Alternative History - Chapter 5 - Tavo's House Keys

That evening, before going to bed, Lucia called her mother.

For a while, they talked about ordinary things—work, the weather, the neighbour who was complaining yet again about the noise coming from the street.

Only when a brief silence settled between them did Lucia remember why she had called in the first place.

"Mom... there's something I wanted to ask you."

"What is it?"

Lucia paused for a moment, searching for the right words.

"I found out that Kuka gave birth to a baby girl years ago and was forced to give her up. She's been looking for her ever since."

Silence filled the other end of the line.

"All I know is that it happened in San Ignacio. I just thought... it's such a small town. Maybe you heard something back then? A rumor... someone's story?"

Rosa didn't answer right away.

"San Ignacio..." she repeated softly.

Lucia kept talking, not yet noticing the hesitation.

"The girl is the same age as I am. I thought I'd ask... if it could help Kuka with her search."

A quiet sigh came through the receiver.

"No... I don't remember anything like that."

The answer came too quickly. Lucia frowned slightly.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. It's been so many years... People talked about all sorts of things back then, but I don't remember anything like that."

Her voice remained calm, yet Lucia couldn't shake the feeling that her mother was choosing her words more carefully than usual, as though weighing each one before letting it slip.

She didn't press the matter.

"All right. But if you happen to remember anything..."

"I'll let you know."

They said their goodbyes.

Rosa lowered the receiver much more slowly than she normally would. For a long moment, she sat perfectly still, staring at the dark window. Only then did she close her eyes and slowly let out the breath she had been holding.

It was the question she had dreaded hearing for years.

-------------

The restaurant on the corner was one of those places people ended up in without much planning. It was close to the agency, quiet enough for a proper conversation, yet ordinary enough that it never required a special occasion. That was exactly why Tavo had chosen it.

After days filled with tension, Ocampo's constant attempts to undermine them, and the growing feeling that every move the agency made was being watched, he wanted, if only for a little while, to sit across the table from Kuka and remember that long before all these problems, they had been friends first—and business partners second.

For the past few days, he had watched the strain weighing on her. Kuka had always seemed stronger than everyone else, the kind of woman who could handle anything life threw at her. But he had known her far too long not to recognize the exhaustion hidden beneath her composed exterior.

For the first fifteen minutes, everything felt almost normal.

They talked about the agency, about their plans for the coming weeks, and more than once they even found themselves laughing.

For the first time in days, Tavo felt as though he could finally breathe again.

And then Cecilia arrived.

She didn't call ahead or ask if she could join them. She simply spotted Tavo and decided that was reason enough to change her plans.

At first, he did his best to be polite. He smiled, exchanged a few pleasantries, answered her questions. But with every passing minute, he could feel the atmosphere he had hoped to create that evening slipping away.

Cecilia talked endlessly, loudly, with the easy confidence of someone who never noticed when the other person had stopped listening. She leaned toward him, laughed at her own jokes, and found the smallest excuse to touch his arm.

Tavo endured it with patience, but his thoughts kept wandering elsewhere, to the agency, the problems still waiting for him.

And to Lucia. That last one surprised him more than anything.

Whenever his mind drifted to her, the same quiet unease returned—an unease he had been trying, more and more often, to push aside. Thoughts of her came far too easily, far too naturally. And sometimes the things that come most naturally are the very ones you have to be most careful with.

Not long ago, he wouldn't have allowed himself to think about her this way. Now he kept catching himself wondering what she was doing, whether she'd made it home yet, whether this difficult day had been as hard on her as it had been on him.

He didn't want to examine those feelings too closely. He knew that the longer he lingered on them, the harder it would become to pretend that nothing had changed.

For a while, Kuka watched him in silence. She saw more than Tavo intended to reveal. She noticed the distraction in his eyes, the way he had stopped truly following the conversation. But she said nothing. She knew when to ask questions...and when to leave someone alone with their thoughts.

After a while, she pushed back her chair.

"I should get back to the office," she said quietly.

Tavo looked at her, mildly surprised.

"Something urgent?"

"No. There are just a few things I still need to take care of."

She didn't tell him that the real reason was that she no longer wanted to sit at a table where the evening had long since lost the warmth it had begun with.

Nor did she want Tavo to feel guilty. It was enough that she could see how exhausted he was.

She said a brief goodbye and walked away.

