Meanwhile, on the other side of the house, Eve lowered the tray with the mugs of warm chocolate towards her esteemed guest, saying, "It's really nice you're letting Heck help you with your case. My son's not exactly an expert in this field." She put the tray down on the nightstand and grabbed the last mug before perching herself on the edge of the bed with a sheepish smile. "He only started this whole thing last year, in Mystery Cove of all places. Like we have any crime here for him to deal with—but I want him to learn, you know. Grow. Do you think he can do this?"

"What? Solve my case?" Devi's brow wrinkled, dare say, offended on Hector's part. The poor boy was trying. Whatever he was, rookie, newbie, a spring chicken, he was trying. Even the heartless bitch that she was, she could see it. Yet, there was his mother, doubting his ability. In fact, for the first time since she'd met the inspector, Devi felt sorry for him, like he was a little puppy she needed to protect. If she'd been his mother—well that thought stopped right there, didn't it? She wasn't his mother. She wasn't anybody's mother.

Eve nodded—to Devi's horror—adding, "You see, he's never really solved anything ... I don't even know why he is a cop in the first place ..."

What is wrong with you?! Devi narrowed her eyes. "Ms Martinez, your son is trying. Really, really hard, might I add? The least you can do believe in him."

Eve laughed nervously, throwing her head back as if Devi had said something truly funny. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound like I think my boy incapable of things, but he's young and naïve, and you're such a big name ..."

"And still a person." Devi stared, sitting on the end of the bed, her cast leg jutting out ahead of her, distracted by the rain hammering the enormous glass wall overlooking the cliff. Whoever's brilliant idea that was; making a room feel like it was hanging at the edge of the world, staring into the abyss? Obviously they didn't know she had a mighty big fear of both, height and darkness. That 'view' as good as a bogeyman under her bed.

"Of course, I didn't mean that." Eve rose from the bed and paced the room a little.

Devi glanced back at the corridor, strangely wanting Hector to reappear in the room and take his mother away. "Has Dr Chen left, Ms Martinez? She'd said she would help me out of these wet clothes and help me get into bed before she left."

"He's so alone in this town." Eve shook her head, eyeing the churning darkness outside that large glassed wall and Devi thought she heard a hint of regret in the older woman's voice. "I know this is hard for him, being here ... if only he had someone ..."

"He might soon." Devi chuckled softly. "If all goes well ..." A slight burning sensation rippled through her chest as she said this, as if the thought of Hector and Hilde, together, was uncomfortable a thought. They have to make it believable for it to work. They have to sell it ... their romance ... the word tasted acerbic in her mind. She missed the giant grin on Eve's face. "Is the doctor gone already, Ms Martinez? She went to check on you earlier ..."

"Oh," Eve startled, chugged her hot chocolate, and hugged the mug to her body. "No, she's still around. Hector is just showing her his room for the night. She'll be back."

Thank God. Devi rarely prayed or acknowledge god, but here she was, thanking them. Anything or anyone to save her from that awkward conversation with Hector's mother. "Could you send her back, please?"

Eve nodded. "Anything I can get you for the night? Maybe get you changed into this?" She held up the large t-shirt.

Devi held her yet-to-be-sipped mug up with a pressed smile, hating the idea of stripping naked in front of this strange, dolled-up woman. Is she wearing makeup in the middle of the night? I thought Hector said she's a recluse, so what's with the makeup? "No. It's okay, Mrs Martinez, I'll just wait for the doctor. Good night."

Eve seemed to fumble for words, looking like she wanted to say something else but couldn't find the right words. So instead, she grabbed the tray from the nightstand and made her way out of her husband's room, trying not to think about how odd it was having a strange woman in there. What if Luis knew her ... like he did other men and women?

Lost in her thoughts, Eve marched herself back to her hovel, past Hector's room where he was putting fresh sheets on the bed while Hilde was nowhere in sight. "Devi wants the doctor," she said deadpan as she dragged herself to her room and shut the door behind her.

Hilde appeared behind Hector as he threw the thin blanket over his old bed, far too small for him now, but would be more comfortable for the slim doctor. He was eyeing the couch in the family room for himself.

"Mum said Devi was asking for you." He tried not to side-eye the few posters of half-naked models still up around the room or ogle Hilde's shapely legs beneath the giant T-shirt she'd donned.

His shorts were still in her grip as she bit her bottom lip, and Hector bit his in return, trying not to moan at the sight. "The waist is too big," she said.

Hector nodded and headed for the door past Hilde before things got a bit too saucy for him in there, caught between his teenage dreams and his adulthood. Yes, the damn posters he was embarrassed about were still up, but it was too late to rip them down. Hilde had already seen them.

"Your mum seems to like her," Hilde mumbled behind him.

