Hot.

Javiera’s mouth is hot and so her skin is, her flesh. Hot is how Flavia feels anytime their clothes feel too tight and uncomfortable, anytime the sheets are their only dress, their home, their kingdom, their world. It’s so hot that none of them can breathe but in laboured gasps, with their mouths open and their lips reddened and wet. Javiera’s fingers make Flavia lose her mind, Flavia’s hand makes pleasure blast in the inspector’s brain and through each fibre of her body. Pads, nails, teeth, hair, irises and blood, pulsing simultaneously through Flavia's neck and Javiera's lips, like pushed by a single heart, inside one body.

Among the rumpled sheets, on the side of the bed where Javiera sleeps, Flavia opens her eyes. She stretches all of her somehow still fatigued muscles and smiles. Outside the window the sun is high, it must be late. She yawns covering her mouth with the back of her half bent fingers and smells it, something warm, an amber shard. This scent made her tipsy last night, that taste should be gone by now but somehow Flavia's tongue still savours it on her lips.

She sits up in the bed, partially covers her naked body as her back leans on the headboard, bites her lips and smiles, no, laughs, like she often does by now. Suddenly and wholeheartedly, so that the old Flavia would have adjudged herself silly, but in a way that proves the new Flavia that she's just happy.

The woman takes the pink fabric to her nose, closes her eyes and inhales deeply: joy, the purest one, has this scent.

Flavia finds it impossible to recall a time when she was insecure, oblivious of what she was supposed to do, a time when her biggest concern was making no mistake. Her boldness now makes her blush, along with her hunger, her euphoria, the complete abandon she feels whenever Javiera is there, touching her, wanting her. Javiera has always claimed nothing more than this, than the person that nobody knew but her, that same person that Flavia herself nearly forgot about. Since the first time letting go has felt easy, easier than breathing. Flavia doesn't know what those eyes did, nor those lips, that smile, but she is sure that having Javiera Cáceres in her life like this is a wish come true and everything is allowed when dreaming, right?

Flavia covers her face with her hands as she laughs, but her telephone rings.

"Hola Milito, buenas días."

"Buenas días Flavia. ¿Estás en tu casa?"

"Sí, aquí, ¿Porque?"

"Estoy saliendo y pensé en pasar por ahí un rato. Necesito hablar contigo, pedirte algo la verdad, pero piola ya, nada importante, bueno un poco importante sí es, pero…"

"Para, para, ¿porque no me cuentas con calma cuando llegas? ¿Estás saliendo ahora?" She tries to stop him from babbling a whole monologue nobody would be able to understand, surprisingly succeeding with no much effort.

"En unos minutos. En media ora voy a estar tocando el timbre" Emiliano says, so Flavia knows that she has to hurry up.

She steps out of the shower, picks a pair of knickers, white trousers, her green blouse and puts them on before the reflection in the mirror becomes clear again. She leaves the moisturiser jar next to the sink and applies a little fluid on her face, gently massaging the skin with the tip of her fingers. Her mind goes back to when Javiera kissed her hands, and also when she sucked those very pads. She recalls the desire in her eyes, the firm grip of her hands, and, well, all the rest… now Flavia can almost feel her woman's lips on hers, on her chest, on her neck. She finally looks at her completely clear picture in the mirror and spots it, a dark, irregular mark on her neck. Javiera's mouth was there last night, as the rest of her body was focused on making Flavia lose her mind.

The first impulse tells Flavia to cover it with, but her hands stop before they can even try to reach for the make-up case. She scarcely brushes the livid skin and smiles, not without a pinch of smugness. The lovebite is staying. She loosens her hair and tucks a lock behind her ear, then leaves the room.

She heads downstairs just in time to receive her brother, somehow a little anxious because she knows that he would notice.

"Ermanaza" he lets out in his unique greeting tone as squeezing her in a warm embrace.

"¿Qué estaba haciendo?"

Flavia decides to keep it vague, because "daydreaming about my gorgeous soon-to-be wife" doesn't feel like the best answer. "Nada importante" She replies and guides him to the kitchen.

"¿Te puedo ofrecer algo? Un té, un jugo…" she asks and Emiliano takes a seat by the kitchen island.

They agree on orange juice and Flavia fixes both of them a glass, so sits down in front of him.

"Gracias y perdón el apuro." Emiliano talks.

"No te preocupes" Flavia says sincerely, but she is unable to suppress a yawn.

The act itself is no big deal, so that it could have almost passed unnoticed with anyone, but this is Emiliano and some things call his attention more than others, if we can say so.

"¿No dormiste anoche?" He asks while sipping his juice and Flavia immediately feels herself blushing. She looks down, a little too abruptly interested in her glass, and lifts it up to drink herself. Emiliano doesn't miss a single shade on his sister's face, more attentive than ever, mirroring her grin, the one she's poorly hiding behind the edge of the glass.