---------------

The atmosphere inside the agency was completely different from what it had been just a few hours earlier. The building was gradually emptying out, most of the lights had already been switched off, and the sounds of employees had given way to the quiet stillness that settled in at the end of the day.

Kuka stepped into Tavo's office to retrieve a few documents she had left behind earlier. She hadn't expected to be stopped by something as insignificant as the object lying on his desk.

His keys.

She stared at them for a moment in disbelief. It was so typically Tavo—to remember everything, juggle a dozen problems at once, and yet forget the simplest things. A faint smile touched her lips, more affectionate than amused.

Just then, she heard the door open. She turned and saw Lucia stepping inside. Startled, the young woman froze in the doorway the moment she noticed Kuka.

"I'm sorry."

She immediately took a step back, ready to leave. Not because she had anything to hide, but because the past few months had taught her to be careful. Too many times her good intentions had been misunderstood, too many people had invented stories where she herself was still trying to understand her own feelings. Around Kuka, she was especially cautious. She knew the woman noticed far more than she ever said.

But Kuka spoke first.

"Lucia, are you looking for Tavo?"

Lucia turned back toward her.

"Yes, but it's nothing urgent. I can come back later."

That same caution had crept into her voice—the caution Kuka had been noticing more and more lately. Lucia always left herself a way out: half a step backward, one carefully chosen sentence that allowed her to pretend nothing had happened. As though admitting that someone mattered to her, even just a little, was something that had to be guarded against.

Kuka studied her more closely. Not out of curiosity. Not out of suspicion. She had simply known Tavo for far too long not to recognize when he was retreating into himself. And Lucia was one of the very few people around whom he'd seemed genuinely calmer lately.

For a moment, Kuka wondered whether she should say more. She could simply tell her that Tavo didn't look well, that maybe he needed someone's company.

But she knew Lucia. Those words would only make the girl question why she should be the one to go.

Kuka knew Lucia was the kind of person who found it easier to do something if someone asked her for a favor than if she had to admit she wanted to do it herself. When it came to helping other people, she never hesitated. When it came to her own feelings, she could always find a reason to step back.

"No, wait."

She walked over to the desk and picked up the keys.

"I saw him at the restaurant on the corner."

Lucia looked at her questioningly. For a moment, she wondered why Kuka was telling her this. Was she simply passing along information... or did she truly think she should go?

That second possibility sent an uneasy shiver through her. Because it meant someone else had noticed something she herself had been trying so hard to ignore.

"He looked... lost. Unhappy."

Those words affected her more than she wanted to let show.

Tavo... unhappy?

Just a few days ago, he'd been sitting beside her in the park, telling her that being with her made him feel at peace. And yet she knew one peaceful afternoon couldn't erase everything else he was carrying.

Kuka held out the keys.

"So why don't you go to him? You're friends, aren't you? And while you're there, you can give him these. He forgot them."

To Kuka, there was nothing unusual about it. She didn't see a young woman crossing some invisible line, or someone searching for an excuse to get closer to a man.

She saw two people who, over the past few weeks, had simply learned to rely on each other. She didn't say any of that aloud.

Lucia already had more than enough reasons to retreat. So instead, she handed her something simple. The keys.

A perfectly ordinary, practical excuse behind which something much harder to admit could quietly hide.

Lucia hesitated for only a moment. She knew Kuka was right. At the same time, she also knew that, for her, it had stopped being that simple a long time ago.

She took the keys and weighed them in her hand. They were ordinary, heavy with metal, cool against her skin. And yet, at that moment, they gave her something she still couldn't give herself. A reason to go to him.

Not long ago, she'd been afraid that every small gesture might reveal just how much he meant to her. Now she stood there holding nothing more than a set of keys. 

And somehow, those keys gave her the courage to take a step she never would have dared take on her own. For so long, Tavo had given her his time, his patience, and his unwavering attention, never asking for anything in return.

He had stood beside her when she hadn't been able to stand on her own. Now, for the very first time, she had the chance to do something for him, not as an employee of the agency nor as someone who needed saving. Simply as someone who cared.

"All right."

Kuka smiled softly. She hadn't noticed that fleeting hesitation. She couldn't see how many emotions were hidden behind that single word.

All she saw was Lucia wanting to help someone who mattered to both of them. 

Until recently, it had always seemed as though their relationship followed the same pattern: he helped her, and she accepted that help—sometimes with gratitude, sometimes embarrassed by her own helplessness.

