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“So.” He looked up and turned to me, a small smile on his face and all traces of his meltdown erased from his expression. “This thing with the plants.” He cocked his head to the side, expectant.
I snorted in response because it wasn’t a thing. Maybe it had been one back then, when I lived with my siblingsduring med school and residency, and it was something we’d talked about a little. If he remembered me, would he be asking about it? “Oh, nothing. I volunteered to water their plants when they were gone, but I didn’t know anyone was staying at their house,” I said dismissively.
“It wasn’t the original plan, you know?” He was looking down to the Monopoly board, moving the cards just so. Like he didn’t care that they would move the moment that box was lifted from the table. “Not sure what changed.”
“Guilty,” I said, lifting my right hand in the air. “I was going to stay there for the summer, but my parents needed me here.”
He nodded, closing the lid to the board game and looking at me, his eyes intent on mine. And then something cracked, and Jacinto laughed, and the moment was gone.
13
FRANCISCO
“This place is called Lighthouse Point,”she said, looking around us.
We were high up in the mountain, a valley visible from our position at the peak. A slow smile started forming on my lips at the irony of a land-locked point in the middle of the country being referred to as a lighthouse, a beacon for ships in the night.
“I can feel you laughing behind me,” she said, her smile evident in the tone she was using. That morning I had woken up earlier than usual, the quiet moments of the small town still taking me by surprise, even after consecutive nights of being alone in that house and moving to a new rhythm. I sat on the living room couch, a favorite spot where I could look outside both the front and back windows and see the movements of the trees beyond the clear glass.
A tall, leggy figure ran past the window, her goldenhair catching up to her as her body moved. I stood abruptly and followed her with my eyes to see her stop at the corner of the street and immediately turn back. For a second, she hesitated, turning her body in opposite directions, her nose scrunched up as her thoughts probably moved inside her brain.
Her hair was longer than the night before and blonder somehow. Wilder. I had only seen her with her hair up at the hospital. A few times it had been tousled, like she had gotten out of bed in a hurry and hadn’t had a chance to fix her ponytail before having to do her middle-of-the-night rounds with the nurses.
I walked to the front door and jerked it open, startling her in the process. She had jogged back the way she had come from, slowing down noticeably once she had reached Santiago’s front door.
“Buen día,” I drawled, my voice still raspy with sleep. Her hand went to her chest, right above her heart. Definitely startled. “What are you doing up so early?”
It was a ballsy move, to be so direct. I left abruptly from her house the night before, uncomfortable with the intimacy of the situation. Of her witnessing my panic during the few seconds of total darkness before the light was back on.
“Ah, good morning.” She smiled, her eyes squinting in an unnatural way, like she was faking it or slapping it on for my benefit. Her hands moved down to the sides of her body, and she clenched her fists. Open, close.Open, close. “Uh, I was going for a run,” she added, her head turning towards her house. She bent her knee, moving her right ankle in circles at the same time. The movement was so natural, like this was muscle memory for her. Back then we never got into such details, choosing instead to talk about minute things and focus on my sister’s well-being instead. Maybe she had been a runner all this time?
“Cool.”Idiot.I cleared my throat and leaned against the door frame. “This early?”
She messed with the hem on her T-shirt with one hand and twirled a lock of her hair in another. “Ah.” She shrugged. “A blessing and a curse, this whole doctor thing. I can fall asleep almost anywhere, but my body is also ready to go the moment it wakes up.”
That explained the messy ponytails on those nights I remembered so vividly.
“Cool.”Ugh.I opened my mouth to say something, both to apologize for the night before and thank her for being so kind to me, but nothing came out.
“Anyway.” She pointed her thumb towards the house behind me. “I was wondering if I could water the plants real quick?” She blinked once, almost in slow motion, long lashes reaching to touch the tops of her cheeks.
“Oh,” I replied like an absolute fool. “Um, sure, yes, yes, of course.”Shut up.
I moved to the side, and she took a few tentative steps into the house. It was completely dark except for a handful of candles on the hearth, remnants from the night before.She eyed them cautiously, walking in a straight line to the back and through the sliding door to the patio. She mumbled something unintelligible and tugged at something under the grill, then stood up abruptly and smiled at the scene. Within a few seconds, her expression was back to neutral, a watering can in one hand, the other one draped over the faucet while she waited for the water to fill up.
She moved quickly, her movements almost featherlight around the house. And I stood like a fool in the middle of the living room, just looking at her. I could have said something, but instead I was dazzled. Stunned into silence by the familiarity of having her around me.
Lucía dropped what she was using back where it belonged, then locked the door to the backyard and turned to me. She opened her mouth to talk, but no words came. So we stood there for a few seconds, looking at each other. I cocked my head, and she shook her head in response, like she was clearing her thoughts.
“Alright,” she drawled. “I’m going to head out.” Her eyes were shining in the faint light of the morning.
“Okay,” I said with a smile on my face like an idiot. “Enjoy your run.”
She smiled in return, a genuine one, I thought, and turned on her heels, taking a few steps before turning back to face me again. “Would you like to join me?” she asked, a frown immediately forming on her expressive face.
And that was how we ended up on the top of this peak,looking out onto the valley with houses scattered all around, at sunrise.
“I’m not laughing,” I said, eyeing her cautiously. She was wearing long, black leggings, and a pair of very colorful shoes. Her top was tight against her slender body, a totally different sight than the many times I’d seen her in those loose pink hospital scrubs. “I just find it od?—”
