It's difficult to find the way everything fits into place once it's broken, even if a surgeon gives you a pretty significant first push. Alexia's recovery is progressing with hope. Her knee is responding well to rehabilitation, but she doesn't feel...
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Mía's POV
A week later.
"I think you've made the right decision," Irene said as she put both her hands in her pockets when my body reached hers, still a bit numb from what had just happened. I also felt cold, very cold, and far away from everything that had made me happy in these past few months. Without Alexia, without Barcelona.
I wiped away a tear that had escaped from my left eye and sniffled to avoid looking like a snotty little girl due to crying and the cold. Irene pursed her lips. We walked in silence, slowly, towards the parking lot.
"I guess so," I shrugged.
"You can always come back, right?"
The sidewalk ended, and my sneakers started to wear out their soles against the asphalt, navigating through barriers and bollards that marked the areas where cars could pass. Irene took out her phone and held it to her ear. I knew she wouldn't stop paying attention to me just because she was calling a taxi, so I continued talking.
"They always say that," I said with a half-hearted smile. "That they'll be happy to see me again, that they were very pleased with my performance, what a shame I have to leave," I crossed my arms, hoping to keep warm between my down jacket and my gray sweater. "But at some point, someone else will take my place, and with that job in their hands, they won't let it go. They won't remember me anymore."
"Don't say that," Irene scolded. "Yes, hello."
I disconnected from Irene for the few seconds it would take to get us transportation and summoned the courage to look at my phone's screen. Alexia had sent me another message a few hours ago.
Alexia:
I am at your place.
You're not here, or you don't want to open the door?
Okay
I couldn't say I was particularly eager to respond. I didn't know what to say, what to do, or even how I felt, and yet I had made one of the most important decisions of my life. Probably that's why I was trembling.
"Alexia?" Irene asked, approaching me again, now with her phone in her pocket.
I leaned against one of the traffic signs and put my phone away too. I nodded in response to her question and looked at the horizon of the road, which at any moment would show me a black car with yellow doors where I could finally relax a bit after everything that had happened.
"She went to my house yesterday, again," I explained, knowing I had spent the night at her place. "She thinks I didn't want to open the door."
Irene sighed.
"I understand all that confusion, not knowing how you feel or what to say. But you can't leave her hanging while you think it over. Knowing her, she'll be thinking the worst."
"I know," I said, rubbing my eyes with my hands, trying to focus. "At least now that I've made this decision, it'll be easier."
"We could stop by hers and, at least, tell her how the situation is and that you don't hate her," my friend suggested. "I really understand you, darling, but this doesn't seem right to me anymore."
Her words faded when our car pulled up on our side of the street. She gave me one last warning look, one that clearly told me she wasn't just suggesting our next move, but that as I was circling the vehicle to enter from the opposite side, Irene was already giving the driver the address where she intended to drop me off.
For that reason, it was also a silent trip. Nerves ate at me. I hadn't had the nerve to talk to her, to confront her decision, to have a serious, heated argument without having at least something under my control, something that would tilt the balance in my favor.
Alexia had everything in her hands. She made the decision, she decided to leave or stay based on her own thinking, and she was too stubborn to consider a different one. I had quit my job, I had made the decision, and even though that would greatly escalate the dispute with the blonde and the disdain in her eyes, it gave me the power to stay in that car, with my nails digging into the leather seats. How could I look at Alexia now after ignoring her for days just because I hadn't had the necessary courage?
When the buildings began to remind me of Alexia's, I felt myself grow pale. I sought comfort in my friend, who raised her eyebrows to let me know that there was no escape.
The taxi stopped, and Irene placed her card on the driver's payment terminal, bidding farewell with a friendly smile. We both opened the door at the same time, and my friend watched me from a prudent distance as I approached the door and rang the bell.
I waited for a few seconds before making the creaking sound resonate throughout the house once again. I waited for a few minutes, arms crossed and a furrowed brow. I turned to my friend, who was looking at me the same way.
Alexia:
I am at your place.
You're not here, or you don't want to open the door?
Okay
Mía:
I'm at your door. Please open
My brow furrowed a few more centimeters as I saw only a tick mark in the messages. Irene, now leaning over the screen, crossed her arms, deep in thought.
"That's strange," she said, looking up, as if the gesture would help her think more clearly. "She hasn't blocked you, has she?"
"Of course not!" I discarded that idea immediately. Irene raised an eyebrow and pursed her lips. "Right?"
"It's strange, Mía," she said, taking my hands.
"I'm going to call her mom," I said, taking out my phone again. It almost slipped from my hand between my trembling fingers.
One tone, two tones...
"Mía! Darling! How are you?"
"Hello, Eli. Sorry to bother you, but do you know anything about Alexia?"
There were a few seconds of silence.
"She should be landing in London. Are you worried because she didn't tell you she had arrived yet? Don't worry, sweetheart. You know how absent-minded she can be when she's excited. Her flight might have been delayed. Just relax, and I'm sure she'll contact you soon."
"You're right, Eli. Thank you very much, and I'm sorry."
I feigned calm and even let out a little laugh in the farewell. I let the phone drop along with my hand to my side and blinked a couple of times, trying to process.
"And?"
"Alexia hasn't blocked me. Alexia is on a plane," I repeated, and Irene widened her eyes, realizing what it meant, that she had made the exact same decision as me, that she was trying to tilt the balance.
