tell me, or you did like what you saw?" she teased, regaining a bit of her confidence.

"Yes," I replied as I unbuttoned my shirt and tossed it on another chaise.

"Unzip me?" Katrina asked as she turned away and pulled her long, dark brown hair aside. I unzipped her cute sun dress and she slipped the spaghetti straps off her shoulders using her arm to hold it up against her boobs as it fell away.

"I don't know why I'm so nervous," she said, turning around to face me, still holding up her dress. By this time I was down to my booty shorts, and in the process of hooking my thumbs in the waistband to pull them off, too.

I slid them off and lifted a foot to grab them and toss them with the rest of my clothes. I looked Katrina in the eyes and said, "I'll tell you why. We're here alone, just the two of us, in my house on a warm, sexy night in the tropics. You're thinking there's a very real chance you're going to have your first girl sex tonight and you're suddenly not sure you're ready to go through with it."

Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. "You didn't have to say it like that!" she exclaimed.

"Was I wrong?"

"Um, no…" she admitted, looking down, then realizing she was staring at my lady parts. Catching herself, she looked back up at my face.

"Well, don't worry," I told her. "You weren't going to get laid tonight anyhow."

Laughing nervously, Katrina finally let her sun dress drop away from her chest. "I don't know whether to be relieved or insulted!" she said, stepping out of her clothes.

"Don't be insulted. Kat, you're smoking hot and if I was single, I'd be more than happy to show you the ways of Sapphic love. Seriously- you have a completely rocking body and a gorgeous face. But- and it's a big but- I am happily married. Even if Emmy never found out, I would know and I would never forgive myself."

"So, no Sapphic love?"

"Nope. I am going to get an eyeful- there's no doubt about that- but that's as far as I'm going to go," I told her.

Smiling in what was probably a mix of relief and disappointment, Katrina slid her thong panties off and tossed them aside. She held her arms up high, doing something decorative with her hands as she did so. She spun around slowly, making sure I got a very good view as she swiveled her hips.

"Your loss," she said, her confidence regained. She took a sip of her wine, then walked slowly into the pool, glass in hand.