“Whatever you choose, I’m here. There’s no need to meet someone who has never cared enough about you or to make a choice now.You can take your time. It must be…intense, everything you are experiencing.” Alejandra paused, then sighed. “I might have admired him once, but if he’s an asshole, he’s not a legend anymore to me.”
Callum smirked slightly. “You can still look up to him—”
“I told you, I haven’t in a long time since—” she trailed off, then glanced at him again. “I don’t know if you found out in your research about his…problems with drugs?”
Callum frowned and shook his head.
“He was suspended in his late thirties,” she explained. “Not uncommon for athletes to fade, but…in a drug test they found heavy doses of something. I don’t even know what exactly. And after that…” She shrugged. “Rumors. A lot of them. Every time I’ve seen him since, he looks more…gone. Like something inside him is eating him alive.”
Callum’s jaw tightened slightly.
“Well, then it’s best I stay the hell away from him,” he muttered. “I don’t want my mum to meet him again and fall in love with an addict.”
Alejandra tilted her head. “Do you think that’s a possibility? I mean…they’re both in their fifties.”
“She deserves so much more,” Callum said, his voice firm. “But when we spoke in the hospital, she mentioned not being able to love anyone else. And that…” He exhaled, running a hand through his hair, “that worried me. So yeah, one of the reasons I don’t want him anywhere near us is because what if he comes back and breaks her heart again?”
Alejandra nodded slowly, her thumb brushing over his knuckles.
“There’s no rush. No need to decide anything today, or tomorrow. Maybe one day you’ll wake up and want to see him. Maybe you won’t. Just…take your time with it. Let it sit.”
“I’ll do that,” he said, finally locking his phone and slipping it into his pocket. “Thanks.”
“Whatever question you have, I’m here.” She smiled softly. “But for what it’s worth, you look and sound more like your taid than Mick.”
“Do I sound like a grandpa with Alzheimer’s?” he joked.
She bumped her shoulder into his. “Idiot. You know what I mean.”
A beat of silence passed, lighter now.
“So,” he said, shifting slightly in his seat, “this Feria de Abril… should I Google it?”
Alejandra beamed instantly, her bright green eyes lighting up in a way that made his chest tighten.
“No,” she said quickly. “I want you to be surprised. It’s such a unique event. We’ll have so much fun. Have you ever been to Sevilla?”
“Just landed there at the end of August to go to Sofia’s wedding,” he said. “It felt like being in the pits of hell.”
Alejandra laughed, loud and unrestrained. “Well, let’s hope Satan didn’t open the gatesyet.”
“Yet?” he looked at her, horrified. He immediately pulled out his phone and checked the weather app. His face fell.
“I believe the pits of hell opened already,” he declared, showing her the screen with a glaring, unforgiving 34 degrees at the beginning of May.
Alejandra’s grin only widened. “That’s nothing. Anyway, the cure is called rebujito. You’ll love it, cariño.”
He groaned, already sweating just thinking about it, but the way she looked, excited and alive, made him think he might survive anything.
58
ALEJANDRA
I Am Getting Well - Dean Lewis
The pitsof hell had indeed opened in Sevilla already. One of its infamous May heatwaves had rolled in early, coating the city in a thick layer of heat, sweat, and lightheadedness that clung to the skin like a second layer. People in trajes de flamenca wandered the cobbled streets, fanning themselves furiously, their faces shiny beneath wide-brimmed hats and flower crowns. The scent of fried food, orange blossoms, sunscreen, and horse leather lingered in the air like an overwhelming, intoxicating perfume.
“Is it normally this hot in May?” Callum asked, using the abanico she’d given him to fan his flushed face. He looked more like a lost British tourist than usual—sweaty, confused, slightly overwhelmed—as they waited for her parents and Carlos to arrive. They were parking around the corner, just arriving straight from Conil to kill two birds with one stone—see her and enjoy the first Feria de Abril together in a very long time. She hadn’t planned to be there, to join, but after what had happened in Wales, her shoulder needed attention and Doctor Gonzalez had urged her for an x-ray that very same morning. Nothing broken. Her shoulder was recovering. She was fine. Or at least, physically.
