Page 103 of Yours, For Now

I scooted closer, so I could put my arm around her. With the back of my free hand, I caressed her face.

"Your dad and Miguel. What did they say to make you sad?"

Her eyes didn't waver this time, but they filled with tears. "They pretty much told me they're counting down the days until I get pregnant and start popping out kids. They see me as a glorified intern and want Enrique to take over."

I winced. Her tears made me want to avenge her, sit her uncle and father down and rip them a new one. If they so much as had a single negative thing to say about Lina, I'd be sure to make them pay somehow. I'd be happy to do it, if Lina gave me permission, but not now. My focus now was on her.

I brought her closer to me with the arm around her shoulder. "If they don't understand you it's their fault. You're driven, you're ambitious. Your focus is on your work." Saying it out loud made my fears worse, reminding me why she might not want to make this thing between us real. "You've shown that to all of us. If they can't see it, it's their failure."

If I forgot what I knew, then that'd be my own fault, too.

A couple of tears fell from her eyes. She wiped them with hard hands. "Ugh. I don't like to cry. Especially in front of people."

"I'm not people."

She scoffed, but more tears fell from her lashes as she looked up at me. "No, you're not."

I wiped a tear from her face, as gentle as I could, in contrast with her gesture. "It's okay to cry."

Her face took on a pained expression, this time, and tears became waterfalls.

"It's okay. It's okay." I guided her to sit on my lap. I held her, her legs out to my side, and she rested her head on the crook of my shoulder. "You can cry. Let go, Lina. I’ve got you."

She leaned on me and didn't make a sound, as her tears wet a spot on my shirt. I surrounded her in my arms and let her cry and cry, nothing more than tiny hiccups of air coming out of her. I let her put her hurt into tears, and give them to me. Each of them got placed into a corner of my heart, fully aware that she wouldn't be crying with me if she hadn't learned to trust me over the past several weeks. Something told me no one had seen her cry in years and here she was, letting me hold her in my arms as she did.

"This isn't fake," I whispered. I knew she could think I only meant the friendship and comfort of the moment we shared, but I meant so much more. "This is real."

We stayed like that for a while, I wasn't sure how long. I caressed her back with a hand, or played with her hair, or went back to holding her. She spent every tear at some point, the warm spot on my shirt now cooling down. She sighed deeply.

"I have a little story for you." I caressed her shoulder with my thumb. "Want to hear it?"

She nodded.

"My mom told me this many years ago," I began. "Chile is a very seismic country. There are earthquakes there almost every day. Everything is built to withstand them. You'd think structures have to be solid to be strong, right? That the firmer they are, the better. Well, turns out that's not the case. Buildings need to be flexible to withstand earthquakes. They crack and collapse if they're too rigid but, if they move and shift with the shaking ground, they do well. The energy dissipates in each wave that moves through concrete and steel, and sometimes it takes hours for a building to stop swaying after a quake. But they stop, and the buildings go on to stand proud among the mountains, full of life."

I sighed. "There's incredible strength in yielding at the right time, Lina. When things get hard, finding a place to surrender can save you." I kissed her forehead. "I'm glad I can be that place for you, tonight."

She shifted, her first movements slow. She placed a hand on my chest. "You're telling me you think I'm strong for crying with you."

"And that I'm honored I get to be the one to hold you." I took her chin again, lifting her face to me. Her eyes were red from crying, her hair messy, and she was still beautiful to me. "I want to be someone you feel safe being soft with."

She gave me a sad smile. "I think you could be, Gabe."

When I pressed my lips to hers in a gentle kiss, I put comfort in it. For her, and for me. Because I'd shown my heart to her there, but I wasn't sure if she'd seen it for what it was.

Gabe's words echoed in my heart as he took care of me. He fed me, made me another warm drink, and put things into the dishwasher.

He wiped the surfaces as I sat in the kitchen with another chamomile tea in front of me. I wasn't used to having men doing this kind of thing, and I loved that Gabe did it so readily. No fuss, no guilt-tripping. He simply took care of me. It made me fall a little bit more for him.

I wrapped my hands around my mug. Anticipatory grief sucked, and I wrestled with it. Gabe had said that he wanted to be someone I could be soft with, and just thinking of it filled me with warmth and gratitude and dreams. Even if these few days together led to nowhere, for a moment, I believed I could rely on someone. That alone was a gift. To know I didn't have to make rebar out of my veins, and harden my body into concrete… not with him, anyway.

"Are you staying tonight?" He folded the dish cloth he'd used to clean the stone tops, then washed his hands and dried them. "You haven't been sleeping here the last few nights, but I thought maybe you would tonight…"

He left the statement hanging and, when he looked at me, he didn't hide his hope.

The warmth in my chest expanded, before it cooled down with the words forming in my throat. "I didn't bring anything I need. I just took my purse when I left the office and came straight here. I don't have pajamas or make up remover or— anything, really."

"If you don't want to use my clothes and stuff, I'm happy to order things for you. We can get things delivered fast with just a few taps. Let me treat you."