Page 114 of That Last Summer

“No, it’s true. With Hugo, not with Adrián, by the way.”

“Adrián?” he asks, confused.

“He and Jaime have been fooling around for weeks.”

“No. Your little friend has been fooling around with Adrián for weeks.”

“But Adrián played along.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah, they went into the boat’s bathroom together. Didn’t that make you suspicious?”

“Well, no. I don’t try to understand Adrián anymore. I prefer to ignore him. I don’t like him very much, you know?”

“And Hugo?”

“I do like Hugo.”

“I know that. I mean, I can’t believe they hooked up and he didn’t tell me. He must be feeling awful, you know Hugo; he must be thinking Jaime is sleeping with both of us and—”

“Don’t worry about him,” Alex interrupts. “Tomorrow I’ll pick him up from the clinic and take him out for a couple beers; I’ll talk to him, and we’ll drag your dearest friend through the mud. Everything’s going to be fine.”

Alex may have been reassured by my confession that there’s nothing between Jaime and me, and what we did have wasn’t serious, but it looks like he still has some resentment.

“What if they’ve fallen in love?”

“Which one?”

“Both.”

“Priscila, not everyone who has sex falls in love. Did you fall in love with those guys you slept with?” he asks, getting close to me.

“Of course not!” How could I, if I’ve never stopped loving him? “What about you?”

“What about me?” He grabs my shirt and pulls me towards him.

“Did you fall in love with any of those women you’ve slept with?”

Did you fall in love with the redhead?I want to ask him. What happened between you two?

His answer is slow to come, and I can’t stand the anticipation.

“No,” he finally says.

Why did you stop loving me then?

We’re very close now, lips almost touching, and I’m dying for them to do so, but when I try to kiss him, he pulls away.

“Wait,” he says, “I just remembered the night—early morning really—when I found Hugo at your parents’ door. I didn’t understand what he was doing there at the time, but now I’m sure he was going to your friend’s room. Maybe they agreed to meet there, or he wanted to wait for him.”

“You mean the day you slept with me for a bet with your friends?”

Alex’s eyes widen in surprise, but his expression becomes impassive seconds later.

“Ah... yes, that day.”

“Did that bet even exist?”