The Future Chosen [was Anti-Dynasty/Extraordinary]

Broken Chapter 11

What's going on. Where would she start?

How did she begin talking about Santiago without making the conversation about his own girlfriend, the beautiful one, the one who wouldn't ruin his family's plans and his own career? It already annoyed her that she woke up feeling like she was in college again, because she had managed to regress right back to that point.

When they were sneaking around, knowing their relationship was going to end.

He didn't want it to, of course. Andres was always planning something, looking for loopholes in the law. He interned and continued to work for a legislator who specialized in Election Law, which should have raised a big red flag for anyone else.

Andres didn't want to break up; she did. She knew she had to make that choice because he was never going to. He was determined to burn his family's dreams to the ground and start a revolution.

They didn't need to do that. So many other things to do.

But somehow they were back again, to whispering promises of loving each other forever, no matter what it meant, against all odds.

The scar on her side was smarting, but the pain was manageable. She welcomed it sometimes, because it reminded her of who she was, who she could be. And it wasn't that teenager in a boarding school, sneaking in and out of rooms with her boyfriend.

"Take me out to the villa again," she told Andres. "We'll talk there."

***

She didn't mean to make things difficult for Andres, but historically, it kept turning out that way.

Back then, security was tighter for her. For him, not so much. He could go out with his buddies, spend weekends away without checking in or having armed guards stand nearby. Andres could disappear for a day or two and he could spin it as research, as "lifelong learning," as "mingling with constituents."

If he wanted to go anywhere with her, it was such a major production.

He always rose to the challenge though.

Even though he hadn't planned it, he was able to get them the villa again that afternoon. It was a cute little beachfront bungalow; decorated like someone was going to live in it, clean as if no one ever had. When he carried her in that first time she remembered the impossible dreams she used to have, and then revised them for this new situation.

A house by the beach. A tiny car. One child, maybe, just one, and nothing would be expected at all from him or her. She or he would be perfection, and get to decide how to live.

That dream was just a few days old, but it was like she'd had it forever.

Andres wanted to talk. She was going to, because she couldn't help it. Talking to him was painful but it also felt like necessary surgery. They had some time before the next appointment on her recovery schedule, and she was going to manage this time if it was all she had left.

She hoisted herself up onto the kitchen counter and pulled him closer, wrapped herself around him.

"I don't have a condom," he said.

"That's unfortunate."

"I was busy. Putting this together out of schedule required some work."

She was already pulling his nurse's scrubs off. "Did you get yourself tested on your birthday?"

"You know I had to."

"Nothing to report?"

He shook his head. "No."

She began to take her shirt off. "I had my birth control shot just a month ago, so I'm clear for another couple of months."

"That answers one question."

Lourdes looked him in the eye. "I know I'm clear. Took the same exams on my birthday. And I haven't had sex with anyone else in a year."

"Just a year?"

"Let's see you do better."

He shook his head, stopped to think. "Ten months ago."

Lourdes sighed and pressed her palm to his chest. The pain this time wasn't coming from her side, but deeper in, and higher up. She knew that this would happen, that one day he wouldn't be completely hers. She knew this when they made love again that first time, and she noticed subtle differences, moves he never did before. He had to have learned that somewhere, maybe someone taught him.

"I win then," she said, trying not to let it sound bitter.

"You'll always win." Andres pressed his mouth against hers and kissed it, that feeling, all away.