Now, for the first time, she had something she could give him in return. Not a solution to his problems or grand declarations, just her presence. The very same gift he had offered her so many times, back when she hadn't known how to ask for anything at all.

------------

Lucia stepped into the restaurant with a plan that, only a few minutes earlier, had seemed perfectly simple. She would return the keys, say a few words, and head back to the agency—or home—before she had the chance to turn this ordinary favour into something far more complicated.

The entire way there, she kept reminding herself that this was all it was. A favor. Nothing more. And yet, the moment she pushed open the restaurant door and spotted Tavo sitting at a table near the back of the room, she came to an abrupt stop.

Because she saw his face.

Cecilia sat across from him, speaking animatedly, one hand resting on the decorative vase placed between them. She looked completely pleased with herself, as though everything around her was unfolding exactly as she'd intended.

Tavo, on the other hand, looked different. He wasn't angry or even visibly irritated. But Lucia recognized that expression. She had seen it before—on those occasions when he was trying to be polite, when he didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, yet was quietly withdrawing into himself with every passing moment.

"Yes, it's beautiful," Tavo was saying, studying the vase with faint uncertainty. "I'm just not sure where I'd put it."

Cecilia smiled as though she hadn't heard the lack of enthusiasm in his voice at all.

"If you don't like it, I can return it tomorrow. The shop owner is a friend of mine, so it won't be a problem. But could it stay at your house just for tonight?"

Tavo didn't answer immediately. His gaze drifted somewhere beyond her, and for a moment Lucia had the impression he wasn't even hearing what Cecilia was saying.

"Hey!"

Only then did he blink and look back at her.

"What's going on with you?"

Tavo couldn't have said exactly when the exhaustion had settled in so deeply.

The past few days had blurred into one endless stream of meetings, paperwork, and problems that seemed to multiply instead of disappear. The situation with Ocampo was draining far more out of him than he cared to admit, and at night, instead of resting, his mind circled endlessly around possible solutions.

He knew he should appreciate this brief moment of peace. But even here, he couldn't quite escape the tension. And the way Cecilia kept trying to pull him into the life she imagined for them, instead of easing that burden, only made him feel more trapped.

"Nothing," he said quietly. "I'm just tired. It's been a long day."

Lucia watched him for another moment. She knew she should simply walk over, hand him the keys, and leave. A few months ago, that's exactly what she would have done.

But Tavo had always been the one who stopped for her. The one who noticed when she pretended everything was fine. The one who gave her time when she couldn't find the words to explain what she needed.

And now, for the first time... she was the one who could see that he needed something. Not a long conversation or someone to solve his problems. Just someone beside whom he didn't have to pretend.

"Especially today?" Cecilia said with a confident smile. "I know exactly what you're missing."

There was a certainty in her voice that Tavo knew all too well. It carried unmistakable flirtation, but also the unwavering conviction that she already knew what he needed better than he did himself. She leaned in a little closer, her smile growing more suggestive, as though the answer was so obvious it didn't even need to be spoken aloud.

At that very moment, Lucia made her decision. Not because she had a plan. Not because she knew what the right thing to do was. She simply couldn't walk away after seeing him like that.

Before she had time to wonder whether it was a sensible choice, her feet were already carrying her toward the table. The keys, which only moments earlier had seemed like the entire reason for her visit, disappeared deep into the pocket of her jeans.

She reached the table almost without thinking and sat down beside Tavo. Only after she had already done it did she realize just how close she was to him. Her arm touched his, and there was barely any space between them—a distance she would never have chosen if she had stopped to measure it beforehand.

But now...she didn't want to move away.

"Hi. How are you two?"

She said it with a youthful, effortless lightness.

There was no trace of embarrassment in her voice, no explanation for why she had suddenly appeared. For a moment, someone could have even believed that she genuinely hadn't noticed the tension that had been hanging over the table only seconds earlier.

Cecilia leaned back, clearly surprised.

Tavo, however, was looking at Lucia. Her presence alone made him feel lighter. Almost instinctively, he rested his arm along the back of her chair. Only after a moment did he realize how natural the gesture felt. As if his body had remembered faster than his mind that, with Lucia, he didn't need to keep his distance. He felt the warmth of her shoulder against his and the closeness he hadn't expected to experience that evening.

There was only one thing he knew for certain. Lucia wouldn't have done this without a reason. She wouldn't have come here and sat this close if she only wanted to discuss something ordinary. He could feel that there was something more behind the gesture.

