-LINA'S POV-

Silence.

I'm sitting outside a posh, pretty and packed restaurant, yet I'm sitting in silence.

Inhaling my cigarette once more, I sigh. Rhiannon and Brandon never listen. Once I arrived in England and they explained their fabulous idea, I told them it wouldn't work out. I told them it was stupid. I told them I didn't want to do it and neither would he.

Did they listen?

Of course bloody not.

Exhaling the toxic but addictive smoke, I sigh once more.

"¡Mierda! ¿Qué se supone que debo hacer, mamá?" I whisper, kicking the bench in front of me harshly.

A cough comes from behind me, making my spine tingle as my entire body leaps up.

"Careful. We invested a lot in our furniture, not for some twat to come ruin it."

The hairs on my arms stand up, the back of my neck feeling a rush of cold air pushing against it. My heart thuds against my chest, desperate to escape. Naturally, my unoccupied hand flies up to my madre's necklace.

Giving it a tight squeeze, I stub out my cigarette on his precious tables. With a deep breath, I turn around to face him.

"Hi, Sin."

He sighs, leaning against the wall. His hair is shorter now, his skin more tanned. He has a slight beard and a tiny moustache, his eyes dark brown and the blackness of his pupils piercing into me like they always used to.

Fuck me.

"Hello, Catalina. It's been a minute, hasn't it?"

"You could say that." I respond, swinging my legs up and down in anxiety.

He raises an eyebrow. "That's on you."

Liar.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night." I shrug, pinging my hairband gently against the smooth skin on my wrist, not wanting to make eye contact.

Sin chuckles softly under his breath, shaking his head at me. I build the confidence to look up, gnawing away on my poor bottom lip.

"That's a bad habit. Thought you would've dropped it by now."

"Then I guess you thought wrong, didn't you?" I respond snappily.

He raises an eyebrow. "Look, your the last person I wanted to see. No offence or anything."

"No shit, sherlock. I could hear your little scene from out here."

He pauses, clearly taking a moment to think, a moment to breathe. He looks at me, then nods.

"Fair play. That was overdramatic of me. Anyway, I came out here to tell you to come inside, pretty much. Rhiannon and Brandon have got a table. I've told Lizzie that the paperwork is going to have to wait. We have a lot to catch up on, don't we?"

"You mean your not going to ignore me? I must say, I'm quite surprised."

He shrugs. "We're adults now. As much as I want to rip your throat out, this is my place of work and I refuse to be anything but professional. Come on in, drinks are on the house."

"I don't drink."

"Not even soft drinks? How are you still alive?" He teases, before adding seriously, "neither do I."

"That makes a change."

"Ouch." He replies, his hand on his heart as though he's been wounded.

Swallowing my laugh, I head towards the entrance of the pub. As we walk in, I have to pinch myself a couple of times to be certain that this is real.

I'm here.

He's here.

He's next to me. He's a living, breathing, real Sin, walking next to me. Granted, he seems to hate my guts and the feeling is extremely mutual, but old habits don't die hard and there's a part of me that kinda feels at home.

"Sin! Catalina! Sit." Rhiannon says excitedly, sending a wink in my direction.

I shake my head at her, sitting down on the very edge of the booth.

"Okay. So we know it's a big ask of you both. Obviously, there is.. history, which we know may make you guys want to rip each other apart." Brandon begins, looking at the both of us.

"Or rip each other's clothes off." Rhiannon adds, sending another wink to me.

I put my head in my hands, literally wanting to be anywhere else but here.

"Not helping, Non-non. Anyway, as I was saying, we know the situation isn't the greatest between you two. However, it would mean the world of us if you guys could plan our wedding. All of it. We know where we want the honeymoon, we'll sort that, but the rest of it- we need you. We want our wedding to mean something to us and what is more meaningful than our best friends planning it all? We have a shit ton of money, we may be young but we've saved, my parents are willing to contribute and Rhiannon's mum. Rhiannon is getting good money from her salon, I'm getting good pay at work. Money isn't an issue. Be as creative as you wish."

Leaning back into my chair, I think over his words. Obviously I want to help them. I came to England with the intentions of doing exactly that- helping them.

Not doing the whole thing for them, alongside my sort-of-ex person.

"Fuck it. I'll do it, as long as she can dial in the bitchiness." Sin says, glancing quickly at me.

"Hey! Fine. I'll do it, as long as he keeps his ego to the size of a pea, not the size of Africa."

"Can you guys be nice to each other?" Brandon pleads.

"Where's the fun in that?"

