Take him! Read online

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  The total or partial reproduction of this book is not permitted, nor its storage in any computer system, its transmission by any way or any electronic or mechanical medium, photocopying, copying or any other methods, withouth the previous written consent of the author. The violation of these mentioned rights may constitute a offense against intellectual property (Art.270 and followings of the Spanish Penal Code).

  Title: Take Him!

  ©Sandra Parejo

  January 2015

  Translator: Natalia Martínez (www.maikinikydesign.es)

  Cover and back cover design: Alexia Jorques

  Editing and layout: Alexia Jorques

  http://alexiajorques.wordpress.com

  [email protected]

  Prologue

  In this light novel, you will find a simple style that hopes to evade you to a love story that will make you laugh and cry with Martina. A young elementary teacher with a broken heart and a quiet life, that she achieved with a lot of effort, which she is not willing to give up.

  This story is worthy of any simple woman with a big heart and not very lucky, which seems it is about to change.

  It will drown you and you will not be able to stop reading until the end, this is why it is the perfect novel to evade from your daily problems, during a weekend or any quiet moment.

  Dedication

  To Jordi, for being my great support and string me along with all my dreams and craziness.

  To my tykes Alex and Carla, the best in my world, for being so strong although they are so young.

  To my mommy Ana and my siblings: Mingo, Susi, Evi, Ani and Miguel Angel. Because I don’t know who I am without them.

  To my parents-in-law Josep and Paqui, and my brother-in-law Xavi.

  To Susana C., for being my loyal reader, redactor and above all my friend.

  To my three best friends forever, Ángela, Natàlia and Neus, because I love you. And to Jordi F. for his patience and criticism.

  To Carmen I., Cristina P., and my brother-in-law Jordi G., for being my first readers and giving me great opinions.

  To Alexia Jorques for all her work with the cover and layout, but about all for helping me to take off.

  To everything that are part of my life… You know who you are.

  And to everyone that spends time to read this and help me to give a boost.

  Index

  Prologue

  Dedication

  Index

  Week 1

  Week 2

  Week 3

  Week 4

  Week 5

  Week 6

  Week 7

  Week 8

  Week 9

  Week 10

  Week 11

  Week 12

  Week 13

  Week 14

  Week 15

  Week 16

  Week 17

  Week 18

  Week 19

  Week 20

  Week 21

  Week 22

  2 weeks later…

  Special thanks

  SANDRA PAREJO

  Week 1

  I have just got in the school when Angélica approaches me.

  “Remember we celebrate my birthday today in La Casita. Be punctual, we leave at one with Emma and Lucía.”

  Once said this, she disappears through the hall making noise with her high heels and cutting me off.

  My first thought is that I don’t feel like going, I’m tired and even more today that it’s Friday. Besides, I suffer just thinking that the dammed menu at the exclusive restaurant will cost an arm and a leg… But what can I do about it? it’s her birthday and it’s her call!

  I spend the morning from class to class. Luckily, the time passes as fast as usual and at one o´clock, Angélica, Emma and Lucía come to get me.

  “Come on slow” Angélica tells me.

  “I’m coming!” I answer concealing my laziness as I grab my handbag.

  “I’ve been thinking we can go walking, it isn’t too far from here” Lucía says.

  “Good idea” Emma adds.

  This way, we go to our destination walking through the fancy streets of the Sarrià district in Barcelona, where we work in one of the best private pre-elementary and elementary schools in the area.

  We get to the exclusive restaurant and I keep thinking on my exhaustion, but as I don’t feel like souring Angelica, I decide to change my attitude.

  The birthday girl and I have been friends for two years and I can say that she tried since the first day, it was a few months later when I allowed her to become my friend… my only friend in Barcelona for a long time.

  I knew she deserved a chance, she always made me laugh and besides, she always kept an eye on me so I went out and ate, as they’re two things I don’t usually do.

  With Emma and Lucía it’s a bit different. I consider them my friends, but it’s clear to me that it will be this way as long as I’m not with a guy, which won’t happen again, I think. And therefore, I’m not worried because there is no danger.

  We met each other my first day at the school where we work. After my break-up with Rubén, I decided to make a move, looking for a job and moving in a big city, with the intention of having few opportunities to meet someone, but above all, of meeting another man again.

  The moment we get into the restaurant, a waiter walk us to a table in a corner. Luckily, Angélica had booked the table a few weeks before, as it has become in one of the hot spots in Barcelona and it’s always very bustling.

  The place is filled with people and there is only our table free in our area of the restaurant and it has a “reserved” banner on it, so we feel privileged and we start to have a good time.

  “Thank God it’s Friday, girls!” Angélica exclaims euphoric “What plans do you have for the weekend?”

  “I’ll go to Costa Brava with my new and great-looking boyfriend, his parents have a small house near the beach where they don’t go very often, which guarantees some perfect and wonderful privacy.” Emma answers.

