When dinner was served, the food was so good that we were quiet for some time, just eating. Javi had grilled fresh fish and vegetables on the fire and brought them over to us. The sun was nearly set, still casting a warm, roseate glow over the beach, and the face of the woman I'd so longed to see again. It was as close to perfect as things could get. Still, I felt a little, wriggling emotion in the back of my mind and the base of my throat. I couldn't catch on to what it was, yet, and I hoped it was just the ghost of feelings past, since I'd been thinking of my childhood. I tried to ignore it.

Cosima sat back, her plate on the table, the last quarter-glass of wine in her hand, and looked off into the distance. Her face was beginning to blur in the low light, and I caught her glancing at me a couple times. Finally, she cleared her throat.

"So, um," she started, then clasped her hands together, twisting at her rings. I put down my plate and waited, giving her my full attention.

"There's, uh, there's not a lot of time left in the retreat, so I wanted to, I don't know, check in with you, or something."

She looked up at me. I wasn't sure how to answer. I wondered why she seemed nervous, unsettled. Was my mood catching? I nodded slightly and said:

"Okay."

"So, are you planning on, are you heading to the airport right in the morning, after," she asked, several conflicting emotions seeming to flicker just under the surface of her face.

"Well, that's what my reservations say," I answered, trying to read her tone, feeling already a bit off and then finding it compounded by her hesitancy.

She took a breath.

"So, back to New Haven, huh," she said, her inflection part purposefully flat, part turning at the end into a question. I leaned a bit closer, wanting to find out what she was getting at.

"Cosima..." I began. But I was interrupted by the soft thump of Javi's feet on the stairs.

"Hey, ladies, are you enjoying yourselves," he asked, all smiles, and we both rushed to tell him how much we loved the food.

"Good, good. We'll have some sweets later," he chuckled, "but since the sun's almost down, I thought you might want to come out by the fire."

Cosima and I looked at each other, and then she nodded.

"Sure, sounds good," she said, and I rose to follow them to the fire pit, catching up with her and walking beside her, carrying my shoes, bare feet in the sand.

We reached the fire and sat down in side-by-side lounge chairs, him joining us on the log perpendicular to and just by Cosima's side. He offered us more wine and we both accepted some.

"Sooo," he began jocularly, "Delphine, how have you been enjoying your stay?"

"Ah, well, it's really beautiful here... and, of course, something of an adventure for me. I've never been to the rainforest, and the whole idea of going to this kind of retreat... It was given to me by a friend. So, nothing could have been as I imagined to begin with, and then when I saw Cosima..."

I looked at her, caught up in the memory of that first glimpse of her, our drawing together, discussions, experiences, rekindling our long-lost relationship, our love. She looked back at me, smiling, and I felt as though she was going through the same progression of thoughts and feelings, the way she had tried to resist it, how little time it took then to touch again, to swear our love. I didn't know how much Javi knew, and I couldn't think of how to express it. She reached over and took my hand, interlacing our fingers, and I could feel the unexpected happiness, the gratitude well up between us.

Javi let us have our moment of silent communing, sipping his wine through a grin, and then changed topics.

"And Cosima, how is little Severo? Is he growing whiskers, yet?" Cosima laughed.

"No, but he is getting bigger. He moved up to the next level in the fútbol league. He's getting better all the time, but Teo says every time I come to a game he doesn't do as well because he gets too polite."

They both cackled for a moment and I smiled.

"Doesn't he know that the first time some kid knocks your son down in front of you, you're going to go ballistic?"

"Javi," she laughed, pointing a finger at him, "you know I think violence is not the answer, man."

"Sure, sure," he grinned, "I know that's what you say, and maybe what you think now, but I also know you when your temper rises."

Cosima let out a good belly laugh along with him, and I had to laugh along, too. I had seen the scope of her anger, and it was good to imagine it in jest, especially when it was not aimed at me.

"So, you got any pictures," Javi asked, with a look that said he was quite sure she did.

"Yeah, yeah," Cosima chuckled, and reached into her pocket to pull out her phone. We all sat with quiet grins as she turned it on and started tapping. She found a photo folder, opened it, and pulled up a picture of her child smiling, so much like she did, in his tiny football uniform. It was adorable, and Javi's grin widened when she handed the phone to him and he saw it.

But my mouth went dry, and my breath caught. Because I'd seen something else.

Just a couple photos before in the folder, Sevvy was caught mid-motion as he touched the sticky cream in an ice-cream cone to Cosima's nose, her face scrunched up in amused surprise.

And just next to and behind them, someone was laughing, slightly blurred, head thrown back.

It was Shay.