I laugh. "I agree, that's boring. Anyway, Sin my darling friend, I'll take that free drink now. Passion fruit J2O, por favor."

Sin sighs, before heading over to the bar. I sit up smugly, knowing I have some kind of power over him. Looking round the restaurant, I notice how it's became a lot more suited for the upper-class. It's far more sophisticated than it used to be, a lot more of a  'I have money and you don't' kind of vibe.

"If it isn't my favourite curly-headed woman. Catalina! How you been, gorgeous?"

"Little baby Taylor!" I coo, fist bumping him.

He grins at me. "It's been time, man, time. You good mate? Haven't seen you around here in a hot minute. How's thing going, still? You still down Spain ends?"

"Yes, I'm still in Vila Nova. I didn't know you still worked here!"

"Yeah. Not like it used to be though. Lizzie and Sin co-owning-"

"Co-owning? Like a partnership?" I respond sourly. He's twenty two, why is he sharing responsibility with an older woman?

Taylor raises his eyebrows, looking me up and down. "I see one thing hasn't changed. You still got a thing for my Sin boy?"

"No, that was 'time a go'. Just curious, I don't catch up with everything in Spain. Are you going to give me my J20, or just hold it?"

Taylor looks down at the tray in his hands and laughs, as though he forgot about the bottle of J20 and glass of ice placed carefully on top of it.

"Anyways, I gotta get back to work. Big boobs boss decided to actually turn up today and as much as I'd love a spanking, she only gives them out to Sin." He says, hopefully just being full of humour, before fist bumping me goodbye and heading back to behind the bar.

I sit back on my seat, not interested in a conversation with Rhiannon and Brandon.

Why is Sin co-owning a whole ass place with a female? He's twenty two, he is way too young to be making any commitments of any kind. It's stupid, absolutely idiotic.

Obviously I don't care- not in the slightest, I tell myself. I'm just stating my opinion on a matter, like you would when watching a movie.

"Your J20, Catalina. This is Lizzie, Elizabeth. Rhi and Brandon have met her tons of times, but I don't think you have?" Sin passes me a J20 with his free hand, the other arm snaked smugly around Elizabeth's waist.

Great work. They didn't even realise Taylor had brought me one.

I take a sip out of the stupid black paper straw, wishing the ground would eat me up whole.

"Hello, Catalina! It's a pleasure to meet you. I haven't really heard much about you, your a mystery topic! Are you and Sin friends?"

I shrug, looking through my handbag. I know I have a lollipop, which I'm hoping will prevent this woman from talking to me.

As I take it out it's wrapper, I look at Sin, deciding that it's his responsibility to answer to his girlfriend-partner thing.

"You could say that."

I lick my lollipop. "Not really."

Rhiannon and Brandon glance at each other, making it extremely obvious they are containing a laugh. I pull a face at Rhi before putting my lollipop back in my mouth.

"Do you know each other well?"

I smirk, licking the lollipop once more. "You could say that, couldn't you Sin? I know him really well, Elizabeth."

"I see." She responds, shaking off Sin's touch as she sits opposite me.

Licking my lollipop in silence, I take a proper look at the people on my table. Rhiannon, who looks like she's going to burst into awkward laughter. Brandon, who has his little pale, sweaty look that he gets when he's awkward, as well as the panic in his eyes that his fiancee will open her gob. Elizabeth, who seems to have a possessive aura over Sin, whilst also managing to throw daggers with her eyes towards me every second. Sin, who has a reassuring hand on Elizabeth's arm, but who's eyes seems to be focused directly on my lollipop.

Don't be silly. He's probably staring at my lips in pure worry, wondering what I'll say next.

"You left your asthma pump at mine by the way, babe. Do you wanna collect it later? I renewed my Netflix, we could watch something." Elizabeth says, clearly speaking to Sin but staring into my soul whilst she does so.

"He has asthma?" I say, feeling and most-likely looking bewildered as I look at Sin.

Elizabeth nods triumphantly, raising a quizzical eyebrow at me. "I thought you knew him so well. So why do you sound surprised? Not know him as well as you thought?"

If she wants to be a bitch, then I'll allow her to meet the queen of it.

I pause, sucking on my red, cherry-flavoured, round lollipop. "Well, Beth. Can I call you Beth? I'm going to call you Beth."

"I prefer Lizzie."

"And I'd prefer not to be here. Sucks, doesn't it?" I pull a fake sympathetic face before grinning like the absolute genius I am, "it's just, I used to get him pretty out of breath and he never had a problem then."

