When Where and How to Love

Chapter 71. A box of chocolates

A while later

"Life is a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get," Forrest Gump's mother said, and how right this woman was. For Valentina, her life with Juliana was a box of chocolates. Lauren would say sweeties, sweeties the blonde tasted willingly, always eager, and sure that whatever she got, she was going to enjoy it.

With Juliana she learned the true meaning of love, the pleasure of unbridled sex, the consuming passion for one person, the disgusting taste of jealousy, the desperation to feel the skin of one person, and the misery of fighting. In other words, Juliana was her box of chocolates. And now she had the box in her hands and had to choose one of the chocolates, but Valentina didn't want to because she knew whatever was on the inside, she wasn't going to like it.

Valentina had gone too far, she had made her brunette move away from her at the table, her brunette, the woman who on their first date pulled her chair next to Valentina's, the woman who later confessed the reason she sought the contact, but the blonde had spoiled it. Valentina had pushed her wife to a place where she didn't want to be, making her explode and run away. But the most upsetting part for Valentina was that for the first time she had not been able to stop her. She held her face, looked into her eyes, said the key words, but it wasn't enough, she couldn't stop her. Valentina had stopped being Juliana's safe place, she was no longer Juliana's weakness, and she definitely didn't want to know the filling of that chocolate.

"Mom?" Valentina was sitting on the steps at the front of the house, waiting for her wife. She raised her head when she heard her eldest daughter's voice. Kara, along with the others, had returned from the spontaneous lunch Juliana had sent them on.

Lena was carrying Andy, who was asleep in her arms, Bella carried Anne, and Kara held Jules. Gaby and Scarlet followed behind, and further back, came a bouncing Maca, dragging Barbara by the hand.

"Will we put them on your bed?" Kara whispered to her mother. Valentina nodded and the three young women entered the house.

"Can we go to the treehouse?" Scarlet asked when she reached her mother.

"Yes, darling, but be careful," Valentina waited for Maca to jump on her.

"MOTHER! YOU SHOULD'VE SEEN THE CHEESEBURGER I ATE!" She said excitedly. "Kara said I wasn't going to be able to eat it because it was too big, but I told her I would, and I ATE IT MOM... ALL OF IT!" It was quite an event. "My belly hurts a little now, but it doesn't matter, Right Andy? Oh yeah, Andy is sleeping now, but when she wakes up, she'll agree with me. Can we go to the treehouse too?"

When her daughter finally breathed, Valentina nodded. "Of course, Maca, but try not to fight with Scar," she warned, just in case.

"But mommy says, if I don't fight with Scarlet, then I am not myself!" she answered skilfully.

"Well try to be less yourself for today, okay?" The girl must have noticed her mother's mood, because she nodded without a fight and with Barbie's hand in hers, she went to climb the tree, but quickly returned to her mother, after letting go of Barbie's hand.

"Mom..." Valentina looked at her. "Why is Uncle Mateo lying on the grass?" After Juliana punched him, nobody bothered to pick him up, once they made sure he was still breathing, they left him there.

"He's sleeping, sweetheart," she replied simply. The little girl didn't need to know he was drunk or that Juliana had knocked him out.

"Can I sleep on the grass?" Macarena assessed her options.

"Sure darling, but another time," she answered.

Maca looked closely at her mother but instead of saying something, she turned and continued to her previous destination. Valentina's expression had rendered, her most eloquent daughter, speechless.