Aaron continued, accusation in his voice, “You hugged me because you thought I wasn’t coming.” His gaze was searching. As if he couldn’t believe or understand what had just happened. “You’ve never hugged me before.”

When Aaron finally spoke, it sounded like a promise. “I’ll earn my four-letter word.”

“Aaron,” I whispered between heavy breaths, “is this real?” I couldn’t believe it; it felt like a dream. Like I would wake up at any moment. “This is as real as it gets. As anything will ever be.” He brushed a kiss against the corner of my lips.”

Aaron pulled both my arms behind my back, securing my wrists with one hand. My back arched. “Look at you, at my mercy. Just where I’ve wanted you all this time.”

“Is that why you don’t have a date already?” I managed to ask him next, feeling the need to sound indifferent and cold. “Because your standards are as high as the sky?” Aaron didn’t miss a beat. “Is that why you have no one to take to that wedding?”

“We make a good team, Catalina.”

And then Aaron started laughing. His head tilted back, and his shoulders shook with laughter. And he was doing it on a stage, in front of all these people and in front of me, as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

“I want your heart, Catalina.” Both of his hands rose to my shoulders, trailing up my neck and cupping my face. “I want it for myself, just how I have given you mine.”

“You let me antagonize you. All this time, you sat there and let me do that. Why?” The question left my lips in a whisper, for him but also for myself. “Because it was all you were willing to give me. And I’d rather have you hating me than not have you at all.”

“How is it possible that it feels like you are breaking my heart, and I haven’t even had you yet?”

“If I were yours, I would not be capable of functioning without touching you.”

My speech was interrupted with each bounce of his body. With each stomp of his long legs, guiding the ball in my sister’s direction. “Aaron Blackford!” “I couldn’t let my girlfriend fall to the floor now, could I?” the bastard said calmly, not sounding one bit out of breath.

Before I could say anything else, Aaron started jogging back. “And remember,” he called in the distance, “all is fair in love and war, bollito.”

“What’s this?” “A granola bar,” he answered without looking at me, typing on his keyboard. “You are hungry. Eat it.” Once unwrapped, I inspected it closely. Homemade. It had to be, judging by the way roasted oats, dried fruits, and nuts were assembled together.

“The highest bid will be yours. Not anyone else’s.”

Taking hold of my hair, Aaron pulled delicately. “Baby.”

“If you want to talk about whatever happened, then we’ll do that. And if you don’t, then we’ll talk about something else. But I want you to relax. Just for a few minutes.”

“Catalina,” Aaron called. And the way he had said it made me turn around and face him. “Come here.” He patted the bed with his hand.

“Are you really here, baby? Or is this my imagination playing tricks on me? I haven’t slept in… I don’t know how many days. Two? Three?”

Another whimper left me, carried away by the breeze coming from the sea. “That sound,” Aaron breathed into my skin. “That sound is driving me goddamn insane.”