Compared to my last dinner experience with the Madrigals, lunch was indeed little. Not only in comparison to the food options, but also the number of people at the table. Other than Alma and Julieta, Luisa soon made an appearance followed by Dolores. I suppose the look on my face made it obvious I was expecting more people, but Julieta told me this is how lunches tend to go. Family come and sit as long as they can before they go to finish chores (either in the house or for the town) while others come later after they've finished their current chores.

Julieta also encouraged me to take more than what I already had on my plate since there was plenty and I was their guest. However, once I got up to get something to drink and came back, I saw "I" was already sitting at the table with a 2nd plate full of food. I caught Alma's eye who seemed equally confused before she started laughing.

"Camillo," she smiled. "Let Rosa have her seat back." I heard a teenage voice groan come from my doppelganger and then saw Camillo sitting in my seat.

"Fine, but I'm keeping my plate!" he said before he moved to sit beside Luisa.

I let out a slight chuckle and sat back down in my original seat and continued eating. While there were some conversations, Julieta was right about people coming for a quick bite and leaving. I had a short conversation with Luisa after she asked where Julio was, but this didn't last long after the clock chimed and she left to start lifting. Isabella also stopped by for a quick bite, but after she came it was now time for Dolores to leave after mentioning she was meeting Mariano.

I was about to start talking with Alma when I heard footsteps above me and a man talking in a very high pitched, excited voice.

"This is the best news I've heard in years!" the voice shouted.

"Glad to hear that." Another voice said that I recognized as Bruno's.

"This is the starting point of my whole life!" the other voice said.

"I was wondering when he would leave." I heard Isabella mutter before she learned in closer to me. "That man has been here for the past three hours getting his fortunes told. He'd start to leave and then come back for another one."

"Bruno's nicer than me." I whispered back. "I'd start charging after 2."

After hearing some small talk between Bruno and the man (mostly Bruno trying to get a goodbye in and the man thanking Bruno over and over), the door opened and closed and I could have sworn I heard a faint lock clasp shut. Bruno soon walked into the dining room, barely acknowledging anyone besides his mother. I noticed he looked a little disheveled. Sand was stuck in his hair, which almost completely covered his eyes, and I could see some sand fall from his clothes as he walked. His clothes were also at odd angles like he had to walk through a hundred windstorms just to make it to the table. He sat a few seats away from me and I couldn't tell if he truly didn't know I was there, or if he was also in a hurry and couldn't stay long to talk.

"Glad to see you're still here." Julieta laughed and handed a bowl of arepas to her brother.

"I didn't think so many questions could come out of one mouth!" Bruno said, quickly taking the bowl. "What will my house look like? What will I wear when I meet my soulmate? What's my lucky number? How am I supposed to see that?!"

"Some people, huh?" I smiled

Bruno nodded his head before realizing who spoke. He quickly looked over at me, almost dropping his arepa. "R-Rosa! How long h-have you been here?"

"Not too long." I shrugged. "I just came for a short visit and Julieta asked me to stay for lunch."

"Well-Well if I had known you were here-" Bruno said, trying to push his hair out of his face and fix his clothes to their proper places.

"Um…Bruno?" Julieta started, but was ignored by her brother.

"-no-not that you're not welcome to c-come and go on your own-" Bruno continued. While he continued to fix himself, sand started falling onto his plate with each move he made.

"Bruno you-" Alma tried to say but Bruno kept talking.

"-you're a-always welcome he-here-"

I couldn't stop myself from smiling as the more Bruno tried to explain his absence and completely ignore his family, the more sand started to fall off him. But I think my smile was what gave him a hint something was wrong since the more I smiled, he slowly stopped talking and just looked at me. I started glancing down at his plate to give him a hint that's where he needed to look next, which he did. As soon as he did, his shoulders seemed to drop at the amount of sand that covered his food.

"Here," I laughed, pushing my bowl of soup towards him. "It's all yours. I'm too full and doubt I could even finish a spoonful of it."

Bruno gave me a quick thank you and started eating the soup, making sure to keep his hair away from it incase any stray sand was still left.

After lunch was over, Julieta left to deliver some meals to the townspeople and Alma went to her room while Bruno and I sat in the front room. While we sat, I told him the real reason I came to their casita. I told him about how everyone left my house for the day and with time to myself, I decided since I heard my papa's side of what happened the night Bruno disappeared I wanted to know Alma's as well. After telling Bruno what happened in the casita and everything Alma told me, there was silence between us for a minute before I broke it.