"She's a celebrity." Hector clawed at a paint chip on the door frame.

"And you?" her voice was barely audible, but Hector heard.

"I can't stand the woman." Hector gave her a faint smile. "She thinks the world of herself." That made Hilde smile, and Hector continued. "Someone should tell her the world is Heliocentric and not Devicentric."

For what felt like minutes, Hilde regarded him. It made Hector blush once more. He tried to look anywhere else but at her, standing there, inviting in his old T-shirt, a T-shirt he'd love to slip off her body.

"I was thinking ..." Hilde began. "You don't have to ask me out if it's not what you want. Even if it'd make it easier for me to check on her, we can think of something else ..."

"What?" Hector peered down at the woman before him, at how her still-wet hair from the quick shower framed her small face.

"You just seem so"—she swallowed—"distracted."

"Wouldn't you be? I moved that impossible woman into my house ... with my Ma ..." his voice lowered an octave. His heart beat faster. His pulse beat like a drum against his skin. Then, without thinking, he stepped back inside that room, right within her reach, and took Hilde's hands gently in his. "I'm not distracted ... I'm nervous. I've never done this before."

"What? Ask a girl out?" Hilde said with bated breath.

"About tomorrow." Hector shook his head, with it, shaking away the doubt that had ever crept up into his chest. Hilde was the woman he craved. Hilde, with her wide, wise eyes, her soft porcelain smooth skin, and her plump, pink lips, lips he wanted to kiss right there and then—to recall her taste, of strawberry, from her chap stick.

"What about tomorrow?" she asked.

"Where do you go for lunch?"

She shrugged. "I usually bring mine."

"That won't do," he said, recalling Devi's advice to 'bump into Hilde,' in public. "I need you to go out for lunch tomorrow, somewhere I can meet you, without it looking like you and I are up to something." He absently squeezed her hands.

"And are we?" Her breath was shallow. "Up to something?"

"Not if you don't want it ..." Hector's gaze dropped to her lips.

"I can meet you at Pete's pie shop, around midday." She stepped closer to him.

"Pete's Pie Shop at midday." Hector nodded, wetting his lip. His heart sped up exponentially, being so close to her yet again. He could easily scoop her in his arms like that night they'd spent together—not knowing who the other was when Hilde had first arrived in town. You were my first...

Of course, Hilde was the first of many for our little Hector. The first girl he'd had a one-night stand with when they met as strangers a few towns over. She'd driven him to the house she rented, a few doors down from the town centre he knew and had wanted to escape. She was his first real big-girl crush, for who else was Hector going to ogle in a town the size of a village where everyone knew one another? If he kissed a girl there, he'd feel like he was kissing a sister. Eww.

Hilde was also the first girl he'd brought home, indirectly, but still. And she was definitely the first girl to be in his room half-naked and looking the way she was at him. Hungry.

"Thank you for this, Heck." Hilde's gently touched his arm, and a current coursed through his body.

"For what?" he whispered, inching closer to her.

"The room," he read the words on her lips rather than hear her voice.

"Any time." Hector reached up and touched her soft face, tracing her bottom lip with his thumb as if it were a habit. "Can I get you anything else? Water, towel, snacks—" a kiss?

She shook her head ever so slightly. Her eyes riveted on his face. Her bottom lip sucked under her teeth.

Hector absently bit his own lip, struggling to peel his eyes away from her face.

"Hector ..."

"Yes."

Her eyes darted to his lips. "Are you going to kiss me or not?"

"Yes," he barely managed before his lips tasted her soft ones. He had no time to think about it, what they were doing, where they were. Automatically, as if he'd done it a hundred times before, Hector pulled Hilde close to his body and kissed her. His tongue explored hers hungrily. His hands dove eagerly beneath the hem of the T-shirt to feel her warm, smooth skin.

"Dr Chen!" Devi's scream came down the hall, loud enough to interrupt whatever was about to happen in that room just then.

'Devi needs Hilde', Ma's words echoed in his mind then, and Hector pulled away from the sexy doctor, despite every cell in his body craving to have her right then.

He leaned his head against Hilde, breathless. "Fuck. I forgot Devi asked for you ..."

Hilde held his face a moment in her warm hands before kissing his cheek and letting go. "See you in the morning."

Straining against his shorts, Hector watched Hilde strut out into the corridor, towards Devi's end of the house, and wondered how he could ever sleep now, not with that gorgeous woman walking around the house looking like that, let alone sleeping in his old bed.

"See you tomorrow," the words spilled from him in a breathless heap.

Hector fell onto the bed, buried his face in the pillow, and groaned. "What happened to faking it, Heck?"

Now that was the question. What happened to faking, Heck?

He screamed again into the pillow—Why did Devi have to call Hilde then?—before following Hilde out of the room.