Malou was clumsy when she undressed Joseph and she giggled when he licked her navel. Afterwards, thoughtlessly caressing Malou's shoulder, Joseph told himself that it had just been tension relief with a nice, sportive woman. Early in the morning he heard Malou rise, dress and leave. Next to the coffee machine he found a note: I'd better return before L gets alarmed. Will I see you today ;)?
Joseph felt relieved because of Malou's casual message.
In the cause of the morning the young woman didn't claim him at all. In fact her behaviour toward him was just as friendly as it had been the previous days. Still, Joseph decided to return to Genovia in the late afternoon, rather than the next day as had been his plan. Pilar expressed her disappointment and when Joseph reminded her that when the cat's away the mice will play, she countered that his mice would never dare play him.
´That is what I think too,´ Joseph said, ´and I'm sure Elena's staff and Malou's employees are reliable also.´
´I can't speak for Elena,´ Malou said, happy that Joseph had mentioned her, ´but I once caught a waiter doing something he shouldn't have done. I was very glad I'd arrived early that day.´
A nice sportive woman, Joseph privately repeated.
Several wedding guests who'd dropped by to congratulate Pilar on her wonderful party and to inquire whether the young family would remain to live in the mansion, started telling stories about untrustworthy salesmen and deceitful clerks and they relished to think what their Joseph would do to his men should they be guarding the Queen in a happy-go-lucky-way.
OoOoOoO
The members of the farewell committee all spoke to Joseph simultaneously. Pilar urged him to visit them again soon. Malou told him that he was welcome to drop by her lunch-room should he be in Madrid while Carlos reminded him that he was invited for his stag party. Adella had brought the cuddly animals her uncle had given her and she demanded his attention every time she made Tigger or Roo or Owl wave at him. Luis made his usual joke about landlords leaving. Catalina, wearing a tight shirt that showed her small belly, asked him to look out for nice baby-stores in Pyrus. Penelope handed him a pen case she'd made from an empty can and Fernando put his bags in his car while Raquel shyly gave him a drawing she'd made of him that morning.
In his driving-mirror Joseph saw Pilar, Luis, Andreo, Nadine and the others grow smaller and disappear. On the highway he turned on a CD. Frank Sinatra. It reminded him of her. He turned it off and cursed himself. ´It was nothing,´ he said aloud, ´just two drunken people spending a night together.´