“I know,” Laura replied, her smile tinged with sadness.
“I shouldn’t have started anything with him.”
Alexis turned to face her, the sunlight from the floor-to-ceiling windows creating a radiant halo around her.
Yet, Laura saw a profound Loneliness in her. Compelled by this, Laura asked softly, “What about you? Don’t you fight for what you want?”
Alexis reclined on the pool table, her head resting on one arm.
She let out a soft chuckle and said, “I’m tired.”
She recalled being 20, full of excitement, telling Leonel over the phone that she, too, would be going abroad to study.
His response had been blunt and unexpected.
“Alexis, let’s end this.”
Angela’s Library
The idea of an ending seemed absurd to her then.
They hadn’t even truly begun anything!
Young and impulsive, Alexis had asked if he had fallen for someone else.
The silence on the other end of the line spoke volumes, though he never directly answered her question.
Despite the supposed end of their relationship, he continued to send her 200 milliliters of frozen blood every month from abroad, blood that could potentially save Alexis’ life. Her father, angry yet cautious, stored this blood carefully, though Alexis never needed it.
He did return, twice a year, but during their meetings, she never questioned him about their past.
At 24, during the New Year, he came back with a beautiful mixed-race girlfriend.
The girlfriend was strikingly pretty and joined the Fowlers for dinner before leaving to spend the night at a hotel. In the middle of the night, while Alexis was reading in her bedroom, Leonel returned from the hotel with a New Year’s gift for her-a small doll.
Alexis accepted it, but the next day, she relegated it to storage, where it likely remained, forgotten and gathering dust.
The year after, he returned, this time without the girlfriend.
Rumor had it they had broken up.
Alexis heard that he had other girlfriends but never again brought anyone home.
She turned her head, inviting Laura to lie down beside her.
Laura, not quite familiar with Alexis but somehow captivated by her, lay down quietly beside her.
Alexis, her voice a bit hoarse, mused, “Cecilia and Mark, despite all their ups and downs, ended up together. Laura, you seem even more hesitant than my aunt.”