You hadn’t meant to stay in America for long. It was supposed to be a degree, nothing more. A few years abroad, an education from a university with old brick buildings and ivy climbing the stone walls, the kind of name that pleased your family. You had grown up oceans away from this place, in a country where the summers smelled of dust and citrus groves, where your father’s money could solve most things. But here you were just another student. You lived in a narrow rented house with windows that rattled in the wind and walked each morning past the quad’s bronze statue, books clasped to your chest.

He was there again, leaning against the wrought-iron fence outside the campus gates like he belonged there, though you knew he didn’t. Javier had a way of making himself impossible to ignore. Hat tipped low, a cigarette curling smoke in the corner of his mouth, he looked like the sort of man people noticed in passing and remembered for weeks after.

When you stepped through the gate, he straightened immediately, flicking away the cigarette with a lazy snap of his fingers.

“There you are,” he said, voice lilting with that warm, rolling accent. “I was starting to think maybe you’d slipped away without me.”

He fell into step beside you like it was the most natural thing in the world. He always did. The cobblestone street was washed in late-afternoon sun, the smell of dust and baker’s yeast carried from open windows along the way. Students passed by, clutching books, whispering exams and deadlines, but Javier’s presence cut through all of it like a bright thread.

“Long day?” he asked, glancing at you sidelong. “I can tell, I think. You look tired. Not bad tired, just… the kind that makes a person want a drink.” He laughed softly, hands in his pockets. “I know a place. Real quiet, good tequila—none of that swill they sell here. I’ll take you, one day.”

You didn’t answer, and he didn’t seem to mind. Javier filled silences easily, as if he feared they might collapse in on themselves.

He stopped for a moment at the edge of the square, letting a carriage pass. The horses snorted, hooves clattering on stone. Javier waited until the noise died down before speaking again, quieter this time. "Learn anything new today?"