Loving you

Issis checks the address twice before turning around and facing the man who opened the front door for her. He carries the brown box in his right arm and with his left hand he checks the white paper where the address Leo gave him is written down.

She has confirmed it, it is the correct house, also, he remembers it well, a couple of times she visited Leo in that same location, and she knows that it is the house that his father gave her when he turned twenty.

He turns to face the man, but blushes instantly when he notices that he's shirtless and a sheen of sweat drenches his perfect white pecs. The man, who appears to be in his early twenties, puts a hand through his light brown hair to brush it back, then gives him a lopsided smile, one of those seductive Hollywood movie actors do.

“Is it the house of Leonardo Herraíz Sanz?” Nidia asks with her whole face red with embarrassment.

The man in front of her lets out a small chuckle, which sounds like a mocking tone. He sweeps her from head to toe, which makes her a bit self-conscious.

Now Nidia looks her. He is wearing gray bermuda shorts, he has a bulge in the crotch (it is uncomfortable to see) and he is barefoot; she's struck by how white he is, like he's never tanned in the sun, even though it's usually a bit cold and rainy on that side of the country.

"Of course, it is Leo's house" the man replies and wants to take the box she is carrying on her arm, but Nidia prevents it with a quick and evasive movement.

"So, what are you doing here?" she asks point blank.

He's frowning at her now, like he's some weirdo she's seeing for the first time.

"Are you Nidia?" inquires the man.

"Yes, it's me, how do you know about me?"

"Because Leo told me that you would come" informs the young man with an obvious tone. "He also said that the moving truck was delayed, but that it arrives in a few hours, wait it."

Although she reassures Nidia knowing that she was not talking to a thug who had broken into Leo's house, she is uncomfortable knowing that she should pretend to be nice to him, because doesn't her very much. Who walks shirtless through a house that is not his? In addition, Nidia knows perfectly well that this man in front is not related to your men friend, because she has known all her family for many years, almost as if it were her own.

"Leo told me that he lives alone" she blurts out, avoiding his gaze, because she's uncomfortable that he's staring at her so closely.

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Note that the living room has changed a bit, Leo had removed the black furniture for much more modern gray ones; a clear example that someone with as much money as he can afford to remodel his house whenever he wants. The glass wall that overlooks the garden at the main entrance looks flourishing, although it is a pity that the weather is so gray and does not let there be so much light that perfectly adorns the room.

"Well, now she'll live with you" the man comments with his crooked smile that is already starting to irritate her.

Issis decides to go in and leave the man behind, she brings the cell phone inside the box, so she decides to take it out to call him and understand why there is a stranger walking around the house.

She leaves the box on one of the furniture and begins to search inside it with eager hands.

“Your room is ready on the second floor” he hears from behind her.

This leaves her shocked. She turns to see him with the cell phone in her right hand and stares into those honey-colored eyes with greenish tones.

“Um… I already know that” she remarks.

"Shall I help you carry your things?" he asks, pointing at the box with his right index finger.

"No, I can do it alone" Nidia snaps.

"Why are you so rude?" he inquires, furrowing her bushy brows again.

Nidia gets a lump in her throat, something quite normal when she can no longer bear an uncomfortable situation. Her breathing begins to hitch, and a bead of sweat runs down her forehead.

So, she decides to do what she feels is the right thing to do in an emergency: take her box and run to her new room. She will see how to pick up her dignity when Leo comes to her rescue, as always.

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Ex-boyfriends can be friends, Nidia is sure of that. She has been best friends with Leo for four years. A part of her knows that they were not completely engaged, because he always saw her through the eyes of friends, but, after all, they were engaged and that is something that cannot be erased from the history of her lives.

Leonardo Herraíz Sanz, sole heir to the Sanz technology group, mostly known as Leo among his acquaintances. Nidia had always known him because she lived ten blocks from his house. But she really met him when Leo started coming to his house because he befriended his older sister, Cassandra. And since Nidia is the youngest of her sisters, she began to accompany them to her exits because if they did not take her, her parents would not let Cassandra leave her.

