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“What’s up?” Valentina asked. The question startled mebecause I was focusing so much on trying to find him, I didn’t see it coming. But that was Valentina in a nutshell. I never saw her coming, and she could read me from a mile away. “Who are you looking for?”
“A nadie,”I said a little too fast, which earned me a look. She lifted her eyebrows and shook her head.
“Aha,” she drawled, the expression coming out of her mouth quickly, following my eyesight right to the crowd surrounding Santiago. He was being thrown in the air by his friends. Some of them I recognized, and others I assumed were either colleagues or newer acquaintances. Victoria was looking up at the action from the floor, Catalina hanging off of one shoulder, laughing wildly at the scene. “Who is he?”
“Valen.”
She gave me the side eye. “I also have my secrets,” she said, turning her body towards me. “So I’m going to let you have yours.” She lifted her hair and fanned the back of her neck with her free hand. She wasn’t looking at me, and I appreciated the space, but I knew that I couldn’t get away with much more of this. This thing I was doing, hiding my grief, trying to get over it but not working to get rid of it.
“Let’s go dance,” I said loudly, grabbing her by the hand and dragging her back to where we’d come from minutes before. And she let it go like she always did and didn’t ask me about it again.
The night ended up going by in a flash. It wasn’t my wedding, but brides always talked about how fast it went by, how it was all a blur of emotions and people and happiness.That was how it felt for me too. And suddenly, the sun was rising behind the tree tops, the crowds had thinned, and waiters were walking around the tent carrying trays of food.
Jacinto was standing on top of the bar, laughing loudly and throwing candy onto a small crowd that was hyping him up from below. Martina was slumped on a chair with her lids closed and a huge smile on her face.
Santiago and Victoria were still around, saying their last goodbyes to friends and family by the entrance to the tent, each of them with a bottle of water in one hand and sleepy grins on their faces.
Everyone looked happy.
“Hi,” someone said to my right, draping a large arm around my shoulders. “Did you have fun?” My brother Charlie was standing next to me, the weight of his body hanging on my back. His hair was tousled, and he felt damp.
“Qué asco,” I said, scrunching up my nose and looking towards him with more attention. His shirt was stuck to his body with sweat after what I hoped was a night of a lot of dancing. “You’re all sweaty.”
He laughed. Laughed. Then, with a big grin on his face, said, “I had a good time.”
I beamed up at him. “It was a good party, I agree.”
We both stood there, looking out at our siblings and our family. And a sense of relief ran through me because the day was over, and it was time to start the countdown again.
9
FRANCISCO
The wedding was a hit.Objectively. Everyone was having fun, drinks were going around, and the food was good.
But subjectively, it was boring. I didn’t know a soul save for Victoria and Santiago, who were preoccupied with their things. So throughout the evening, I spoke to a few people I recognized from the previous days around town, stopped by to make small talk with Santiago’s parents, and then found a spot in a back corner where I doom scrolled my phone for hours until it finally felt like I could leave without being noticed. By then I had enough insights on how the party went so that I would be able to participate in conversations in the next few days before everyone left town for their respective trips.
I could have turned it on and done everything my father always taught me, but it was exhausting, and it wasn’t theday to do so. To do anything that remotely reminded me of him on such an important date tome. Having to beonall the time, having to be perfect and exactly what everyone always needed of me. The small talk, the million and one questions about people’s lives, the smiles. God, I hated all the stiff smiling.
Because that was how I grew up. I grew up being “the child of” and never a person for myself. And for the past few years, I’d been trying to distance myself from that and be my own normal self.
Hence the extended vacation in this small town where no one knew me. A moment to step away from that chaotic life and pause. To gain back my bearings and see where I would go next. It seemed to have worked for Santiago years ago, when he took a break from work and decided that he wanted to stay in this town.
The day after the wedding, I had roamed around town at dawn, the silence following me while I explored the little corners of this place, looking to see if the answers I needed were hiding somewhere. It was a sleepy town, set awake once the sun was shining way up in the sky. But today was a completely different thing.
The town was buzzing with energy, probably because it was only a handful of hours until the end of the year, and everyone had something to talk about. Both the wedding and the new year that was approaching. Like it would magically turn a new leaf over, and anything that had happened this year would stay here.
The silence of the early morning had woken me up, the colors of the sky already changing from the cool purples and blues of dawn to bright oranges and reds. I put on my running clothes and headed out of the house, heading in the opposite direction to the town square, where Santiago had mentioned there were a few hiking and running trails. It was breathtaking, nothing like I had seen before, running under thick, lush trees. The heat wasn’t bad, despite the intense drought brought on by the season. The shade under the trees even had a refreshing feel to it.
That was exactly what it was—refreshing. Like a welcome breath of fresh air. I rolled my eyes at my thoughts and decided to head back to the house, knowing that Santiago and Victoria would be back from their few nights staying at the hotel and would be packing and getting ready to go on their honeymoon.
I took a quick shower and headed to the back patio, then took a seat on the small couch facing the yard. Victoria was already sitting there, a mug in her hand and a tablet placed precariously on her leg. From what I could see, she was going over a case file, but I couldn’t make out any of the finer print on the document.
“You’re working?” I asked, laughing a little at the scene. Her new husband was probably inside, running around packing and getting ready to leave, and she was sitting here, working. She lifted her head and curled one side of her mouth as she took a sip of her coffee.
“I’m just reviewing something to send to Charlie, and then I’m done.”
I nodded. Victoria had left her big corporate attorney job in the city once she moved to Tres Fuegos and had fit perfectly into her in-laws’ firm. She looked happy.
