Corazon Suarez slammed her car door so hard the car rocked.

            No sign of Victor’s car, but sometimes he parked around back.  There were flyers piled up around his door, but Victor could be a bit of a slob.  She and Victor had been together two years.  He could be forgetful.  He got distracted easily.  He could even stand her up.  But a week was a long time.

            Probably the bastard had gotten a shoot somewhere, like Vancouver or something.  He’d be all apologetic when he showed up.  He was sorry, he should have called, but it was so great, madonna, you wouldn’t believe…

            “Vic?” she yelled.  She dug in her purse for her key ring.  He’d given her a key to his place but she hated to stay there because she always ended up cleaning.  She opened the door.  “Vic?” 

            Dust danced in the sunlight from the door. 

            She let the door swing shut behind her.  The place was no more of a wreck than usual.  His good digital camera was sitting on the desk.  The good one.  She picked it up and turned it on.  It seemed like it worked.  He always took it with him when he was working. 

            “Vic?”  She checked the kitchen, the bedroom, ‘the office’ which was actually just a second bedroom.  He had sixteen phone messages. 

            Her heart was in her throat when she opened his bathroom door.  “Vic?” she whispered.  She didn’t know what she expected.  All she got was Vic’s bathroom, which although it qualified to be a superfund site, was empty of Vic.

            She checked his answering machine.

            All the messages were work, except the five from her, increasingly angry.  And two from his mother, which meant he hadn’t called her, either.

            Vic always called his mother.  Always.  It was one of the things that had endeared him to her.  He was so different than her brothers.

            She heard a sound and whirled, expecting him to come in the door.  Expecting to hear, ‘Corazon!  Madonna!’  But it was just the cat, the god damn black and white stray he sometimes fed, pushing the door open and looking up at her expectantly.

            The cat looked at her.  “Where the hell is Vic?” Corazon asked.  Not angry anymore.  The cat didn’t answer.  Corazon sat down on his couch on top of a pile of laundry and burst into tears.   Oh Christ, she was sitting on the dvd case for Fast Cheap and Out of Control.  The cat came and joined her, its scrawny body all bones under her hand as she stroked it until long after the crying stopped.  Just the two of them there, waiting for Vic.

 

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