Page 121 of That Last Summer

“Don’t worry about that. When you get there, find a hotel downtown and book us a room. I’ll meet you there as soon as I can.”

“Adri, I have to go.”

“Pris...”

“Don’t tell him, please.”

“Pris—”

“I love you.”

“I’ll see you soon. Call me from the hotel. Do you know my number?”

“Yeah.”

“Spell it out to me.”

She recited it from memory.

“Okay.”

“Adri, I’m scared.”

“Do what I just told you and everything will be fine. Go straight to the hotel and wait for me there. It’ll be just a few hours, I promise. I’m not going to move from here, I’m going to buy a ticket for the next flight. If I have to charter an entire fucking plane, I’ll do it, I’ll do anything, but I’ll be with you in a few hours.”

“Okay.”

“I love you, Pris.”

“I love you too.”

Priscila leaned her forehead against the partition and her brother did the same, and they felt each other despite the glass—streaked with Priscila’s tears—separating them. Then, she moved away, her heart broken into a thousand pieces, and checked the time.

“I really need to go.”

Adrián nodded.

“Goodbye.”

Priscila made a beeline for her flight. The summer was almost over, but there were no songs. No colors either. Only the memory of the blue sky she left behind that day, beautiful and bright, even if all she saw was dark. Black, like her heart, her mood and her soul.

Shall we make it... darts?

Iopen the gate to Alex’s house and walk out onto the road. He wasn’t next to me when I woke, but I know his routines by heart. I know where to find him. I cross the road wearing only his T-shirt, glancing around to be sure nobody can see, but this is a quiet neighborhood. There’s no one in sight.

I reach the small wall on the other side of the street and look over to confirm. As I suspected, Alex is training on the beach.

I sit and watch him as I sip my coffee, thinking about what’s happened over the past two weeks—the time we’ve spent together and the very few times I’ve gone home at night, even if this thing I have with Alex is nothing more than no-strings sex. I haven’t even stopped to reflect on it. I accepted his proposal, and I haven’t thought about it again; nor have I argued with my head about whether the decision was right or wrong, considering how I feel about him. I’m just enjoying the moment, going with my heart. And when it’s over... No. I’m not letting myself think about that. Because I don’t know if I want it to end. I think life is giving us a second chance, and I’m not going to turn my back on it.

When I see him get up after his thirty sit-ups—yes, I counted—and take the stairs that will bring him back home, I lift my butt off the wall and head to the driveway to wait for him.

I step onto the lawn with my bare feet, but the grass is so short that it itches and tickles my soles. I move to stand on the stone path leading to the door; it’s still cool but beginning to warm under the force of the sun. I wait for him there, my back against the fence, legs crossed, cup of coffee in my hands.

“You still here?” he asks as he walks past me.

We make love every night, and every night Alex falls asleep cuddled against my body, but hours later he likes to pretend he didn’t. He likes to act detached. I’m playing along, for now.

“No.” I follow him to the swimming pool, closing the gate behind me. “I went home and came back to have breakfast with you.”