Chapter Text
Another night where Maca got high and Zulema spent the time between reading a line of her book and watching Maca dance, it had come to an end.
Zulema had just turned off the main lights, leaving only the Christmas lights on and had leaned on the bed, next to Maca who had already been sleeping for a while. Or at least so she thought.
"I just had a wonderful idea"
Zulema didn't reply so Maca went on "did you hear me?"
Zulema snorted "yes, let's hear this bullshit"
"Let's paint the ceiling!"
Zulema opened her eyes and looked at the white ceiling above her "nope" replied.
"Why?"
"Because you have already decorated this place too much"
"I made it more welcoming"
"And why? You always say that we don't have to get used to it, that we don't have something that binds us and that this marriage of convenience will end but then you decorate the fucking trailer with lights and put plants on the windows. "
Maca fell silent.
She didn't consider that trailer a home ... well at least not really. But surely it was the only thing that had to look like a home.
And she had made it as beautiful as possible.
"When I come back here in the trailer and see those lights or plants ... I feel good, it makes me feel...safe."
"Yeah whatever, we will not paint the ceiling."
"I want to paint the sky."
“It's useless, Rubia, you live in a trailer. The sky is your roof. "
“It is not true and you know it. I just want to fall asleep looking at the sky instead of the white. "
"Sleep outside then."
"Come on, Zulema, what's the big deal?"
Nothing, actually. But she had allowed Maca too many things already.
She wouldn't let her have this too.
"If you let me get a Scorpion, I will let you paint the ceiling."
"No, you know what the rules were"
"Then nothing."
“Look, I don't give a fuck, Zulema. I do it anyway. "
"Try."
"It's a threat?"
Shrugged "if you think it is"
“I remind you that I share a bed with you, I am no longer afraid. And not that I was before anyway.”
Zulema laughed "sure, keep repeating it"
Maca hit her with the pillow in her face "I will paint that sky tomorrow" she fell back in the bed,
turning her back on Zulema "and I hope you'll help me"
In that time spent together, Zulema had learned to appreciate small details of Maca,
details she hadn't noticed in prison.
Like the small wrinkles that formed in the center of her forehead
and the fact that she put her tongue between her lips when she concentrated. Just like now.
Sitting on one of the van steps, Zulema looked at her standing on a chair with a brush in her hand.
"Don't bother to help me"
"I won't," Zulema replied.
Maca rolled her eyes. Typical.
"But I'll tell you what you should have done if you want"
"No thanks"
Zulema smiled while lighting a cigarette "in the first place you should have papered around with newspapers,
because the drops of paint will never come off, coño"
Maca bit her lip. She was right...
"Then you could have bought a ladder, you know, we have half a million euros, you could have spent a hundred and fifty for a good ladder."
"Oh, do we have? I thought that the money were divided. "
"We'll share the money when it's over, as long as we live together it belongs to both of us and you know it," she shrugged,
"As you buy food, you can use it for everything else."
Maca already knew, she just liked to hear Zulema sayin their money. And not only hers.
"Something else?"
"You could have said yes to the scorpion and now I would be there helping you."
Maca smiled. Very funny.
A dull thud in the floor made Zulema laugh out loud as she watched Maca groan in pain from the fall.
Maca was about to get angry but hearing Zulema laughing in that crystalline way made her smile in turn.
It was not usual to hear Zulema laugh, so she had decided that anger could wait.
She got up from the ground, walked out of the trailer and then started to walk.
"Where are you going?" Zulema asked.
Maca turned, shrugged "you were right"
"You have to clean up the mess you made, Rubia"
Maca lifted the hood of her sweatshirt.
"I will," she said, then turned and continued walking.
She was disappointed.
Disappointed in herself.
She wanted that sky in the ceiling and now being able to do it had also become a challenge against Zulema.
Like anything between them. But she had it all wrong, from the beginning, she had to admit it.
Going back, clean up everything and maybe start over with Zulema who would not have missed an opportunity to repeat "I told you so" ... didn't seem a good idea.
So Maca decided not to go back, at least for now.
She stayed out until night, the temperature was starting to drop and willy-nilly she had to go back to the van.
There was silence when she arrived, the lights were all on: external and internal.
She remembered the mess she still had to clean up, rolled her eyes, opened the door and entered.
"I'm ..." the effort he had to make not to say at home was huge, "... here."
"I don't give a fuck." answered Zulema from the kitchen area where she was sitting reading.
Nice as always.
She looked around, noting that paint, brushes and the chair used as a ladder were not where she had left them.
Then Maca looked at the ceiling and her eyes lit up at the sight: the blue paint surrounded the white of the ceiling, forming clouds.
It was beautiful, just how she wanted it and definitely better than how she would have done it.
Maca looked at Zulema and smiled "thank you."
The woman didn't look away from her book
"You'll do the laundry for a week, puta, so you learn to leave a mess and walk away."
Maca laughed "okay" approached her "thanks for giving me the sky, Zulema"
gave her a kiss on the cheek "I love it" she whispered in her ear.
The older woman was stunned for a moment from that gesture, then pushed the blonde away
"I don't know what the fuck you're talking about" smiled.