Early in the morning, at the breakfast table.
Eduardo Tercero and Claudio Belles sit across the table from each other, eating breakfast.
Eduardo Tercero asks, “Did you have a nightmare last night?”
Claudio Belles’ hand, which was holding his knife and fork, gave a slight gasp, “No. Why did President Eduardo ask that?”
Eduardo Tercero looked up at her, “Then why did you cry last night?”
“Did I?” she popped a piece of scrambled egg in her mouth and pretended not to know.
Eduardo Tercero nodded, “The second half of the night, you kept hugging me and apologizing to me many times.”
He wasn’t going to apologize in his sleep, so he put down his knife and fork, lifted his chin with one hand, looked at Eduardo Tercero and said, “I just had a dream, but it wasn’t a nightmare. I dreamed that I recovered my memory, but that for some special reason I had to leave President Eduardo. Because I could not leave President Eduardo, I cried.”
Eduardo Tercero let out a slight laugh, not sure if he believed it or not, “I remembered it pretty well.”
“Hmm.”
He was actually making it up, he had long since forgotten what he had dreamed the night before.
Edward the Third reflected slightly, “But you won’t be given that chance, even if you get your memory back, you’ll only be mine.”
Now he wondered if he had real memory loss, but he was faking it, and when the Ming Organization project began, maybe he would be gone.
…
Claudio Belles was passing through the study when he heard Eduardo Tercero’s accusing voice.
He frowned slightly, had something gone wrong?
Throughout the day, Eduardo Tercero did not leave the studio door much.
At the end of the day, Claudio Belles had just come out of the bathroom when Eduardo Tercero, sitting on the edge of the bed, took hold of the girl’s soft, delicate wrists.
“Tomorrow I fly to A and there are some things I have to take care of.”
Claudio Belles did not expect to see Eduardo Tercero on another business trip so soon. “And when will you be back, President Eduardo?”.
“A week if it’s fast, half a month if it’s slow, but this time, I’ll be able to contact you anytime.”
Claudio Belles has a vague feeling that this time Eduardo Tercero is going on a mission to Country A and that it has something to do with the Ming organization. I don’t know if he is too sensitive or if this intuition is too accurate, but the Ming organization could take advantage of Eduardo Tercero’s absence in Country R to do something about it.
But what exactly it does is not clear to Claudio Belles.
This time, the Ming organization’s plan excluded even her for the sake of circumspection.
Eduardo Tercero squeezed her little hand and told her: “Tonight you sleep first, I have work to do”.
Eduardo Tercero had just gotten up when Claudio Belles took him by the hand.
Eduardo Tercero paused slightly and turned his eyes to look at her, “What is it?”.
“President Eduardo, could you please not stay with all that work tonight and stay with me?”
Eduardo Tercero couldn’t help but laugh at that serious pout, and his dark eyes burned into that serious, handsome face, “Claudio, what did you say?”
Claudio Belles didn’t hold back at all, “I said don’t spend tonight with President Eduardo at work, spend it with me.”
Four eyes fixed, one deep and playful, the other focused and serious.
After a long moment, Eduardo Tercero’s thin lips exhaled one word: “Yes.”
Eduardo Tercero took her in his arms, “What do you want me to do with you?”.
Claudio Belles’ small hands, unbuttoning Eduardo Tercero’s shirt, “I will be happy with the company of mind and body”.
Eduardo Tercero: “…”
The older girl really wasn’t embarrassed. But she liked his directness.
The man’s thin lips, glued to her ear, spoke in a mute voice: “Claudio, don’t be sorry, this is what you want.”
The girl had wrapped her arms around his neck and her red lips pressed against his, leaving him no room to pull back.
After tomorrow, there’s no telling if we’ll see each other again.
If you don’t see him, it’s probably a good thing.
But if we do see each other again, it could be a fucking hail of bullets.
…
When Eduardo Tercero left the next morning, Claudio Belles was standing by the window of his first-floor bedroom, watching the man’s fading back.
Finally, the window was opened and a shout was given to Eduardo Tercero: “Presidente Eduardo, goodbye.”
Eduardo Tercero paused in his pacing and turned to look at her, “When I return, soon.”