Cesar was halfway out of his seat before her reply reeled him back in; he nodded, though he continued to look critically at her face for any sign of pain. “Lo siento.. it must be a very uncomfortable feeling. But if you’re sure.. no medicine for now. They will probably come back in to check your heart and blood pressure soon. They do that a lot here.”
He grinned a little, his tears having receded for now, because whether she recognized him or not, she was still awake. It was a miracle, and no time to be upset. “You know a lot of Spanish,” he reminded her gently. “A lot of times, you would speak Spanish to me while I spoke in English to you, so that we could both understand and get better at our second languages. You are very good at it. Don’t worry, you will remember,” Cesar added, apparently confident in the matter.
“We didn’t meet that long ago.. A few weeks. Our romance has gone very quickly, which may be why you do not remember any of it. I- my name is Cesar.. there is a vaccinations programa up at the school, that teaches adult submissives like me how to do skills that we can get jobs with, like being a typist or a painter or a carpenter. I was studying to learn how to repair cars.. but I really would like to be a pilot one day. I just worry that I am aiming too high, so I settled on auto mechanic. You and I met because my teacher is one of your friends. We used to have him pass letters between us sometimes. You helped him with his photography class as well.”
Cesar smiled fondly up at her, resting his chin in the palm of his hand. “We love each other very much. We had sex for the first time three nights before the fire happened, and it was increíble. You said my name a lot. And because it was not safe in the town, you let me stay with you in your dormitory so that I could still go to classes. It was very kind of you, to let me into your space when, as I say, we have not been together very long. We went out on a date, but then I didn’t hear from you for a while.. I was afraid you didn’t like me anymore. I wanted to do something wonderful for you, to get your attention again, but before I could get the money together, everything in the world began to go wrong.” It was a lot of information and he didn’t want to overload her; he stopped and smiled at her again, gently touching her fingers while he waited for her to process it all.











