Chapter 7: Signed

Emilio brought the signed pages to the studio at six on Tuesday evening.

He laid them on the scarred table.

Valeria's signature ran across the last page, big and steady.

Under it she had written three words in her own hand: "You'll be back."

"I wanted to burn that part," Emilio said.

"Leave it."

I took the pen and signed under her name.

It took one second.

Emilio watched me do it, and then he put the pages in his briefcase and shook my hand.

"It's finished," he said. "You're a free man, Rodri."

He went down the stairs alone.

I stood in the empty studio with the pen still in my hand.

The young architects had gone. Only the lamp over Inés's table was lit.

She sat very still on her stool with her back to me, and she had stopped drawing a long time ago.

"It's signed," I said.

She turned around.

"I heard."

"The rule said until the papers were signed."

"I know what the rule said."

She got up and crossed the room.

She stopped in front of me, close enough that I could smell the ink in her hair.

"Say it," she said.

"Inés."

"Say what you want."

"I want you."

I had not known until that second that it was true in every part of me.

She put both hands flat on my chest, and then she pulled me down and kissed me.

It was not careful.

It was hard and open and hungry.

My hands went into her hair, and the pencil fell out and clattered on the floor.

She backed me across the room to the sofa in the back.

The back of my knees hit the arm, and I sat down.

She stood between my legs and pulled her shirt over her head.

She was not wearing much under it.

Her breasts were small and round, and the nipples were already hard.

I put my mouth on one, and she gasped and held my head.

"Rodrigo," she said, shaky. "Take your shirt off."

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