Page 86 of No Sweeter Poison

“Is it…” Her voice drops to a whisper. “Messy?”

“Oh, yeah. It absolutely can be.”

Lettie presses her lips together. I watch the shift happen in real-time, the difference between shy, teenage Lettie and the cool, calculating woman I’ve come to know.

“Do you always need to be in love to have sex?”

I shake my head. “Not always. Sometimes it’s purely physical. Other times, it’s not.”

“I’ve never been in love before.” We pass by the local bakery and Lettie gestures to one of the round tables under the bright pink awning. We both sit and when the waiter comes to take our order, she gets us coffees. “It sounds stupid but I always thought people had to be in love to do it.”

“It’s not stupid,” I tell her. “When I was younger, I thought the same thing.”

“You make it sound like you’re ancient.”

“There’s a big difference between eighteen and twenty-two. It may not feel like it, but there is.”

The waiter brings our coffee and Lettie takes hers light and sweet, like me.

“Can I ask you something without it being weird?”

I lift the cup to my lips. “Of course.”

“When you’re with my brother is it because you love him or is it just physical?”

I pause. Set the cup back down on its saucer. “Well, you’ve touched on the third, more obscure reason for sex.”

“And what’s that?”

“It’s complicated.”

We drink our coffees and Lettie asks more questions that go beyond the scope of sex. What love feels like, what it means to feel romantically toward someone, the different nuances of being a young woman trying to navigate all the joys and horrors of girlhood bleeding into adulthood. It seems she’s waited a long time to get this off her chest and there was never an opportunity to ask before. I’m glad I was able to be that for her.

A black car pulls up in front of the bakery and the door flies open. Alejandro steps out onto the sidewalk and approaches us.

“How many times have I told you not to slip your security detail?”

“We were having girl talk.” I finish the last of my coffee. “Didn’t think Beni wanted to hear what we had to say.”

“Beni doesn’t get paid to think. He gets paid to watch you and that includes listening to your conversations.”

With her signature Lettie snark, she holds up a compact as she reapplies her lipstick and says, “We were talking about sex.”

Alejandro blanches.

I snicker into my cup. “You walked right into that one.”

He opens his mouth but nothing comes out. I reach into his back pocket for his wallet, leave a few euros on the table, and push out my chair. “Come on. It’s almost lunch, and Doña Ana is making arepas.”

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YES AND NO

Alejandro

A s soon as we get back to the villa, Lettie heads upstairs. She isn’t upset but she isn’t particularly chatty, either. Then again, when is she ever?

Dahlia exits the foyer and makes her way towards her bedroom but I catch her by the wrist before she can disappear. “Dee, wait.”

“It’s all right,” she touches my arm. “Everything’s taken care of.”