Much More than Friends (2 page)

"How could I forget you Maria? I've never met anyone like you before. You're amazing."

"Make sure you do Lisa," Maria smiled.

"It's funny, you know, I've always felt lost without a man, and now, for some reason, I'm excited about traveling alone. I'll have a year of travel and a year free of searching for Mr.Right. You're lucky, you have a great husband and your family but to be perfectly honest with you, I've had more than enough of men. They all have a one track mind. I'm tired of it." Lisa pursed her lips and crossed her arms.

Maria wiped down the bar counter and looked out to sea before quietly saying,"I used to think that way."

"Yeah? You're kidding right?"

"No, I'm not," Maria frowned. "For a long time before I met my husband I was very sad. All my sisters and brothers were married and I was the only one left. My mother used to pray to God morning and night to give me a husband, any man would do she said after a while, even a lazy one. She said I could always train him and make him better," Maria laughed.

"So, how did it all work out so well for you? Are you telling me I need to go to Church? Every day?"

"There is something my grandmother told me when I was a little girl. It's something I always remembered and I tell my children all the time. She told me no man can give me happiness, it's up to me to be happy and then I'll find a happy man."

"Well it certainly worked for you. Maybe I need to take that one on board and change the way I'm looking at things. So, did you give up looking for a man?"

Maria took a deep breath and looked Lisa in the eye. "One day, I was crying and feeling lonely when I remembered what my grandmother used to say and for the first time I decided to see if it was true. It took a while but I started to enjoy my life more and I no longer saw a man as the answer to all my problems. One day I was out with friends having fun at the beach, we were playing with a ball in the water, when the man who would become my husband started talking to me.

"I didn't know then but he was the man of my dreams. I wasn't looking for love, as people say, I was just living my life and enjoying my friends and meeting new people. I was already happy."

"That's amazing, You should have your own TV show. We need you in the U.S. Seriously, we do." Lisa sat up and pushed her hair back. "Getting back to Victor for a minute. When you said he owned the hotel too. Are you telling me he owns the best hotel in town or did you mean his family own it and he manages it?"

"Lisa, don't look so surprised. Victor is not like other people you meet in this town. He came here with nothing many years ago and he made his dreams come true, well, most of them. That divorce really shook him. He loved his wife so much it was a big surprise to him when she wanted to leave."

"What happened? He's such a nice guy, I can't imagine someone wanting to leave him."

"Like a lot of people who come here to live at the beach and party with the tourists she used to like to party on Saturday night. But after a few years it was every night of the week. Victor doesn't live like that so there were problems. It broke his heart to see how she wasted her life here. And she was so beautiful, a little like you actually, she had beautiful long blonde hair. A very sophisticated woman."

"I'm so sorry to hear that Maria. Now I understand why he doesn't party with the ladies on vacation. That's so sad. I feel bad for him."

"Victor will be just fine. Anyway, Lisa, tell me, where else are you going to visit?"

"Anywhere the sun is shining, the ocean is beautiful and the people are friendly." Lisa giggled.

"Sounds like here, maybe you need to stay here a little longer and keep me company," Maria joked.

"Maybe you're right Maria," Lisa smiled. "Actually, that's not a bad idea and I didn't tell you this yet but I've already decided I am going to stay here for the winter, relax and take it easy and then travel later on to South America. Why not, you're only young once, right?"

"Great, it'll be good to get to know you better. And maybe I can find a good man for you. There must be one somewhere." Maria laughed as she playfully grabbed Lisa's hand.

"Let's forget about men for now. What's that your grandmother used to say? My happiness is up to me. I don't need a man to make me happy. I'm now officially successfully single and loving it. No more compromises, no more silly arguments and no more bad birthday presents."

"That's it Lisa and don't forget it ok?"

"I won't, I can assure you, well, I'm off to an early evening yoga class in 20 minutes so I better go and get changed, see you tomorrow Maria."

"Bye Lisa, and please you must come to my house on Sunday for dinner with my family. My kids would love to meet you."