  “So, you’ll have a wild sex weekend, right?” Angélica clarifies. Just in case the rest of us haven’t understand.

  “I’m going to finish painting the apartment, I can’t believe I’m getting married in less than a month and I have nothing ready.” Lucía continues explaining.

  “That’s what you get when you decide to change the color of the walls in the last minute, I thought it was great as it was given to you by the developer.” I add.

  “I’m sorry, but it reminded me of a hospital.” Lucía defends herself.

  “You’re so exaggerated!” The three of us answer at the same time.

  “I’m meeting my people to celebrate my painful thirty years old and I think Félix will come over, the DJ I told you that kissed me the other day, and some other friends too, huh Martina?” Angélica explains very excited.

  “Geez! Leave me alone…” I say before she invites me to go.

  “Why? Do you even have any other plan that you don’t want to tell us about?” Emma asks ironically.

  “No, I don’t. I guess tomorrow I’ll go running, prepare the classes for next weeks…” I try to explain myself, but the three of them hold me in contempt.

  “You should take some risks, maybe going to the movies some day…” Lucía makes fun of me.

  And just about when they’re booing me for my plans, the people who had booked the table next to ours get in, provoking that the embarrassment takes over me completely, as we seem desperate when we see four guys suited-up… Fortunately, they also smile, everyone but the last one…

  Suddenly, Lucía recognizes one of the men in the group and she pulls her most serious face when she greets him with her head. Without a word, we all understand we must pre
tend seriousness and not show Lucía up.

  “Who is that?” Angélica can’t resist asking.

  “I don’t know the rest, but the dark-haired man with glasses is Pablo, a colleague of my future husband, Néstor.” Lucía informs us highlighting those last words.

  “Oh!” The rest of us answer without showing much interest, which disappoints me for the little information and few commentaries they make about the four guys who have just got in.

  Then, we start talking in a much lower tone than before.

  Despite this, the guys from the next table seem to have a great time when they look at us and smile… but not all of them. The boy who entered last, only looks at us one second and with a serious face, he looks away quickly, although I notice… and at that moment I die. He’s so handsome! But am I the only one who realizes that guy is hot?

  I doubt if they haven’t really seen that dark-haired man with green eyes and pronounced features, perfectly shaved and wearing a suit that fits him like a glove.

  The suffocation I feel scares me, I don’t want to ask about it at that moment because I’m sure that the calmness in our table would end that that instant, as they know me and know I don’t usually shown any kind of interest in men.

  But I must admit that I have little interest in them after the hard blow I had with my first and only relationship with my ex-boyfriend Rubén, which lasted five years.

  Finally, it has been a nice lunch among laughs and secretive looks to the next table eaters, that after a while, it seems like had forgotten about us and talked in a serious tone.

  Suddenly, we realize how late it is, it’s only fifteen minutes to the time our classes start again.

  When we get up, the guys from the next table notice us again, but they only say a polite “goodbye” to us in a more elegant way than they used when they arrived…

  The only one who doesn’t even move is the most handsome, who is still focused on his plate. That makes me be a bit upset with myself and swear one more time any man will ever hurt me again.

  As we’re in a hurry, we run to the school and none of us makes a comment about the lunch again, or even those men.

  It’s finally five o’clock and I can go home but, as always, I’m the last one to leave.

  As it happens every Friday, all my colleagues leave quickly so they don’t waste any minute of the weekend. However, I usually get all my things calmly and walk to the train station to go home. I hate the rushing everybody seems to have every Friday.

  The next morning, after breakfast, I go running as every Saturday through the wonderful park of the Ciutadella, as it is only of the few things I like doing in the city.

  When I finish running, as usual, I stop in the café next to the park, Carlos works there, the waiter and owner of the place. I know him since I first started running there. He was always nice and every week he talked to me a bit more.

  “Hi Carlos”

  “Hi beautiful! Shall I get you an orange juice?”

  “Of course” I answer thankfully.

  “I don’t like you order always the same thing. I feel our conversation will have the same ending.” He tells me with his beautiful smile.

  “There are things that it’s best not to change, Carlos.” I add among a small laughter.

  “Maybe you’re right.”

  Carlos is a very attractive guy, although too chatty for my taste. He’s very blond, according to him, due to his Nordic origins, although with that Catalonian accent I don’t believe him. He had blue eyes and he always has stubble that fits him perfectly. He’s separated and has two children he doesn’t see often because their mother took them with her new partner to another city five hundred kilometers away.

  Carlos always has that sad look that made me decide to allow him to be my friend.

  “Your juice, beautiful!”

  “Thank you Carlos. How are your children?”

  “Well, I don’t know… This week I tried to call them, but when the mother of my children listens to my voice, she hangs up immediately.”

  “I’m sorry Carlos, it must be very hard for you.”

