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pt. 1 Ch. 2

I accidentally dumped a tray of coffee drinks on him in Spain when I saw him a third time after tripping over a tourist’s backpack. I was working for Catalina, another friend of my dad, at her little cafe where the tables had simply spilled into the street for lack of space inside. I didn’t even realize that it was him I had fallen into until after I began my string of apologies and tried to clean up the mess as quickly as I could. When I saw his face, my whole world froze and he smiled at me, insisting that no harm had been done.

So there I was, again unable to speak, his hand holding mine and helping me to my feet. I was so sure that I would fall over again that I couldn’t move until he had gone and the cafe noise resumed around me. I felt like an island in the middle of a rough sea threatening to drown me with the volume of their requests.

I thought I might be fired when Catalina took over but instead I was given a cup of tea and a break to collect myself. According to her, there was no need to apologize for getting flustered by what had happened, especially when it was all over someone so handsome. She didn’t know who it was at that exact moment but she nearly spit wine on me when I told her over dinner that night.

Since I began living with her close to a month ago, we had grown pretty close and shared a lot of things only my best friends knew about. I told her about the curly-haired guy I saw in Australia over dinner a few nights before the accident and she was more than enthralled. She even went so far as to tell me that she would help me find a Spanish boy to drool over so we could send pictures to my very worried father.

~

Catalina and my coworkers decided to take me to a club on the last Friday night before Christmas. They would leave for their family homes the following week and I was headed to Barcelona with Catalina to spend Christmas with her family so that was our last chance to celebrate together for a while.

They put me in a borrowed glittering dress that reminded me of a disco ball and made my every move send flashes of refracted light in all directions. To compensate for the shortness of the dress and its low cut across my chest, I took the time to straighten my hair so that it fell over my shoulders like a dark sheet and pulled on a pair of black tights that made me feel less exposed though my dress was still too short in my opinion.

The club they took me to was a barrage on the senses. Darkness cloaked the mass of bodies that moved in time with the pounding music. The only time they were illuminated was when one of the many multi-colored lights moved over them like searchlights on an ocean during a hurricane. I wasn’t completely comfortable with the seemingly impenetrable wall of bodies at first but I was provided liquid courage that made everything more appealing.

He appeared after a couple of hours of us being there, as though by some magical force, walking toward my small group parting the crowd like some kind of untouchable prince. I tried not to let him freeze me again but as soon as our eyes met, it was over.

He smiled and waved a “hello” to the group before kissing my cheek in the traditional Spanish greeting and saying “It’s nice to run into you again,” in my ear. His words melted me as if they were hot water on ice.

After he bought me a drink and we sort of shouted pleasantries at each other over the music, he invited me to dance. I wasn’t sure about it at first because I had lost myself every time I was around him but he smiled and I agreed without another hesitation as if he had me under some kind of spell.

When I looked at him as we danced, the rest of the club disappeared. We could have been in the middle of the crowd but I would have only seen him. I was hypnotized by every move he made until my coworkers were ready to leave for the night and brought me back from my cliched daze.

He walked me outside like a gentleman and we lingered while my coworkers called a cab big enough for all of us.

“I had a great time tonight,” he said smoothly, his voice like piano music.

I smiled. “If I were staying, I’d say we should do it again.”

“More traveling to do, eh?”

“My goal is to be in Venice for Carnival. It’s going to be tricky but I think I can sell some photography in Barcelona,” I spouted without thinking about how dangerous it might be to tell a complete stranger my travel plans.

He smiled at me before nodding to the arriving cab. “There’s your ride.”

On a whim, I stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek, catching him off guard for just a moment before running to catch the cab. We didn’t say good-bye, but I caught the look of surprise on his face just before the cab drove away.

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