Mirtes couldn’t take it anymore, so she told Lourdes:
“Your husband was seen going into a motel…”
Lourdes opened her mouth & eyes wide. She remained this way, like a scared statue, for a minute and a half.
Then asked for details.
“When? Where? With who?”
“Last night. At Discreetest’s”
“With who? With who?”
“Oh I don’t know.”
“But how was she? Tall? Thin? Blonde? Limping?”
“I don’t know, Lou.”
“Carlos-Alberto will pay for this. Ohh, yes he will.”
When Carlos-Alberto got home Lourdes announced she was leaving him and told him why.
“But what is this now, Lourdes? You know who I was with in the motel. It was you!”
“Quite! I can’t believe I agreed to it. ‘Discreetest'! Huh! The whole town now knows about it. Thank God no one identified me.”
“Well then!”
“Well then? Now I have to leave you. Don’t you see? It’s what all my friends expect me to do. I’m not the kind of woman who will accept being fooled by her husband without reacting appropriately.”
“But you weren’t fooled! I was with YOU!”
“But they don’t know that!”
“I can’t believe this Lourdes! You’ll end our marriage because of this? A convention?”
“I will!”
Later, as Lourdes was leaving with her suitcases, Carlos-Alberto intercepted her.
He was gloomy.
“I just got off the phone,” he said. “It was Dico.”
“What did he want?”
“After beating around the bush for a while, he ended up telling me. He said that because he was my friend, he had to tell me.”
“What?”
“That you were seen leaving Discreetest’s last night, with a man.”
“But you were the man!”
“I know, but I wasn’t identified.”
“You didn’t say it was you?”
“What? So my friends will know I go to motels with my own wife?”
“Well then??”
“I’m sorry, Lourdes, but…”
“But what?”
“I’ll have to give you a beating…”
