Page 105 of Cava with My Colleague

“Okay. We’ll go to Austin. I’ll work my notice, find a replacement, look for positions in Europe.” I pull back to look at him. “But Carlos, if I can’t find anything⁠—”

“You will.”

“But if I don’t⁠—”

“Then we figure out something. But Jade—” His thumbs stroke over my cheeks. “We’re not giving up. Not on this. Not on us.”

“Even if it’s hard?”

“Especially if it’s hard.”

I kiss him, pouring all my fear and love and determination into it.

Saturday we have dinner at Carlos’s son’s apartment. It’s awful. We tell them we’re together and then immediately break the news that I can’t stay.

Fernando’s face falls. Diana reaches across to squeeze my hand. Carmen, oblivious, continues smashing rice on her tray.

“We had our hopes up,” Diana says. “But we support you both doing what you have to do to stay together. We will be here whenever you can visit.”

“We’ll visit as much as we can, I promise,” I tell them.

“We’ll just have to take advantage of every minute we have with you both,” Fernando says. Then he smirks. “We’ll put a guest bed in Carmen’s room so Grandpa can spend every minute with her when he’s visiting.”

Carlos looks at his granddaughter with a fond smile. “A sleepover,” he adds.

She’s so young, and my heart aches. I don’t want her to forget her grandpa.

I have to find a job over here, fast.

“We’ll visit, too,” I say. “We’ll spend Christmas here. And Thanksgiving.”

I get six weeks of PTO. I’ll use every one of them to make Carlos happy.

Plus, I’ll get my friends to come visit us in Madrid. Carlos can spend time with his family while I spend time with mine.

Diana smiles at me as if reading my thoughts. “Your family will be here for you when you come back.”

She means her family. She’s giving them to me.

My throat tightens. “Thank you.”

Carmen chooses that moment to throw her spoon on the floor, demanding attention. Fernando picks it up, hands it back to her, and the moment breaks.

But the promise remains.

Family. Here. Waiting. They love me for who I am, not who they think I should be.

Finally.

Later, back at the apartment, Carlos and I lie in bed, not ready for sleep yet.

“Are you scared?” he asks. He’s on his side, facing me, hand on my cheek.

“Terrified,” I admit. “But I’m going to find something.” I’m determined. I’m not going to tell Carlos this just yet, but if I don’t find anything over here in six months, I’ll take him up on his offer to support us. Hopefully it’ll be temporary. But there are other options—the nonprofit sector, patient advocacy . . . “I don’t want you to lose your home, your family.”

“I won’t.” He pulls me closer. “Jade, home isn’t a place. It’s a person. You’re my home. Madrid, Austin, anywhere—if you’re there, I’m home.”

“That’s very romantic.”