"Aah, hiciste algo más importante que dormir." He teases, sure that he's not mistaken and his sister's face goes even redder.

"Cortala" She tries, helplessly, she knows, but somehow wishing to dismiss the topic.

Emiliano looks at her face, then focused on something else.

"Tienes rojo aquí" he keeps going, pointing to the spot on his own neck and Flavia doesn't know where to hide anymore. Emiliano is having fun, and to be honest the woman would lie if she said that she doesn't find it amusing herself. Deep inside she's glad she can share this with her little brother, that she can openly admit that he's right and she had a mind-blowing night that made her wake up late this morning. The downside is that she doesn't know how to do it, how to talk about Javiera, the most satisfying part of her life, and how it all makes her feel.

"Bueno ya, es lo que estás pensando. ¿Contento?" She giggles and the man smiles.

"Está buena la cuñada" he blurts and Flavia' s eyes go wide.

"¡Emiliano!" She cuts him off.

“¿Que onda? ¿Qué te pasa? Si no dije nada malo”.

“Relajate un poco, flaca, lo digo en buena.” He rebuts, not sincerely offended but sorry that his sister is still somehow ashamed of something that is clearly good, if not the best thing that ever happened to her.

“¿Sabes que? Te lo mereces. Sì po, Flavia, te mereces a alguien que te tiene despierta toda la noche y te pone con esa cara el día después.” He concludes and he is right, Flavia knows.

Emiliano can be curt at times but it’s only because diplomacy is not his forte and he loves her, dearly.

“Ya, ya, està bien” Flavia finally lets go a little, biting her lip with a cheeky expression.

“Pero no vamos a hablar de esto ahora” She adds, one day she will back over it, but not yet.

“No se supone que viniste para algo tu?” She starts and Emiliano finally changes the topic.

“Es que la mamá de Fernanda sigue enferma y no puede ocuparse de Emilianito. Yo y ella tenemos una reunión importante mañana y no sabemos dónde dejarlo. Solo van a ser unas horas, si puedes.”

Flavia doesn’t even think about it before answering: “Claro que puedo, traenlo acà.”

Her brother helped her a lot of times, and would have done it even more often if she let him, how can she say no to this?

“Sabes que me encanta estar con mis sobrinos” She says. Her mind runs to the picture of her and Javiera taking care of the baby, she doesn’t know why but she is looking forward to seeing her fiancèe with her nephew, because Emilianito is her nephew too now.

All of this passes for a second in her mind and it's another thing that she's not ready to say out loud, not to her brother. She had never thought of Javiera as the aunt of her nephews and nieces, but it's something she can't help at least considering now. In moments like this, events come to remind Flavia of how young her relationship with this woman is, even if deeper and more solid than any other she's ever had. Her family is messy, perfect in its own way and the fact that Javiera arranged her own spot in it, and in such a short time, is hard to believe at times. Flavia lets it all go on just for a second, maybe a couple, but shushes it until Emiliano leaves, a few minutes later. He is waving at her while reaching the gate when Javiera approaches and opens it for him, as coming back home.

"Buena cuñaza, estás de vuelta."

"Hola Emiliano, fue algo corto hoy. ¿Porque andas por aquí?"

"Vi a ver a mi hermanaza po'" "oye está súper en buena, me encanta encontrarla así" he says and gets closer, as if keeping his next line somehow private, even if the single conception of "private" is at least very personal for Emiliano. "Le haces re bien a la Flavia, flaca, en serio, épico. Me encanta verla así" he repeats a little louder as stepping outside.

"Oye, nos vemos mañana que les traigo a mi torito." "Y siempre así, sabía que tenía que ser buena onda, Cáceres" he somehow concludes, leaving a frowning Javiera following him with her gaze until he reaches for the car and turns to wave at her.

Emiliano Betancourt, if Javiera didn't know him herself she would think that anyone describing him is exaggerating.

She blinks a couple of times and sets out towards the entry door, still shaking her head.

Flavia saw it happening from the door and now is mirroring her fiancée's expression.

"¿Que onda con Emiliano?" The inspector asks, still unsure whether what just happened made some sense or not.

"Nada" Flavia smiles and places a peck on Javiera's lips, immediately followed by a longer kiss.

She then pulls her inside.

"Viò esto" Flavia keeps telling as exposing her neck "y que soy feliz, muy feliz." She beams and can't resist the urge to steal one more kiss.

"Linda" Javiera whispers. "Déjame ver…" she adds as brushing the skin of Flavia's neck.

"Te queda bien" the inspector asserts with a proud grin and the other woman laughs.

Flavia is so beautiful when she laughs.