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He blinked. Frozen.
“Of course I know,” he whispered, his voice barely audible above the storm outside.
“No. No.” I wiped my tears once more and spun around. Lightning flashed somewhere outside, followed by a deep rumble of thunder that shook the whole house, rattling the windows in their frames. There was a loud bang of a door somewhere upstairs, probably the result of a breeze coming in through one of the open windows. I was too distracted by the sounds of the storm to notice Francisco had moved, his arms wrapping around me tightly. I could hear his breaths, and his body started shaking with mine, tears soaking my bare shoulder.
We stood there for what seemed like an eternity. Tangled in the dark of the night, with occasional flashes of light illuminating our shapes. The cat roamed, swirling in between our legs, rubbing her soft fur on both of us. It felt like stolen time. Like this should have happened years ago when Jazmín was still alive, then ended the moment she was discharged. A fleeting spark, just like thelightning during the storm. This was what was supposed to happen before the storm.
Not now, not during it.
“I think you need to leave,” I said, my voice weak, a sob right on its heels. He recoiled, surprise in his eyes. I needed the space and to figure this out for myself. “Yeah, you need to leave.”
I was resolved.
Finally.
29
FRANCISCO
I was stunned.Too stunned to move. She was standing in front of me, the flashes of light from the storm highlighting her sweet profile, tears streaming down her face.
“Lucía,” I rasped, a knot forming in my throat immediately. I wasn’t going to lose her again, but I needed to respect her wishes. “Please.”
“Why didn’t you fight for me?” she yelled, her voice echoing around the house, louder than the boom of thunder outside. “I get it, Francisco. I understand why. But three years? Three years, and you still never showed up?”
“What would you have wanted me to do, huh? Just show up at the hospital and say hi?” I asked, not expecting an answer. The first year had been so bad, I was barely above water. But then the waves of grief started slowing down and life had gotten a little bit easier to navigate, day after day.
“Yes,” she whispered. “I would have talked to you in a heartbeat if I could.”
Oh god.
“I can’t do this anymore,” she said in between sobs. It was heartbreaking.
I blinked, watching her come undone only a few steps away from me. Her hands were shaking so bad, she clenched her fists and crossed her arms, tucking them against her body.
“Please,” I begged, feeling the sudden urge to get on my knees and fucking plead for this. Plead for her to have me. “I’m coming back, I swear.”
A spine-shuddering sob escaped her throat. The sound was completely heartbreaking and made me weak at the knees. “Leave.”
“Lucía.”
Blink. Blink, blink.
Blink.
She spun on her heel and ran up the stairs, the cat following behind her footsteps. She slammed the door to her room, then another one. And suddenly, the world was deathly quiet.
I walked back to Santiago’s house in the complete dark. Lightning flashed in the sky occasionally, giving it a purple glow. But it wasn’t like the other times when I dreaded the walk, Lucía the light at the end of my black tunnel. Instead, I was walking away from my beacon, leaving her again. For a second time, even after life had given us a second chance. Istood at the edge of the driveway, the jasmine bushes taunting me with their smell and the softness of their flowers. And the deep, dark color of their leaves. That was the first thing I had noticed on the day of the wedding. How strong the smell was compared to what we were used to back in the city. It was almost like everything was enhanced in this town—the colors, the smells, the emotions. Even the cats had softer fur somehow.
My phone started buzzing in my pocket, ping after ping after ping in an interminable succession of annoyance.
Eugenio
we have a problem
answer the phone
right now
