Page 4 of Now and Forever

He puts a finger to my mouth to silence me.

“Today you’ll listen to me. I told you, I don’t like that guy.”

“I know ...”

“That he wasn’t good for you, given what both you and I knew.”

“I know ...”

“But, like it or not, you’re crazy about him, and he about you.” I stare at him, astonished. “Eric is a powerful man who can have any woman he wants, but he obviously feels something very intense for you. I know because of his insistence.”

“His insistence?”

“He called me a thousand times. He was desperate the day you disappeared from his office. And I mean desperate.”

“He called you?”

“Yes, every day, several times a day. And despite our history, he took a risk, swallowed his pride, and asked for my help. He was worried about you.”

My little heart beats out of control. To think of my Iceman maddened by my absence makes me soften just a bit. Foolish.

“He told me he’d behaved like an idiot,” Fernando continues, “and that you’d left. I tracked you down to Valencia, but I didn’t tell him anything or try to contact you because I figured you needed some time to think.”

Stunned by what he’s saying, I just keep staring at him.

“Have you made a decision?” he asks.

I take a swallow from my drink and toss the hair from my face. “What was between Eric and me is over,” I whisper, a pain in my heart.

Fernando nods, looks over at some friends, and sighs.

“I think you’re making a mistake.”

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“I heard you, all right! Are you crazy?”

My crazy friend smiles and takes a sip of his drink.

“I wish your eyes would sparkle for me the way they do for him,” he finally says. “I wish you’d been as crazy for me as I know you are for him. And I wish I didn’t know that he is also so crazy about you that he risks calling me to look for you, knowing that I could easily turn you against him!”

I close my eyes.

“Your safety, finding you and knowing you were OK, that was the most important thing to him, and that makes me see the kind of man Eric is and how much he loves you.”

I open my eyes and listen carefully.

“I know I’m not doing myself any favors when I say this, but if what’s between you and that guy is as real as you both imply, why end it?”

“Are you telling me to go back to him?”

Fernando smiles and moves a lock of hair from my face.

“Listen, just think about what you want, what you really want, and if your heart wants to be with him, don’t deny it or you’ll regret it.”

His words touch me, but before I can start sobbing like a fool, I grin. Shakira’s “Waka Waka” is playing.

---