"Well," Maria twists a smile and scratches her head while thinking about how much she needs a shower, "not in the car, or maybe there too, but I woke up at her place."
"You know you can't continue like this, right?" Ursula asks, resting her arms on the desk.
Maria sits in one of the chairs across from her, exhausted.
"Like what? I'm not doing so bad."
"Come on, Maria, since Marcos left you, you've been stumbling around like a spinning top, and I think enough months have passed for you to have gotten over it."
The comment tenses the assistant and lawyer.
"Not only did Marcos leave me, you left me too," she drops like a bomb that Ursula wasn't expecting, "suddenly, I was left with nothing."
"Hey," Ursula, understanding as always, gets up and sits next to her, "you and I were just fucking, Maria, don't put me in the same category as Marcos."
"That doesn't matter, Ursula, I was used to you, whether there were feelings involved or not, I missed you a lot," she admits with a sigh.
Ursula looks toward the door, the last thing she'd want now is for Mildred to come in and catch them in the middle of this conversation that, until now, she didn't know had affected her friend so much.
"I missed you too, although I guess not in the same way. Maybe what I found hardest to get used to was not having those moments afterward, our little deep talks."
Maria smiles.
"Exactly, because for the other thing, you had Mildred," she says, narrowing her eyes.
"You had that girl you brought to the barbecue, what was her name?" Ursula tries to remember.
"Alma."
"That's it, you were sleeping with her for several weeks, I thought she was going to become your new lover until, from one day to the next, you left her and started fucking everyone who crosses your path."
"And is that something bad? A girl has her needs," the lawyer justifies.
"Fucking isn't bad, fucking so many people might be. I'm just saying that lately I'm worried about you and I don't know how to help."
"We can fuck on the desk if you want, that would help," Maria jokes.
Ursula laughs and tells her to go to hell.
"I'm serious, slow down a bit, Maria, maybe you should stop looking for women just for a fuck and spend some time being alone, and if you can't, focus on looking for a woman for something more serious."
"Are you crazy?" Maria's eyes open exaggeratedly. "I lost you and I lost Marcos, I'm not going to lose anyone else. Besides, I'm doing very well like this, zero commitments and no explanations, do you know how peaceful I am? That's dedicating time to being alone, alone and satisfied."
Ursula's laughter makes her twist her expression.
"Don't try to justify your behavior by using me or your ex-husband as an excuse. I was just your lover and there were no strings attached, the commitment you had was with him and you did whatever you wanted. Deep down you knew it was a matter of time before he got tired."
"That's true too," the lawyer admits between laughs.
"Anyway, if being a predator is what you want to do now, that's fine with me," says Ursula, "but be responsible and don't be late to work because of a damn fuck, and go take a shower, damn it."
Maria smiles and leaves the building ready to obey, although the first thing she does when she sets foot on the street is light a cigarette and inhale the smoke eagerly, knowing she needs to take measures because lately, besides being a bit lost, she's also smoking more than before.
Maria exhales the cigarette smoke while walking through the parking lot to her car. The reflection in the glass of one of the parked vehicles returns the image of an elegant woman but with a wrinkled suit and slightly messy hair. She wonders when was the last time she really looked at herself in a mirror, beyond superficial touch-ups of makeup and hair. She shakes her head, puts outthe cigarette, and gets in the car, determined to take that shower she needs so much.