Chapter 18:

(Isabella POV)

- 1 week later -

"We can't do this again," Caleb said as we continued to kiss in the alleyway. "Yeah, I know. My family would kill me and the town..." I mumbled as we deepened our kiss. This has happened everyday for the last 9 days since that first kiss. 9 kisses. None of which that I regret, but every time we both agreed that we couldn't do this again and every time we actually did. Caleb was always the one to say it though. I don't know why it always made me sad when he did. I leaned back and looked at him as his hair fell in front of his face, "Why did you stop?" He said breathlessly.

I looked up at him, "I am the one with everything to lose if people found out..." He nodded his head, "Yeah I mean it wouldn't be great for me either." I bit my bottom lip, "But you are the one who always says we can't do this again." He nodded his head again, "Yeah." I held his gaze, "So why do you keep kissing me." He shook his head, "No I'm not the one who initiated this." I looked at him, "We might have both kissed each other the first 2 times, but every time after that it has been you." "Isabella," He started but I shook my head, "I don't want us to keep saying that 'we can't do this again' only to do it tomorrow."

He let out a breath, "Well what do you want to do?" I looked at him and he looked annoyed with me or maybe himself. Either way I just shook my head. I was too confused to keep going on like this, "I have to go. Bye Caleb." I went to leave and he grabbed my wrist, "Wait Isabella..." I shook him off though and made my way onto the street. The people in town didn't seem to notice my appearance from the alleyway and I took that as an opportunity to put more distance in between myself and Caleb.

(Caleb POV)

I don't know what I did but, it was clearly the wrong thing. This was the 9th time that we did this and every time I could only think about the General's words replaying in my head, "Don't let them fool you. They are dangerous." But, every time I got close to Isabella again all I could think about was kissing her again. This is the first time that she walked away like that though. I followed her into town and watched as she made her way past shops. Everyone in town was used to having me around and there were other members of her family around so the attention wasn't immediately on us for once.

I caught up to her, "Isabella." I walked out in front of her and she rolled her eyes, "Caleb not now." What did I do that pissed her off so much? I know that I shouldn't have kissed her but, it wasn't like it was the first time we did this and it's not like she was stopping me while we were kissing. She turned and walked into a store. I looked up and saw it was the butcher. She usually actively avoided coming gin here unless she absolutely had to for her family or I needed to go in. I went in after her and I could see how stricken she was when she was inside as the butcher began to talk to her from behind the counter, "Well if it isn't Isabella Madrigal"

He made his way over to her, "Señor Sanchez." She spoke quietly. He rolled his eyes, "Please your father is my..." He started but she shook her head, "No. I was told to only call you Señor Sanchez. You know how my Papa feels about that too." He rolled his eyes before looking her over and groaning, "You know you used to have some actual potential. I thought maybe you would be a great part of the Sanchez family. You were perfect after all you were going to unite with a powerful family in town, get married, have kids, become a respectable member of the community. Now look at you" he gestured up and down, "You are just some Wild Woman, parading around town with that outsider, refusing to give anyone the time of day, avoiding your responsibilities. You are a disgrace to your namesake."

(Isabella POV)

I knew that I avoided this place for a reason. Papa had warned me that him and Señor Sanchez did not have a good relationship and I knew most of the reasons why after talking to him and Olivia. I actually talked with my Tío Mateo and Tío Juan on occasion, especially since they were still close with Olivia but Luca we avoided whenever possible. Walking in here was a mistake and now I had to stand here and listen as he said all of this to me. I just let out a breath, "And I wonder what my namesake would tell you. None of your brothers talk to you anymore, you pushed them all away. You are all alone with nothing but your butcher shop that your Papa left you. No friends, no family, you talk about the Sanchez family but the only family that exists is from your brother Mateo not you. So don't even think about talking about me or my family."

"You know my Mama, your namesake, was the perfect wife and mother you could have been that too. Why can't you just go back to who you were before everything changed? Everyone in town would rather have her around than this. You were supposed to be a Sanchez. If I was the head of the family you wouldn't be like this," he gestured to me again. "Well it is a good thing that your Papa disowned my Papa and that you did to. And that he joined the Madrigal family rather than be around you. My family doesn't have a problem with the way that I am." He shook his head, "Why did you come in here?" I sighed, "I don't even remember. I am sorry for disrupting your day Señor Sanchez."