"I think there's a way to fix the feud between our families."

Bruno looked over at me and scrunched his eyebrows together. "How? Besides you and Julio, your family refuses to so much as in my family's direction."

"Not true." I smiled. "I don't know if you've noticed, but Gloria is currently on Julio and Antonio duty with Mirabel. I don't know who or how, but someone saw us and the boys out and told my papa about it. Gloria took Julio today to find spots to avoid that happening again and in exchange, she asked if Mirabel could come with Antonio because she missed her. So that's one more person. All we need are a few more people, and I think it could happen."

There was another silence between us, this time broken by Bruno shrugging and letting out a "Eh, couldn't hurt."

I just gave him a quick smile before standing up and looking around. "So, I got some time to spare before I have to be home. What would you like to do?"

Bruno opened his mouth to say something, but before he could the clock on the wall started singing a tune and Bruno's face immediately lit up. "It's starting!" was all he said before he quickly grabbed my arm and started pulling me toward his room. I tried to ask what's starting, but I could barely make out anything he said since he started talking incredibly fast and excitedly about something. Almost in the same voice as the man he was telling fortunes too earlier.

When he opened the door to his room, even though I saw it before on the night I lost my temper with him I was now incredibly amazed by the giant hourglass archway that separated his room from the tower where he told his fortunes. But before I was able to fully appreciate it's majesty, Bruno pulled me through a door into a large room that held his bed, a dresser, a hollowed out tv with no screen, and a variety of other miscellaneous things found in a bedroom.

"Bruno, what are-"

Before I could finish, Bruno pulled up a couple of chairs in front of the tv and motioned for me to sit in any one of them. While I was very hesitant to do so, I still gave him a (nervous) smile and sat down. He took the other one and clapped his hands. I waited for a few minutes before I started to hear tiny feet scurrying and multiple squeaks. Next thing I know, two brown rats climbed into the tv and looked around.

"You're right!" Bruno said before quickly getting up and rummaging through a box that was beside the tv.

While he did this, one thought stayed in my head. "What." What were rats doing in the tv? What is in that box? What is he doing? But all these questions were quickly answered when Bruno pulled out a background with a grand staircase and large windows painted onto it. He put it in the tv behind the rats who seemed to know immediately what do to as soon as Bruno sat back down in the chair beside me. The rats began to squeak and move around. One rat then seemed to fall and appear dead while the other started sniffing it and its squeaks for more frantic. When all seemed lost, the "dead" rat seemed to jump from its slumber and (unless I was imagining it), the other rat let out a happy squeal and began nuzzling the other with its nose.

I looked over at Bruno out of the corner of my eye and I thought I saw a small tear go down his cheek. But before I could say anything, he got up again and began looking through the box again until he found the right background. This one was painted with red curtains and a large stage. The rats again seemed to know what to do as soon as Bruno sat down. They again started running around, squeaking in different tones and jumping over each other.

"They've been working on this for months, left it on a cliffhanger last week!" Bruno whispered and I could see a slight sparkle in his eye. I just nodded my head and tried to figure out what the rats were trying to act out. But just as soon as I thought I was getting the hang of it, Bruno stood up and started clapping.

"Best episode yet! Amazing! I knew the father was going to turn on his son but didn't think the dog would turn too!"

"There was a dog?" I thought. I looked over at Bruno and still saw the sparkle in his eyes. I started to feel something deep inside me before it traveled up to my face and into my cheeks, which soon started to heat up.

Bruno scooped the rats up from the tv and started congratulating them on a great performance and asking them about next week's show. "I'm sorry Rosa!" he suddenly said, walking over to me with the rats on his arms. "I forgot to introduce you to the stars of the show. This," Bruno took the rat on right arm "Is Flora. She's a bit of a prima donna, but she's the go-to for dramas. And this," Bruno lifted the rat on his other arm who now appeared close to falling asleep "Is Julio. He's the best actor you've ever seen, as long as there's food on set. Named before I knew about your brother, I promise you."

Never in a million years did I think I would be face to face with rats and learning their names. I tried my best to muster a smile, but the rats seemed to have better acting skills than me since this seemed to be harder than it seemed. Bruno seemed to pick up on this as his smile quickly dropped.

"Sorry, I got a little carried away-"

"No-no-no no!" I said, quickly standing up. "The show was great! It was exactly like you said, great performance! I just never…knew you trained rats to act."

This seemed to perk him Bruno back up as the spark returned to his eye and so did the feeling in my stomach.