I smile innocently at the both of them, before putting my lollipop in my mouth once more.

Brandon muffles his hand over Rhiannon's mouth to seal her laugh, whilst Sin just stares at me.

"Childish. So childish," he rolls his eyes, grabbing Lizzie's hand as they stand up, "Rhi, you got my number. Send it to Catalina so we can arrange when to start planning. Missed you guys. It was a delight seeing you again, Catalina."

"And you, Sin." I respond in a sarcastic tone, not loving his newfound attitude.

As they walk off, I drop my lollipop in the bin lodged between two booths. Rhiannon looks at me, laughing.

"What's so funny?" I snap, looking her up and down.

She snorts, patting me on the head. "Could you be any more obvious? I was so surprised how calm and well, normal you guys were acting. I mean, it's been what, three years? After the whole voicemail incident-"

"Keep your voice down." I hiss.

Raising her arms in a surrender motion, she continues, but in a whisper, "Sorry. Anyway. After the whole voicemail incident, I thought you wouldn't say a word to him. Or he'd be a dick. I still think you should let me-"

"Your not talking to him about it. No way." I interrupt, predicting her next words.

She huffs. "Fine. Whatever. Anyway, as I was saying, I was shocked that you were acting like, well, normal people. And then your little bitchy jealous side came out and his attempts to make you jealous and it felt like college all over again."

"Oh shut up, you. Your a mother, stop acting like a child."

"Don't talk to my fiancee like that." Brandon warns, wrapping a protective arm round his love.

I sigh, pulling my lighter and cigarettes out of my bag. Once I've told them I'm going for a smoke, I head outside.

The toxic smoke is the only thing keeping me alive, keeping me sane. As I draw back, my body relaxes. As I exhale, my body feels more at ease.

When I finish my fag, I stub it out on another precious bench.

I know I need to check on Abuela, call James, but I don't want to do it yet.

The idea of being able to escape from my reality in Spain, even for a few hours, is pure bliss.

Maybe I deserve some bliss for a while.

"Are you okay? Lizzie's grabbing her bag, I'm waiting for her. What was that back there? You acted really immature." Sin tells me, appearing from behind out of nowhere like he normally does.

I laugh. "Sorry, guess I'm less grown up then your little partner."

"Are you seriously jealous,Catalina?" He asks, causing me to turn and face him.

Jealous?
Jealous?
JEALOUS?

"Why on earth would I be jealous? I live in hot, sunny and beautiful Spain in a huge-ass house near a beautiful beach. I was studying at an amazing university, I may not be now but I was. Vila Nova is full of amazing people and amazing places. I'm surrounded by sexy Spanish men and woman. Everyone is great, everything is great. So tell me now, Sin, why would I be jealous?"

He laughs, sitting beside me on the bench.

"Why are you laughing, asswipe! This isn't funny!"

He laughs again, his eyes focused on my face. "I'm going to either cause more tension or ease it and tell you why I'm laughing. I missed you, Catalina. I fucking hate you, but can we at least try to be friends? I'm a responsible adult now, I make good decisions and good choices."

"Jeez, so you've said."

"Sorry. But yeah. We are going to have to be around each other a lot. I don't like you at all, but I can try to."

"Your really encouraging me here, keep talking." I reply with my classic eye roll.

Another chuckle escapes his lips. "Sorry. Today's just been a bit of a shock. You and me have a lot to talk about, don't we?"

"That's in the past. I don't care about the past."

"I really think it would be better if we spoke-"

"No. I don't want to sit and reminisce over all the times we made each other feel like shit. This is my adult decision, seeing as your so set on being responsible adults." I cut him off, wanting to state my opinion.

He shrugs. "Whatever you say, Catalina. Think about it. I've got to go, Lizzie is parked out back. Bye."

"Bye, Sin."

Awkwardly, he pats my arm with his hand, before he walks off to join Beth the Bitchface.

The fact I'm back in England doesn't scare me. The fact we are attempting to be friends when I'm still holding a grudge for the voicemail incident doesn't scare me.

Well, maybe a little bit.

What scares me is that the tingly feeling on my arm, the kind anyone gets when they are touched, seems to last a little longer this time round.

Friends.

I'm sure we can manage that.

~~~~~
Woah! So much dialogue, apologies for that but it is needed for this chapter!!

A lot of tension, awkwardness and an unsettling aura.

But boy have I missed writing!

I am now out of isolation as of today (04.10.21) so I am extremely happy!

I hope you've enjoyed the first 2 chapters. Buckle up, because this is only the beginning!

Love you all xoxo