Chapter Thirty-Three (Michael POV)

The drive back to Miami is a hell of a lot more pleasant than the drive leaving had been. That is thanks in large part to the fact Mateo is no longer giving me the silent treatment and Jane, as of last night, has finally broken through her writer's block. She rose from bed at about 2:00 in the morning and wrote until dawn. I only know that because I was briefly jostled awake when she climbed from the bed to find her laptop and, when I opened my eyes again as weak sunlight filtered in through the heavy, hotel curtains, she was still furiously typing.

It was so good to see her writing again, so familiar that I didn't even bother with feeling ignored when she shooed me and Mateo downstairs to enjoy the continental breakfast without her. I enjoyed having the time to talk to him one on one, even if he did most of the talking. I couldn't help but feel that everything was the way it had always been meant to be between us and I feel that exact same way now.

There is an air of contentment that surrounds our little makeshift family that was not present before. As of this exact second, there are no foreseeable crises on the horizon, no criminal masterminds lying in wait to do us harm. No one is sulking. No one is crying. No one is having an emotional breakdown as a result of a world flipped upside down. It's just me, my woman and my kid spending time together and I can't imagine anything better than that.

These last three days with my family have been the most fun, but also the most exhausting days I've ever experienced in my life…and I went through a relentless police academy training. Jane and I had bounced back and forth between the two parks, sometimes several times in one day. Mateo could never decide what he wanted to do more, ride kiddie rollercoasters or play in the lazy river, which left us flittering hither, tither and yon at his every whimsy. But even as tired as I am right now, thinking about how happy he'd been makes me smile. I don't regret a single moment.

Finally, our relationship is back on track and, ever since Mateo decided to start speaking to me again, he's been a virtual chatterbox with a seemingly endless supply of subjects to discuss. He's stuck to me like glue these last three days, waiting for me outside of the bathroom, shadowing me while I shaved, holding my hand as we wound our way through the parks. He even volunteered to accompany me if I ran an errand.

And the entire time, he talked…about the weather, about his breakfast, about whatever random subject popped into his six year old brain and I listened, all day and all night. He sometimes fell asleep talking. When he woke up the next morning, he'd simply resume as if he had been on pause for the night. I was sure that he would eventually run out of subject matter but he never did. Jane thought it was the most hilarious thing in the world.

The only reason he's not yammering my ear off right this second is because he's asleep. So is his mother for that matter. She had drifted off about an hour before we were set to hit the Miami city limits, understandable since she's only had a few hours of real quality sleep. Before she lost the fight to stay awake, however, she had been furiously drafting the first chapter in her novel and her peck, peck, pecking on the keys had been punctuated by Mateo's longwinded recap of his adventures at Legoland. Now the car is quiet and strangely enough I miss the noise that had filled it an hour before.

There's a part of me that's very reluctant to return to Miami. It's been nice just being the three of us in our own little bubble. With all other outside influences shut away, we could focus on becoming closer and enjoying one another's company, on really getting to know one another and what were our expectations for our family. But I know it's unrealistic to expect that could go on indefinitely. After all, that's why it's called a vacation. It's an opportunity to "vacate" your real life but only for a short time. Now it's back to reality, more specifically back to Rafael and facing his certain wrath.

And I say that it's certain because the guy has been blowing up Jane's cell nonstop for the past two days. She had more than a dozen missed calls from him on her cell phone, none of which she'd returned. It had been important to Jane to give Mateo a stress free adventure and so she made the executive decision to ignore Rafael altogether. So I know that he's probably about ready to sail into orbit by now. That suspicion is sadly confirmed when I pull up in front of the Villanueva home and find Rafael's car already there. I knew that it would be after Jane sent him a heads up text that we were coming home. After taking a few seconds to mentally prepare myself, I reach over to gently wake Jane.

She blinks at me with bleary eyes. "Hmm…what?"

"Babe, we made it home and…Rafael is here."

With that, all vestiges of sleep disappear from her face and she scrambles upright and immediately comes face to face with the rear bumper of Rafael's car which is parked in front of us. She glances back at a dozing Mateo and then back at me. "Well," she sighs, "I guess we should hurry up and get this over with."

We're only halfway up the walk, with Jane coaxing along a still sleepy Mateo and me carrying Jane and Mateo's bags, Jane's laptop, the various stuffed animals we procured over the past two days and the basketball I won for Mateo the last night at Legoland when Rafael comes rushing out of the front door. The instant Mateo sees his father he comes alive and goes running straight into Rafael's open arms with an excited cry of, "Daddy!" The two share an emotional reunion, more on Rafael's end than Mateo's, while Jane and I close the distance.

