Chapter Three
Setting the semi-fragile, wooden orange crate between his hands onto the sandy ground, José grabbed his black permanent marker and the piece of dusty cardboard he placed on the display table moments earlier.
Now what did Dad tell me the sale price for these were going to be today? the teen asked himself as he gazed across the narrow paved road in front of his father’s shop at the ocean, beach and, What’s this? … G-I-R-L-S!
“Hey Michelle,” he shouted, quickly forgetting what he was about to do the instant the five foot four, full-bosomed female wearing a fluorescent pink bikini came into view.
Upon hearing José call, Michelle’s lips formed an enchanting smile, and she started to head toward his father’s open market.
José watched as the virtual beauty queen approached – and his eyes silently widened and lips involuntarily parted, just as if it was Miss Chile S.A. who had decided to stop by for a visit.
“Hi José,” Michelle said, fluttering her eyebrows as she reached the semi-muscular, yet handsome male specimen standing before her.
The teenage kid instinctively glanced downward, and his cheeks swiftly reddened upon discovering a newly-developed bulge in the front of his Levi’s.
“Ah. Hi, Michelle,” he stammered like a preteen accidentally meeting the girl of his dreams. “What’s up?”
“Apparently you are,” Michelle giggled as she took another gaze at his crotch. “I didn’t know I had that type of effect on you.”
José pursed his lips and his cheeks, once again, turned at least twenty different shades of red.
“Well. What do you expect, Michelle? … I’m just a typical male in his prime. And you’re … well … you’re a...”
Michelle grinned and once again fluttered her dark brown eyelashes. “Sexy babe?”
“I guess,” José said, after mentally affirming it would be an acceptable term since she used it. “But I normally would have preferred to use a different description.”
Michelle frowned in reply, as if about to pout. “Oh? And exactly how would have you described me, if not sexy? Don’t you think I look sensual in this bikini, José?”
“Of course, I do,” the teen said with a nod as a trickle of sweat silently streamed down the front of his throat. “But I didn’t want to...”
“Offend me?” Michelle lifted her head and laughed. “I doubt you would ever deliberately offend me, José. Would you?”
José shook his head no. And in taking a step backwards, he awkwardly tripped over the crate of oranges he had left on the floor.
Michelle giggled as she watched Maria's boyfriend try to recover.
“You’re cute,” she said the moment he got to his feet and began to brush himself off.
“Thanks.”
Moving the cardboard and marker to one side, José lifted the wooden crate and placed it on top of the table.
“So what brings you to my dad's market, Michelle? Your mother is one who usually drops by for some fresh veggies.”
“I know.” Michelle then reached for one of the largest navel oranges and drew it to her lips, and gave him a seductive wink. “But I recently heard that Maria no longer lives around here, so I thought you might be starting to get a little lonely about now. … After all, the two of you were a couple for so long.”
“That we were. Ah ... I mean, are,” José replied with a sigh, while clumsily grabbing the cardboard sign and marking the price of the oranges as 300 pesos per kilo.
“Do you still consider the two of you a couple?” Michelle asked, repositioning herself into what she considered to be a Latin Marilyn Monroe pose. “You shouldn’t, you know … considering the circumstances. After all, you’re here in Arica with me – and she’s hundreds of miles away in Miami. You may possibly never ever see her again.”
“I seriously doubt that, Michelle," José replied, distinctly lowering his brow. "Haven’t you ever heard of long distance relationships? They do exist, you know.”
Michelle seductively licked her lips and pretended to be giving him a kiss. “Perhaps. But I hear they almost never last. … Just think about what the two of us could be sharing, here and now.”
José gulped as Michelle moved closer and seductively wrapped her thin, golden arms around his waist. “Here and now?”
“Uh huh, sweet lips,” Michelle whispered in his ear before giving him a long smooch.
José’s body shuddered with excitement as the internal conflict deep within his youthful soul increased with the intensity of a volcano about to erupt.
Yet, deep within the center of his cranium, a voice sounding similar to Maria’s began to scream, “Stop!”, even though his teenage testosterone-filled bod wanted more – as if it was somehow conscious of the sensual pleasures Michelle could bring.
“José!” Carlos rudely interrupted as he came out from behind a couple of tables. “This isn’t the time for you to be standing around, hitting on females, Son. You’ve got work to do.”
“But, Papa,” José countered, looking first at Michelle and then his father. “I wasn’t really …”
“Don’t tell me what you were doing, José. I’ve been watching you for the last five minutes, and I wasn’t born yesterday. Maria’s long gone and now you’re trying to get friendly with Michelle.”
José face instantly reddened. “That’s not true, Papa. Michelle was trying to seduce me. It wasn’t the other way around.”
Carlos lowered the case of white grapes between his hands, and set them next to the crate José previously placed on the table.
“José. José. José,” he said, briefly glancing in Michelle's direction before turning back toward his son. “You should know better than to tell me such a tale. Everyone knows Michelle's a fine young Catholic girl who would never even consider doing anything like that. It would be in violation of our customs.”
Michelle displayed an innocent grin. “Thank you, Mr. Mendez. I appreciate it.”
Carlos nodded.
“Now son. Please tell your school friend good-bye and let her know you’ll see her later, after properly asking her father permission for the right to date her. … As for now, we have work which needs to be done.”
“Yes, Papa,” José replied before turning in Michelle’s direction.
She simultaneously winked and blew him a kiss, before starting back toward the beach.
“Call me tonight,” her voice echoed seconds later as a gray and white seagull casually passed overhead.