I shift my eyes to the back and take in the two men.
Francisco looks out the window. Alejandro holds my gaze.
Francisco has been unusually quiet since we had that exchange earlier.
“A bar?” I suggest while waiting for Alejandro’s reply.
“Works for me.”
I touch Francisco’s thigh.
He moves his eyes to me.
“Fine by me,” he murmurs.
Our eyes stay connected a little longer. He’s impossible to read, with no smile lining his lips. His typical cheerful mood has been replaced by a sensation of doom and gloom.
I turn to Kai.
“Something with a water view,” I say, trying to improve everybody’s mood.
Half an hour later, we walk onto a rooftop of a tall building, surrounded by water on three sides.
Torches illuminate the place, and instrumental music echoes in the air while colorful cocktails wait for us on a table.
Plopped onto bar stools, we train our eyes on the water. Lit candles quiver in short glass jars next to our drinks.
“What time do we leave tomorrow?” I ask Kai, who sits next to me.
“Around noon. I have a meeting in the morning,” he says, not looking at me. “Anyway… I’ll fly back on Friday,” he adds before bringing his drink to his lips.
He takes a sip and places his glass down.
“I can fly back by myself if the three of you need to be here for the rest of the week,” I say.
He clicks his tongue.
“We’re going back together,” he says, closing the topic.
Servers show up a little later with a new round of drinks when the people in the bar start to dance.
We turn our backs to the water so we can observe them.
The audience cheers them on before applauding in the end.
“Anyone wants to dance?” I ask, in a better mood as I finish my second cocktail.
I look around.
“Francisco?” I ask while he checks his phone screen.
“He’s a mean dancer,” Alejandro murmurs, grinning.
Francisco cracks a smile.
“Shut up, will you?”
“He is,” Alejandro says to me.