She stepped back, instinctively creating distance. Not that it mattered. Ilias Ríos El Idrissi apparently had no respect for personal space.
“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” she said, waving him off. “Thanks for coming, but I’ve got things to do.”
“Are you coming to the comp tomorrow?” he asked, running a hand through his curls.
“I’m going to cheer for Alejandra.”
“You should cheer for me too.” He grinned.
Sofia crossed her arms, planting a barricade between herself and that infuriatingly forward man. Her stomach twisted at the thought of letting any man think she was receptive. She didn’t do flattery, didn’t do charm, and certainly didn’t do games.
“And why would I do that?” She snapped, her voice sharper than she intended, a warning as much to herself as to him.
“Because I’m insanely talented? Ranked second overall? With a damn good chance of winning?” He leaned in again, his grin lazy and confident. “And from Spanish to Spanish, we should support each other. Basic decency.”
“How do you know that?”
“I may have asked around. Isn’t that right?”
Damn it. He has a point.And that only annoyed her more.
“Aren’t you Moroccan?” she asked, trying to grasp from memory what Alejandra had told her.
“Oh, you know who I am, then,” he smirked. “Spanish dad, Moroccan mom,” he said proudly. Then, reaching out and booping her nose—how dare he—added, “Spanish mom, Italian dad. Am I right?”
Sofia swatted his hand away. “Yes—”
“There you are!”
Jamie’s bright, breezy voice sliced through the tension. Her Valley girl accent might’ve grated coming from anyone else, but Sofia needed to like it. A happy Jamie might mean she still hada chance at the sponsorship she’d been chasing since founding Salacia. When first asked, TerraVive hadn’t wanted to sponsor the cleanup, but they’d agreed to send Jamie to supervise, since she was already there for the USL Championship. Maybe, if things went well, they’d finally say yes.
“My dear Ilias! It’s been forever. I gotta hug you,” Jamie purred, arms already wide. She practically launched herself into Ilias’ chest.
Tierra, trágame,she thought, wishing she could disappear.
Ilias smiled, switching to English without a hint of an accent. “Nice to see you too, Jamie.”
“You look great,” she said, squeezing his bicep.
“Been training. Trying to make a comeback,” he replied, his cocky tone still grating on her last nerve. Why this guy bothered her so much, she wasn’t sure, but he was a man. That was enough of a reason.
“And you're killing it.” Then Jamie’s eyes landed on Sofia. Her face lit up. “Doctor Sofia Moretti—my god, it’s such a pleasure to finally meet you face to face. You’re even more beautiful in person. And this is after a beach clean-up? How did it go?”
Jamie pulled her into a hug too. Sofia barely had time to blink at the series of questions thrown her way.
“It was great,” Sofia replied, plastering a fake smile on her face, because imposter syndrome didn’t allow her to have genuinely good feelings about what she had just accomplished. “About 70 volunteers. Collected close to 500 kg of trash. Which is… good and bad.” Sofia paused. “You know, I wish there wasn’t so much trash to pick up.” Her expression turned grim.
“I get it,” Jamie said with a nod, her smile unwavering. She looked every inch the L.A. businesswoman cliché—tan, polished, forty. “But listen, you’ve done… well. Building something injust four months, after everything that happened—that takes resilience. You should be proud of yourself.”
Sotterratemi.Being buried alive felt like a better option than what she was living through. Even though she had been careful not to share the news of her breakup with anyone outside her inner circle, she knew people in the industry loved to gossip. And apparently, Jamie knew something.
An eight-year relationship with one of the richest American kids—and then reinventing herself as a content creator with a million followers—had put her on the radar of online gossip magazines, to her utter annoyance.
Sofia kept her eyes away from Ilias. She didn’t like the way Jamie had paused, like Jamie was pitying her…everything: love, career, business.
Thomas had wrecked it all, and resilience hadn’t been some noble choice; it had been the only option. The alternative was to drown in self-pity forever, and that simply wasn’t possible.
“Thanks,” Sofia said tightly. “Considering that, you should tell TerraVive how amazing sponsoring Salacia would be.”
