After a long swim in the sea I was now sitting on the beach towel rereading the text Joe had sent me half an hour ago:

<<I miss you, how are you doing?>>
There was also a selfie of him with a volcano behind.

I rolled my eyes.
<<Still angry. But this place is nice.>>
Was my fair and short answer.
<<I knew you would like it ;) >> He texted back.

No, he doesn't know at all...
Otherwise, he wouldn't have left me here alone without even warning me about it.

As I looked at that horizon I was thinking of a billion things...
I'm twenty-three years old, Joe is twenty-six years old.
We have been together for six years now...

But sometimes it seemed to me that he didn't really know me.
Not everything, at least.

I feel like Joe only knew what I had wanted to show him in those years.

And whenever I showed a side of me that he wasn't used to, he told me things like: "This isn't you, Ellie.", "Why are you acting so strange?" , "You don't usually do that."

He was convinced things were totally black or totally white, but nothing is like that in this world... there are millions of shades in the between.

However, this was a thought that I had never fully explored with him–it just floated helpless in my mind like right now.

"The water is beautiful..." Bella affirmed as she came out of the sea.
She lay down on the beach towel near me.

"I can see that, you weren't getting out of there." I joked.
She smiled dreamily as she moved a strand of her hair over her ear.

"I would like summer to last forever. Summer all long... can you imagine that?" She said with confidence.
"I love summer too... but I wouldn't wish for it to last forever..." I whispered.

"Why?" She immediately asked.
She asks a lot of whys...

I sighed, staring at the sea, "Because I'm afraid I'll get tired of it and end up hating it. Which I don't want to..."

"Hmm..." Bella mumbled, hesitantly.
"You should never get tired of things you love." She added as she stretched on the towel.

I pondered her words a little too much... but I didn't respond.

"Anyway..." Bella continued.
"Joe mentioned that you attend college in California, what degree course do you attend?"
I turned to look at her, "English literature." I said.

Bella pulled herself up, sitting down more comfortably.
"Really?! What do you like the most?" She asked me.

Through my sunglasses I looked at her intrigued expression and I was amazed by the fact that she seemed genuinely interested...

"Being able to express my opinion freely, without being judged." I shyly replied.

Bella nodded understandingly at me.

I shifted my gaze to the sea as I speak again.
"The authors I'm studying, their ideas, values, and phrases are becoming part of who I am now..."

I had never said this sentence to anyone so explicitly and clearly like that.
Maybe it was because no one really understood what I meant.

Bella smiled: "I've been reading a lot more these last few years..."
"Perhaps it's because I search in books answers that life does not give you.
I like looking at the world from different perspectives..."
She said that with a calmness and naturalness that really impressed me.

I couldn't have said that concept better myself than she did... because it was exactly what I was feeling and thinking too.

Perhaps I had not been good at hiding myself because she looked at me and laughed.

"Did I say something wrong?" She asked me, raising an eyebrow.
"No." I immediately replied.
"Actually, it was so right." I pointed out, blushing.

Bella looked at me with a penetrating, amused gaze. I turned my attention back to the sea.

"I don't know anything about you..." I pointed out while I stared at one boat in distance that was moving symbiotically with the waves.
"Joe didn't tell me anything..." I whispered.

"One year ago I graduated in business law." She began.
I immediately turned my attention towards her.

That's pretty interesting...

"How old are you?" I asked.
"Twenty-four." She laughed.

"I work at Joe and Leo's society." She suddenly affirmed.

I looked at her in total shock and confusion: "Are you joking?"

This can't be possible...
I mean, I knew nothing about it...

Bella raised an eyebrow, making a surprise face: "So it's true that you didn't know anything..."

Her voice was filled with doubt, as she found it hard to believe.

"Joe and I hardly ever talk about his work..." I explained to her.
I felt somehow guilty about that.

"What do you do?" I asked immediately trying to avoid her stunned expression.

"Let's say this..." Bella began.
I think she was a little nervous.
"I communicate and provide legal information with the agents of singers who want to produce their music in our- I mean... in Joe and Leo's society, and things like that."

Our respective boyfriends Joe and Leo, had been co-workers and founders of this society for five years now, yet I knew so little about it...
The only information I knew was that
they were producers of records and songs in the music industry, in California.

Their company had always been doing fairly well since it was founded, but in the recent few years it had been growing more and more.

I had no idea that Bella was also working there; Joe had never even mentioned it to me.

This had caught my attention, though.

"So do we have to thank you if things are going well lately?" I teased her.

Bella softly laughed as she winked at me. "I'm just an employee... however... I can be very persuasive if I want..."

I was beginning to understand things now...

"So you probably know everyone... on the contrary, I hardly know anyone." I whispered lowering my gaze.

"Don't you like it?" Bella asked me.
I shook my head, "No, I mean, actually... it's not my kind of thing ..." I simply answered, avoiding getting too specific.

Bella ran her fingers through her gorgeous red hair, " I was working for another society and I was doing great, then Leo made me this proposal ... at first I was very hesitant, then I understand that he cared so much about it, so I accepted."

So she basically tried to find a mediation with her boyfriend.
I usually did it too... I have been doing that so many times.

"Let me say this... I really like what I am doing, but..." She whispered looking straight into my eyes.
She was serious again.

"It's not easy. And it's not easy to work with your own boyfriend too... there may be quite a few problems." She confessed.
Her eyes are tormented now.

"Oh..." I whispered, not really knowing what to say.

I wish I could understand more of that...

Suddendly I could feel that our arms were gently brushing against each other, and that neither of us interrupted that contact.

There was silence for a while.
But not an embarrassed silence. Just a quiet, comforting silence.

"I feel a little out of place in there. That's why I never come..." I confessed tremblingly looking at the sky above me.

I didn't think I could confess something so intimate to a stranger.

Bella's eyes widened, her lips lifted in surprise.
"Sometimes I feel the same way. I'm just good at hiding it." Her tone of voice had lowered.

I didn't think she could also experience that feeling of discomfort... I mean she seems so confident.

"Why did you decide to do law school, anyway?" I asked her.

Bella closed her eyes, thinking about it: "I don't know actually, but..."
She smiled, but in a nostalgic way.
"I don't know if this has anything to do with it but... my grandmother used to tell as a child that I had inherited her intuition and self-control."

"But I had a hard time understanding it..." She whispered and remained silent for a while, reflecting about something.

"What happened next?" I asked urging her to continue her story.

I felt myself blushing for no reason.
Bella smiled softly at me.

"I slowly realized that maybe my grandmother was right ... and as the years went by, my interest in legal and economic subjects also grew. So in college the choice was more or less easy." She explained.

Bella stretched her left arm, in that moment our arms touched softly against each other.

Out of embarrassment, I moved my arm to lean against the beach towel, but Bella did the same exact movement and our arms touched again.

I turned my gaze away but I could sense that her eyes were still turned toward me.
Like she was looking at me very intensely.

"... So ... let's say that you have to be very focused and... confident to do that kind of job...?" I asked, trembling.
"I suppose so." She replied with a smile.

"It's really nice to have found something that really interests you..." I whispered.
"Yes, it is, Ellie. Although it was not easy..." She affirmed.
I nodded to her: "I can understand that..."

We stood there in silence admiring the sea.
"Now we know a little more about each other." Bella said quietly as she lay down.

I did the same thing after a while.
Again, our arms touched.

Bella sighed slowly, like something was happening inside of her.
Her red hair was resting gracefully on the towel. She closed her eyes.

It was peaceful to stand there in silence with only the sea and the sound of the waves. And with her.