Marcela was taking a much-needed vacation after her first year as a professor in Paris. Her first year was challenging, as is the case with many professions, but she felt proud of herself for a successful completion, and she was looking forward to next year and being able to implement some new ideas she had for the curriculum.

Marcela’s vacation destination was the Algarve, Portugal. Her maternal grandmother was from there, and after she passed away, Marcela inherited her house. She had decided to keep it as a vacation home/rental. The Algarve is beautiful, and she enjoyed visiting there, especially now that she was living in Paris and much closer than when she was living in New York. She could visit there easily and quite frequently. Another thing she loved about the Algarve was that she felt the presence of her grandmother there.

There was also an added perk to this vacation: Daniel would be in the Algarve. Daniel had contacted Marcela to let her know that he would be there for a work assignment, and subsequently, she planned her return. He would only be there for a few days, but she looked forward to seeing him. The last time she had seen him was two years ago in Formentera. After an abrupt breakup with her ex-boyfriend, Leo, a relationship was the last thing she wanted, so Daniel was exactly what she needed.

As Marcela walked on the beach, she felt the sand in her toes, smelled the scent of the sea, looked up at the bright sun, and smiled because she officially felt summer, her favorite season. She was supposed to meet Daniel at the beach, so she looked around and then spotted him. He looked almost identical to when she last saw him, except that he had longer hair, and ironically, her hair was now shorter, but he immediately noticed her. They embraced, and over the next few hours, enjoyed their time catching up over wine while sitting on the sand and then swimming in the ocean. It was a most perfect day.

Then the sun began to set, but they were having too much fun and decided to stay on the beach when others were leaving. They just refilled their wine and continued enjoying the evening. Eventually, everyone left the beach except for Marcela and Daniel. They were now a little tipsy and just lay down on the big beach towel together, with Marcela’s head resting on Daniel’s chest. They both began reminiscing and talking about things, which made them very nostalgic. At one point, Marcela looked up at Daniel, and as they gazed into each other’s eyes, he kissed her, and that kiss led to a night of lovemaking on the beach.

Marcela and Daniel fell asleep on the beach, but instead of being awoken by a beautiful sunrise, they were awoken by something else. It sounded like slurred ranting by an intoxicated person who was returning to their hotel from a night of partying. They quickly got dressed and prepared their exit from the beach, but before they could, this person approached them.

To Marcela’s surprise, that person was Leo! She had told Daniel about Leo, and when Daniel saw the state of this person and Marcela’s reaction, he figured it was Leo. Leo loved the Algarve and frequently vacationed there. In fact, that’s how Marcela met him, and they were even on the same beach again where they met, but instead of feeling nostalgia, she felt very uncomfortable. They had a long-distance relationship for six months. Leo was very moody, so it was difficult for her to be in a relationship with him. One day, she had said something that she thought was sweet, but he apparently translated it as a sarcastic comment because he was in a bad mood, so he asked her to leave him alone. Given his demeanor, that was probably not meant literally, but Marcela was fed up with his attitude, so she decided to give him what he wanted by never speaking to him again.

Although Leo came over to her, rambling about something that didn’t make sense and completely ignoring the fact that Daniel was there, Marcela didn’t believe this encounter on the beach to be a coincidence since she had previously told Leo when she was returning to the Algarve. They had originally planned to be there together before they stopped speaking to each other.

Leo and Marcela excused themselves from Daniel for a moment to have a quick chat. They walked over to the rocks by the sea to talk. Marcela was mortified that Daniel had to see this scenario, especially after a romantic night with him.

Daniel watched from afar to make sure Marcela was alright. As he saw the conversation was heating up, he began to approach them. As he got closer, he saw Leo pulling Marcela by her arm to come closer to him, and then heard her say, “You wanted me to leave you alone, now you leave me alone.” As she said that, she pulled her arm out of Leo’s grasp, and as a reflex, she hit him in the face. Leo lost his balance and fell off the rock and into the ocean. It also sounded like he hit something on the way down. Marcela was in shock and couldn’t even look at what had happened. Daniel ran over and jumped into the ocean to save Leo.

Daniel brought Leo to the hospital, since he was injured with an apparent broken leg. Daniel thought it was better for Marcela to just go back to her home and try to calm down. Leo was grateful that Daniel saved his life, so he agreed to Daniel’s request, which was to just say that he just lost his footing and fell (without any implication of Marcela), which was very believable given the levels of alcohol and drugs in his system.

Daniel drove back to Marcela’s house, and he explained to her what had happened. She was happy to see him and with how he handled the situation. She gave him a big hug; she felt so safe in his arms. She told him she was cooking and invited him to stay for dinner, and he accepted the invitation with a smile.

Over a delicious churrasco steak and exquisite red wine, Daniel decided to finally tell Marcela what he had planned to do when he initially saw her. He told her that his next assignment would be in New York for the next five years. He gently took her hand and said, “Marcela, come back to your home. Come back to New York, so we can finally live in the same place and have the time together that we both wanted for years.”

This was truly a day of surprises for Marcela, but at least this surprise was better than the earlier one. She didn’t know how to respond. Her heart and her mind had conflicting responses. She would love to explore what it would be like to have a conventional romantic relationship with Daniel, but she had a great career in Paris and liked living there. Her daughter would be starting college in the fall and living at the university, so Marcela had the ability to move, but she would still be so far from her daughter if she stayed in France. It was a lot for her to decide, so she told Daniel she would have to think it over, and Daniel felt that was understandable.

A few days later, Daniel and Marcela went to the airport together to depart from the Algarve. When they arrived at the airport, they had to go their separate ways: Marcela to Paris and Daniel to New York. They kissed each other goodbye, and as she saw Daniel walk away, she wanted to run to him and take that plane back to New York, but she knew she needed to go back to Paris, at least for now. She had a lot of thinking to do and hoped she would be able to decide soon.