By the time we reach them, Mateo is already talking up a storm about everything he saw and did while on vacation and Rafael is listening to him in rapt attention. But his lips are also compressed in a tight smile, a sure indication that he's also quite pissed. I already know that this won't go well.

"We took tons of pictures," Jane tells him by way of peace offering, "We can go on into the house and I can show them to you."

Rafael flicks her with a withering glare before he sets Mateo back down onto his feet with an over-bright smile. "Hey buddy, why don't you run into the house and see what bisa is making you? I want to talk to Mommy and Michael for a little bit before you show me all of the pictures."

As if willed forth by a mere mention, Alba materializes in the front door. She exchanges greetings with Jane and I and it's impossible to miss the concern in her eyes as she beckons Mateo closer. "Tuviste un buen viaje?" she asks Jane.

"It was great. Michael and I have plenty of pictures. We had a blast."

"Bueno. Mantendré a Mateo ocupado en la casa mientras hablas," she says, her expression tense, "Por favor trata de mantener la calma y recuerda que eres una familia."

She bounces a beseeching glance between the three of us, apparently sensing that our impending discussion is not going to be a peaceful one. Thankfully, she offers to relieve me of the armful I'm carrying. I transfer the load between her and Mateo with a grateful smile and watch with some measure of dread as they turn to go back into the house.

"Don't be long, Daddy," Mateo requests before Alba can drag him into the house completely, "I have a lot to tell you!"

Once he disappears into the house and is safely out of earshot, however, Rafael's pleasant demeanor evaporates entirely. He whips around to glare at me and Jane. "You two have some nerve!" he grates, "You're lucky I didn't call the police and have you both arrested!"

Jane is left stammering and horrified by the threat but I merely snort with laughter. "For what?"

"For kidnapping," Rafael snaps.

"Go ahead," I invite him lightly, "File the charge. They'll laugh you right out of the station."

"I should punch you in your smug face," he warns me, "but Mateo is in the house and, fortunately for you, I have more self-control than that but don't test my patience, Michael! Don't think I don't know that you're behind this!"

"Behind what?"

"Jane would have never done something like this without you putting the idea in her head!"

I am still sputtering over his dual implication that Jane is somehow easily manipulated and that I am also a negative influence on her when Jane suddenly interjects both on my behalf and her own. "Leave him alone. I made the decision to go and I would do it again too," she says, "If you want to blame someone, blame me."

"Oh, don't worry about that," he scoffs bitterly, "I do! You've made it quite clear how little you respect me!"

"You have a lot of nerve talking about respect when you're the one who doesn't respect my decisions!"

"Well, do you blame me?" he retorts, raking me with a brief but scathing glance, "The last time you made a decision our family was torn apart!" From where I stand behind Jane, I shake my head slightly, my first and last warning to Rafael that he is about to step into a minefield but he either doesn't care or that's his intention because his next words only cause tensions to escalate. "Maybe I could respect your decisions if they made sense to me!" Wrong thing to say, dude. Wrong thing.

Jane absorbs that response with a scoff and rapid, dubious blinking. "I'm going to ignore how painfully problematic and offensive that comment is and chalk it up to you being upset right now," she intones with a haughty edge, "Because otherwise…"

"Otherwise what?" he challenges.

Because otherwise you sound like a Neanderthal, I answer him mentally. Otherwise, you're going to really piss her off. And otherwise, you're going to destroy what's left of the relationship you have with her. I'm trying to telepathically transmit that message to his belligerent ass, advising him not to go there at all. I've walked in those shoes before and they take you down a very lonely path. He's not on my list of favorite people or anything but I still wouldn't wish that agonizing lesson on him. Losing her is already pain enough and I know that from experience as well.

"Rafael, why are you being like this?" Jane cries, "It's not like we took him out of the country or even out of the state! And now we're back. Mateo is fine and obviously nothing bad happened! Can't you chill?"

"You ignored my calls for two days, Jane. What was I supposed to think? How was I supposed to know that he was okay? That nothing had happened to him or if you were even coming back at all? Do you even know how frantic I was?"

"I would have called you if that was the case. And of course we were coming back! This is our home!"

"Yeah, well you'll forgive me if I don't easily take you at your word!"

I watch as Jane's defensive guilt fades away and is replaced with mounting anger and irritation. "We went to an amusement park, Raf, not Egypt! Get over yourself."

