Page 36 of The Lucky One

Our dog Pitus jumped up and I gave him a piece of salami from the table. “Where will Pitus live?” I asked.

“With me,” Papa growled. “I don’t want to be completely alone.”

It made me sad that Papa thought we were leaving him when he had barely showed any interest in us for years. But I was even more sad to see Pitus only every other weekend. Mama missed him a lot too.

Our new apartment was small. Lucas and I had to share a room, and the living room was also Mama’s bedroom and the dining room. The bathroom was tiny with mold in one corner. It smelled bad even though Mama cleaned it over and over again.

Still, I didn’t mind that we couldn’t afford a bigger apartment because being with Mama and Lucas was all I needed. She was still seeing this guy Richard, but I hadn’t met him yet, and a part of me didn’t want to.

Now...

“Come on, German! Push!” Aiden contorted his face as if he were delivering a baby.

I couldn’t help but laugh in the middle of my bench press, and he swiftly grabbed the barbell before it dropped onto my chest. I was getting better and better at doing squats, but no matter how much I tried, my arms were not getting any stronger. “You can’t make me laugh while I’m trying to lift!”

He shrugged, returning the barbell to its brackets. “I don’t know what the issue is; I only told you to push.”

I gave him a playful look and we switched positions. Now it was my turn to spot him. Which was absurd because even if he did need my help, I wasn’t strong enough to save him. Our teacher had pointed that out, but Aiden insisted that he trusted me.

I couldn’t fathom why he was so gung ho on partnering up with me. He got along with everyone in the class, whereas I only had him to talk to. Maybe that was precisely why he insisted: when he’d moved here from Spain, he was the new kid too...?

I stood behind the bench, palms open in front of me, ready to grab the metal bar if needed. Aiden went for his first press. “What’s going on?” he asked.

I shrugged. “How did you know I’m thinking about something?”

“You—gave me that—questioning look,” he grunted as he strained to press up the bar.

I sighed. “Finish your set first. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Me?” he scoffed. “No way.”

I noticed some girls across the room watching us—or rather, him—in awe. Everyone swooned over Aiden, but I had never actually seen him connect with a girl.

He eased down the bar until it hovered right above his chest. “I’m not lifting again until you talk, so you better hurry or it’ll crush me.”

“Fine, get it back up!”

“Talk!”

“Okay!” I screamed. The girls’ eyes narrowed at me. There’d be a new rumor about me spread everywhere by lunchtime. I continued more quietly. “I was wondering how it felt for you to leave your hometown and move across the ocean.”

Aiden grunted as he pressed up again, beads of sweat running down his temples. I helped him guide the bar into the brackets and he sat up on the bench, chest heaving. “To be honest, it sucked,” he said between breaths.

I bit my lip. Not the response I was hoping for.

“Why? You thinking about staying here?” he asked. He grabbed his water bottle and took a long drink.

“Been working on it, yeah...”

“Well, it only sucked at first.” He got up and adjusted the weights on the bar for me. “Took me a year to get used to this place and learn the language. But now I love it here and I don’t want to move again.”

I nodded. “I want to do it, but I’m feeling guilty because my family is still in Germany.”

“That’s the downside of having two homes, cariño. You gotta accept not having everything.”

That was something our exchange program hadn’t prepared us for. Once you’re an exchange student, no matter where you decide to live after, a little piece of your heart will always be left behind. You feel incomplete.

Aiden’s eyes softened, and for a moment I could see in them a shadow of homesickness. “There are still days when I really miss home. You can’t replace the feeling of belonging, the familiarity of your own town, your own people.” I nodded. “I know Germany isn’t Spain,” he said, “but when you joined our group I was so glad to finally have someone who could relate.”

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