Love In Between
Chapter 25

**The day had come and I looked like a teenager. My stomach was like a stone. My nerves were getting stronger with each passing minute, and the uncertainty of not knowing what would happen on that date was killing me.

November 19th

“I’m looking forward to tonight”

Gael

Today 5:00 PM

I read your message over and over again and try to concentrate on the movie I was watching comfortably at home, but it’s impossible. I grab the remote control, turn off the TV and go to my room.

I don’t know what to wear tonight. I open my wardrobe and start rummaging through clothes “A dress? A skirt and a blouse? Pants and a blouse? A jumpsuit?”

I reach for my phone, open the weather app and look at the temperature, two degrees Celsius nothing more? Clearly I need to wrap up warm. I hate the cold, it prohibits short dresses without pantyhose or cowboy boots.

I look through my wardrobe again and find one of my favourite woollen dresses; it’s black with long sleeves and looks perfect with a pair of buckaroos in the same colour and my favourite knee-length coat. I look for a matching bag and leave everything on the bed to go and take a shower. I look at the time and I can’t believe I wasted an hour and a half finding what to wear to go out with Gael, it reminds me of when I was 18 and got nervous every time a guy asked me out.

I check the clock and it reads 8:45 PM, I look in the mirror one last time and approve as my light brown hair falls in waves above my breasts, the makeup definitely seems to be flattering as it highlights my eyes and I definitely still love this dress. I put the last touch on my lipstick, a caramel colour ideal for this approaching winter, and almost as if we’ve coordinated; the doorbell rings.

“What nerves…”

I walk to the door, hear heels clacking on the floor, and as I open the door I’m mesmerised. It should be illegal for a man to look like this. Black trousers that fit snugly enough, leather jacket of the same colour, and a white button-down shirt that shows through.

I try to come to my senses quickly, but the wildly sensual way he looks at me distracts me.

-Goodnight,” he finally says to break the silence and then arches his eyebrows, “Let me tell you that the superhuman effort I’m making right now not to k**s you is indescribable, you look… amazing,” he says and there goes my heart stopping one after the other in just thirty seconds.

-Thank you, you look great too, shall we go? – I ask and it’s not that I’m in a hurry, it’s just that I don’t want to grab him by the collar and take him straight to my bed like I’m thinking of doing right now. I need this to be different from what we’ve already had, and if I do that I’d be contradicting myself.

-Come on, I’ve got a surprise for you,” he smiles and offers his arm for me to take, which I’m grateful for. I feel like my legs are shaking so badly that I could fall to the ground at any moment.

When we get to his car, he opens the passenger door politely and helps me into the car without taking his eyes off me. I don’t quite know what has happened, I just know that this is another Gael; a very different one from the one I’ve known. My gaze doesn’t miss his every move, and I have to admit that I’m crazy about him. Well, actually I think there are millions of women who are, this must not be news to him.

He gets in the car, starts it up, adjusts the temperature, and then looks at me with a huge grin on his face. -Serena, before you want to kill me, I must confess that the place where I’m taking you is located inside a hotel; more precisely the Eurostars Madrid Tower. I don’t want you to think I’m taking you there to have s*x with you,” he clarifies.

-I like your clarification,” I say, making a great effort not to laugh.

-I like that you like it, that said, let’s go there. – He replies and starts driving.

I don’t know why I like every detail about him even though I should try not to fall into his net in such a way. He’s perfectly flawed, whichever way you look at it. I know he’s not the right man to fall for. His past is not easy to forget; he was going to get married, although according to him there is nothing left with Delfina. His present is uncertain, he’s confused… And his future… His future is a sea of doubts, maybe today he feels something for me and tomorrow he feels it for someone else.

I’m trying not to get tangled up in my own thoughts and prejudices, but it’s very difficult to trust one hundred percent again. I’ve had enough of Peter and his double life, how can you trust again when the person who was everything to you has deceived you in such a way?

-Are you all right,” his sensual, husky voice interrupts.

I come back to reality and smile shyly, “Yes, everything is in order. – I lie, for in my mind there is everything but order.

He looks at me quickly and smiles and then looks at the road. The silence is powerful, but the instant one of his hands leaves the steering wheel and clasps mine on my leg, the silence becomes nothing. Such a simple gesture, but so different? What is all this?

**The atmosphere in that car had completely changed. The cold outside couldn’t enter through the windows, and if it did I didn’t feel it. His hand on mine caused an internal fire that should have scared me, but my reaction was the opposite; his hand gave me peace. Something was beginning to change between the two of us and I could only be happy that this was so.