THE CRYSTAL CUP - Chapter Fifty One

THE CRYSTAL CUP

Chapter Fifty One

 It was just after midnight when Ricardo entered the garage to deliver his car. He had finished his first day of work at the new company. He couldn't complain... the car they handed him wasn't too bad and the line he did on the day was a good line to work with. In his first week he would always work the afternoon shift. It wasn't his favorite time. He preferred to do a direct line, but that company didn't work like that... do what, right? The thing was to dance to the music. As he waited in that endless line of cars being collected, he began to think about recent events... how life is... he was in a good company (not that the current one wasn't good, but in the previous one he already he had built up a reputation... which was blown to the ground for having vacillated too much), he had an excellent wife...and, just like that, everything came crashing down! Did Cecilia have someone else in her life? Had she been deceiving him this whole time? After all, that was the only plausible explanation for her leaving him just like that... of course, the fact that he'd assaulted her in the days prior to their elopement, as well as having a lover and a daughter out of wedlock, they were irrelevant facts... after all, it's normal for a man to have more than one woman in his life... moreover, he wasn't even with the other one anymore... Cecília was the woman of his life!

And those Jerico thoughts began to hover insistently in her head... suddenly, the fault for everything going wrong in her life was Cecília's alone and exclusively... if she didn't want to return to her life, it was because she was interested in someone else... it seemed inconceivable to him that a beautiful, smart, young woman like his ex was really alone, with no one in her life... no, something didn't add up... he had to get this out in the open... After all, if she didn't have anyone in her life, why couldn't she get back together with him? And so he stayed the whole time he was waiting for the inspector to come close his worksheet...

Finally released, he went straight to his house... although he was only going to work the afternoon shift the next day, he chose not to hang around in the street anymore... now he would be a model man... from home to work, from homework... and in that time, he would investigate his ex's life...

Six o'clock in the morning... and where was Adriano? Close to Helena's house... he knew that Cecília was living with her sister... he decided that he had to find out where his ex was working, so that he could watch her and find out if there was someone new in her life. He knew that if he asked where she worked, no one would give him that information. So he opted to begin his investigation on the sly. Half past six... seven hours... half past seven... eight... nine... but these women weren't going to go to work, were they? It was almost eleven o'clock, and no sign of life was visible in the house where they lived... or had they moved? That was all that was missing... well, there was only one way to find out... ask the neighbors... but in a way that didn't arouse suspicion... as it was already late, and soon she would have to go to the garage to start another day of work, Ricardo considered that day of investigation closed. He just wasted his time...but that was okay...would be back the next day. And, if that didn't work, he would pay a courtesy visit to Cecília's family... he knew exactly who could give him the information he needed... of course that would be his last resort, he would try to find out what interested him without turn to anyone. But as a last resort...

Although normally those who usually make the second schedule in a bus company go straight to the end point of the line for which they were assigned, Ricardo was scheduled to work in the company's yard that day. He would act as a valet. It wasn't what he liked, but he didn't have much of a choice. In any case, in the garage he would have chances to establish contacts that could be useful to him in his professional future. He immediately fell in love with the leader of the inspectors on duty and, while there were no cars to maneuver, he stayed in the operating room, helping the team with whatever they needed. An urgent call on one of the lines, requesting a spare car, was the cue for him to do what he liked best... working on the line, making his trips and meeting new people. Was it a stressful job? Undoubtedly... but at the same time he found something exciting... each trip was a new story... there was no routine in the life of the bus driver in action. And off he went, driving one of the reserve cars, to the point where they requested support...

Ricardo worked the rest of the day on that line and really enjoyed the route he had to take. It was a smooth line, it just walked along the corridors, from terminal to terminal. He just loved the afternoon at work. There were many passengers, the line had a high turnover. But it was such a good route to do that, when the day's trips were over, it even made me want to ask to ride a little more. Even because the car he was driving was one of the newest from the company, as cars a little more worn out by time couldn't run on this line. And so he finally collected his vehicle for the garage... as he left to make the line, and had already completed his eight-hour daily charge, he was dismissed...but before he left, the head of duty warned him that the next day he would would act as inspector inside the garage. He didn't like the idea very much... he preferred to be on the streets, if only because the chances of casually meeting Cecilia increased exponentially if he was working on the streets. But orders are orders, right? As it was still early... it was just over eight o'clock at night... he decided to stop by Helena's house, to see if the sisters were at that address or not... and noticed that all the lights were off. So he decided that the next day he would stop by Mario's house...