Obviously, her sister annoyed having to take her, she almost always threatened to kill her if she told her parents that she had a boyfriend and Leo, as a good cool friend, always bribed her by buying her whatever she wanted, so Nidia liked Leo since the first instant. Thus, over time, they ended up being a group of three (to Cassandra's bad luck), because Leo and his sister became very close friends, therefore, he also ended up being very close to Nidia.

At that time, she was thirteen years old, taking five years apart from Leo, who was also the same age as his sister.

At first, Nidia was fascinated with being able to swim in the pool at Leo's house and being able to travel to her family's farm on vacation. Leo treated her like the little sister she never had, since he was her only child. He even had her outings only with her, when there was a movie on the billboard that they both liked. He also picked her up and dropped her off at school, because she was on his way to the university.

Later, with the passage of two years, Cassandra got a boyfriend and ended up moving away little by little from Leo.

Then, one day, in front of Nidia's house, the two friends argued to such an extent that it seemed they wanted to hit each other.

Nidia observed everything hidden between the curtains of a window, but she knew that Leo had caught her from the beginning.

She believed that she would never see Leo again and it was a shame, because she saw him as the closest cool friend she would ever have in her life. Besides, how could she get herself a friend of Leo's caliber? Her sister was the outgoing one in the family, the one who always hung out with interesting people. She, on the other hand, was the little girl; the shy and quiet one who watches everything in silence and becomes self-conscious when she receives too much attention.

So, after a week of not seeing Leo, she decided to go visit him after school. She knew the hours of the university and she knew that she would be at her parents' house.

Leo received her in her room, sitting in front of the desk, where she had administration books stacked one on top of the other.

He was obviously much older than her, he already wore glasses to protect her eyesight when he spent a lot of time in front of the computer, because he was close to graduating and he had to concentrate for hours studying for the final semester exams. And she, barely if she would graduate from high school.

"So, I won't see you anymore?" Nidia asked with a piteous look, sitting on the edge of the bed.

Leo played with a pen in her hands, watching her with that tender look of a considerate brother. He had dark circles under his eyes from not having slept in days and a shadow of a beard was beginning to show on her face, showing that he was already a man.

"Of course, why do you say that?" he answered her.

"Because you haven't gone home again."

"It's because I don't want to meet Cassandra" the young man admitted.

"But I'm not Cassandra" replied Nidia and she settled down cross-legged. “I need you; you can't leave me. You are the only person I consider a friend and with whom I can really have fun.”

Leo's face showed surprise, they had never spoken to him with such sincerity before, in addition to asking him not to end a friendship. He seemed a bit strange to him, but he knew that Nidia was like that, someone extremely sensitive and innocent.

"I'm sorry, I hadn't thought of you, sorry" he sketched, being aware that a sincere confession deserved a sincere answer.

From that day on, their friendship became much more genuine. Leo didn't see her as the younger sister of a friend, but as Nidia, her friend and her neighbor. Every time the weather left them, they made movie afternoons; they went out to try new dishes in restaurants and all those plans that Leo wouldn't do with his college friends.

Nidia knew that he only linked her in her space where one adds to the family, she behaves differently than she would with friends and her social image should not take care of her. And that for her was a double-edged sword, because she knew that Leo considered her special, because he showed himself as he originally was, that is, his true personality, where he could burp or receive it dressed in the dirty pajamas he had been wearing for a whole day. However, she wanted him to start seeing her as that friend that she would take to a party and introduce her to her friends.

But that didn't happen until she turned seventeen, when Leo was able to visit her again at her house and say hello to Cassandra, although her friendship was never that close again. Now Nidia was Leo's best friend and the one he looked for every time he felt alone.