"They're natural actors, really." He said, setting the rats down. The one he named Flora ran off instantly while he other turned over in his sleep. "Can act out anything-Rosa!" Bruno turned to me and had the biggest smile I've ever seen. I almost jumped when I heard him yell my name. "Is your favorite story still Gatsby?"

"They Great Gatsby." I corrected him.

At this, Bruno ran further into his room and grabbed more rats from under his bed. He handed me one of them (which I was far from ready to hold onto) and held onto three more.

"Ready whenever you are, Mrs. Nick Calloway." Bruno smiled.

"Do you mean Nick Carraway?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

Bruno nodded his head excitedly and motioned for me to begin.

"Uh…" was all I could say as I felt my hand start to shake when I placed it on the back of the rat. The fur was a lot softer than what I expected it to me, I must admit. I looked back at Bruno who was smiling at me, being way more patient than he needed to be.

I slowly lifted up the rat like it was a doll and tried to talk like what I thought a Nick Carraway sounded like. "I-In my younger and more…vulnerable years," I tried my best to remember line by line of the story while also ignoring the fact I had a live rat in my hand.

Still, as I continued to remember the story and acted out different parts with the rat, Bruno handed me other rats as I needed them. One for Tom, Daisy, and all the others. Bruno even assisted me in scenes that had more than two characters, but he let me do most of the "acting". I even found myself changing certain scenes as the story progressed. Tom (my least favorite character) became dumber and dumber in my version while Nick is now elusive and secretive, like my own secret spy.

Once the story was finished, Bruno stood up and clapped for me. I let out a loud laugh as he did so and hid my face in my hands.

"Amazing! I was on the edge of my seat! The plot twists, the storyteller, the suspense!" he smiled.

"What plot twists?" I laughed again. "I used to tell you about that book at least once a week. You knew everything that was going to happen."

"But that was Fitzgerald's story." Bruno said, waving this off. "And you loved his works, talked about him for another week after Gatsby so he much be a great storyteller."

I rolled my eyes and gently set the rats down before standing up next to Bruno. I stood up straight and tall, pretending to adjust an invisible tie that was now around my neck. "Well, Mr. Madrigal." I tried my best to immediate what I thought F. Scott Fitzgerald would sound like. "I appreciate you admiring my work."

Bruno smiled at me and straightened a pretend tie. "Mr. Fitzgerald, it's a pleasure to meet you. But I'm afraid you're speaking to the wrong person. My friend Rosa is the one most interested in your work."

At this, I dropped my Fitzgerald character and pretended to be excited to "meet" him.

"Am I really going to meet F. Scott Fitzgerald?! I have so many questions for him! What's his inspiration? Who are his characters based on? So many! But of course, I can't meet him alone. I need someone to go with me."

Bruno quickly covered his face with his hood and puffed out his chest. "I would be honored to escort the lady to Mr. Fitzgerald." Bruno said in his Hernando voice. I laughed and put my arm through his. We pretended to walk around a large ballroom and "greet" everyone (AKA the rats) throughout the room.

The more we did this, the more I smiled. At one point, the sides of my mouth even started to hurt from smiling so much, but I didn't want it to stop. The feeling in my stomach was still there and it seemed to grow the more time I spent with Bruno, but I still couldn't figure out exactly what this feeling was supposed to be. Still, I started to care less and less about figuring this out and only focus on the fun I was having at this moment and how much I didn't want it to end.

Still, I know all good things must come to an end. Just as Bruno opened his mouth to speak like Fitzgerald, there was a knock on his door and Alma walked in.

"Rosa, you have a vistor-"

"Rosa!" I heard a high-pitched voice yell and I found myself almost knocked down by the force of a 7-year-old boy.

"Julio!" I smiled, bending down to hug my brother. "What are you doing here big man?"

"Gloria wanted to see the Madrigal house," Julio said, still clearly full of energy from playing with Antonio "and Dolores said you were here too."

I let out a slight chuckle and ruffled Julio's hair before standing up to look at Bruno. "Well, looks like my day off is coming to an end. Back to being a full-time sister."

Bruno let out a tiny laugh as well and nodded his head. "But, you're welcome back here anytime."

"I'll keep that in mind." I said. Julio grabbed my hand and led me out of Bruno's room. When I left the room and looked down, I saw Mirabel giving Gloria a tour of casita. When my sister saw me, her eyes lit up and I saw a glow to her I hadn't seen in years. Almost like seeing a rainbow after a day full of thunderstorms.