Forever bride

- "Remember, dear viewers, that the prize pool for the most exciting love story in our reality show is a hundred thousand US dollars!" - the commentator said on that popular television channel, where we - me and Robert, my eternal and inseparable friend of my entire life , whom I had known since kindergarten and we were still wearing diapers, we sat while waiting for the five o'clock tea.

 - Did you see that? - asked Pedrito, to whom I closed his face with a distrustful look, asking:

 - Are you really going to try to participate?  Don't you think you Do you think I have a Juliet face? - distrusting the obvious answer that she would give me.

 "Well, I think," he told me, hiding his eyes on the TV remote control.

 - are you crazy ? I'm not your girl! - She answered somewhat annoyed, really angry for taking me as an easy girl of those ...

 - You don't need to be my girl to make money, and you do not need a boy to be happy.

 - what do you mean?

 - That we can pretend that we are dating, or engaged, like boyfriends, have you understood now?

 - I could imagine. But what will our story be? - imagining some acceptance on my part.

 - Well, I think you cry and I'm the bandit.

 - nothing else?

 - what else is needed in order to make some money?

 - what a stupid question! - closing his face until he released a "pun", to which he let out the biggest laugh I had ever seen, reason enough for me to give him a coke on his blonde head.

 - Hey you ! , you're bad…

 - And you, a rude one.

 I turned my back to him, crossing my arms, and with my face wiping the floor.

 He sat in front of the television, remote control in hand.

 We don't look at each other.

 We do not talk to each other.

 We don't drink tea.

 For more than an hour, the distance between us was abysmal.

 My holy mother, noticing the silence in which we found ourselves, left the kitchen and somewhat hidden to see what we were doing in that silence because she believed that we were going to get married one of those days, because of the daily conviviality we had, the friendship between families that lasted the whole life they had, after all, in common, and many other reasons why, that were ling enough to throw away..

 She suddenly was so surprised when she saw that we were sitting far from each other, with angry faces and each one with a cell phone in hand.

Wait a minute ! What is going.on in here ?

 what is happening? - The mother wondered, thinking of some solutions.

 - Tea time! - She yelled from the kitchen, finishing setting the table with only two cups of milk, sandwiches, cookies and fruit juices.

 But nothing.

 They did not respond, nor did they take their eyes off their cell phones, even with the TV on.

 - look! What beautiful propaganda! - It was a perfume advertisement, with famous models and two or three photos of beautiful beaches.

 Nothing.

 Neither of them took their eyes off their phones - a situation that warranted mom's immediate intervention, or else the tea would go cold ...

 - Good. Already. You two - he yelled as if to really get your attention, that is, with the scream of a parrot whose tail is pulled.

 What's up ? Why are they so far apart? Why don't they talk? Why don't they want to go for tea?

 The two looked at each other

 And they returned the cold gaze of an ice cream in the middle of winter.

 Nothing.

 They didn't even blink.

 - I'm still waiting - crossing his pumped arms.

 - It is that, it is that - her daughter, Maria Eugenia dared to speak.

 - Let's go !  Talk ! - Mom insisted, patient but impatient at the same time, because none of them spoke.

 - He wants to participate in the reality show, to earn money and I don't want to.

 - that ? - Calculating the words And that's why they get angry, they don't look at each other and they don't want to eat?

 - Do they love each other so much like that? - Mom asked, with the exact intention of wanting to make them define the situation at once, well, “I want a child in this house, enough of eternal loneliness! - She said, knowing what she was saying could change everyone's future.

 - mom! - I exclaimed, with the shame rising red by the already hot face - it's not that!

 - Of course they do, or, why do they want the money, if they have everything?

 "It's not that," he explained, without finding the words, without being able to speak, without having an answer to the question, and, with the feeling that she had trapped her tails in the mousetrap.

 - So what is it ? - She questioned with the curiosity of a lost dog in the middle of the forest.

 - I want to win a prize, nothing more!

 - I just don't understand the reason for you to win it.

 - To buy a wedding ring.

 - what did you say? Buy what?

 - a wedding ring!

 - - Are you proposing marriage to my daughter?

 - - No. My girlfriend is not here, she is living in the United States, with her family.

 - girlfriend? - The mother asked, almost without believing in what she was listening to, opening her eyes until she contained everything inside him, even her surprise mixed with disgust, because that was what she wanted for her daughter's future, because after all They were promised by fate to stay together and what do I know, it was not possible, no, no and no!

 - Hahaha ! Do you believe that lie? - and the mother deflating her toad face, finally began to serve the tea, already calm.

 - lie? Were you lying - She asked, not really knowing what to say, in total and complete hesitation.

 - Clear ! I was just kidding. In truth, that contest does not interest me, and I just wanted to know what your daughter's reaction would be in the face of a denial.

 - that ? Real or fake?

 - I mean, real, or maybe  I mean fake

 - Which one then ? - doubtful.

 - None, as I told you, I am not interested in that contest, I am going to stay for uncle because I cannot bear to see a woman flogged, just because she thinks she should be loved. Isn't she smart enough to love herself?

 They both fell silent.

 It was true.

 And he did not speak about that anymore about that matter ..

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