So it was like one night, when their friendship reached the point where the two were not capable of hiding secrets from each other and Nidia confessed to him about X boy that attracted her attention and he gave her advice so that she could flirt at least once in her life, Leo arrived unexpectedly to ask her to accompany him to a party that would take place in a week. He was so excited because it would be Halloween and he wanted them to dress up as zombies.

She didn't accept, although inside she was dying to go and have an almost date with her best friend. Curiously, her parents accepted that she was hers since they trusted Leo and considered him part of the family. Cassandra called her an idiot for not agreeing to go to a party and staying locked in the house as usual.

However, it was Leo, she wouldn't take no for an answer and that was how he ended up almost forcing her to go.

The night of the party, Leo behaved very differently with Nidia, he treated her the same way he used to treat the girls he went out with (Nidia lost count of how many she got to know him). She insisted that they dance to various songs of hers and introduced her to her friends, whom she recognized by their names and the many photos she saw on Leo's social media.

There was a point in the night, when most of the guests had left or had fallen asleep on the furniture, Leo asked them to go out to the back of the house where the party was being held. There was a pool, where they sat on the edge, dipping half their legs in the water.

They talked about everything a bit and Leo saw her differently. Nidia knew that something in him was changing, she didn't know what, but she could see it.

Then, he brought her face close to hers and kissed her.

There they were, in the middle of the night, after a party, kissing in the back of a house that Nidia didn't know who owned it. It could be something very common for Leo, but, for her, it was the most beautiful madness that he had had in her short life.

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Present:

"Your friend is upstairs, in her room" Eduar informs Leo when she sees him arrive.

"Shit" Leo mutters, carrying some shopping bags in his hands.

"She's been there for about five hours," says Eduar, "I've tried to find out if she's still alive, but she doesn't say a single word to me."

“And she won't,” Leo comments as he walks into the kitchen, followed by his friend. “I have not warned him that you would be here; The worst mistake I could make."

"She's... a bit weird, isn't she?"

Leo gives Eduar a scolding look as he sets the bags down on the kitchen island.

“She's a shy girl, nothing more,” Leo explains. “I didn't inform her that you would be here, it must have been a big surprise for her. She must have called me a thousand times, but my cell phone died, and I didn't bring the charger to the office."

Leo mends his friend from head to toe.

“Were you like this when you talked to her?”

"Yeah, what does she have?" inquires Eduar, raising his shoulders. “I was waiting for her; she was late in arriving and I began to exercise. By the way, the treadmill broke down, it doesn't work.”

"I'm going to call her." Warns Leo in a desperate tone.

"Why don't you just go upstairs and find her?" Edward asks.

"She's not going to open the door for me, I must first call her and test the terrain."

Eduar lets out a little laugh mixed with a grunt.

"Try to get her out of that cave... I'll get you the charger."

An hour later:

"She's not going to answer you" says Eduar for the umpteenth time.

Leo watches with concern the cell phone that rests on top of the marble counter in the kitchen, the calls go to the mailbox: Nidia completely ignores him, if he doesn't force her to leave the room, she will never be able to see her face.

"She always used to do that?" asks Edward.

"Sometimes, that's what happens when you have a friend with social phobia," Leo blurts out in a bored tone.

Her cell phone marked five missed calls from Leo, but Nidia was willing not to leave the room, because she knew that on the other side of the door was that half-naked man she didn't know. She was stalking her all day, asking her questions about her life, and forcing her to get out of room; she even contemplated calling the police, but the man told her that Leo was about to arrive, so he didn't.

Now she didn't leave the room because she was angry with Leo, she called him twenty times: twenty times she needed him throughout the day, and she ignored him. She could have died at the hands of that stranger and twenty times Leo could have rescued her from he, which he didn't.

It was true that the half-naked man and Leo were friends, because she heard his voice on the other side of the door.

"What did you do to him?" Leo asks the boy.

"Nothing, she locked herself in and she's been like that all day" the stranger replies.