Maria watched Euclid and his co-agents, Fred and David, talk outside the room. They didn’t return her to the prison, where the other club dancers were detained. Instead, they just left her inside the place where the drug test for her was done.
She can’t hear what they were talking about, but Maria was sure that Euclid is telling the two men about his plan on letting her go home before the sun rises. Maria looked over the window, and when she saw that the crimson clouds are starting to spread over the night sky, panic began to lurk inside her chest again.
“Come on, Euclid. You can do it,” she whispered as she watched him move his hands from side to side while explaining to his colleagues. “Euclid…”
Maria’s heart thumped inside her ribcage as she looked at him entirely. Euclid was ultimately a different person now. He’s far from the skinny nerdy looking guy that she saw in the Balesin seashore eleven years ago. Maria was just sixteen back then, and Euclid was already in college. In those years that have passed, Euclid has changed. His eyes are darker now, and his whole features became braver and more muscular. His golden skin looked smooth and shiny, and his body felt hard and strong when she hugged him. Everything about him changed, and so about Maria.
Maria wasn’t the girl that Euclid used to admire anymore. She wasn’t his angel that has the sweetest angelic smile on the face any longer. She wasn’t the girl who used to wait for him on the sidewalk after his school, the girl who used to bring him puto and kutsinta for breakfast. She wasn’t the girl he used to tell the stories of every sea wave that came to their feet while sitting together on the shore of the Balesin Sea.
Maria’s heart ached. It ached so much that tears started to sting her eyes again. What happened to her life? What happened to her heart? Is this her fate?
When the door opened, Maria fought back her tears. Euclid walked inside the room and gave her a kind of smile that says there is nothing that she needed to worry about. Maria couldn’t explain why every time he smiled, her breathing is becoming lighter and more relaxed. It was as if Euclid is curing every illness that her body felt and been suffering.
“Fred and I will come with you,” he said as soon as he approached her. “David and the other men will handle about Miranda, but I have thought that they can’t. I’m still wondering if I should tell this to her. Miranda is a witty woman, I’m sure she’ll find it out very soon.”
“Is Miranda the beautiful policewoman that listed our names on the large notebook a while ago?” she asked with a knotted forehead.
Euclid nodded. “She’s the policewoman that shouted at you when you refused to write your name on the logbook,” he laughed. “But, she’s kind and understanding. You don’t have to worry about her. She’s with me.”
“With you?” Maria doesn’t know why she has to ask him about it, but she can’t help it. “Is she going with us?”
Euclid knotted his forehead. “No. I mean, she’ll understand if we will tell her about our plan and the reason for doing it. She’s a friend of mine when I was in the Academy.”
Maria nodded her head even though she doesn’t understand what he said. “Okay. Are we going to now? The sky is lighting up.”
“We’ll just wait for Fred—”
“What is this, Agent Euclid?” Miranda walked inside the room with a scowl. “What are you planning to do? Sending this woman home secretly?”
Euclid looked at his partner, Fred, behind Miranda, who just scratched the back of his head as a response. “Miranda, Magdalene asked me if I could help her get home before her daughter wakes up.”
“Right,” Fred agreed. “We won’t stay long—”
“Shut up, Frederick!” she snarled at the man who just stepped back. “I can still remember the day that you tried to screw our young female asset here. And, I bet that you’re also planning to pick your girl on that prison—”
“Of course, not!” Fred countered. “They aren’t as beautiful as Magdalene—”
Miranda hit Fred on the head. “Such a disgrace!” she shouted and turned to Euclid again. “Euclid, don’t tell me that you believed in what this woman told you?”
“It will be quick,” Euclid said. “We will return her here as soon as her daughter went to school—”
“What the hell? What if she was just lying? You don’t know her—”
“I know her, Miranda,” Euclid cut off.
Maria’s mouth fell open. She looked at Euclid and clutched on his sleeve. “Euclid—”
“Euclid? Wow!” Miranda clapped her hands. “What a kind heart you have, Euclid. You even gave her your real name?”
Maria looked out the window, if she won’t leave now, Sara and Wendy will be awake and looked for her. She’s sure that Wendy will be dead worried. Being captured by the police is what dreaded her most to happen in the club. Maria looked at Miranda, her brow arched at her. She doesn’t look like the kind of woman that Euclid was describing a while ago.
“What? Do you want to say something?” Miranda asked her, even her stern voice conveyed authority at her.
Maria bit her lower lip. Her tears started to fall from her eyes. “Please…” she pleaded and kneeled in front of Miranda. “Please, Miss Miranda. Let me go home for just a few hours, my daughter needs me. I don’t want her to worry about me… please.”
Euclid went to her side and ushered her to stand, but Maria refused. She needed to get home now. She wouldn’t forgive herself if something terrible happened to her daughter because of worrying about her.
Miranda caught her forehead. “Hey, stand up! `My goodness!”
Euclid and Fred ushered her to stand up. Maria’s tears streamed down her cheeks continuously. “Please, Miss Miranda—”
“You know what, this is against our protocol. But, it looks like Agent Euclid is willing to break the rules just to help you,” Miranda said with a glare. “I never thought that I will get myself involved in this kind of stupidity.”
“Miranda, stop talking as if we didn’t break the rules inside the camp together,” Euclid said and laughed. “We’ll be back before ten a.m—”
“Ten a.m? That’s too much! Eight a.m—”
“Nine a.m. It’s a deal,” Euclid said and snatched Maria’s arm. “Fred, you’ll drive—”
“Hey, Euclid! You’re taking her in those clothes?” Miranda asked and looked at the coat that Euclid gave him when she undressed in front of him in the bar. “I doubt that she even has underwear—”
Maria’s cheeks turned red. She’s indeed naked behind this expensive-looking coat, but does she really have to say it out loud? And, in front of these two men in a crisp suit?
“We’ll grab her a pair of clothes on the way,” Euclid said and avoided her eyes. “We have no time to think about it here.”
Maria can read the embarrassment in Euclid’s expression. His hand on her arm gripped tighter and started to emit heat that penetrated her skin up to her spine.
“Okay. What more can I say?” Miranda shrugged her shoulders. “Exit at the back, and don’t let anyone see your Magdalene, or else, we’ll both lose our jobs.”
***