"You deprived me of sharing that experience with him!" Rafael argues, "You deliberately shut me out, Jane, and that is unacceptable as far as I'm concerned!"

"You want to experience an amusement park with Mateo? Take him! Go with my blessing! No one is stopping you from spending time with your son, Rafael, including right this second!"

"Are you being serious right now?" Rafael demands incredulously, "You're not even going to apologize for making me go out of my mind for two days?"

Jane crosses her arms, her expression rebellious and I silently will her not to say what she's about to say next…but she does it anyway. "No. I'm not going to apologize."

"I guess I don't have a choice then…" Rafael sighs plaintively, "You're too far gone."

"A choice in what?" Jane prompts, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"I'm going to petition the court for full custody of Mateo. Obviously that needs to happen since I can't trust you to have his best interests at heart."

Jane and I respond with a simultaneous and incredulous, "What?" But while she descends into a rant about Rafael's unadulterated nerve and pettiness and general childishness, I try to take a more practical approach and appeal to his sense of reason instead. "Come on, man. Do you really want to turn this into a court case?" I ask him, "Over an amusement park?"

Predictably, however, my attempt at magnanimity doesn't go over well and he essentially tells me to kiss his ass. "This really has nothing to do with you, Michael, so you can leave."

"Actually, he doesn't have to go anywhere," Jane retorts before I can say a word, "This involves him because Mateo loves him and so do I! So, Michael stays. Furthermore, please…go right ahead and sue me for custody. I'm sure the judge will be very eager to award you full parental rights with you being an ex-con and all! Meanwhile, I don't have a criminal record, I can provide Mateo with a two parent, stable home, not to mention the fact that my boyfriend is a cop! What kind of chances do you really think you'll have for full custody, Raf?"

"Oh, you're going to go there?"

"You're the one who brought up custody," she bites out, "I'm just giving you a dose of reality!"

"Okay, how's this for reality?" Rafael retorts in a mocking tone, "Michael might be a cop but he's also been a shady cop. What do you think a judge will say when all of Michael's dirty laundry gets aired, not to mention the fact he's mentally unstable and put me in the hospital four months ago?"

I'm groaning inwardly at the reminder. That day remains one of the lowest points in my existence. Every time I think I've moved on from it, a reminder comes back to bite me in the ass. I definitely don't want it rehashed in court, especially if custody is hanging in the balance. I hate that my actions from that day are going to be used as a legal bargaining chip and if the rage gathering on Jane's face is any warning, she hates it too.

"You son of a bitch," she hisses, surprising both Rafael and me by the intensity in her tone, "How dare you throw the hell Michael went through back in his face like that? Who do you think you are? You want to hate me, Rafael? Fine! Maybe I deserve it. But what I don't deserve is you using my son and Michael to hurt me and this will be the last time! I'm done with that! So you can get off my property before I call the police and have you arrested for trespassing!"

For a moment, he stands there dumbfounded, as if he can't quite believe the words that just came flying out of her mouth. Quite truthfully, neither can I. In all the time he's been in our lives, I've never seen her display this level of vitriol towards Rafael. I've never heard her talk to him this way. He's almost always gotten a pass from her as Mateo's father, a default benefit of the doubt if you will, so to witness this level of bitterness being directed at him right now feels almost seems surreal. And, unlike times past, when I've been a bystander during their occasional arguments, I don't enjoy this one in the least because now I'm considering how having his parents at odds will adversely affect Mateo.

With that in mind, I give Jane a soothing nudge from behind to get her attention. "Babe, maybe you want to stop now," I murmur, "before you say something that you'll regret."

"Don't worry," she clips before turning back to face Rafael, "I don't regret a single word." And then she proceeds to make it blindingly clear that this isn't an emotional lapse and that she is doing what she wants when she explodes at Rafael, "Go! Get out of here! I mean it! Right now!"

I think, perhaps, that edict is finally enough to wake Rafael up to the fact that he's gone too far because his tone suddenly shifts from accusing to coaxing. "Jane, come on… You can't kick me out of Mateo's life. I'm his father. I love him." There is a flicker of remorse on his face when he says as he pleads with her, reasons with her but Jane is having none of it.

She points a finger towards his parked car. "I said leave. Get off of my property! Any further communication between us should be through our lawyers and we'll decide your schedule for visitation then!"

