Chapter 5 - Face From The Past
When Tulio awoke the next morning, he found Miguel already wide awake and dressed.
"Good morning!" Miguel chirped brightly, with no hint of the melancholy he had showed last night. "Sleep well?"
Tulio mumbled something incoherent and sat up. "What time is it?" he asked blearily.
"Almost noon," Miguel replied. "Now come on. I've already had breakfast and I heard the most interesting thing down in the common room."
"They're not still mad at us about last night, are they?" Tulio asked worriedly.
"Last night... oh! Of course not, Phil sees much worse all the time." Miguel waved his hand in a gesture to forget about it.
"Phil?" Tulio questioned.
Miguel looked at him. "The innkeep," he said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Right, right." Tulio didn't bother to question how on earth Miguel happened to be on a first-name basis with the innkeeper. Miguel was always doing things like that. He had this charm that made everyone like him immediately and forgive him anything. It was really what made him a successful con artist. Instead Tulio toppled out of bed and moved to get dressed. His dexterity never being the best first thing after waking up, it was slow going. "So what was this interesting thing you heard?" he asked Miguel.
"Oh yes, right. Well, I was talking to Phil and the gang, and they were saying how there's this brilliant storyteller in town. Apparently she tells tales of adventure and far-off lands." Miguel's eyes positively shone.
Tulio began to get a sinking feeling. "Haven't we had enough of adventures and far-off places to last one lifetime?" he asked.
"Tulio!" Miguel reprimanded him, "You can never have enough adventure!"
"I was afraid you were going to say that," Tulio mumbled, hoping that Miguel didn't hear him. As reluctant as he always pretended to be about these things, he really didn't mind Miguel's adventures all that much. It kept their lives interesting and more importantly kept Miguel happy. Miguel had this horrible way of making Tulio feel like the sun had gone out and it was all Tulio's fault when he was unhappy.
"Anyway," Miguel became impatient again, "Come on! Let's go!"
Tulio obligingly hurried, fastening his belt and running a hand through his hair in lieu of brushing it. "Alright, alright. Come on, let's go."
They walked out the door, Miguel bouncing and fidgeting like an excited child. Tulio couldn't help but smile at his partner's antics. "Did you remember to find out where she is today?" he asked dryly.
Miguel nodded so vehemently that Tulio thought his head might come off. "Of course! She'll be right off the market today, in a tent with turquoise and gold stripes."
Tulio nodded absently. The mentioned color scheme had sent a startling pang through his chest. Turquoise and gold. Those were the colors that Chel had always worn, that looked the best on her. He realized with a guilty start that he had hardly thought about the girl all week. His joy at having Miguel back had momentarily eclipsed the horrible guilt of driving her off.
As they walked towards the market, he tried to stop and analyze exactly what he felt. He was still in love with Chel, he thought. That had never really gone away. Miguel had been right when he had said that they were perfect for each other. She was all he could ever ask for, so like him that it was scary. And yet... maybe they were too much alike. Maybe there really hadn't been anything dynamic enough between them. Maybe they were too similar, and were simply brought together by their craving of the same thing. But that wasn't entirely true, he thought, frowning. She wasn't exactly like him. There were many elements of her that were more like Miguel. Her sense of adventure, for one thing. Her beautiful smile. The way she always seemed to be able to find the best in a situation. The way he always seemed to be pulling Tulio out of trouble.
Wait a minute. ...He? He had been thinking about Chel, right? Certainly, comparing her to Miguel and... what? He felt as though he were just on the edge of a major breakthrough of some sort, if he could just reach a little further-
"-io? Earth to Tulio! Come in Tulio!"
"What?" Tulio snapped back to the real world to find Miguel waving a hand in front of his face. Startled, he looked around and saw that they had already reached the market. Through the forest of tent poles and the press of bodies, he could just make out the coloring of the tent that Miguel had described.
Miguel smiled and grabbed his arm. "Come on!" he urged, pulling his partner through the crowd.
When they reached the tent, they were just in time to see a small group of people exit through the flap, one man was laughing uproariously, and everyone else was split between smiles and looks of wonder. In spite of himself, Tulio found his curiosity piqued.
They lifted the flap and went in, Miguel going first. Allowing the flap to drop behind him, Tulio considered the atmosphere. It was dim, though light did shine in through the thinner golden stripes in the tent. The floor was covered in cushions so thickly that one had no idea what the real floor of the tent looked like. Everything was done in the same color scheme, turquoise with golden borders. Sniffing the air, he found that there must be an incense of some sort, along with a perfume that was oddly familiar.
He stepped forward only to bump into Miguel from behind. The other man had stopped and was standing stock still, staring at something that Tulio couldn't see from behind him. Irritably, he moved to the side, stepping around his partner. Then he too stopped in his tracks.
Chel...
She was sitting there on the pillows behind a small wooden table, staring up at Miguel in a combination of wonder and disbelief. As she noticed Tulio moving to his side, she seemed to snap out of it.
"Tulio! Miguel!" she cried in astonishment, leaping to her feet. Without warning she flung herself at Tulio, wrapping her arms around his neck and giving him a deep kiss.
No, thought Tulio, please, not in front of Miguel. Our relationship is fragile enough as it is.
When he didn't kiss her back, Chel backed off, looking slightly surprised and a little hurt. But she covered it quickly. "So, what brings you two here?"
"Nothing," Miguel said darkly, turning back towards the exit. "We were just leaving."
Surprisingly enough, it was Chel who darted forward and caught his arm. "Please, don't. I... I've been wanting to talk to you both for a while. Especially you Miguel."
Miguel turned to her, stunned. "Me? What on earth can you have to say to me?"
"That will come later," she said with a wink. "For now, why don't you two sit down. Let me put out my sign..." she quickly moved to the front of the tent and placed a small wooden sign outside the door. Tulio caught some of the lettering as she picked it up and found that it was some kind of message that she was away. "Now," Chel continued, sitting in the place where she had been when they arrived, "back to my original question; what brings you two here? I take it you didn't know that it was me."
"No idea," Tulio said, sitting down on the cushions. Miguel followed his lead.
"We came for a story," Miguel said, still sounding slightly dubious, "but I can guess which one you've been telling people."
"Are you kidding?" Chel laughed and flipped her hair over her shoulder. "You two are a hit! I don't use any of our real names of course, but everyone loves the story of how the two Spaniards saved El Dorado. That's my main piece."
Tulio smiled. Even Miguel seemed to relax in the presence of Chel's bubbly manner. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.
Oh God, that was hideous. Take me back.
or
Oh God, that was hideous. Let me complain to the author.