Richard

Ulisses and Ruth have always been best friends and grew up together. When they were little, Ulisses promised he would marry Ruth when they grew up, and she believed him. But she believed him mainly because she always liked him and remained anxious for years. Now, they are young adults, he doesn't need to work anymore, but she is working as an intern, but he always gets into trouble, and she is his emergency contact. Now it happened again. I was called to the police station to release him because he had gotten into a bar fight. I signed the papers, and that's when the policeman said the fight was because of his girlfriend and asked what we were to be on his emergency contact list. At the time, I didn't understand. What did he mean by girlfriend? Later I asked him, but Ulisses avoided the question. I only understood later when I saw the woman arriving and them kissing. Ulisses even tried to downplay the situation, but his girlfriend seemed determined to show that they were together. He just said that next time he would pay for dinner and left. How infuriating! I went straight to a bar that was still open and drank a lot, drank until I forgot everything a little, but enough because while wandering down the deserted street I ended up tripping and falling to the ground, sad, I stayed there. When someone suddenly shielded the rain with an umbrella, I looked up and it was Richard, Ulysses' half-brother. He took me to his house, partly because I was from the neighboring town and was only there because of Ulysses, I was also too drunk to say anything. He gave me water, medicine, everything with a very quiet dexterity, he was just being kind, but I believed he still harbored enough resentment to avoid even looking at my face. He was Amante's son, that's why Ulysses always mistreated him and bullied him, I didn't do it, but I didn't stop him. Even though I thought it was wrong, I only watched because Ulysses was my friend, I just didn't know that Richard had always liked me. "Are you angry with me?" I asked, while watching his back after giving me a cup of tea.