Page 20 of Distrustful

"Why is it important? Because you like her?"

The question leaves Trinidad paralyzed and without an answer. Few things catch her off guard, but this has definitely been one of them. It's not something she's asked herself these days, but if she has to answer her assistant honestly, she must admit that Maria has something that attracts her immensely despite that mutual animosity they seem to share.

"Let's say she doesn't completely displease me."

Adrian lets out a loud laugh and claps amused.

"Well, it was about time you showed interest in someone. I'm sorry for poor Eliot, I liked him."

"Stop making up stories, Adrian, I'm not going to marry her. Now go and don't forget to do what I asked," Trinidad orders without stopping smiling.

"Of course," her assistant gets up and leaves the office smiling.

Trinidad opens the program and enters the design she's been working on lately, but her mind wanders too much while thinking about a certain lawyer with defiant eyes. The hours pass like this until, again, it's Adrian who pulls her from her trance by announcing he's leaving.

"See you tomorrow," Trinidad bids him goodbye and turns her chair toward the window. She should go home too, but she doesn't feel like it because since she met Maria at that club, she can't stop thinking about their strange encounter and how much she wants it to happen again.

She gets up after turning everything off and, when she leaves, tells Benjamin to take her there again.

"Are you sure you don't want me to take you home? You should rest."

Trinidad looks at him through the central mirror.

"You don't have to drive me if you're tired, Benjamin, I can ask Oliver."

"I'll go wherever you go," he settles and just drives.

This time, the businesswoman orders dinner for both and lies to herself, mentally repeating that she's there because she wants to try the food, but the reality is that her eyes fix on the door every time it opens, because the onlything she expects from this peculiar building is for Maria to walk through it to follow her to the other room, corner her before she opens her big mouth and take her against a wall.

However, as the minutes pass, Trinidad loses hope and, when they finish dessert, she doesn't prolong her wait any longer and tells Benjamin to take her home, because she's sure that Maria at this moment has probably had dinner quietly and is now relaxed on her couch while watching a series or reading a novel, or maybe with some woman.

Trinidad makes a face and feels a stab of envy thinking about it. Maybe someday she can have something similar and manage to relax in her own home, but for now, she doesn't relax anywhere.

The businesswoman leaves the building with an inexplicable disappointment at not having seen the lawyer. She struggles to understand this need to see her if afterward when she's in front of her, she behaves in that cold and cutting way, but Trinidad has grown accustomed to acting like this with everyone, always wary, and right now she's not sure if she knows how to do it any other way.

"Maybe she'll come tomorrow," Benjamin says when he's opening the car door.

She stops dead in her tracks and watches him walk around the vehicle to the driver's side without saying another word before sitting in his seat. The businesswoman smiles and says nothing because she knows Benjamin doesn't expect an answer, that he just made the comment to make her feel better. He's thrown a theory into the air and he's not far off, because Maria will go tomorrow tosee if she runs into Trinidad again, but on that occasion, it will be the businesswoman who won't go to the club, thus prolonging another encounter that seems inevitable.