I turned to leave and saw Caleb standing in the doorway. I guess that neither of us had noticed that he came in. I could see that he was mad. I grabbed his arm, "Come on let's get out of here." "Isabella," he started to say but I shook my head, "Let's go." I said pushing him out of there. I didn't want to deal with anything else today. We were back in town and I could feel the occasional glance in my direction. "Isabella we need to talk," Caleb said, "or I'm going back there." I looked at him and let out a breath, "He is my Papa's biological brother. They had a falling out years ago when my parents started dating. Let's just say that he agrees with your opinion about me." I turned to walk away when he grabbed my arm, "Hey I don't agree with him at all." I rolled my eyes, "Right. What was the first thing you called me when you met me? A Wild Woman." He shook his head, "That was before I knew you. Before everything. He has lived here his entire life, your entire life and he still says that."

I looked around and pulled him over to the side, "Look my family was ok with the fact that I didn't want to be perfect anymore the moment our lives fell apart. The community didn't. I know that they still talk about me all the time waiting for me to settle down and get married have kids, and just call this time my rebellious years." I sighed letting go of his arm, "Maybe they are right, maybe they aren't but, I stopped letting it bother me a long time ago." "Yet, you are still so worried about what they would think every time we kiss," He said. I shook my head, "You don't get to bring that up."

(Caleb POV)

"Isabella," I started again but I took a step back and looked at her. I sighed, "Isabella, why do you care about the people in town finding out that we have been kissing?" She looked up at me, "Because it might affect my family. Everything that I do affects my family. They are the ones who were ok with me not being perfect anymore. They were the ones who loved me and supported me my entire life. They were the reason I was going to get married when I was 22." She let out a breath, "I owe them a lot." No, she didn't owe them anything I thought to myself.

I looked at her, "You've mentioned being engaged before or engaged to be engaged. Who were you supposed to marry?" She looked down at the ground and then back at me, "Mariano." My jaw fell, "Mariano as in your cousin's husband?" She nodded her head, "Yeah, no our marriage was going to be doomed from the start. I didn't know this at the time but, apparently they both had, had feelings for each other since we were kids. But I was perfect and he was perfect and everyone thought that we could have the perfect family together." I shook my head, "Wow. They seriously thought you two would be good together?" She shrugged, "You didn't know me when I was perfect." I smiled, "Good. I'm glad, because it sounds like you were miserable back then." She gave me a half smile, "Yeah I kind of was."

I looked to the side and was reminded that we were still in town. I took her hand, "Come on. Let's go." "Where?" She asked and I shrugged, "I don't know." I saw her smile, "Ok." We made our way out int the fields and deeper into the jungle and ended up by the tree that she took me to when she was showing me how big Encanto really was. She smiled, "Are we going to climb up again?" I nodded my head, "Yeah I thought we could." She nodded her head and we made our way up.

We sat down on the platform and looked out towards town. "If you even think about kissing me right now Caleb," Isabella started as she felt my gaze on her. "I wasn't," I said lifting my hands up. She shook her head, "I don't know why we keep kissing each other anyway. We are barely friends." "We are friends?" I asked looking at her. She shrugged, "Barely friends who kiss on a daily basis but, yeah that's what I thought we were." I nodded my head, "Yeah friends." She looked at me and I said, "Barely friends." She nodded her head looking forward. "It really is just a small town," She whispered.

I shrugged, "Well I mean I learned a lot today. And you said there weren't that many more secrets in Encanto." She laughed, "They weren't really secrets. More like answers to questions you didn't know to ask." I smiled at her, "Are there any other questions that I didn't know to ask?" She let out an amused breath, "Probably but from up here I never worry about that. No town, no miracle, nothing." She sighed. "That sounds nice," I said as I scooted over towards her. She looked at me and I lifted my hands up, "Not for a kiss, but you said it I'm a barely friend." She laughed and I held onto her hand.

She rested her head on my shoulder. "Can I ask why you think it is a bad idea when we kiss?" I looked down at her but her gaze was fixated on the distance. I can't tell her. I'm already way too close to her and it is compromising my job but, I want to tell her. After a while when I didn't say anything she let out a breath, "Why do we keep doing this even though we both say it is a bad idea?" I let out a breath, "Because, despite all the reasons I shouldn't, I like you." I didn't mean to say that aloud but, I did and I know that Isabella heard me and that things weren't going to be the same.