"Lucia... what are you doing here?"

He didn't take his eyes off her.

"I need to talk to you."

She said it so naturally, with that same small smile that had the strange ability to completely change his day.

Tavo almost smiled. Almost. Because he knew something wasn't right. There was something about Lucia's behavior that felt too casual, too carefully arranged.

Before he could ask anything else, her attention was caught by the vase. She picked it up and studied it with a serious expression.

"What an awful pot..."

Tavo looked at her, and for the first time that evening, he genuinely smiled. He didn't know whether Lucia had done it intentionally or not. One simple sentence had been enough to remind him why, around her, everything always seemed a little easier.

Cecilia raised an eyebrow.

"Careful, my dear. That is a work of art."

Lucia placed the vase back on the table and ran her hand over it with exaggerated tenderness.

"Forgive me. I don't have much knowledge when it comes to works of art."

Tavo was still smiling. And Lucia was suddenly struck by how much she had missed seeing that expression on his face today.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" he asked.

He wanted to give her space. At the same time, he couldn't help wondering why she had come at exactly that moment, and why he had the feeling that behind her lighthearted smile there was something more. Lucia rarely said things directly—especially when something truly mattered to her.

Lucia looked at him. And in that moment, she regretted not having prepared anything. No plan, no sentence she could hold on to.

She had only wanted Tavo to understand, not Cecilia, not anyone else sitting nearby. Only him. She wanted to remind him of that day, of those moments that had meant far more to her than she had ever allowed herself to admit.

"Oh, right... about the waterfalls."

Tavo frowned slightly. He knew her well enough by now to recognize when something didn't quite fit.

"The waterfalls?"

"Figueras called."

Tavo knew exactly who she meant. He remembered the details of the contract they had completed more than two months earlier. Their collaboration had ended long ago, and there was no reason for him to suddenly return to that campaign.

And yet Lucia said it with such certainty that he couldn't interrupt her right away. There was something familiar in her voice. The same caution he had been noticing in her lately. As if she was saying one thing, but at the same time waiting to see whether he would hear something more. He just didn't know what that something was yet.

"Figueras?"

"Yes. And he mentioned the waterfalls."

For a moment, they simply looked at each other without speaking. The restaurant disappeared around them. There was only her gaze and the way she had spoken those few simple words. Tavo felt that familiar ache in his chest.

The waterfalls had never been just a location or a memory from a commercial. They were the moment when he had first seen Lucia differently. When, for the first time, he had stopped seeing her only as the young model he wanted to protect.

And suddenly he understood. She wasn't talking about a phone call from Figueras. She was talking about them.

For a brief moment, Lucia felt as though everything was happening exactly as she had hoped. As though one look, one shared memory, would be enough for him to understand.

But when she saw his hesitation, a sudden chill ran through her, and the smile disappeared from her face. Suddenly, she wondered if she had been wrong. Maybe she was the only one who had held on to that day.

For him, the waterfalls had simply been a beautiful trip, a successful campaign, a pleasant professional memory. But for her... they had become something more.

Just like the conversation in the park. She remembered every word. The way he had looked at her when he placed the box with the pendant in her hand. The way she had felt safe around him. Lighter.

But perhaps Tavo only saw her as a friend. Someone he wanted to help.

"You haven't forgotten about them, have you?"

Tavo didn't answer immediately. Because for a moment, he was back there again—the place he had been returning to in his mind for weeks. The sound of the water. Her smile. That moment when everything around them had stopped mattering.

He hadn't forgotten. He couldn't have. That day returned to him more often than he wanted to admit. Sometimes all it took was one small gesture from Lucia, one look, or an ordinary sentence spoken in her voice, and suddenly he was there again. Back at the waterfalls.

Cecilia watched them more carefully. Only moments earlier, she had been completely confident in her position, certain that she was the person who knew Tavo best. But now she saw something she could no longer ignore. The way they looked at each other. The closeness between them that seemed to exist effortlessly, without either of them trying.

She remembered that day when she had found Lucia in Tavo's bedroom, wearing his shirt. She also remembered that not long afterward, he had ended their relationship. Back then, she had wanted to believe it was only a moment of confusion. A temporary mistake. Now, for the first time, she wondered if it was something more.

"Okay. Now you've got my attention. So what happened there?"

Tavo slowly moved his arm away from the back of Lucia's chair and placed it on the table.

