I almost felt like asking her if my resignation was why we were where we were, but that was unfair, and I most certainly did not want to be unfair to her. Not then.
She had said ‘again’. ‘Start something with someone at work again.’ What was that?
‘Jamie told me something that makes no sense,’ I said.
‘That doesn’t surprise me.’
‘It was about you and Eduardo.’
Isabel held back her head and laughed. ‘You didn’t believe that, did you?’
‘It didn’t make much sense to me. Now Ricardo I could have believed.’
For an instant Isabel tensed. In more usual circumstances, I wouldn’t have noticed it. But after what we had experienced a few minutes before...
‘You didn’t?’
I could see Isabel’s first reaction was to deny it. But she realized it was too late.
‘I did.’
‘Oh.’
‘It didn’t last long.’
‘That’s OK. You needn’t tell me. It’s none of my business.’
‘No, I’d like to. I’d like to tell someone about it.’
‘All right. I’ll listen.’
‘It was just after I’d joined Dekker. Ricardo and I were invited for a weekend’s skiing in Aspen by the chairman of one of the São Paulo banks. Ricardo was in a great mood. Dekker had just had the best year of their history. Our host insisted that we ski’d and didn’t talk business, so we did as we were told. Ricardo and I clicked. I know Ricardo has that effect on just about everyone, but with me I truly do think it was different.’
She looked at me to see whether I believed her. I did. ‘Go on.’
‘I mean I was completely taken with him. I guess that’s not so surprising. But the way he looked at me. It was... I suppose it was like the way you look at me.’
‘I’m not sure I like the sound of that.’
She ignored me. ‘Well, we slept together. And over the next few months we went on a number of trips together.’
‘And what did Luciana think about that?’
‘She never found out.’
‘Lucky for you. I wouldn’t want to be on the wrong side of her temper.’
‘But she cheats on him! Everyone at the office knows it. Apart from Ricardo. Just ask Jamie.’
I frowned.
‘OK, you’re right. I was wrong to do it. And I’m definitely not going to do it again. Especially after what happened.’
‘What happened?’
‘He dumped me.’
‘Did it hurt?’
‘Yes. A lot. I think it still does.’ I squeezed her hand. ‘He said he had been wrong to start it. He said it was the first time he had been unfaithful. He was risking his marriage, and he was risking his working life as well. Sleeping with one of his team was not the right way to do things.’
‘I suppose not.’
‘You know how self-controlled he is. Usually he wouldn’t put anything before Dekker. And he talks a lot about the importance of family life although, of course, he hardly ever sees Luciana. I think it’s some sort of fiction he has created for himself.’
‘Did you believe him? That it was the only time?’
‘Yes. Of course that’s what every dumb mistress wants to believe, but in this case I think it really is the truth. I think he was scared that he’d let his self-control slip. It certainly hasn’t happened again.’
I stared up at the ceiling, considering the concept of Isabel and Ricardo. I didn’t like it. There may have been an element of jealousy, but there was more to it than that. I wanted to get Ricardo out of my life, but here he was getting even closer to me.
‘How’s your relationship now?’ I asked.
She sighed. ‘Oh, he’s very professional with me. He’s friendly, he treats me just like the others. I try and be the same way with him, but I can’t quite manage it.’
‘So how did the rumours about you and Eduardo start?’
‘I think the others realized that there was something going on with me. They just guessed the wrong Ross, that’s all.’ She shuddered. ‘Yeuch. Just the thought of it makes me ill.’
‘And since Ricardo?’
‘No one. Until now.’ She turned to me and smiled. I melted.
‘You know, I definitely shouldn’t be doing this,’ she said, bending over to kiss me.
But she did. Twice more.
We were booked into a business hotel located between the metallic-smelling river Pinheiros and a highway. The dawn rose red in the São Paulo smog. From our window I could see a patch of wasteland that had been turned into a soccer pitch, and a small favela. Isabel’s theory was that there weren’t any nice locations in São Paulo anyway, and this hotel had good facilities and was convenient for the airport.
I went back to my own untouched room to dress, and returned a few minutes later to pick up Isabel.
She laughed when she saw me. ‘You look dreadful.’
I looked in the mirror. Dark patches edged with yellow surrounded my eyes. I glanced at Isabel. ‘You don’t exactly look fresh yourself.’
She yawned and stretched. She looked delectable. Tired but delectable.
‘What will they think at the municipal offices?’ I said. ‘Maybe they’ll assume we’ve been up all night working on the project.’
Isabel laughed. ‘They might if they were English. But they’re Brazilian. They’ll assume we had sex all night.’
‘Oh dear.’
Isabel laughed. ‘Don’t worry. It won’t matter. In fact, I think they’ll rather like the idea.’ And she put her arms around me and gave me a long, lingering kiss.
I suspected they could tell, but they didn’t seem to mind. We put in another hard day’s work, but it was fun, and we made good progress. We finished at six, and Isabel and I spent Saturday night in São Paulo in bed, with room service to provide us with sustenance.
To Isabel, a carioca, the prospect of a weekend spent entirely in São Paulo was appalling so she suggested flying to Rio on Sunday morning, and taking the shuttle back to São Paulo first thing on Monday. She would show me the beach, and then we could have dinner with her father.
Initially I was reluctant; I wasn’t sure I wanted to return to a Rio beach. But Isabel promised me that the beach she went to was completely safe, and that we would probably have dinner with her father at the Rio Yacht Club, which had armed guards. I agreed to go, ashamed at my nervousness.
I thought I knew Rio’s beaches, but I didn’t. The Point was a quarter-mile stretch of the Barra de Tijuca, a beach just down the coast from Ipanema. I brought my towel and my book, and a plan that would involve turning my pale body a delicate shade of pink. That wasn’t how it worked.
The beach was crowded, crowded with beautiful brown bodies. All the men had terrific muscular definition, the result of regular workouts, and the women had smooth, tanned soft skin, displayed to great effect by bikinis that revealed almost everything. In Brazil, the buttock was all, and swimming costumes were designed to show them off in all their glory.
Isabel was wearing one of these dental-floss bikinis, and she looked stunning. It was very hard not to stare. In fact it was impossible, so I did.
But the extraordinary thing about the Point was that no one was lying down basking in the sun or reading a book, as people would on a European beach. They were sitting, squatting or standing, and talking. It made quite a racket. I shut my eyes, and the chattering, shrieking and continuous chirruping of mobile phones sounded as though I was in the midst of a crowded café.
Everyone seemed to know Isabel, and they were friendly to me. Despite my absurdly pale skin, I was quickly made to feel at home. There were plenty of bottles of the local beach beer around, and I soon relaxed, mellowed by the friendly charm of carioca hospitality.