Bend, not break

Part 16 - If you can't think of anything else to stop me... (End of story)

'Can't you do what I ask you to do just once?' Marta shouted back.
Her eyes were fiery, her shoulders tensed, her muscles strained. In olden days, this sight would have terrified not only Fina but everyone else too. In olden days.

'I'm not your employee anymore, Doña Marta!' Fina was also trembling with rage. Nevertheless, she managed to spit out the 'Doña Marta' with a good dose of irony.

Most of the time, it made Marta even angrier. Fina knew that, but she couldn't always stop herself in the heat of the moment. She could see that the arrow had hit home, and Marta's face was turning even redder. It wasn't entirely fair of Fina, because she hadn't been Doña Marta for a long time. But sometimes, in heated arguments, words were said that they both regretted afterwards.

Strong-willed, passionate, stubborn – they had quickly realised that these were qualities they shared when they had moved into the apartment together five years ago. And that didn't always end well.

It would be better to go out for a few minutes before the dispute escalated any further, to get some fresh air.

And as quickly as possible, Fina decided. Not only because Marta was becoming more and more of a fury, but also because the more agitated and angry she herself was, the less in control she was. Plates had never been thrown in Marta's direction, after all she didn't want to hurt Marta, but they had been thrown on the floor. Fina didn't like this side of herself, so she decided to retreat.

Fina was already turning to leave – and that was extremely difficult for her – when Marta leapt from her desk to the door and slammed it in front of her nose before Fina had even had a chance to leave the room.

With gritted teeth, Fina said, „Clear the door immediately, or else..."

'Or else what?'

'It's better if we continue our conversation when we've both calmed down a bit, Marta.'

'I don't want to calm down, I want to sort this out now.'

'Could you possibly be reasonable for once and let me through?'

'So I'm the one who's not being reasonable?'

Fina almost rolled her eyes. But that would really make everything much, much worse. The topic of being sensible had always been a difficult one. It had been like that years ago, right at the beginning, when they had met, and it had remained that way until today. Marta believed she had to protect Fina, believed she was the calmer and more reasonable of the two, and completely overlooked the fact that times were changing.
That Marta herself was no longer the solid rock of the two of them. And that Fina could and had to make her own decisions, even though they were a couple. Besides, Fina was no longer in her mid-twenties. It was on the tip of her tongue to reply that she was now all grown up and no longer needed Doña Marta to protect her. Needless to say, that too would not be helpful at all.
In fact, apart from a little distance, which rarely lasted longer than thirty minutes, there was only one real way to let the air out of this balloon called Marta, which was about to burst any minute.

So she took a step towards Marta. For a moment, Marta thought that Fina wanted to pass her and pressed herself further against the door, but instead Fina took another step. Not towards the door, not towards the handle, but directly towards Marta. The two of them were now almost standing forehead to forehead, nose to nose. Fina saw Marta choking. And licked her own lips. That alone would have been enough, Fina saw the dark glint in Marta's eyes. But she added: 'If you can't think of anything else to stop me from leaving this room, then I'm going now.'

It took only a fraction of a second for this sentence to reach Marta's agitated brain and for her to feel Marta's hot lips on hers. But she did not immediately return the kiss. Instead, she bit, not too hard, into Marta's lower lip. At the same time, she indicated that she wanted to break free from Marta, who had placed her hands possessively on Fina's hips at the same time as her lips.