But just as he starts to reluctantly step around her to comply with the command, Jane suddenly cries out and doubles over in pain. In an instant, all the animosity of the previous moment is forgotten as sudden alarm sets in. Both Rafael and I are at her side immediately, flanking her as she cradles her belly with a low moan. "Jane, what is it?" I press her anxiously, "Tell me what's happening!"

"I don't know…" she grits out, "…it just hurts." And then she grabs hold of my forearm, her features slack with terror. "Oh my God, Michael…I…I think I'm bleeding."

Everything that happens after that seems to go by in a blur of activity for me. I go on immediate auto-pilot, falling into the emergency training afforded to me by the Miami-Dade police department. While I direct Jane over to the porch swing and encourage her to keep calm, I order Rafael to call 911 and inform Alba of the situation. Jane is crying and shaking and hysterical and absolutely convinced that she is losing our baby and I don't know what to say, especially when I see the crimson that is beginning to saturate her white shorts. By the time the ambulance finally arrives, I'm internally panicking right along with her though I do my best to maintain a veneer of calm.

I'm unable to ride in the ambulance with her and so I'm forced to go with Rafael, who is insistent on driving me because I'm "too upset." I don't even contemplate rejecting his offer because I can think of little else besides Jane and the baby. He and I follow behind the paramedics in his car and remain as close as we can, as safely as we can.

A vacuum of silence and dread has formed around me. Without Jane to focus on, I'm suddenly trapped in my own thoughts and imagining about a dozen morbid outcomes. The one thing that keeps coming back to me, however, is that 16 week old fetuses do not survive outside of the womb. I remember reading that somewhere recently when I was researching the medical advances made in caring for premature infants.

Just the other night, Jane had been dozing beside me and I had been watching her sleep and wondering about when I might be able to feel the baby kick, which had led to a meandering google search on all things baby related. I hadn't thought too closely about that article when I read it but now…now it felt like a sign. Maybe God had been trying to prepare me for what was about to come. I can feel the blood pounding in my ears with the thought and, right then, I greatly need a distraction.

Somehow I have the presence of mind to call Xiomara and Rogelio to update them but I get their voicemails with both calls. Given the circumstances, I'm frustrated, especially because I'm anticipating that Jane will need Xiomara like she's never needed her before. Left with little choice, I leave a message for both of them to call me as soon as possible. But after I'm done with that, I am overwhelmed with a sense of helplessness. We're fairly flying through the streets of Miami but time has slowed to a crawl. I feel a little lost and I don't even realize that I'm crying as I stare blindly at the flashing red and blue lights ahead of us until Rafael offers an attempt at reassurance.

I glance over at him, startled from my dark thoughts. "What?"

"Maybe it's not as bad as you think," he suppositions gently.

"She was bleeding," I tell him flatly, scrubbing away the tears that fall, "A lot. It's as bad as I think."

"I'm sorry. I never meant for this to happen."

"Well, what were you expecting when you were hammering at her like that?" I bite out, "You actually threatened to take Mateo away because we went on vacation! She's pregnant for God's sake, Rafael! What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I was angry. I wasn't thinking!"

"No shit!"

"I don't know what to say, Michael."

"I think you've said enough! And I know you probably don't give a damn because it's my kid but-,"

"That's not true," he interrupts me sharply, "It's her kid too. I don't want her to lose it."

Once we finally arrive at the hospital, we're not permitted to see Jane right away. She is immediately wheeled up to labor and delivery for evaluation and Rafael and I are forced to cool our heels in the waiting room. Despite several more attempts, I still cannot get through to Rogelio and Xiomara. I call Alba next and she reassures me that she will keep trying to contact with Xo and Ro while I focus on Jane and the baby.

That's one less worry weighing on my shoulders but I still feel as if I'm going to jump out of my skin. I anxiously pace the length of the carpeted floor. There are a few others milling about with us in the waiting room and I vaguely wonder if they are waiting to hear good news or bad news…like me.

"You can go," I tell Rafael when I notice that he continues to linger, "I'm sure you have other things to do. Mateo is probably freaking out right now."

"Mateo is fine. Alba will take care of him. I want to stay here and make sure Jane is okay."

"Oh, so now you care!" I scoff bitterly before I can stop myself.

"That's not fair. You know I love her!"

"You have an interesting way of showing it."

"And I regret that more than I can say, Michael. I'm so sor-,"

"Save your apology," I snap, "I don't want to hear it! If anything happens to Jane or our baby, that's on you, Rafael, and you have to live with it! I'm sure as hell not going to absolve you!"