Lucia noticed the movement and, for a moment, thought it was a sign that he wanted to distance himself from her. She didn't know that he was simply trying to regain control of the situation, end the conversation with Cecilia, and leave a place where he had felt increasingly uncomfortable from the very beginning.

"It was about the commercial Lucia appeared in."

Lucia looked away. She still remembered that trip, that time when everything had seemed simpler. When she hadn't yet had to wonder what was allowed and what wasn't.

Tavo looked at her one more time, then turned back to Cecilia.

"I'm sorry, but I have to go. I'll call you."

Cecilia looked at him with disappointment. She still didn't understand why he suddenly wanted to leave.

But this time, Tavo didn't try to explain. He stood up from the table, and Lucia followed a moment later.

"Wait, but you still haven't decided what you're going to do with this," Cecilia said, pointing at the vase sitting on the table.

Tavo looked at it for a moment. Not long ago, he would have tried to find an answer that satisfied everyone. Now, he was simply tired.

"I don't know. I'll think about it and let you know."

Cecilia clearly had no intention of giving up so easily.

"Wait. Let's do this. Give me the keys to your house, and I'll find a place for it. I'll make myself a big cup of coffee and wait for you."

Tavo nodded automatically, more because he wanted to end the conversation than because he truly agreed with her idea. He reached into his pocket, but stopped when he found nothing. For a moment, he frowned, trying to remember when he had last held them.

"Where are my keys?"

Lucia felt the weight of them suddenly become much heavier in her pocket. Throughout the conversation, she had almost forgotten she had them. They had been the reason she came here. Nothing more. She should have handed them back. But she couldn't bring herself to do it.

It wasn't only because of the sudden, unpleasant knot in her stomach when she heard Cecilia's seemingly innocent suggestion. She knew exactly what was hidden behind the words "I'll wait for you." She didn't want to admit it to herself, but the thought of that happening filled her with a powerful resistance.

Yet that wasn't the real reason she remained silent. She had seen how exhausted Tavo was. She had heard fragments of rumors at the agency about Ocampo's next moves. She didn't need to know him well to understand how deeply it affected him. And on top of that, this conversation with Cecilia was draining what little energy he had left. Lucia wanted to protect him from having to deal with the woman again later that evening.

Tavo let out a quiet sigh and pushed his chair back.

"You know what? I'll call you."

Cecilia didn't answer immediately. Instead, she grabbed the lapels of his jacket and pulled him down toward her. Tavo, caught off guard, didn't even have time to react.

She kissed him briefly on the lips.

Lucia froze. It lasted only a moment. But it was enough for her to feel a sudden cold despite the warmth inside the restaurant. She hadn't been prepared for that sight. Not after everything that had happened between her and Tavo over the past few weeks.

Tavo was the first to pull away. There was no anger in his expression. No tenderness either. Only the surprise of someone who had suddenly found himself in a situation he had never agreed to.

He adjusted his jacket awkwardly, looking far more uncomfortable than pleased.

"See you later, my businessman," Cecilia said with a smile.

Lucia remained silent.

Tavo glanced at her. And this time, his expression held more than just surprise. There was something else. The realization that she had seen.

For a moment, he wanted to say something. To explain that it wasn't what it looked like. That he hadn't wanted that kiss. But the words stopped somewhere between his thoughts and his lips. Because before he could find the right ones... he saw her face.

-----------------

Tavo and Lucia entered the office almost without saying a word.

The girl stopped beside the desk, still facing away from him. She wasn't even sure whether she should stay or simply hand him the keys and leave immediately. Inside, emotions were colliding that she desperately wanted to hide.

Tavo watched her carefully. From the moment he had seen her in the restaurant, he knew something was different.

Lucia never appeared somewhere by accident. Not like this. She didn't sit beside him with such determination, she didn't bring up Iguazú so openly.

But he still wasn't certain.

The letter that had never reached his hands gave him hope, but at the same time it left too much room for assumptions. He could believe there was something more behind it, but there was always the fear that he was only seeing what he wanted to see.

Lucia might simply be grateful. Attached to him. Fond of him.

But now...

Now she stood before him as a young woman who, only moments earlier, had looked at Cecylia as if she wanted to push her as far away from him as possible.

"How did you know where to find me?"

Lucia looked at him for only a second.

"Kuka."

Tavo frowned slightly.

"Kuka told you where I was?"

"Yes. But I didn't know you weren't alone."

She turned her head away, as if even remembering Cecylia was unpleasant.

