What Beauty Costs

By Gonzalo

We were having dinner at home. I live with my parents, or at least I sleep there several times a week. I do it for convenience, although at that moment I was uncomfortable. Sometimes my mother would get very dense about the same topic, repeating, every time she could, how beautiful her new makeup artist is, that she is thin, but with an excellent body, that it is perfect, that her height is ideal, that she has a model's face, that her green eyes are beautiful and look like emeralds.

She looked like an artist representative trying to sell her as if she were a product.

I was sure he was doing it on purpose, just to annoy Marta, my girlfriend.

My mother didn't like Marta, she tried to hide it, although I don't think she made much of an effort.

At that moment, my girlfriend's face hit the ground.

I also don't know why he's so bothered that my mother was talking about someone that none of them know.

—Mom, you've mentioned her a thousand times and nobody knows her, change the subject.

—Excuse me son, it's just that she's so beautiful and the clients are happy, besides helping them dress up in party dresses, on their wedding day or celebration, I offer them as a service, that she does their makeup on that special day.

—How lucky.

I say sarcastically, Marta, my girlfriend, looks at me and smiles.

That did not go unnoticed by my mother.

For a moment she became serious.

His cell phone rang; it was my brother letting him know he was staying at his girlfriend's apartment.

—Send kisses to Luz, have a good time, I love you.

I hear it cutting out.

—We're leaving, I'm not coming back tonight.

His face changed when I told him we were leaving, I don't understand, my brother never makes that face when he says he's not coming home and he does that...5 or 6 times a week.

Although it has to do with the fact that my mother doesn't like my girlfriend.

I'm sorry if you don't like it, it has to be me who likes it and that's enough.

My father tries to be nicer to Marta.

I've been dating my girlfriend for six years now, and lately she's been wearing me out with the same thing: she wants to make things official. She's not asking me to marry her, just to live together, but I have a feeling that as soon as we do, she's going to put a noose around my neck and drag me by the ear to a judge to get us married.

I feel comfortable when I stay at my parents' house and I try to prolong the time I spend living with Marta.

I don't understand Tiziano, my brother. With how much of a womanizer he was, he met Luz, his girlfriend, and he even forgot about his friends. It's not that he stopped seeing them, it's just that he sees them much less.

He is with Luz day and night; she has a house, a bit old, but very well cared for, located in the middle of a commercial area, and together with my brother, they managed to adapt it to function as medical offices.

Tiziano is a kinesiologist and Luz is a nutritionist.

They set up their offices there and, as there were more rooms, they rented them out to cover other specialties, especially with doctors specializing in aesthetics.

I found out that Mariela, my cousin, who is a cardiologist, also sees patients for a few hours once a week from there; I think there are even two psychologists.

They really did a great job and I'm happy for them.

Tizi is with Luz day and night, I never thought he could fall in love, there was no woman who could resist him and he took full advantage of his charms, he dated half the city and had never had a girlfriend.

Luz is a girl who knows what she wants; in fact, I think she was the one who confronted him. It wasn't unusual; girls often confront both of us. I must admit that they approach me too, but I'm more reserved than Tiziano.

I have a girlfriend…

On Thursdays I usually meet with some friends, former classmates from college; I am an engineer.

My girlfriend, that day she leaves the law firm where she works as a secretary later than usual. She only had eight subjects left to complete her law degree, but she decided not to continue studying. She's 35, five years older than me. I started dating her when I was 24. I met her in a pub and she kept looking at me. I approached her with the intention of spending the night with her. We did, of course, and I liked how she was in bed, so I asked for her phone number and called her three or four days later. That's how we started dating. She's not super beautiful, but we get along well, especially sexually.

My mother thinks she's ugly; she doesn't tell me, but I have ears.

Every time I talk to Mariela, my cousin, they talk about that topic: that she doesn't know what I see in my girlfriend, that she's ugly, that she didn't finish her law degree despite having the opportunity to study, that she's selfish, and so on and so forth.

He finds a thousand flaws in it.

Mariela has her own quirks and sometimes she tires me out, but she's not like my mother says, she exaggerates.

With Luz, my mother's behavior is the complete opposite; of course, Luz knew how to win her over, and I admit that she is much nicer than my girlfriend.

She shows my mother things that Marta would never do, that's why I never reproached her for getting along better with my brother's girlfriend, because if I said anything and she highlighted my sister-in-law's personality, my girlfriend would end up losing.

My girlfriend and I went to a hotel, she had a good time, she doesn't have the best body, she's not even tall, but we get along best in bed.

Sometimes I get bored, that's normal, we've been dating for 6 years now, so every now and then,

When I go out with my friends, I have a few drinks.

My mother never worries on Thursdays when I arrive late or when I don't come back, nor does she mention it to Mariela.

I think she's even happy, she says, and she did tell me this once or twice, that Mariela isn't right for me, that I'm wasting my time with her.

He said it in two or three very specific situations due to some events that happened, where I couldn't hide the stupid things my girlfriend sometimes does.

That Thursday, we were meeting at a bar with Gabriel and Rodrigo. They were my classmates at university. At one point, we worked together at a company. Then I went to another company where they offered me better working conditions. They continued working there for a while, and then each of us ended up working on our own. But despite having finished university years ago, we still met every now and then on Saturdays or Sundays, and of course, Thursdays were our ritual.

Sometimes we would meet at the pub where we were that Thursday, and other times we would go to a different place.

That pub held many of our secrets; there were countless girls who worked as escorts.

It was a normal place, except that there were usually a group of girls at the tables behind a column who worked in the oldest profession in the world, and luckily they kept changing, or bringing friends, otherwise it would also be boring.

Sometimes I would go out with someone who wasn't a prostitute, I didn't try too hard either, a few drinks and some flattering words and we would end up at my apartment.

I have an apartment, it's a semi-floor, comfortable, luxurious, and it's the secret I'm keeping from my girlfriend.

Gabriel and I started receiving offers for projects beyond our regular jobs, so we decided to partner up and carry them out together.

We both continued working separately at different companies, but we met to do the various jobs that came our way.

At one point, my father, at the real estate company where he is a partner, was offered a project to finish a building, because the owners had gone bankrupt; the building had some minor structural problems.

My father called me to talk about that subject and I called Gabriel.

There were a few things that needed sorting out, but it wasn't anything serious.

The building was almost finished, but it was going to be auctioned off, and my father's two partners at the real estate agency thought it wasn't a good business to buy it.

We quickly did the math.

My father owned two houses on the coast and two apartments in the capital, which were for rent.

He had always told my brother and me that those apartments were for us, for when we decided to live on our own, but while we lived with them, they were going to be rented out.

It was an extra source of income and we were really comfortable at home.

For my part, I had enough money saved to buy my own apartment. I had graduated as a civil engineer a couple of years ago, and of course, my salary was quite high, plus I added all the work we did together with Gabriel.

My friend was more or less in the same situation as me, but he was a little more in a hurry to leave his parents' house.

For that project they offered my father, we had to sell the two apartments on the coast, plus the two apartments we had for rent, plus my savings, plus my parents' savings, and also Gabriel's savings…

We were still missing a part.

There were no problems getting a bank loan, because through my father's work, he had contacts with some bank managers.

We sat down with Gabriel and studied how to restructure the building, so that there wouldn't be problems in the future, and we added Rodrigo to the team.

We saw the project as viable.