What Men Don't Understand by Nuria Solano Read Free Book Online Page A

don't even want to get on the scale! I could join a gym, it's also a good place to meet people. But now there is so much work, and I leave the office so late, that arrive home exhausted! Also, since I have Clooney, I have to go straight home to walk him. So I'll start the diet. María Luisa told me about a zucchini diet. She says that one day at the grocery store she saw such a very good looking zucchini that she filled her fridge with kilos and kilos ... "

    The following day Ana got to work happy, the predictable events of the day made her feel safe. María Luisa had photocopied the zucchini diet for her, and the topic of the day among her co workers seemed to be: the biological clock. Among comments, Maria Luisa returned to release her quote "men don't have a clue about the things we have to go through!". This time Ana supported her, remembering the pill and the condoms. Some women talked about having children without marrying, Ana could not even imagine in that situation, and remembered that ordeal when she had to go to the abortion clinic herself. It was something she had never told and never will tell to anyone. What she wanted was to get married, and if children would come later, would be a different matter. She let herself go into the flow of her co workers comments, which were like a moving tide that floated through the hours, the days, the weeks... Actually, it had been already four months since she got the good news from the doctor, but Ana hadn't found time yet to do anything. Her decisions runned out of steam. She even was smoking again. She thought her situation wasn't that bad. She was still marriageable, and she only got a little bothered the day they organized the bachelorette party for a friend, who was about her age.
    Ana looked at the cubicles where they work. It formed a grid that reminded her of a game board. "drafts" she thought. She could even see the chips. Singles were black, and married white, of course. "Another chip for the married ones!" She said. She counted the chips; there were more black than white ones, not many, but enough to made her feel calmer. "Black always win because half of the white ones stop working as soon as they have their first child, and they're always replaced by black ones" she analyzed. There were also the separated and divorcedones, they were increasing. She imagined them as gray chips "those, neither fish nor fowl" she said.
    The bachelorette party was silly and fun, as always. They made T-shirts with a photo of the bride and the title of a play that they found funny: "I'm not happy, but at least I have a husband", and went for dinner to an erotic restaurant. Also, drunk as always, Maria Luisa said weeping that she'd never find a husband, and her heavy makeup mask got spoiled. All the girls supported and comforted and hugged her and kissed her, and then they laughed again and went salsa dancing until dawn. But during the next days, while all were pretending they had forgotten the incident, Ana looked at María Luisa askance, and thought, as she had a long puff at her cigarette, "I'm not like Maria Luisa. I'm not married but still I'm not like her. Not yet. " 

 There is so much to do...

    A year before her death, Marta had her will done and her funeral prepared. So when with only forty-eight years the accident ended her life, her daughter Sonia didn't have to deal with just about anything.
    She got the terrible news while at the office. A phone call from the civil guard. She said yes to everything they asked her, and when she hung up she kept entering data into the computer for a couple of minutes. She stopped suddenly and began to mourn.
    There was no other family her brother Philip and her, he lived in France and they barely had any contact. There were many friends, yes, and acquaintances to whom she had to tell the news. Sonia did this with shame, accepting every sympathy with growing disgust and in her head, the feelings of sadness and loss were mixed with some