Page 100 of Bound to You

Isla’s gaze catches mine. Her eyes whisper a hello from across the room, and I hope mine whisper back.

I watch as she takes a seat next to Miles, their parents across from them. Miles takes after Graham, with his tan skin tone and his light brown hair. Where Isla looks more like their mother, who’s short dark brown hair sways above her shoulders as she settles into her seat. She takes off her coat exposing her pale complexion as she wraps it around the back of her chair. Her shoulders set as she looks down at her menu, elegance radiating off of her.

I find myself imagining all the times they’ve done this together, all the dinners they’ve had around a table like this. Imagining the dinner that propelled Isla to fly across the world and rent a shitty little car that broke down just outside the small little town I call home.

I’ve never given a second thought to fate or ‘meant to be’ but Isla makes me question it. I can’t help but feel like she was made for me, and I her. She fits so perfectly into my life, from the way her hand fits in mine to the way she understands the deepest parts of me without effort. It’s like she was always meant to behere by my side, like fate intentionally left a gap in my life that I didn’t even know existed until she seamlessly filled it.

I never thought falling in love would be so effortless. I fell in love with Isla so seamlessly, it crept up on me without me even noticing it.

“Anyone would think she hung the moon the way you look at her,” Rafael says from behind me, leaning over the bar towards me.

“I don’t want to lose her Raf.”

He puts a hand on my shoulder. “If I felt for someone even a fraction of what you feel for that girl, then I’d be doing everything in my power to keep her. Don’t let this one slip away Caio, don’t let her go.”

chapter forty-one

ISLA

I stayedin my old hotel room last night. I thought sleeping with Caio would just confuse me more, and that I needed one night to myself to let my mind settle. Turns out it only settles when I’m wrapped up in his arms, sleeping between his sheets.

The dinner with my family was nice. It was like old times, before anyone moved away, and before expectations ruled our relationships, but it was all pretend. Fake smiles and tense shoulders until we parted ways at the end of the night.

My father kept glancing to the bar where Rafael and Caio sat, not so subtly keeping an eye on our table the entire night like grumpy German Shepherds.

I could feel Caio’s gaze on me like a cold breeze over my shoulders, just a whisper of a reminder that he was there, looking over me like he always does.

I’m reminded of his piercing blue eyes as I walk along Main heading to Nora’s studio. I haven’t been here in a week or so now, and I need to feel the steady weight of a brush between my fingers to dull the constant buzz in my mind.

I slip through the side door to the studio instead of through the gallery doors like usual. When I step into the studio, there are boxes all around, half filled with canvases and paints.

“Nora,” I say, catching her attention as she’s washing brushes at the sink.

“Isla, ciao tesoro mio.”

“Tell me the fundraiser helped?”

She looks down at her hands and that’s all I need to confirm it. “It wasn’t enough. The studio has sold.”

Sold.

No.

Why do I feel more upset than she looks?

“The new owner is in the gallery now,” she says, nodding her head in the direction of the open archway that leads to the gallery.

I barely think before I stomp through into the gallery space. I need to see what kind of person bought this place from out under Nora.

I halt to a stop when I see Caio standing in the middle of the room.

“Caio, wha?—“

My words fall away as I take notice of the artworks hanging on the wall.

My artwork, all of it.

Every piece that I’ve worked on in the last few weeks has been framed and holds a spot on the wall.

---