I freeze. Turn to see Tomás.
He gives me a stiff smile, his suit still stained from the beer. “But I would like to talk to you alone.”
“No way,” Elena says, stepping in front of him, full of sisu again. This girl is loyal.
“It’ll just be a minute,” he says, and then he jerks his chin at the security guard, who gets in front of Elena, blocking her.
Tomás takes my arm, his fingers gripping me hard even through the jacket, and takes me just to the side, in full view of everyone.
“He doesn’t need to ID you because I know who you are, Ruby Turner. I know where you’re from. And I know how long you’ve been in Europe. Seems you’re overstaying your welcome, yes?”
I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.
“How do you know that?” I whisper.
He grins at me. “I didn’t. It was a hunch. You just told me.”
Motherfucker.
I rip myself out of his grasp, ready to deck him in his ugly face.
He wags his finger at me. “Ah, no. Don’t do anything stupid. You’ve already done enough.”
“What do you want?” I hiss.
“What do I want? Ruby, it seems this is something you want. Why else would you have been so fucking stupid as to do what you did? Were you looking for an excuse to have things fucked up for you in a very big way? You could have walked past me and I wouldn’t have recognized you. You could have gone back to your seats and gone back to Luciano and screwed his brains out for all I care.” He shakes his head, holding his hands out to inspect his fingernails. “You know, after you did that, I asked one of his teammates on the bench if they’d seen you around. Apparently, you’re his girlfriend now. Goes to his practice and everything. How sweet.”
Fuck.
“But I wouldn’t have known that at all. No, you had to make yourself known. You think you’re so special. You’re not. You’re nothing.”
I raise my chin. “He’s a better man than you.”
“He’s pathetic,” he snaps at me. “I can see why you want to be with him. Like attracts like.” He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “But I don’t appreciate having beer thrown at me. And I don’t like the idea of my son knowing what’s happened. You’re making a mockery of my family by being with Luciano, you know this. And I will put an end to that.”
“Go ahead. It doesn’t matter,” I tell him, but I’m shaking.
“I will.” He holds up his phone. “I’m getting you deported. You won’t ever see him again. Marco won’t ever know. Everything will be right in the world. In my world, at least. I take it Luciano might have a bit of a broken heart. Poor guy.”
Deported.
Deported?
“Don’t I just get a fine?”
“Oh, the youth really are ignorant, aren’t they? You’ll get a fine and you’ll be deported, and you won’t be allowed back for a very, very long time.” He pauses, reading my face. He jiggles the phone at me. “One call. To the police. They’ll take care of the rest. I might even mention you assaulted me.” He pauses to smile. “Of course, we could strike a bargain.”
I narrow my eyes at him, feeling hope slip away. “What?”
“I won’t call the police. I’ll let you and your friend go on your merry way. But you will be going, yes? Out of Lisbon. Out of Portugal. You won’t tell Luciano a thing. Believe me, I’ll know if you do. And if you tell him what really happened, I’ll make sure there’s hell to pay with him. No, you’re going to leave, tonight, right now, and never look back. Or else…you’re gone.”
No. This can’t be it. My choices are either stay in Europe and lose Luciano, or keep Luciano and go home?
But I can’t go home. I just can’t. Maybe that’s the selfish choice, but I know I won’t survive it. The shadows are deeper there.
They’ll swallow me whole.
“It’s a pretty simple choice, Ruby,” he says, slipping his phone in his pocket. “And I know the one you’ve already made. The lesson I hope you learn from this is, don’t fuck with me. Don’t fuck with people when you have no idea what they’re capable of. You think this is a lot for me? It’s not. This is just taking care of business. I do this every day. This is just me flicking you away like the flea that you are. If anyone else had done what you did, they would be begging me to have gotten the bargain you got.” He steps close, leaning in. “Do you understand me?”
I can’t even swallow. I barely nod. My whole body feels like it’s sinking.
“Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday,” Tomás says to me, whistling a few notes of the song. “I hope, for your sake, I’ll never see you again.”
I stare at him while he strides off, trying to think, trying not to cry.
I never cry.
But I’m not sure how much longer I can hold out.
I’m not sure how much longer I can even keep breathing.
I feel Elena tugging at my arm, and I follow her like my eyes have failed me too. She leads me out of the stadium, past the guard who lets us pass, and toward the metros.
It’s starting to rain, cold droplets hitting the slice of bare skin between my leather jacket.
The jersey.
No.
“I left his jersey on the seat,” I cry out, trying to turn around and go back, but Elena holds me in place.
“No,” she says. “You can’t. Ruby, I heard what he said. You can’t go back.”
“But it’s all I’ll have of him,” I say through a gasp, my throat feeling choked, heat building behind my nose. The tears want to fall, want to bury me.
“You have to leave the jersey. You have to leave him.”
“I need to tell him what happened!” My words shake. “I owe that to him.”
“And let him know how