We spend the remainder of the next 90 minutes in tense silence. I try to think of how I'm going to comfort Jane, what I'm going to say to reassure her if our baby dies. I find myself thinking of something she said to me months ago, in defense of my mother. …I haven't lost a child. I can't imagine who I would become if Mateo died. Now, her comment almost feels ominous, like foreshadowing. The words turn over and over again in my head now. I wonder who she's going to become if we lose this baby. I wonder who I'm going to become for that matter.

I'm at the point where I'm pretty sure I'm going to go out of my damned mind from waiting and I'm thinking about badgering the girl at the desk one more time when someone finally calls my name. I glance up and find a nurse standing just outside of the glass partition surrounding the waiting area. For a second, I'm afraid I might have misheard her so I remain frozen in place.

"Mr. Cordero?" she asks again.

Rafael and I scramble closer. "Yes?" I prompt a little desperately.

"You can come back and see your wife now."

I'm so anxious, I barely even register the nurse's assumption that Jane and I are married. It's not even minutely important because all I can really think about is the baby. I don't even want to ask my next question but I have to. It's blaring in my brain over and over and I have to know.

"Is our baby…d-did Jane have a…?"

"Your baby's fine, Mr. Cordero, and your wife is eager to see you. Please, follow me."

I'm so elated that I don't even think about asking Rafael to stay behind so when he follows me back I don't even care. I'm too focused on keeping up with the nurse's brisk pace. Thankfully, he hangs back when reach the room and allows me to slip inside the examination cubicle to see Jane alone. I find her propped upright on the stretcher with two monitor belts wrapped around her abdomen. A soft, rhythmic beeping cuts through the otherwise sterile silence within the room. Jane smiles at me in relief and beckons me forward, answering the unspoken question on my face.

"It's okay. Baby is good. I have a condition called placenta previa," she explains to me, "That's why I was bleeding."

"What the hell is that?"

"It just means that my placenta is too low, almost near the birth canal. The doctor says that as the baby gets bigger it might shift but I can experience some intermittent bleeding in the meantime."

"You mean like today?" I balk. The idea of her bleeding like that on a regular basis honestly freaks me the hell out and I say so.

"According to the doctor, I didn't lose much blood at all," she says, "Not even half a cup."

"Really?"

"Really. They said my hemoglobin is still within normal range."

"But what about all the pain you were in?" I press worriedly, "You said you felt like you were having contractions."

"I was. But they weren't strong enough to dilate me."

Relieved, I smooth my hands over the small, rounded slope of her abdomen as if to reassure myself that it is still there. "So why were you having contractions in the first place?"

"Well…that's actually your fault."

I rear back with a confused frown. "My fault?"

"I have a urinary tract infection…" I stare at her blankly, not immediately grasping the correlation. "…From all the sex," she clarifies with a wry smile.

"Oh."

"Yes, oh. So the nurse told me that I need to pee before and after sex. I need void when I have the urge, wipe front to back and drink plenty of water. I'm also going to be on a course of antibiotics for the next ten days. Yay for me!"

"But can we still have sex…I mean, even with the previa thing? That's okay, right?"

"Yes, we can still have sex…though they advised me to wait a week until the infection clears." She pulls me closer for a laughing kiss and I transmit every ounce of relief and happiness I feel into kissing her back. After a few seconds, she breaks contact and pulls back from me with an affectionate nuzzle before whispering, "There's something else I have to tell you."

I try to mask the dread the gurgles to life in the pit of my stomach when she says that. "What is it?"

"I know what we're having."

Reassured that nothing is seriously wrong, the tension abruptly seeps from my body and I decide to tease her a little. I fall back a step with a dramatic gasp. "You didn't. Jane, we agreed to wait."

"The nurse asked me!" she rushes out in justification, "And I was so worried and stressed out that when it happened that I just said yes without thinking because I needed some good news and I was so upset and beside myself that I didn't even correct her when she assumed we were married so I really didn't even know half of what was going on when I said yes and…are you mad at me? I won't tell you the sex if you don't want to know, Michael."

I roll my eyes at that weak promise. "Tell me."

She's practically squealing with delight when she makes the reveal. "We're having a little girl." Her excitement is infectious and I have to kiss her again right then. She giggles happily in between our ecstatic kisses. "You're not disappointed that we won't have our gender reveal party after all, are you?" she asks me.

I smile against her mouth. "Can I be honest?"

Jane rears back a little to regard me. "Yeah. Of course."

"I actually wasn't as excited about the party as you were," I confess sheepishly, "No offense but…it sounded a little stupid to me. Don't be mad!"