"Oh thank you, I'd love to, I love kids. That's so nice of you. You're like my Mexican mom," Lisa beamed.

Just as dawn was breaking Lisa strolled down the beach to the yoga palapa, people said it was the best yoga class in town. And apparently the teacher was hot.

Lisa walked in and almost dropped her mat when she saw Victor standing at the front of the room ready to give the class.

"Morning Lisa, good to have you with us, take a spot, we're just about to start," Victor looked over just in time to see the surprise on her face and he grinned from ear to ear.

Lisa felt her heart flutter and she trembled a little as she bent forward to lay out her mat. What next? This town sure is full of surprises. Or maybe it's just the Victor Factor. Yeah, that's it, he's always got one more surprise up his fine linen sleeve.

The class was grueling but immensely satisfying. By the end of the session the room was full of rosy cheeked twenty something girls, all beaming at Victor. Lisa felt jealous for some reason, and a little angry.

When the class ended, a small group of yoga chicks swarmed around Victor and Lisa stormed out the door. She marched down the beach and stopped to take off her sandals when she felt a firm hand on her shoulder.

"Lisa, what's the hurry? I wanted to talk to you," Victor whispered in her ear.

Lisa turned and tried to hide her anger, "Oh, hi Victor, great class, I was going to catch you at the bar later on tonight."

"I won't be at the bar tonight so I wanted to talk to you at some point today."

Lisa's heart flipped a somersault. What was wrong with her today? She felt like she'd completely lost control of herself. Maybe too much yoga wasn't such a good thing after all.

"Okay, what is it?" Lisa snapped.

Victor took a step back, his shoulders slumped and the smile left his face, "I'm sorry, maybe I got the wrong impression. Look, you're obviously in a hurry, I better let you go. See you later."

With that Victor slowly turned to walk away. Lisa watched as he made his way back to the yoga palapa and her heart sank, she wished she could calm down when she saw Victor with other women, she wished she could swallow her pride and run after him. And above all else, she wished she didn't feel so alone without him.

The next morning Lisa showered before eating breakfast in the hotel restaurant. She read a magazine while she ate, pretending to be fascinated by the article on whale preservation, while fuming inside. Honestly, she could care less right now about the plight of those marvelous mammals. She ate and glared at the magazine until she could eat no more.

Now what was she going to do for the rest of the day? On the way out of the lobby she bumped into Karl sitting on a sofa by the window, one of the many snow birds she had met during the week. As usual, he was smiling and high on life, "Good morning Lisa, what a beautiful day! Oh, what's up? Did something happen?"

Lisa gritted her teeth. What was it with this town? Why is everyone so annoyingly happy all the time? Can't they just leave me alone to be angry for a bit? Please!

Lisa joined Karl on the sofa and told him her sorry story. She told him about getting fired, about how much she wanted to finally be happy and find someone special. Then, throwing caution to the wind she told him about Victor, how he used to be gay, in her mind, and now wasn't, for real, thankfully. The more she talked about Victor the lighter she felt, her agitation faded and she relaxed into the sofa while Karl patiently listened to every word, without saying a thing. When she finished talking, Karl spoke up, "Lisa, it sounds like everything is working out just fine."

"But how can that be? Victor has girls flocking to him at his yoga classes. I'm telling you it was like bees to honey. It was scary. I couldn't stand it. And I have no chance whatsoever. I can't compete with those girls. Anyhow, he'd have asked me out days ago if he really liked me. So there."

"Lisa, dear, you're forgetting one thing. Until yesterday you were only planning on staying here for a matter of days on vacation. Victor meets vacation girls day in and day out. Everyone does in this town. Even I do," Karl smiled.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right. There must be some reason why he ran after me. Why did he leave that girl mob to run down the beach after me?"

"Good question Lisa. Maybe you need to go see him and find out."

"It's funny, I finally meet a great guy and what do I do? I walk away from him, more like, I run away from him."

"Don't be so hard on yourself young lady. See that beautiful woman out there by the pool, that's Linda, my bride of 42 years. And I love her more today than the day I met her. She makes my heart sing. I can't imagine even one day without her. And it almost never happened. Our marriage that is."

