Chapter Nine: Entertaining the Staff.

Enric felt discouraged. He had returned to the routine he thought he missed so much, but he had gone three weeks through the Christmas holidays without hearing from her, and that circumstance suffocated him. He wanted nothing more than to work to forget everything else and not think about Patricia. But he longed to see her as much as he feared her rejection. Unintentionally, he was growing fond of the young woman, and by doing nothing about it, she was slowly drifting away from him.

One day, Don Aitor called Enric to his office. Both the young man and his friend thought it was to reprimand him, but they were wrong. Filming of the movie was about to begin, and they wanted Enric to be present.

Without further delay, the following week the sets and green screen were already in place at the company's studios on the outskirts of Madrid. Enric asked to continue working at his post because he didn't think he should waste time on that if he could do more in the other building of the company. It was hard to convince Don Aitor, but he finally succeeded on the condition that he would stop by the studio at least once a week.

That same day, he heard the director say that the group singing the soundtrack disagreed with the contract terms and had refused to sing. He tried to ignore it, but that gut feeling warned him again that he could do something and solve two problems with one move. He took a sheet of paper and wrote down Patricia's phone number.

"Ask this girl," Enric handed them the contact info. "She's sung in New York and although she's Spanish, she's unknown here." He shrugged with feigned cordiality. "You lose nothing by listening to her."

And as he approached them, he walked away.

He left the set and walked more than half a kilometer to the nearest metro stop, heading toward what he felt was his real job—the one he did in the office building, where he did what he knew best: editing stories.

That weekend, he received the call he had been waiting for. The name that appeared on the phone lit up his face. As soon as he answered, a "thank you" and a "sorry" crossed paths. They agreed to meet that same day at the place he knew best, the Buen Retiro Park.

She wore the dress adorned with tights and a knit jacket, both champagne-colored. Her gestures and face didn't seem to indicate she came with good intentions. Enric thought of her as someone defiant, and he wasn't wrong.

"I thought you asked for time, why are you showing up now?"

"I thought I'd never see you again, especially wearing Soraya's dress."

"No dead girlfriend is going to intimidate me, no matter how much the guy I'm interested in loves her!"

"It's terribly hard to say," Enric turned his head and looked at her sideways, "but I liked the Patricia from our other dates, not the resentful girl I have in front of me."

"I'm much more complicated than a simple big girl like everyone thinks I am," Patricia puffed out her chest proudly. "I consider myself brave, not resentful."

Enric looked up; he didn't want to argue again or he'd lose the chance to reconcile with Patricia.

"You didn't have to be bold by showing up today in the dress," Enric tried to choose his words carefully. "I gave it to you so you'd wear it because you look radiant in it," he took a breath, "but you shouldn't speak disparagingly of someone who's no longer here," Enric didn't want Patricia to speak that way about her own sister, "because that is resentment."

Patricia was perplexed; he had dismantled her reasons for being angry with the girl she didn't think she knew.

"Then I don't understand why you want to see me if you asked for time and I gave it to you."

"But not like this. I've been trying to choose the words to explain it to you."

"What do you have to explain to me?"

"I'm sorry I called you by her name, but that argument that was forming reminded me too much of one of the many we had, her and me."

"You argued?"

"As often as any other couple, don't think badly, but she was so stubborn that we ended up shouting until we both ran out of arguments and silence fell."

"That sounds familiar," Patricia looked down, recalling some argument with her sister. "My sisters, both, have always been very stubborn."

"Soraya and I had been living together for almost three years. We argued, she grabbed the car keys and left, then they called me on my cell to go see her at the hospital."

Patricia, surprised, didn't hesitate to comfort him:

"I'm so sorry, really!" She hugged him tightly. "If I had known that's how she passed, I wouldn't have acted the way I did!"

Enric felt overwhelmed, for reliving all that pain for someone they both had lost, even if he was the only one who knew it; and also relieved, for being able to tell someone, even if it was Patricia.

"Don't worry, I'm fine," Enric smiled confidently.

"But why did it take you so long to tell me?" Patricia pulled back a bit to look him in the face.

"I've never been one to express complex feelings," Enric raised his eyebrows in goodwill. "I prefer to keep them inside."

They both fell silent. They looked at the ground, embraced and thoughtful.

"I'm sorry I was so harsh with her without knowing her," Patricia bit her lower lip slightly and with a shy smile looked at him again. "I guess you loved her deeply."

"Yes," Enric was honest. "I even told her I wouldn't survive to miss her!" He stepped away from her without letting go of her hands. "And look at me, until now I haven't been able to tell anyone."

The girl hugged him again. If until then she was aware that she liked Enric, now she was starting to love him.

"I hope I'm not being inappropriate if I say I hope you'll tell me that someday."

She gently took his face and looked at him tenderly. She kissed him on the forehead and cheeks very slowly. She looked into his eyes; they were so close that their heartbeats began to beat in unison. Enric showed pain on his face, that soul-deep pain that only comes out if someone manages to draw it from the depths of your heart. And then Patricia kissed him lightly on the lips, like you kiss babies when they're asleep in their cribs. She hugged him again and said: