TRYING NOT TO LOVE YOU

~Twentieth Part~

I spent the night in Jorge's apartment. The alarm woke me up at 7:30am, and when I saw the empty side of the bed, I immediately jumped out of the bed, wear jeans, a shirt and Jorge's sweater and drove home with his Seat.
"I'm home!" I called as I walked through the door of our house. "It's exactly the right time to join us on breakfast," Gloria said to me as she walked downstairs. "Great, I am starved," I say when I wash my hands and sit at the table. "Did Jorge have called you already?" dad asks me. I shake with my head: "Not yet. I think they will land in an hour."
"Did you have fun yesterday?" mum asks. I look at her and I feel the heat all over my body. Gloria begins to laugh: "Sara, she's not asking you about your sexual pleasures."
Dad and mum start laughing too. "What? I know that," I said and bite into a piece of bread with a pâté. "Are you sure? You're red as a beetroot," sister continues laughing. "I am wondering if you two had a good time at lunch," mum says and I can see that she also has a slightly red cheeks.
"Yeah, it was great. Jorge was a little afraid of that how you would accept him," I confess. "He's a great guy. It was not really nice what he did to you years ago, but you're old enough to make decisions," dad says and caresses my hand. I just nod in reply.
"Gloria, please help mum to clean the table. I have to pack it," I say and when my sister nods, I go to my room. I check the weather forecast on the Internet and it says that it's going to be a warm and sunny for the whole week.
"Sara, how far are you?" my sister asks at the door of the room. "I am closing the suitcase right now," I smiled at her. "We have everything in the car already, so if you can, I can take yours, too," she said when she embraced me. "Uh, you haven't embraced me for a long time," I say, sitting on the bed.
"Are you sure you want to spend some days in Marc's company?" she asked. "Yeah," I answer shortly. "Aren't you afraid to return your feelings?" she asks again. "No, I am not afraid. My feelings to him are still here, you know," I say sadly. "Girls, it's time to go!" dad called. "If you need a conversation, I'll be there," Gloria said and embraced me once again. "Thank you," I kiss her on the cheek, then we go to the car.
"Do you have everything?" dad asks when we all sit in a car. "Yes, no worries," mum replied and we nod. "Okay than, let's go."
We are driving for about half an hour when I receive a message:

Jorge <3
Hi, my love. We just landed. The flight was calm and pleasant. I can't stop thinking of you, I miss you immeasurably, even if past only a few hours.
How are you?
I love you <3 <3 <3 <3

When I read the message, I smile and answer him immediately:

Me
Hey <3
I'm glad that everything was fine. I am thinking of you all the time and I miss you already. You don't know  how sucks waking up in your apartment and in your bed without you :(
We are just driving to the lake.
I love you too <3 <3 <3 <3

I put my phone in my lap and I look through the window. Yeah, I really miss him. For a moment, I close my eyes when the phone beeps again. I toke a quick look at what he wrote.

Jorge <3
It's our apartment and our bed, you forgot? ;) <3
Owh, I envy you so much :( 
Greet everyone and enjoy. I'll call you later, okay? <33

Me
Ooops! I forgot :P <3
Thanks for the greeting. Can't wait to hear you <3333

Soon we arrive to the lake.
Grandpa and uncle are already on the pier and they are fishing. Dad joins them immediately. I go to the house where the smell of freshly-cooked coffee greets me. "Hello, auntie," I call, putting down my suitcase in the hallway. "Hi, sweetheart. You finally came," she said, embracing me.
"Have you been here for a long time?" I ask. "About an hour," she said and looked out of the window. "Grandpa and Julia are talking about fishing all the way to here. Just look at them," she laughs. "Yeah, even my dad already joined them," I laugh too. Mum and Gloria join us. "Where are Marc and Alex?" Gloria asks. "Marc is in the room and Alex went for a run. They have a little fight earlier in the morning," aunt snickers. "Oh, boys," mum laughs and continues: "Will we start preparing the lunch, Roser?"
"I'm going to see how's fishing," Gloria said and disappeared from the kitchen. We all laugh, because we know she doesn't like cooking. "Do you need any help?" I ask. "No, thanks. We can do it ourselves," aunt thanks. "Okay, then I am going to unpack," I smiled at them, then I went to the first floor.
I walk to the room at the end of the hallway and open the door. "Hello," I say and walk in. "Oh, hey," Marc replies. "It's great that we're back here again after a long time, right?" I say and sit on my bed. "I guess," he shrugged. He's lying on his bed and looking at the ceiling. "Do you remember that we spent almost the whole summer here when we were small?" I ask him. "Fleetingly," he replied shortly again. I nod and decide not to talk to him again.
It's probably weird to you that we're in the same room, right? Let me explain. We were inseparable in the childhood and so we shared the room.
"How is Jorge?" he asked me. "They landed about half an hour ago. They had a nice flight and he'll call me in the evening," I explain. He nods.
"If you want I can go to Alex's room, and Gloria can come here," he said afterwards. "No, I think it's going to be great. Unless you two want to be alone?" I said.
"You two?" he asked and sat upright. "You and Ruby."
"Ah. Ruby won't come."
My eyes almost popped out of their heads. What did he say? She won't come? Well, that's wonderful!
"Uh... I'm sorry," I lied. "Don't be."
"Is something wrong?"
"No. She needed to go to Milan."
I nod.
"You know what, I am going to swim a bit," I say and open the suitcase. "Okay," he said absent-minded. I pull my (and Marc's) favorite bikini out of my suitcase and throw it on my bed. "Are you going to change here?" Marc asks. "Do you mind? When we were small, we always changed over to each other," I wink at him. No, we don't! I decided to check how much he remembered. "You're kidding, right? I've never undressed myself in front of you," Marc shouts and laughs.
Oh, if you knew you were. Not only undress yourself... what else you did with me. I close my eyes and when I think about our sex, I bite my lip.
"Sara, are you all right?" he asks me and steps to me. "What?" I ask and quickly open my eyes. He's standing in front of me and stares at me. I laugh: "I am great," then I grab my bikini and go to the bathroom where I change.
I return to the room wearing only a bikini. Marc is lying on the bed again and staring into the ceiling. "Are you waiting for the ceiling to pour on you?" I ask him while I plait my hair. At that moment he turns and looks at me. Well, he doesn't look me in the eyes, but in the lower part of the stomach, on the edge of the lower part of the bikini where I have a tattoo.
"Since when do you have a tattoo?" he asked me and lifts up. "Em... since my eighteenth birthday," I said. "I can't believe. You really did wrote this," he said, surprised. I nod: "You remember this?"
"Yeah. We sat on the pier when you said that you would once have had a tattoo in memory of us," he smiles.
"You and me forever," we both say at the same time. He remembers it! Oh, the love of my life.
"It suits you, you know," he said al looked me in the eyes. "Thank you," I reply and blush. "Well, are you joining me?" I ask him when he firmly shakes with his head: "No, you know I don't like swimming in the lake."
"Oh, you remember that, too," I say, when he nervously scratch his head: "Yeah. I told you I would slowly remember everything." I nod, then I take the towel out of the closet and walk to the door: "Get yourself out of there," I say and leave.
Obviously, his memory is coming back. I wonder when he'll remember that we were a couple not a long time ago.
As I walk along the lawn to the pier, I turn to the window of our room and I see that he is watching me. I wave to him, when he waves me back. "Have you already caught something?" I ask my dad, uncle and grandpa.
"Today is not our lucky day," grandpa replies and throws a fish hook back into the water. I laugh at them, then I go to the end of the pier, where I put down the towel and jump into the water.
"How is it?!" my uncle asks me. "Pleasant!" I call back, then I swim away from them.
I enjoy a lot of time in the water, then I decide that it's time to dry, so I climb back to the pier where Alex is waiting for me.
"You're very brave," he said as he gives me a towel. "It's not c-cold," I tremble. Oh, it is.
"Can I talk to you?" he asks. "Of course," I say and we sit down, so that our feet dangle over the surface of the water. "I have a fight with Marc," he said, looking somewhere distant. "Yeah, I noticed that he's not in a good mood. What happened?"
"Mah... nothing special," he shrugs, "I really don't know what was the reason."
"Maybe he's in a bad mood because Ruby won't come here," I say and he laughs: "Believe me, that's the smallest problem."
"Is there something wrong between them?"
"He should tell you this. Invite him for a walk and ask him."
"He doesn't want to get out of the room. I am afraid that he'll spend the whole week in."
"I think he's angry because he's on bad terms with you."
I shrug with my shoulders: "I don't see the reason why he'd argue with you."
"Yesterday he heard me when I say that you're not my cousin."
"And?" I ask quickly.
"Nothing. I told him that it was just a joke."
"Oh, Alex. He didn't believe you, right?"
He shakes with his head.
"Okay, I'll talk to him," I say and stand up.
"Sorry," he said and stood up too.
"Don't worry. It's hard to him, you know. It must be terrible when you don't remember anything."
"Yeah... about that..."
Ha, I got you!!
"Am I wrong?"
"He's already remembering everything from childhood. He remembers your first kiss."
"Really?"
He nods: "Yeah. He said that he don't understand why his first kiss happened with his cousin. But... he liked it. He said that he feels strange when he's with you."
"Strange?"
"Mhm. His heart beat fast, he wants to hug you..."
"What did he say about Jorge?"
"He hopes you're happy with him."
I look on the ground and I am quiet.
"Thank you, Alex," I say a minute after that and hug him: "I promise I'll talk to him."
"Okay, okay. There's no rush," he said and smiled, "you should go now and make sure you don't get cold."
I walk wrapped in a towel past the "fishermen".
"Sara, are you insane?!" my mum shouts when she sees mi in bikini. "No, why?" I reply and step onto the first step.
"Roser, please pour water for the tea!" she calls to my aunt to the kitchen. "You'll catch a cold. Get yourself dressed, then come to hot tea," she said and chases me upstairs.
When I get into the room, Marc is not there.
I quickly take off the wet bikini and let down my hair, when the door opens. I turn around and see Marc with the bottom part wrapped in a towel. He stands at the door and stares at me. I would like to run in his embrace, stroke his muscles and feel his skin on mine.
"S-sorry," he stutters and turns away.
"There's nothing," I say and smile. I see that he smiles too.
"Wrap yourself in the towel, please," he said.
"Okay, I am," I lied, when he turns back to me: "You liar!" he laughs when he sees that I am still naked.
"It's not like that," I say when I take his sweater of his bed and wear it. "Better?" I ask and he smiles: "Much better."
"What's wrong? Will you say I don't have a good figure?" I ask him and before he could answer, I continue: "Enough big boobs? Shaved legs? Flat stomach?"
He rolls with his eyes and laughs: "Calm down, Sara. You're okay."
"Okay?!" I ask him surprisingly, when he nods. How dare you!?
"Well, you're average, also," I say when I look at him from head to toe. It doesn't hurt him, he just shrugs with his shoulders.
"Does Ruby have bigger boobs than me?" I ask him. This time, his face become serious. Oh-oh.
"I don't want to talk about her," he said, taking the purple boxers out of his closet and wear them. When he has them dressed, he removes the towel. I smile. You shyer.
"Okay, I am sorry," I apologize.
"Can I get my sweater back?" he asks.
At the same moment, I want to take it off, when he stops me: "Slow down, you have nothing below."
For the first time after a long time he is standing dangerously close to me. In my head, there rolls a film, how we throw ourselves on the bed, and how we make love until we both get tired. Back to reality, Sara.
"Okay, I am going to take a shower and I bring you a sweater back," I say then I move past him so that I'm brushing through his crotch with my butt.
I shower with warm water, then I wrap myself in a towel and go back to the room, with his sweater in my hands. Before I walk in, I knock.
"Just a moment, please," he said. I smile. I interrupt him in something.
"Come in!"
I open the door and with a smile on my lips I enter the room.
"You're still not dressed," he said to me. "Well, you're still in your boxers either," I said. Yup, I know what he was doing -  playing "handball."
"Here, I am returning you a sweater," I say and put it on his bed.
I take a fresh underwear from a suitcase, leggings and a long-sleeved shirt. Somehow I manage to wear panties, despite the towel, and I need help for the bra. "Ehm, Marc... can you help me?"
"What is it?" he asks.
"Can you help me with the bra?"
I look at him, he looks at me but he's still at the same place.
"Please?" I say and give him one of the most beautiful smiles I have. "Okay," he said, then he stepped behind my back and fasten my bra. He touches my skin with his fingers and at the same time I was on fire. Take me, take me, take me... I repeat in my mind.
"Hope it's okay," he said as he stepped in front of me and smiled at me. "T-thanks," I stutter.
I dressed up quickly then I sit on my bed and check my phone.
"Sara, the tea is waiting on you!" mum called.
"I'm coming!" I called her back.
"Can I invite you to a tea party?" I ask him when he laughs: "On a tea party with our mums? Can I go wearing only a boxers?"
I laugh too: "You can, if you dare."
"Go ahead, I'll come after you. I need to dress myself," he said and winked at me.
Yup, I am melting as ice.