I can’t help smiling. Mom surprised us with a three-week travel itinerary through Central and South America. Alicia and I were over the moon. The idea of three weeks away, just the three of us, feels like hitting a reset button on everything.
When I mentioned the trip to Dalila, she made me promise I wouldn’t get with anyone while I was traveling. I promised without even thinking about it. We might not be officially dating, but I’m not the kind of guy who goes around kissing more than one girl at a time.
“Everything’s already set,” Mom says. “We just have to pack, and on Tuesday we leave for Panama City.”
“I’m not gonna lie—I’m dying of jealousy,” Uncle Mark says, sounding disappointed. “But duty calls. I’ll be in New Jersey for a month helping a friend with his business.”
Mom reaches out and squeezes his hand. “Next time, we’ll plan something when you’re free.”
“For sure. I need to renew my tan, this city makes me too pale.”
They keep talking, but a ping from my phone pulls my attention.
I catch myself grinning like an idiot when I see Dalila’s text:Are you up?
I reply yeah and tell her to give me a minute.
I tell everyone I’m heading to my room, kiss each of them, and go upstairs. At the top of the stairs, another message comes through. A selfie. I open it.
Dalila’s lying on her bed, hair spread around her like a halo, wearing the same white dress she had under her graduation gown. I try not to notice the way the neckline dips or how her curves look more gorgeous from the angle she chose.
I fail.
But then I look at her face, her shy smile, the one that only ever appears when she’s talking to me. And I feel something changing in me.
Smiling, I push open my bedroom door and type back:
Me:I’m all yours now.
Alexander
I silence the alarm the second it starts ringing and sit up in bed.
5:30 a.m.
Which means it’s eleven twenty at night in New York. I glance toward the window, the first thin line of morning easing into the sky.
I didn’t stop thinking about Cecilia yesterday, nothing unusual in that, but I kept replaying the sound of her voice from the moment she answered my call and wondering how things went.
Before I can rethink it, my thumbs are already moving.
Me:I hope everything went well at the graduation.
I set the phone on the nightstand and push myself up with a sigh, dragging a hand over my face. She’s probably asleep by now... or busy celebrating with the kids... Or with the kids—and thatcoglione[XXVIII].
My jaw tightens involuntarily. Just the thought of him near her twists a tight knot in my chest.
I’m halfway to the bathroom when I hear my phone vibrate. Moving faster than my half-asleep body wants to, I take it from the nightstand.
Cecilia:Everything went well, we just got home not long ago. It was a beautiful ceremony. What are you doing awake so early on a Saturday?
A heat spreads through my chest, pulling a smile from me in the way only she can.
I think for a moment, then type quickly.
Me:Can I call you?
She sees the message but doesn’t reply. I don’t have to wait long; my phone vibrates in my hand with her incoming call.