Tavo took a step toward her. He didn't want to let her retreat into herself like that again. He had seen it too many times—how she closed herself off precisely when he most wanted to reach her.

"All right."

He placed a hand on her shoulder and gently turned her toward him. With his other hand, he lightly lifted her chin, encouraging her to look at him.

"So what was it that..."

He stopped when he saw her gaze drop again.

For a moment, he wanted to ask her directly. To tell her that they both knew this was no longer just about the waterfalls or a mysterious phone call.

But he also knew Lucia. She wouldn't open up under pressure. The more he tried to force honesty from her, the faster she would hide behind the walls she so often built between herself and the world.

He had to give her time. He had to make her feel that she could trust him enough to say it herself. He lowered his hand.

"Right... the waterfalls. So what happened? Why did Figueres call?"

Lucia was silent for a moment. She looked somewhere beside him, as if searching for the right words, but every possible answer seemed harder than the last.

She could have simply invented something. Said anything that would close the subject and allow her to leave the office without this unbearable closeness that had suddenly appeared between them.

For a moment, she even searched for an escape. But she couldn't lie to him again. Not to Tavo. Not after everything he had done for her and after all the times he had shown her that he was one of the few people around whom she didn't have to pretend to be someone else.

"I don't know. And actually... it wasn't him. Some man called. He didn't give his name. He asked about the agency."

She slipped her hands into the back pockets of her pants. The simple gesture revealed more than her words. She was trying to find something to hold onto, something that would help her regain control.

"It wasn't him. I lied to you."

Her voice was quieter than usual, almost muffled.

Tavo had suspected from the beginning that the client had never called and that the whole thing was only an excuse. He didn't blame her for lying.

But he felt that mentioning the waterfalls had not been accidental, and that perhaps the time had come for an honest conversation about what was happening between them.

Still, he knew that pushing Lucia would only make things worse. So he said nothing.

The girl nervously pushed her hair back and turned her face away.

"I'm so embarrassed."

He immediately noticed those words. He didn't yet understand where that embarrassment came from, but he knew one thing: Lucia wasn't pretending. Her emotions always surfaced before her reason had a chance to catch up.

Once again, he gently took her chin and turned her face toward him.

"Why are you embarrassed? There's nothing here to be ashamed of."

Lucia immediately looked away.

"Tavo, I really don't understand anything about things like this."

She bit her lip nervously.

The image of Cecylia kissing him appeared before her eyes—the way she had openly suggested something far beyond choosing a decoration for his home, while at the same time Lucia had noticed Tavo's tired eyes and the tension in his shoulders.

"I feel concern... and anger."

She said the last words almost in a whisper. They didn't sound like an explanation. More like an admission of something she still didn't know how to organize inside herself.

Silence fell between them. It wasn't awkward. It was heavy. The kind of silence in which a person suddenly hears their own words and only begins to understand their meaning afterward.

Lucia felt it immediately. Only now did she realize what she had actually said. She wasn't talking about the phone call anymore or about Figueres. She was talking about herself. About the fact that his exhaustion, his problems, and his loneliness were not things she could simply ignore. About the fact that seeing another woman so easily take a place beside him had awakened something inside her that she couldn't name.

Her body tensed slightly. It was almost impossible to notice. But Tavo knew her well enough by now to see even the smallest changes.

Lucia suddenly moved toward her pocket. She remembered there was something simpler. Something safer than this conversation. She pulled out the keys and pressed them into his hand.

The metal made a quiet sound as it touched his palm.

"Please... take them."

She said it too quickly. She wanted to end that moment before he could put a name to what they had both just begun to understand far too clearly.

Tavo looked first at the keys, then at her.

"My keys?"

Lucia nodded, still avoiding his gaze.

"Yes. When Cecilia asked you for them... they were in my pocket. I had them the whole time."

Silence fell between them. And that was when everything began to fall into place. Her sudden appearance at the restaurant. The way she had sat beside him. The fact that she hadn't mentioned the keys even once, despite having them with her the entire time. He had a strong feeling that none of it had been accidental.

Tavo felt something he hadn't expected to feel. Joy. Not loud, not overwhelming. Something warmer. A quiet certainty that appeared somewhere deep inside him and that he could no longer push away.

Because if Lucia had been jealous... then he wasn't indifferent to her.

And after all those weeks of uncertainty, after all those moments when he had wondered whether the letter meant something more or whether it was only his own hope speaking, this one small gesture was exactly what he had needed.

