After the Shopping Event(Dill McLain) He came out of the trendy boutique established in one of the old buildings along the large avenue. He walked a few steps under the arcades in the direction of the recently opened designer shop for fashion-conscious ladies. Holding a mobile phone to his ear, he announced loudly, so that everyone around could hear it, “I love you!”

The stunning-looking young woman with dark shoulder-length hair who stepped at that precise moment out of the shop’s door, carrying several bags of famous fashion brands, smiled all over her beautiful face, showed a series of perfect teeth, and then dropped all her bags at once. With outstretched arms, she rushed to the smart-looking man and fell around his neck. The people around who perceived this encounter smiled amused and full of compassion. And the young beauty did not let go, but simply hugged the man.

Finally, he also dropped his bags, but not out of joy. In his case, it was out of total amazement and almost shock. And before he could regain his composure, a loud screaming came from behind him and a second, elegantly dressed young woman struck with all of her strength several large shopping bags on his head, again and again, hissing with an extremely furious voice, “I knew it, I always knew you were a gigolo, romping around with other women! My father has always warned me that you are not the right one for me, now I understand why! And all this, on the very day when I pick up my wedding dress, maybe I should be grateful it’s happening now and not in two weeks after the wedding!”

The first woman embracing the man slowly moved her arms from his shoulders and stepped back a bit, showing a shaken face as if awakening from a dreadful dream or beholding a ghost having landed from another planet. The man did not move and was enduring another series of punches on his head by the shopping bags of the second woman, who now opened the largest bag with the well-known label of a famous brand for wedding dresses. She pulled out in a frantic action full of anger and grimacing like a dangerous willow a wedding dress plus a long veil, and finally throwing it all mixed with the exquisite silk paper to the ground around the feet of the man. Then she spat several times on the exclusive load of noble white fabric with elaborate embroidery now piling up on the ground. Then she was trampling on it like a wild animal and continued her terrible lecture with rolling eyes, “Thanks, for revealing who you really are, just at the right time before our wedding! I am truly grateful, and will now take the man I actually pushed away because of you, but who will be a sincere husband who respects his wife and never cheats on her! Father always preferred him, and he was right!”

Jumping again on the mountain of cloth and kicking it, she then shouted, “Just go to hell!” and spat in his face. Then she turned around, picked up some of her other shopping bags and without looking where she was stepping, she fell directly into the first woman who before had been hugging the man, the now abandoned groom. After looking for a short moment with furious eyes at her, she then barked, “Good luck with him, hopefully, he will let you down too!” and after also spitting at her, she ran away and disappeared in the large crowd of people circulating at this time in front of the shops. Several rows of people formed a dense circle around the scene, where the two remaining persons now stood with pale faces, obviously shocked and lost.

The man began almost absentmindedly and obviously extremely embarrassed, to collect the expensive flood of fabric at his feet, but did not know what to do with it. The woman who hugged him before brought out an empty bag and helped him to stow away the mountain of white cloth. While doing so, she whispered something towards his stony face. He nodded and finally the two left the scene with big steps.

They took the next side street and went along without talking. They turned at the next corner into a narrow street running parallel to the large avenue but offered a totally different life with many small shops, tiny bars and restaurants of all kinds and styles. There, the two disappeared into the basement of a building to a fancy restaurant that was mainly frequented by local artists. They sank rather exhausted onto seats at the very back and moved all of their bags into the corner next to the small table. While waiting for their wine, they examined each other. It was a rather unusual situation, because they did not know each other at all, but had just been involved in the most unusual – almost intimate - scenario. After the waiter had served the wine and brought a jar with olives, they toasted and introduced themselves. In the next hour and a half, they shared rough versions of their life stories.

Beatriz was a lawyer specializing in the field of corruption and had just opened her own office. She was a single again after a relationship of several years that had broken not too long ago because of her intensive working hours when preparing for her own business. It had been a huge disappointment and a shock for her to be overwhelmed with this unexpected fact in the midst of all the stress and excitement of becoming independent. On the one hand, with a certain pride, she had achieved her goal of setting up her own business, for which she really had been working hard. Then, on the other hand, her relationship had fallen apart just because of that. She was a young woman with a great portion of passion for life inherited from both of her parents, and she would have liked to be in a stable partnership with equal rights and mutual understanding as well as enrichment, and above all guided by true love. At this point, Beatriz took a deep breath and shrugged. Then she talked about her various interests and activities in general outside of her professional life. She practiced a bit of sport, was a great fan of culture, music and operas, and she loved to travel to anywhere in the world.

Finally, she tried to explain with a rather shy voice why on earth she had jumped around his neck in front of that shop, “You know, I was in a total high spirit and good mood, after buying some nice things. When I had stepped out of that shop, you actually had been looking in my direction when loudly stating ‘I love you’. Somehow, in that very moment, I had the full conviction that you had said it to me. I am really sorry for the confusion, and if you want, I’ll call her and explain her everything, so that you get her back!” But from across the table came a sharp, “No, I do not want a woman who has spit upon me and might do it again at the next possible moment of misunderstanding!”

Rodrigo was an interior designer and also just a couple of weeks ago had opened up his own interior design company, and he too had only been able to achieve this ambitious goal through intensive work almost day and night. He had been living together with his fiancée for three years, but they had known each other for almost five years. Some weeks before the opening of his company, he had for the first time noticed a certain impatience and acrimony when being together. She had often asked him if it really had been necessary to work so much, and it had been clear to him that she had preferred him to be more often at home or spend time with her. However, he had explained to her that opening up a business was requesting full commitment. It had disturbed him a bit to have this argumentation with her again and again, and it had of course not contributed to a good balance. Several times he had been sitting late night at work with dissatisfaction and a trace of unhappiness. After another of these confrontations full of questions from her side, and attempted conciliation on his part, they somehow had decided to get married and then spend two wonderful weeks on a beach on an island paradise near the Mexican coast. Their wedding was scheduled for the next month. At this point, Rodrigo paused, wiped his eyes and looked rather sad at the table, almost stating the same comment Beatriz had pronounced. Namely, that he did not understand why life was so cruel and let him, on one hand, fulfill his dreams to have his own interior design company, but then on the other side, because of all the long working hours involved to reach his target, let his private life explode in dust and shards.

The waiter came and asked whether they would also have dinner, otherwise, they would have to clear the table, as dining guests were preferred at that time. Unfortunately, since the place was very small, they had to stick to this rule. He stood there with the large menu lists in hands, looking at the two waiting for an answer.

Beatriz and Rodrigo briefly glanced at each other, then nodded in the direction of the waiter and reached for the menu cards.

They enjoyed a most delicious menu degustation and chatted about this and that while enjoying the dishes coming from the kitchen. At dessert, Rodrigo asked out of the blue, “You mentioned you love to travel. How about coming to this paradise island in Mexico with me?”

Beatriz dropped her dessert spoon and stared at him in disbelief. While Rodrigo just sat there looking at her, leaning back in the chair totally relaxed and with a slight smile on his lips.

Beatriz picked up the dessert spoon again, pointing with it at him, and said with a cool smile,

“Why not!”

A month later, the two flew to that beautiful island paradise where they spent fabulous holidays.

And of course, they are still together.

---