#comments pls?

“Okay, um, how about…” Alex cast around his dorm room,looking for a word. His eyes fixed on a book on his nightstand, the one Elizahad let him borrow only last night and he was already half finished with.

“Libro,” hedeclared, pointing at it.

“Libro,”Eliza repeated earnestly, trying to match his pronunciation, the slight lilt tohis words.

He smiled at her, nodding, “Yeah, good. Okay, what about…”his eyes flickered upwards, “Bombilla. Lightbulb.”

“Bom…bombilla,”Eliza stumbled a little and she frowned in concentration, shuffling towards himon the bed, leaning in close so she could hear him better. Very close, in fact.Alex could feel his focus slipping.

“Keep going,” Eliza urged him, her eyes bright andinterested.

He tried to clear his head, pointing towards heroversize jumper, colored that powdery blue that looked so good on her, “Azul.”

“Azul,” sherepeated, lifting up her sleeve with a grin, somehow managing to get the accentperfect on her first try, hitting the cadence of the word just right, making itsound beautiful. Alex smiled, starting to enjoy this game.

After a pause, he murmured, “Bésame.”

“Bésame,” Eliza repeated, tilting her head confusedly, “What does thatmean?”

Alexclosed the gap between them eagerly, jumping forward onto his hands and kneesso he could kiss her. She made a small, adorable noise of surprise as his skinmade contact with her’s but she softened within a heartbeat. Her mouth openedunder his, tasting of sweet tea and toothpaste and warmth. His Eliza.

“Kissme,” he answered her question in a low, mischievous voice, his lips pullingaway only a few centimetres from her’s, “And you did ask, so…

Elizawas blushing furiously, twirling a piece of her hair around her finger,flustered but happy, “Stop that. How am I going to learn Spanish if you keepdistracting me?”

Alexshrugged, in a failed attempt to look apologetic, unable to hide his grin,“Remind me, why exactly do you want to learn Spanish?”

Hisgirlfriend blinked her large, dark eyes at him, “I don’t know, I just thoughtit would be fun? It would be something we could share.”

Alex bithis bottom lip. It was fun; he had to admit. He’d never really thought he’denjoy hearing Spanish words again until he heard them in Eliza’s voice. It waslike a piece of his home come back to him, all the parts he enjoyed and stillmissed sometimes; the feeling of sand under his feet, the boleros coming fromthe tinny little radio that sat in the corner of his mom’s store, sea saltstinging his eyes and skin. The poisonous, painful memories were missingsomehow.

And heliked teaching Eliza something; she was attentive and focused like there wasnothing else in the world but his voice, like he was all she cared about. Thethought raised a pleasant chill on his skin.

“And Ithought…” Eliza began, looking like she was trying to choose her wordscarefully, “I thought maybe you’d like to…I don’t know, keep hold of somethingfrom your childhood? Some of the good stuff.”

Alexstarted a little. It was scary how perceptive she could be.

He’dagonised over it for a long, long time before he’d finally cracked one nightand told her everything about where he came from. They’d been lying in bedafter making love, so tangled up in each other they didn’t feel like they weretwo people anymore, breathing heavily and sweating and shaking and sounbelievably happy but a little scared too. His walls had been down, it waslike she’d reached in and grabbed the foundations of who he was and rattledthem, and it had just…fallen out of his mouth. It had lurched out of him andhe’d scrabbled desperately to catch hold of it but it had been too late. Beforehe’d known where he was, he was crying and trembling as he coughed up the wholesorry story of his father, his mother, his brother, everything.

Alexhadn’t been able to look at her once he was done. He’d just wanted to curl upand hide, sink down into the darkness creeping into the corners of his mind.But then a hand had reached out and took hold of his shoulder, pulling him upand out, and then he’d been sobbing into Eliza’s chest and her arms were aroundhim and her low, comforting voice was in his ear.

Andeverything was okay.

It hadbeen a week since then and she’d been doing nothing but hugging him at randommoments, kissing his jaw when he hadn’t been expecting it, making him smile,sending him cute, dorky texts. She hadn’t said anything, until now when she’dshyly approached him and asked if they could spend their morning off with alanguage lesson. But Alex knew what she was trying to do and he was moregrateful than he could say.

And hewas so glad he’d told her.

“Thanks,Eliza,” he murmured, quietly, his eyes warm.

Shereached over and threaded her fingers through his, her thumb pressing into thepalm of his hand comfortingly.

“De nada,” she replied with a brightsmile, repeating back the words he’d said to her after she’d asked him to teachher Spanish.

Alexsuddenly wanted to kiss her again.

“Te quiero,” he sighed as he leaned intowards her, his breath warm on her skin, “Te quiero más de lo que puedo expresar con palabras.”