Finding Him
Chapter 1 - Dealing With Rejection
Tulio sometimes wondered if Chel had stayed with him as long as she had out of pity, or if that perhaps was the reason she had left him in the first place. Not that it mattered. He hadn't been the same since Miguel left, and she could see that.
Against all odds, they had managed to find passage on another boat, this one headed back for Spain. The entire trip, however, Miguel had gotten increasingly quiet and withdrawn. They had both noticed it, but whenever they had tried to talk to him, he always smiled and told them everything was alright.
Chel had apparently overheard him telling something to Altivo, but she had refused to tell him what it was, saying that it was Miguel's private matter, and that Tulio really didn't want to know. Tulio was pretty sure that wasn't true, but no amount of coaxing could get it out of her. In the end, all he learned was that whatever she had overheard was most likely the reason for Miguel's uncharacteristic somberness.
It had apparently come to a head when they reached Spain, however. To celebrate, they had bought actual rooms in a nearby inn, and had a hearty supper. Miguel said almost nothing the entire meal, until the very end. Then he stood up, and looked from Tulio to Chel. "I hope you two will be very happy together," he had murmured. Then he left for their room upstairs. He was asleep when they finally joined him, and neither had the heart to wake him up and ask him to explain his comment. When they woke up in the morning he, as well as all traces of his existance, were gone.
Chel had stayed for about a month. It could have been loyalty, or maybe pity after all, but it was obvious she had become distracted. In their home land, it was no longer Tulio who was the strange exotic one, but her. She was getting male attention from every side, both wanted and unwanted. And after Miguel had disappeared, Tulio seemed to have lost that spark that kept him going.
So she had left as well, though not as suddenly as Miguel had. They had stood, embracing, while Chel tried to explain why she had to leave. All of it went right past Tulio, but he had expected it. It was, after all, only a matter of time before she would seek out the adventures of Spain for herself.
It had been different, after they left. At least when Chel was around she had been able to keep him out of trouble. Now there seemed to be no point to it any more. The cons were all bland, and not very well-thought-out. He hadn't been caught yet, but all his escapes had been closer calls than ever before. He rarely got clean away with anything any more. It was only a matter of time, he thought, before they finally captured him. He almost welcomed it.
A while ago -what was it? About three weeks now?- he had seen Miguel's face on a wanted poster in the local town square. He had stopped to look at it for a long moment. Apparently they had upped the reward for his capture. He hadn't bothered to check what his own was.
Currently Tulio sat on a bar stool in one of the many dingy taverns in the area. The common room was small, consisting only of a bar and about half a dozen tables arranged in front of the large hearth. The beer was watery, and the tables were dirty, but the fire was warm and no one was chasing him, so he was content.
Tulio spent a little more of his dwindling money supply on another mug of horrible beer and downed it quickly. He didn't really taste it any more anyway, and it was as good as anything for getting drunk with.
The barkeep -a huge man with a grease-spattered apron and very little hair- looked at him pityingly. "What's happened to you that's got you so down, friend?"
Tulio stared gloomily into his mug, contemplating the weary, un-shaven face that stared back at him. "Nothing much. Simply the two people I loved most in this world have gone and left me, that's all."
"What did you do?" asked the barkeep. "It must have been pretty bad if you loved them that much."
Tulio frowned at him. He was a little drunk, but he was pretty sure the barkeep had missed something or other. "What makes you think that it was me that did something?" he asked defensively.
"Listen." The barkeep pulled a stool up to his side of the bar and sat down, leaning in so that he could speak to Tulio without anyone overhearing. "In my experience, if someone leaves you, it's usually their fault. If two people leave you, then it's something you did. Now think about it. Is there any reason that they both might be mad at you?"
Tulio wasn't sure that he really wanted to be talking to this guy, but somehow he couldn't bring himself to leave. Too lazy, he supposed. "I think the second one may have left because I was moping over the first."
"Ah," said the barkeep. "So this first one, she's the one you love more then?"
Tulio blinked again. The beer must have been going to his head. He thought for sure he'd heard... "What makes you say that?"
"Well, if you'd loved this second girl more, it seems to me that she would have been able to pull you out of this funk you're in. Of course, that's just my opinion, but I've seen cases like yours before. Any chance you might be able to find one or both of them?"
Tulio shook his head. "They're both long gone. Even if they weren't, I doubt they'd talk to me. Chel... well, she never really wanted to be with me as much as she thought, I think. And... the first..." he sighed. "I really don't know what happened there. Things were going so well, I thought..."
"Well look," said the barkeep, "why don't you tell me what happened, and I'll try to figure it out for you. Sometimes a third party perspective is the best thing, you know?"
Tulio nodded and put his beer down on the counter. "I really thought everything was worked out. We were in another city and had a fight, and I thought I'd be leaving alone. But we got over that. We left the city, and we had made up. We were partners again, and we were going to come back to Spain. I was going to be with Chel, and the three of us would have a good life together once we got to Spain. But... we didn't talk much the entire way back, and it didn't take long after we had arrived before Chel and I were alone. Just the two of us. It bothers me because... well... we had promised that we were going to be partners. Always. We shook on it."
We shook on our mutual non-involvement with Chel, too came the guilty thought in the back of his head. He drank some more of his beer.
The barkeep smiled. "The answer my friend, is quite obvious."
"It is?" Tulio looked up at him.
"Of course! If you weren't involved, I'm sure you'd spot it right away. It's obvious that this first chick, this partner of yours was in love with you. And probably insanely jealous of your new girlfriend... Chel, was it? She couldn't stand to see you two together, knowing that she couldn't be with you, so she left."
Tulio blinked. That didn't sound like Miguel. Well, most of it did, but Miguel wasn't in love with him.
Was he?
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