  “Yes, it is. But now the justice will decide and I hope everything will work out shortly.”

  “You’ll see how they’ll work out, because you deserve it, you’re a great guy.”

  “I can’t be as great as you say if you never want to have dinner with me.”

  “That again?”I ask smiling.

  He attacks, but he doesn’t do it rudely. I even think that sometimes, he only does it to make me feel better.

  “I have to try!” He defends himself.

  “Carlos, you know this is the closest thing to a date with a man I can have. And you must know that what I have with you, I don’t have it with any other boy.”

  “Well, when you put it like that. I feel lucky… and I prefer this to nothing.”

  “That’s my boy…”

  This way, among casual laughs, we continue talking until I decide it’s time to go back home.

  Sunday is quiet, I prepare the next classes, eat something and sleep a lot.

  Week 2

  On Monday I leave home early and, oddly enough, I arrive too early to the district where the school is. The distance, from my home to my workplace, makes me leave home much time in advance, as it takes me more than one hour to get there, if the public transport allows it. But I prefer to live in a district where I can live alone as, if I wanted to live in the area where I work, my salary couldn’t afford it and besides, I would be forced to share an apartment, which I don’t wish at all.

  Thanks to a miracle, the public transport seems to be faster than usual. That’s why I decide to get in a beautiful and old café located in the Rambla of Sarriá to have a coffee.

  When I open the door of the café I feel a chill that shakes me and I soon understand why. In front of me, he walks towards me… the serious guy at the restaurant on Friday. We walk pass each other at the door, he leaves and I enter… I look at him ―with an awestruck face I’m sure―. He doesn’t say a word, but at least he looks at me. <> I inhale the fragrance that he left behind and I try to calm myself down quickly. I’m stupid, I don’t know why I get so nervous for that rude man.

  I enter almost shaking, as I have just seen a ghost. The girl behind the bar looks at me with an I know face when she realizes my silly reaction.

  I didn’t want to think about him again because I’m not interested in men and now, I feel really stupid for not being able to control this absurd emotion.

  Snapping me out of it, the waitress asks me:

  “Are you alright?”

  “Yes” I answer and smile to conceal my trifles.

  “What can I get you?”

  “A decaf latte with saccharine, please.”

  I drink it quickly. I want to leave that place, I don’t want him to show up again and faint right there.

  That day I feel restless and oddly happy.

  On Tuesday I decide not to go through the Rambla where the café where I went yesterday is. I prefer to go straight to the school, although I know it’s probably I won’t see him again, but I don’t want to underestimate fate, just in case.

  At noon, the girls and I decide to eat out because Lucía wants to talk to us about her wedding and she doesn’t feel like sharing with the rest of the faculty at the dining hall. Therefore, during our break, we decide to go out to eat something quick at a restaurant near the school.

  Lucía is like any bride the previous months to her wedding, that is, hysterical. She complains she doesn’t have enough time, that her fiancé doesn’t get involved, that her parents and parents-in-law smother her, and the list goes on.

  I disconnect around the half of the amount of the complaints, I feel restless and I have a weird feeling.

  Suddenly I realize why.

  There are two men and a woman eating at the table situated at the back and to my surprise, one of those men is him… the serious guy. I paralyze and try to disguise so
the girls don’t notice, although I think my nervousness draws his attention. The guy looks at me for a short moment, enough to turn as red as my shirt and my adorable friends realize something is going on with me.

  Without pretending a bit, the three of them turn around to look for the source of my blushing and they all look at me with their jaw on the floor. It’s that moment when we resume the conversation that we didn’t have on Friday.

  “Is that the guy who was at the restaurant La Casita the other day?” Emma asks.

  “Yes, as snooty and arrogant as the other day.” Angélica adds.

  “Do you like that guy?” Lucía asks me with long face.

  Dang! I don’t know what to answer. I don’t know what to say to any of these three witches that would cast an evil spell to anyone they don’t like, and they don’t like that boy at all. I want and try to justify myself with one of my usual firm arguments, as drastic and convincing as they usually are, but I don’t come up with any of them, and that makes me feel quite stupid, until I finally answer:

  “I hadn’t even recognized him.” I lie.

  “Well indeed, he’s an arrogant. And yes, he’ll be attractive, but such a snooty man doesn’t even worth it.” Angélica adds.

  We fall in an uncomfortable silence that Lucía decides to break with another commentary about her stressing wedding. Which I’m truly thankful for, because I was starting to feel a horrible tension.

  When we get us and ready to leave, I’m not capable of looking at that table, so I don’t see him again. Now have two unchangeable premises: not passing through the district Rambla and not eating out of the school ever again.

  Today, Wednesday, it’s been a quiet day, I have good vibes and I feel good. I walk with a brisk pace to the train station that will take me back home to flee from that district, after managing not to see that unpleasant man. Even a smile appears on my face when I see the station so close.