For the past ten years,that contact had been Santino.Perhaps the hospital hadn’t been able to reach her,so the call had gone to him,and maybe that was the only reason he came back.
“Just a routine checkup.”Aurelia kept her tone light,unwilling to let him know the truth of her illness.
Only then did Santino’s expression ease slightly,but almost at once his brows furrowed again when his eyes landed on the stomach medicine by her side.
In a daze,Aurelia felt that this moment overlapped with the way he used to take care of her years ago.She instinctively explained,“When I was eating,I didn’t think it was that spicy…”but before she could finish,she stopped herself.
She could no longer taste the sweetness of cake,nor the heaviness of spice.The illness had grown worse,pressing on her nerves and already dulling her sense of taste.
Santino picked up her phone,unlocked it with ease,held the screen in front of her,and frowned.“You booked a ticket to Iceland,why?”
Aurelia’s heart tightened,and she quickly snatched the phone back,forcing her voice to stay calm.“Business trip.”
In the past,she would have pulled him in to complain endlessly about work,but now all she gave was those two plain words,“business trip,”and even then,only after he noticed the ticket and asked.
This thought made Santino’s face darken further.
The sudden ring of the phone broke the uneasy silence between them,and Astrid’s soft voice came through.“Santino,come out with me to set off fireworks!”
Santino’s expression softened,and his voice carried a gentleness Aurelia hadn’t heard in years.He turned and left,his figure light with the eagerness of a boy discovering love for the first time.
Aurelia closed her eyes wearily as the sharp pain in her stomach twisted her insides and left her breathless.She remembered how she had once set off fireworks with Santino,too,on her birthday,when he had planned it days in advance,even designing the shapes of the fireworks himself,just to make her smile.
A burst of dazzling light lit up the night sky outside the window,scattering sparks of color across the darkness.
Another birthday had come,and again she was watching fireworks.Only this time,they were no longer for her.
Looking out the window,Aurelia shut her eyes before the glittering sky and made the same wish she had never once changed.