“How do you know?” he asked, cheeks slightly burning. He hated talking about those things with his friends.
“Vanessa always said you were pretty good,” Asma grimaced, and he did the same.
With Vanessa, he had tried to be what he had been for Alejandra in just that night. His ex always shot him off—no hand necklace, no hard, nothing out of the usual missionary.
“Please, let’s not put Vanessa and sex in the same sentence ever again.”
“Yeah, agree,” Leif interjected.
“Who are you texting to?” Asma asked, staring at Leif, his head bent on the phone. “You’ve been distracted tonight.”
Leif raised his blue eyes to meet hers. He shrugged, “I met a girl and I’m talking to her.”
Watching that interaction had been interesting because if he hadn’t known both of them like the back of his hand, Asma may have looked like she didn’t care. But his friend did a micro expression she always did when she was negatively surprised—she scrunched her nose.
Leif, on the other hand, resumed his texting.
“Who is she?” Callum asked, curious.
“I’ll tell you when I know if she’s the right person,” he just declared, pragmatic as always.
Asma groaned. “It’s horrible being friends with two dudes. Like, you don’t share any tea.”
Callum chuckled.
Maybe that was the push he needed to start to change his life. Accepting to go to Ericeira, it could give his life the meaning he had been searching for years. Going to Ericeira meant more than just meeting Alejandra, it meant escaping London’s grey buildings and meeting rooms and immersing himself in a world he had belonged, and that he had been too long far away from.
20
ALEJANDRA
Sugar, We’re Going Down - Fall Out Boys
It had beena long time since she had watched her brother surf from the beach without joining in. Truthfully, she couldn’t remember the last time something like that had happened. Maybe when she was five and he was ten? Probably. The real reason why she started to surf and made a career out of it was Carlos. Seeing him surf when they were kids, joining his friends in the waves, she had wanted to do it too, to the point of forcing their parents to sign her up for classes because, if not, she would go into the water by herself. A five-year-old with a huge foamy board.
The memory brought a smile to her face as she enjoyed the warm sun of the end of March while watching Carlos catch some waves. She had taken residency at the café in front of the beach, the perfect position to enjoy a café con leche and the new romance books she had downloaded on her Kindle. As much as she loved physical books, with a sling, a Kindle was the more comfortable option available. And since she had devoured so many books in the last month, maybe it was best to buy only the ones she truly loved. She could already see the big library in her living room exploding if she added more books.
As she read, she cursed her mind half the time. Since she mostly read romantasy and contemporary romance, the love interest always had Callum’s face, and she hated herself for it. She had almost caved in, texting him, but again, she had stopped herself. He didn’t need her in his life right now. She wasn’t the bubbly person he had met. She was a sack of self-pity and sadness with an unavailable arm. Maybe she was being overdramatic, as her mother kept reminding her.
“You’ve never had to face something like this, hija. And I understand you are upset, but pull yourself together, because I didn’t raise no quitter,” her mother had declared right before they left to go down to La Barrosa, Chiclana’s main beach with a great surf community, where some of Carlos’ old friends used to surf.
Those words kept repeating in her head. No, she wasn’t a quitter, but her body had apparently quit for her. Or at least, that’s how she felt.
As her brother exited the water, followed by Rubén and Ester, two of his oldest friends, he came up to her, still in his wetsuit and holding his surfboard.
“I’m going to change and grab a coffee,” he announced, and she nodded. She wasn’t going to leave, since she couldn’t even fucking drive.
To be an independent person and suddenly be turned into a dependent one—she wasn’t dealing with it in the best way possible.
After immersing herself in a few more chapters, Carlos arrived with his black hair swept back. He had decided to grow it longer, and it was almost reaching his shoulders. Ester huggedher tightly after changing, and Rubén just nodded to her.
“How did you see us in the water?” Rubén asked. He never passed up the chance to show off, and sometimes Alejandra thought he didn’t realize who she was and what medals she had in her house. He always tried to mansplain surfing to her—which she truly hated—and Alejandra didn’t waste time complimenting him. No matter what she told him, if Carlos didn’t agree with her, her opinion was worthless.
“You were hesitant in a series of waves. You could have caught much more if you weren’t afraid of the walls,” Alejandra admitted, turning off her Kindle and waving at the waitress with her good arm.
“I don’t know if you noticed from here, but the waves weren’t that strong, and I decided to leave them,” Rubén replied, with his usual smugness.
“I saw Ester and Carlos take them perfectly.” Alejandra fake-smiled. “While you clearly fumbled. But hey, you asked formyopinion.”