She gapes at me. "What? If that's how you felt then why did you agree?"

"Because you wanted it and your happiness is no small thing to me, remember?"

All traces of laughing outrage vanish from her face as she leans back into me for another kiss. "I love you so much."

"I love you so much."

"Is everything okay?"

Startled, I lurch around to face Rafael. Apparently, he had slipped inside the room sometime in the last few seconds and neither Jane nor I had noticed his entrance. Actually, I had completely forgotten that he was here at all until he spoke. Under normal circumstances, I'd probably ask him to leave but he looks so apprehensive and so apologetic that I take pity on him and say nothing.

Jane reflexively grabs for my hand and regards him with a guarded expression. "Hey, Rafael. I didn't realize you were here."

"Hey, Jane. How are you doing? I wanted to check on you…make sure everything was okay."

"I'm fine," she tells him, "And so is the baby. It wasn't anything too serious."

"It wasn't? Because it seemed pretty serious to me. I was worried about you."

"I have a something called placenta previa. It doesn't affect the baby if it's monitored properly. Basically it means my placenta is developing very close to the birth canal and that's why I was bleeding."

"So it wasn't anything that I did?" he asks with palpable relief.

"No, it wasn't, Raf. You don't have anything to feel guilty about. What happened to me today wasn't your fault."

"But it kind of was…" he argues softly, "…because I upset you. I never should have threatened to sue you for custody. I was angry and I wasn't thinking. I'm sorrier than I can say."

"And I shouldn't have ignored your calls," Jane acknowledges in return, "You were right about that. But I knew you were angry and I didn't want to fight so I avoided you. I didn't handle it in the best way. I'm sorry too."

"I understand. Neither of us has handled this situation very well."

"We can't go on like this. We have to find a better way of dealing with our new circumstances for Mateo's sake and for this baby too," Jane says, darting a look between me and Rafael, "I love Michael. And Mateo loves Michael. He's not going anywhere, Raf, so you need to come to terms with that." She turns to me then. "And Michael? I love Rafael too. I know he's been a sore spot for you for a long time now but… He's my friend and he means a lot to me and I want him in my life. Can you accept that?"

"You know that I can," I assure her even as a small part of me wishes she didn't feel that way.

She glances over at Rafael. "What about you?"

"I'll try," he mumbles and it sounds like the words are being ripped from his body, "What I know for sure is that I don't want what happened this afternoon to ever happen again. When they put you in the back of that ambulance today, I've never been so scared in my life and I felt like…" He trails off with a rough swallow. "I never want to feel like that again. I want us to stop fighting too. So, I will work on my attitude. I promise."

He goes into her arms the moment she opens them in invitation and I step aside and give them some relative privacy while they hug it out. When they separate, Jane is crying openly while Rafael surreptitiously wipes away his own tears. "I should probably go," he says when he straightens, "I need to relieve Alba and update them on what happened."

"Right. It was crazy for a minute there. I'm surprised my mom and dad haven't stormed this place."

"I called them both," I tell her, "but I got their voicemails. It didn't seem like the kind of message you leave on someone's phone, so I just told them to call me."

"Well, when they do call, we can tell them crisis averted," she says with a smile.

I smile back. "Thank God."

"On that note," Rafael sighs, abruptly reminding us both that he's still in the room, "I'm going to take off now and give you two some time alone. I'm glad everything is okay."

He's halfway down the corridor by the time I make it out of the room to chase after him. I call his name and he stops and turns back to face me with a dread-filled expression. "I just wanted to thank you…for driving me here," I say, hoping that will relieve his uneasiness, "And also I wanted to say that I'm sorry for blaming you. I was scared and you were an easy target."

"Don't mention it. I was blaming myself too, so…"

I accept his tacit apology with a nod. "You know, for the record…I get what you're going through right now, probably better than anyone in the world," I continue sincerely, "I know what it feels like to love her and then lose her and then watch her be with someone else. It's absolute torture."

"Yeah."

"But I don't want to be your enemy, Rafael, just because we happen to be in love with the same woman. If anything, that should allow us to find some common ground, don't you think?"

"I guess."

"So let's try that. For real this time. Not that halfhearted bullshit you gave her a minute ago but a real, honest to goodness effort. For her sake…because we both love her. What do you say?" I extend my hand to him in firm invitation. "Can we try to be friends?"

I heave a sigh of relief when he steps forward and shakes my hand. "Yeah. I'm willing to try."