Chapter 7: Before She leaves...

At that moment, Meiby arrived. She took my hand and told me to go with her. I knew it was the right thing to do, so I stopped dancing and went with Meiby. Everything happened so quickly that I could still feel my skin flushed from the touch of that girl. I turned and waved “goodbye, I’m sorry” to my unknown girl in the white blouse as I left the dance floor, holding Meiby’s hand. She looked at me and made a gesture that I interpreted as “How can you leave me dancing alone?” I felt a hurricane of emotions inside me.

“Baby, I’m going to the bathroom,” I said, catching my breath and looking at Meiby. She looked somewhat serious, perhaps angry to see me dancing with that stranger.

“I’ll go with you,” Meiby replied automatically, taking my hand.

I entered the bathroom with Meiby, still feeling joy dancing in my gaze. I looked in the mirror; my eyes were shining like a child who has been given a balloon and lets it fly away, fascinated. I had loved dancing with that girl. Did she feel the same? It was then that I turned, and there she was, at the entrance of the bathroom, that unknown girl with whom I had just danced. It felt like a dream to turn, blink in front of the mirror, and see her there so quickly, watching me.

She stared at me, her eyes melting me from the inside. She looked at me in a way I couldn’t understand; her eyes filled me with a strange sensation that made me believe I was unique in the world. I bit my lip with excitement. I tried to hide the hurricane of feelings that surged from being there, fixing my appearance in front of the mirror with her watching me from the bathroom entrance. I thought she would stay dancing with someone else; after all, she danced wonderfully, but there she was, right in front of me in that bathroom. Both of us shining with excitement even though we didn’t know each other’s names.

I looked at her for a fraction of a second, a moment, or at least that’s how it felt. She had a mole next to her nose on her left cheek. Her short brown hair pointed in all directions, and her tanned skin was sweaty from dancing, and she, she was very sexy. In a natural way, she was beautiful.

I raised my gaze to the mirror and observed my face, satisfied, turning my back to her and Meiby. I looked at myself in the mirror, breathing in the silence that united us in complicity; my flushed cheeks hid a smile. I was enchanted by her presence. I wet my hands with water from the faucet. She leaned against the wall and took out a cigarette.

“Do you want one?” she offered me a cigarette with a green tip.

“I don’t smoke,” I said softly, feeling butterflies in my stomach as I spoke to her.

“You don’t smoke,” she repeated my words as if she had already anticipated the answer. Clumsily, she put away the cigarette pack and lit hers. She was very beautiful.

“Oh, baby, I left my purse on the table,” I turned, referring to Meiby, not forgetting for a second that she was there.

“If you want, I can go get it, baby,” Meiby said roughly.

It was my perfect opportunity; a part of me was dying for Meiby to leave and let me be alone with the mysterious girl in the white blouse and black bra. I knew it wasn’t right; I would make my girlfriend feel horrible.

“No, I’ll go with you to get it,” I replied firmly.

“Bye,” I said kindly to the girl in the white blouse. I smiled, pretending to be indifferent, and left her in the bathroom, smoking the cigarette.

“Bye,” she replied as I turned around, without giving her a chance to look us in the eyes again.

As I exited the bathroom, two police officers entered the women’s restroom along with the tall, skinny girl with straight black hair who had been at the beginning of the night with my unknown girl. She looked beautiful and happy; her jet-black hair highlighted her facial features. She entered the bathroom, and my unknown girl greeted her friend. I turned my face, not understanding why the police were using the women’s restroom, but probably the men’s bathroom was really dirty. I shrugged and left, swaying my hips to the rhythm of the music.

And so I went, without even knowing her name, only remembering her face and the warmth of her hands on my body, my beautiful unknown. I found Everth watching my purse and told him what had just happened. I told him I had met a girl in the bathroom and danced with her. Everth offered to look for her on the dance floor while I searched the bathroom; the first to find her would ask for her number. I needed to see her again; it was crazy, but there was something about her, about her presence, that incredible connection when our bodies danced. That sense of belonging I had felt on the dance floor.

I searched for the girl in the white blouse and black bra throughout the nightclub, but I couldn’t find her. She had disappeared; there were no traces of her, as if the earth had swallowed her. Disappointed, I went to the bathroom where I had met her once more before leaving; my heart was in my throat; it was my last opportunity. Maybe she had already left and hadn’t looked for me. Perhaps it had all been just about dancing together for one song; after all, that feeling was the unpleasantness that ended up becoming our punishment, or so Cortázar said. Perhaps that’s all we were, and it had ended with the punishment of never seeing her again.

The bathroom was empty. I looked at myself in the mirror with discouragement; I had let her go and hadn’t even asked her name. Everth was waiting for me at the entrance of the nightclub, with my handbag hanging from his shoulder. He hadn’t found my mysterious girl either, but he had seen Luis dancing very affectionately with another man. Everth and Meiby were waiting for me in the parking lot.

“Let’s go; Luis was with another man,” Everth said dryly.

“Without Luis?” I asked, surprised.

“Yes, I already called a taxi.”

“Don’t you want to talk to him?” I suggested, seeing the discomfort on Everth’s face; I knew he loved Luis deeply.

“No, it’s not worth it.”

“Okay…” I murmured. Then I looked back at the nightclub, thinking about my sexy unknown.

The cold night only reminded me of how alone I felt now that everything was over, with no lights to decorate my inner emptiness; that feeling of dissatisfaction returned to me. I searched for her with my eyes, scanning every corner of the street with desperate hope of seeing her, perhaps in some car. There was nothing but emptiness; not even a beggar consoled the corners that night in the face of so much absence, pure and hard absence with the name of someone who was just a lost face. She was gone. I would have liked to have the luck to see her from afar one last time.

The three friends crossed the street and got into the taxi. A little dizzy, I took one last look at Don Tulio Avenue, where the Jacko’s nightclub was located; the streets were clear. I sighed. I would have liked to know her name, at least, I closed the door, and the car drove off.