Chapter 16

Mariana stood up, grabbed her plate along, walked over to the sink, placed it in, and then turned around to face Marco.

He still stood by the door, his muscular arms folded around his chest, and he still wore the suit he had on this morning. His hair was more disorganized.

“Mariana,” he said lightly, walking over to where she stood. He didn’t give her much time to process what was happening next but acted on impact.

Marco pulled her in his arms, hugging her as tight as he could like all his tomorrow depended on it, his arm wrapped around her back and the other holding onto the back of her head.

Good enough, she was far shorter than him getting easy access to his heartbeat and wrapping her arms around him. She could feel his pain. Somehow she wanted to take it all away and make it disappear through thin hair and maybe see his smile, even if it was just this once.

She held onto him tightly. It felt so good to have his arms wrapped a