"Why? What happened?" Lisa leaned closer.

"When I first met her I thought she would never go out with someone like me. You see, I was quite shy when I was a young man and I couldn't impress her like the other boys could with their singing and dancing. So, I decided, well, at least we can be good friends and she seemed to enjoy my company so we'd meet for coffee and talk for hours about our dreams, our worries and the new books we were reading, the new movies everyone was talking about.

"Over time we got to know each other very well and everyone else assumed we were dating because we spent so much time together. But nothing happened because we were just friends, very good friends.

"I thought she would never look at me as anything other than a friend but little did I know that she had in fact, slowly but surely, started to look at me differently. Then one time I was out of town for two weeks on company training and when I got back we talked. We had both missed each other terribly. We had been in love with one another for quiet a while but not even noticed because we were so happy and comfortable with each other. Had I not been away for those two weeks I don't think we'd be married today. That caused us to finally talk, really talk, about how much we cared about each other."

"Oh my God, that's beautiful. And I hear what you're saying. And I know what I need to do now," Lisa kissed Karl on the cheek much to his delight and skipped out of the lobby, down the stairs and out to the beach.

Her heart pounding, Lisa made her way to the beach bars, unsure of what she was going to say, unsure of how Victor would react. Maybe she'd get the let's be friends line or maybe she had got the wrong end of the stick, again. Either way it was better to make a fool of herself and find out for once and for all. She could always leave town on an early flight if it turned out he was stunned by her confession of love or even worse appalled by her party girl antics.

Only one way to find out. She got closer to the bar, closer to a big let down or closer to love? She didn't know. Maybe it's better if I come back later she thought as she slowly got closer and closer to her fears and dreams. Maybe this is sheer madness and it's time to go traveling and see the world. I don't need a man anyway, I'm perfectly happy on my own. I am really, well, most of the time anyway.

Closer, closer, closer still. Oh, I can see Victor from here and he's got his top off. Just look at those yoga teacher muscles. That just makes this harder or is it better?

Lisa took some deep breathes and charged right up to the bar. She walked in and rushed straight up to Victor and grabbed his arm, "Look, I'm sorry, I was feeling a little agitated yesterday morning. What did you want to say to me?"

Victor took a break from moving the beer crates and looked up, he smiled, "That's ok, don't worry," pleased by the unexpected interruption. "I spoke to Maria and she said you are staying in Cancun."

"Yes, I'm going to stay 6 months, maybe longer, I really love it here. I just feel good here."

Victor wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Great, Well, in that case, I 'd like to invite you to the opening of a new restaurant next week. One of my best friends is opening a new upmarket French restaurant. It'll be a great evening. I'm sure you'll enjoy it, all my friends will be there. You can wear your navy dress, you look great in that."

Lisa beamed. "Oh, do I? I didn't know you noticed."

Victor looked into Lisa's eyes. "Yes, I noticed alright. And I could tell you practice yoga by the way you walk and the fine muscle tone of your arms." Victor held her bronzed forearm as Lisa tried to hid her excitement.

"Oh, by the way Victor I'm not pregnant. I went to the doctor. No more wild nights for me. I'm back to my vegetarian yoga lifestyle. I think I needed to hit a low to wake up to what I was doing to myself."

"More good news," Victor beamed as he looked into Lisa's eyes, "Lisa, I know this may sound a little forward so forgive me if it is. After Maria told me you were staying in town I couldn't sleep last night. I've been thinking about you all day everyday this week. But there was no point in saying anything. I knew it was just a matter of days and you'd be heading back to your high powered job and your real life. You'd forget about me in no time."

Lisa looked up into Victor's dark brown eyes and felt her heart flutter again. She almost felt faint. Am I dreaming? She thought to herself and waited for a moment for the alarm clock to blast here into another hectic day. But no, the sun was high and bright in the early morning sky, a handsome man was staring into her eyes and she felt complete in an unusual way.