Confirmation.

A brief, almost unconscious smile appeared on his face, and his expression softened.

"Wait... what are you talking about? Lucia..."

The girl reacted immediately. She lifted her head sharply, as if his question had pulled her out of the place where she had been trying to hide only moments earlier.

"Are you jealous?"

For a moment, she simply stared at him without answering. In that one short question was everything she least wanted to hear.

Not because it was untrue. Quite the opposite. Because it came too close to the truth.

Standing in front of him, she could no longer organize her emotions so easily. Because she hadn't sat beside him by accident. She hadn't watched Cecilia because the woman merely annoyed her. She hadn't hidden the fact that she had the keys only out of concern for his feelings. There was something far more personal behind it.

Something she didn't even want to name to herself. Tavo had named it. And she still wasn't ready to admit, either to him or to herself, the feelings she had been carrying for months.

"Me?"

The answer came too quickly. Almost offended, almost frightened. She walked past him so he wouldn't see her face, so he wouldn't read the truth in her eyes.

Tavo watched her for a moment. Then he let out a quiet laugh. There was no mockery in it. He wasn't laughing at her, although that was exactly how Lucia interpreted it. For him, it was something else entirely. A reflex of relief that escaped before he could stop it.

For so long, he had been trying to understand what truly lay behind her actions. The letter that had never reached him, giving him hope while also leaving endless room for doubt. Every word Lucia said could be interpreted in different ways. He could believe there was something more between them. But he could just as easily fear that he was only seeing what he wanted to see. For the first time, he no longer had to rely solely on his own assumptions.

He still didn't know what Lucia would do with those feelings or whether she would ever be ready to name them. But he had seen something he could no longer ignore.

And that was why that brief laugh was not amusement. It was happiness.

Lucia, however, didn't see any of that in his eyes because she was looking down at the floor. She only heard the laughter. She felt her cheeks begin to burn.

Only moments earlier, she had allowed herself to reveal too much. She had let her emotions slip beyond her control. And now she felt as though he had seen everything she had tried so desperately to hide.

"Don't laugh at me!"

Her voice trembled, although she tried to make it sound sharp. She was angry. But more than anything, she was embarrassed. Angry at him for noticing. Angry at herself for giving him a reason to notice.

Tavo immediately became serious, although that happy smile still lingered faintly on his lips.

"I'm not laughing at you."

He took a step toward her.

"I just... I'm happy that you don't have to hide it from me anymore."

Those words stopped her for a moment. Not because everything suddenly became easy. They were too close to what she feared the most.

Because if he really saw it... if he truly understood... then it meant she could no longer hide behind a joke, behind anger, or behind pretending that nothing was happening.

She looked away. She didn't want him to see how deeply his words had affected her.

Tavo wanted to say more. He knew he should explain the situation with Cecilia before Lucia closed herself off again.

"The thing is, Cecilia, she..."

He didn't get the chance to finish. Lucia immediately clenched her hands. Just the name of the woman who, moments earlier, had so confidently tried to take her place beside him brought all those emotions rushing back.

"She was all over you. I saw it."

She said it quickly, as if she needed to find another explanation for her behavior before it was too late. She wasn't jealous. She had simply noticed something inappropriate and wanted to protect him. At least that was what she wanted to believe. But now she wasn't even sure anymore what was true.

"Of course, all women are like that, but..."

She stopped and shrugged helplessly. Over the past few months, she had seen enough women in Buenos Aires to understand how different they were from her.

They were confident, bold, aware of their own worth. They could walk into a room and immediately draw everyone's attention. They knew what they wanted and had no hesitation about reaching for it.

She had never been like that. Lucia still felt a little like the girl from the countryside who had somehow stumbled into a world of beautiful, wealthy, self-assured people.

It wasn't that other women were worse. They simply knew the rules of the game. And Lucia had never learned how to play.

She could learn how to walk the runway. She could pose in front of a camera and pretend nothing affected her. But deep inside, she was still the same person who trusted too easily, who took on other people's problems as if they were her own, and who somehow always seemed to attract trouble.

And now, instead of behaving sensibly, she had gone to a restaurant simply because she couldn't stand watching another woman get closer to Tavo.

"What a disaster."

She let out a short laugh, more at her own helplessness than because anything was actually funny. But the sound disappeared quickly when she suddenly saw herself from the outside.

