Page 87 of No Greater Oblivion

“I’m making dinner.” He extends his hand to the empty stool beside me. “Either sit and watch or vacate the premises.”

Lyss jabs her finger in his direction. “Are you really letting him invade our kitchen?”

I lean over and take a peek into one of the bags before blowing air between my lips. “He’s making ajiaco.”

Her breath catches. “The soup with all the different potatoes and chicken?”

Alejandro reaches into one of the bags and produces an avocado. “And it’s ripe.”

She squints at him. Slowly, almost painstakingly slow, she eases around the kitchen counter and plops down onto the seat beside me.

Alejandro’s smug smile glimmers with satisfaction.

Doña Ana comes up a little while later to help and I’m cutting up potatoes when I hear the bell ring. Lyss almost goes to get it but I wave her off. “I got it.”

From the bay window in the sitting room, I can see the snow has finally let up and sapphire blue light washes over the streets. The sun will have fully set in another half hour or so but at least some light managed to peak through before the winter darkness swallows us whole.

I half expect it to be Rian. I pray that it is and so I swing the front door open with him in mind.

Except, it isn’t Rian.

Morales holds up a stack of folders and says, “Is Narvaez here? Because he’s going to want to see this.”

21

DO WE KNOW EACH OTHER?

Dahlia

The Past

“Why architecture?”

I glance up from my iPad and watch as he rinses out a few red peppers. Alejandro’s right sleeve starts coming undone and rolls down his forearm so I reach over the kitchen island and push it up again, making sure it’s folded enough times to keep it in place.

“I always liked it.”

“Buildings?”

I nod. “When I was little, there was a picture of a Cathedral in a book I was using for a presentation at school. I thought it was so beautiful and wondered how things like that were made. Everything from palaces to monasteries and old bridges.”

He takes out a knife and a cutting board from one of the drawers. “Just old buildings then? Not modern ones?”

I shake my head. “Modern buildings don’t have the same history or artistry as older ones. When I first started undergrad, I wanted to be a historic preservationist for the city but those jobs are so few and far between. It didn’t seem realistic so I decided to double major in engineering instead.”

“Is that what you want to be now? An engineer?”

“I don’t know what I want anymore.”

Alejandro accepts this answer and doesn’t probe further. I wish he’d keep talking to me—did I unintentionally shut down his attempt at starting a conversation?

The drive to the villa took longer than we thought with all the traffic we encountered. We tried to leave earlier but I was indecisive about what to pack since the weather is changing and I haven’t been to the villa in ages. On the way here, we made a stop in town to buy groceries for the weekend and as soon as we arrived, I did some housekeeping in the bedroom and Alejandro started on dinner. Once I was done changing the sheets and opening all the windows, I joined him in the kitchen with my iPad and continued working on my project.

“What about you?” I ask.

He answers very calmly. “You already know what I do.”

“But if you weren’t doing this. If you could do something else, what would it be?”