Free Collected Stories by Gabriel García Márquez, Gregory Rabassa, J.S. Bernstein

crossed her arms, her elbows still on the counter, and remained looking at the street through the wide restaurant window. She had a melancholy expression. A bored and vulgar melancholy.
    ‘I’ll fix you a good steak,’ José said.
    ‘I still haven’t got any money,’ the woman said.
    ‘You haven’t had any money for threemonths and I always fix you something good,’ José said.
    ‘Today’s different,’ said the woman somberly, still looking out at the street.
    ‘Every day’s the same,’ José said. ‘Every day the clock says six, then you come in and say you’re hungry as a dog and then I fix you something good. The only difference is this: today you didn’t say you were as hungry as a dog but that today is different.’
    ‘And it’s true,’ the woman said. She turned to look at the man, who was at the other end of the counter checking the refrigerator. She examined him for two or three seconds. Then she looked at the clock over the cupboard. It was three minutes after six. ‘It’s true, José. Today is different,’ she said. She let the smoke out and kept on talking with crisp, impassioned words. ‘I didn’t come at six today,that’s why it’s different, José.’
    The man looked at the clock.
    ‘I’ll cut off my arm if that clock is one minute slow,’ he said.
    ‘That’s not it, José. I didn’t come at six o’clock today,’ the woman said.
    ‘It just struck six, queen,’ José said. ‘When you came in it was just finishing.’
    ‘I’ve got a quarter of an hour that says I’ve been here,’ the woman said.
    José went over to where she was.He put his great puffy face up to the woman while he tugged on one of his eyelids with his index finger.
    ‘Blow on me here,’ he said.
    The woman threw her head back. She was serious, annoyed, softened, beautified by a cloud of sadness and fatigue.
    ‘Stop your foolishness, José. You know I haven’t had a drink for six months.’
    ‘Tell it to somebody else,’ he said, ‘not to me. I’ll bet you’ve hada pint or two at least.’
    ‘I had a couple of drinks with a friend,’ she said.
    ‘Oh, now I understand,’ José said.
    ‘There’s nothing to understand,’ the woman said. ‘I’ve been here for a quarter of an hour.’
    The man shrugged his shoulders.
    ‘Well, if that’s the way you want it, you’ve got a quarter of an hour that says you’ve been here,’ he said. ‘After all, what difference does it make, ten minutesthis way, ten minutes that way?’
    ‘It makes a difference, José,’ the woman said. And she stretched her arms over the glass counter with an air of careless abandon. She said: ‘And it isn’t that I wanted it that way; it’s just that I’ve been here for a quarter of an hour.’ She looked at the clock again and corrected herself: ‘What am I saying – it’s been twenty minutes.’
    ‘O.K., queen,’ the mansaid. ‘I’d give you a whole day and the night that goes with it just to see you happy.’
    During all this time José had been moving about behind the counter, changing things, taking something from one place and putting it in another. He was playing his role.
    ‘I want to see you happy,’ he repeated. He stopped suddenly, turning to where the woman was. ‘Do you know that I love you very much?’
    Thewoman looked at him coldly.
    ‘Ye-e-es …? What a discovery, José. Do you think I’d go with you even for a million pesos?’
    ‘I didn’t mean that, queen,’ José said. ‘I repeat, I bet your lunch didn’t agree with you.’
    ‘That’s not why I said it,’ the woman said. And her voice became less indolent. ‘No woman could stand a weight like yours, even for a million pesos.’
    José blushed. He turned his backto the woman and began to dust the bottles on the shelves. He spoke without turning his head.
    ‘You’re unbearable today, queen. I think the best thing is for you to eat your steak and go home to bed.’
    ‘I’m not hungry,’ the woman said. She stayed looking