Lucia, sitting too close to pull Tavo away from another woman. Lucia, hiding the keys only so that someone else wouldn't go home with him. Lucia, denying she was jealous even though everything about her said the opposite.

"I'm such an idiot..."

She turned her face away. She didn't want to cry. She didn't want him to see how much this situation had hurt her.

"Such an idiot..."

He wanted to help her. But for the first time, it wasn't simply the familiar need to protect her—the one he knew so well. He didn't want to be only the person who pulled her out of difficult situations, who comforted her whenever the world became too overwhelming.

He wanted her to stop treating him like someone she had to defend herself against. He wanted her to believe that with him, she didn't have to pretend.

Throughout his life, he had met women who knew exactly how to attract attention. But none of them had ever managed to stay in his thoughts the way Lucia did. She was different. It was precisely her awkwardness, her honesty, and her inability to hide what she felt that made it impossible for him to remain indifferent.

She wasn't trying to win him over. She wasn't playing a role. Even now, when jealousy had slipped beyond her control, she still couldn't pretend to be someone she wasn't.

It wasn't her confidence that attracted him most. It was the moments when she lost it that showed him how real she truly was.

"Why would that be something terrible?"

Lucia looked at him uncertainly. There was no amusement in his voice. No criticism. Only a question and that extraordinary gentleness in his eyes that she still didn't know how to handle.

She was used to being judged. Used to people quickly forming opinions about her. Used to having to defend herself. She wasn't used to someone looking at her as if all the things she considered flaws were not flaws at all.

"You probably think the same thing, don't you? That I'm just as pushy as she is?"

Tavo shook his head.

"No."

He took another step closer. By now, he understood how different she was from the women he had known before. Not because she was less confident, less experienced, or more cautious. She was unique precisely because, despite all her wounds and fears, she was still capable of being completely genuine.

"Don't talk about yourself that way."

For a brief moment, everything between them became quiet again.

Lucia could have stayed. She could have allowed him to say more. She could have stopped fighting herself.

But then the phone rang again. The sound cut through the moment and immediately reminded them that beyond this room there was still a world waiting. Responsibilities. People who needed things from them.

They both looked toward the desk.

"Answer it," Lucia said quickly, almost desperately. She pointed toward the phone.

"Go to her. She's already missing you."

She tried to sound light, but Tavo heard the tension beneath her words. He saw that she was closing herself off again. Lucia stepped back toward the door.

"You know, we're friends and we understand each other well..."

The words sounded almost like a reminder, not to him, to herself. Friends were safe. Friends could care about each other. They could be close. They could miss one another. But they didn't have to admit that seeing someone else beside them hurt.

"...so go to her."

Tavo felt a sting of disappointment. Only moments earlier, he had felt as though she had taken a step toward him. And now she was immediately pulling away, as if frightened by her own courage.

"Lucia..."

He moved after her, but she only shook her head.

"Please."

This time there was no anger in her voice. Only a desperate request. A request for him to let her leave before she said something she would regret later.

She turned and walked out. The door closed behind her quickly, almost nervously, as if she wanted to escape not only the office, but her own emotions as well.

Tavo was left alone. The phone was still ringing, but for a moment he ignored it. He simply stared at the door through which Lucia had disappeared.

Only a few minutes earlier, he hadn't been certain of anything. He had only suspicions, hope, and fragments of a puzzle that didn't always seem to fit together.

Now he had an answer. Not a complete one. Not one that solved every problem between them. But enough.

Lucia had been jealous. And that meant more than he wanted to allow himself to admit.

Slowly, he looked down at the keys still resting in his hand. Only moments earlier, they had been nothing more than an object. Now they had become evidence. A trace of her presence. Proof that she hadn't come to him because she had to. She had come because she couldn't remain indifferent.

Tavo turned them between his fingers, his thoughts drifting back over the past few weeks. To the letter whose contents he had imagined countless times. To every moment when he had wondered whether he was seeing something in Lucia that simply wasn't there.

He hadn't smiled because he wanted to be right. He wasn't happy because of her embarrassment or because, for a brief moment, she had been unable to hide what she felt.

The only thing that mattered to him was that, for the first time, he had seen something he didn't have to interpret. Something he didn't have to convince himself was real.

The most difficult thing about Lucia had always been that she could deny almost anything...except her own feelings. And those feelings had just betrayed her for the first time—clearly, unmistakably, and far more honestly than any words ever could.

Chapter 6 - Cinema

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