MI VIDA

Catalina Reyes There are some moments you don’t realize are important until they come back to haunt you. Like summer. Like his eyes. Like the way the world tilted and never really straightened after that one mistake. Madrid was warm when we arrived. Not too hot, not too cold. Just...comfortable enough to pretend the past hadn’t happened. Sophia was talking beside me, too fast and too excited for someone who didn’t know what we were walking into. “Well, Mamá and Papá think it’s best we stay with Álvaro for a bit, just until we settle post-graduation,” she said, swinging her long hair behind her shoulders like we weren’t standing in the middle of a city that reminded me of everything I wanted to forget. I blinked at her. “We?” Sophia grinned, eyes gleaming. “You think I’d leave you behind, Cat? Please. I already told Álvaro we’re both staying in the apartment. It’s across from his.” That name. That cursed name. Álvaro Cruz. Mi error. Mi maldita historia. My biggest mistake...wrapped in perfect suits and a gaze that burned without touching. “You should’ve told me before,” I said, trying to keep my voice even, my heart steady. She rolled her eyes. “You’d have found some excuse not to come.” She was right. I would’ve. Because Álvaro Cruz wasn’t just anyone. He was the man I slept with on New Year’s Eve. The man whose name I hadn’t known until the morning after. The man I called ‘él desconocido’ until I saw a picture on Sophia’s phone two months later and realized I had broken the unbreakable rule: Never touch your best friend’s family. Especially not her older brother. Especially not Álvaro. I swallowed. “He agreed?” “He bought the apartment for us, Cata. That’s how chill he is about it.” I laughed, bitter. “Chill. Right.” What kind of man buys you a luxury apartment in Madrid to play happy family? El tipo de hombre que puede. The type of man who has money in his veins and power in his bones. Álvaro Cruz, CEO of Cruz Holdings, and the man I’d never meant to see again. I looked out the taxi window, heart stalling as the city blurred by. Madrid, te odio. Sophia’s voice softened. “You okay?” No. “Yeah.” Because how could I tell her that the reason I hadn’t dated anyone since January was because I couldn’t forget a man whose name used to mean nothing? Because now it meant everything. And I was about to live across from him.