Soy Alícia Sierra

12. New Beginnings

Dear readers, since we now skip forward more than a decade, I leave here a reminder of where we stopped before the time travel. Enjoy!

Madrid, May 2014

Alícia left the police station early that day. It was a beautiful spring afternoon, and there were few things she enjoyed more than watching life blossom outside. Germán would be on a trial the whole day and probably most of the night too, so there was no hurry in going back home. Instead, just in time, she got out of the metro two stations earlier than usual and headed to the park. Once on the street, her eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the clarity, and only then she realised her sunglasses were not in her purse.

As she filled her lungs with the delicious smell of so many different flower sorts, felt the warmth of the sun on her skin and the wind softly blowing on her face she told herself it didn't matter. The sound of friends talking, children playing and laughing, dogs barking and chasing other dogs reflected in her mood and she felt truly content. Not only then but with her life in general. At times things hadn't been easy. In fact, they had been really tough, but she wanted to believe they belonged in the past and that she was ready to move forward.

"Oi!"

The redhead didn't notice someone was trying to call her attention.

"Hi! Can you throw the ball back?"

A teenage boy had failed to catch the ball and now thought it had landed too far for him to come get it himself. On the other hand, it had landed right by Alícia's feet. She snapped back to reality and bent down to lift the object. "There!"

The boy caught it and waved back. "Gracias!"

She walked a little fast in order to be out of reach in case the ball went flying wild again. In reality she had come there to think. A subject that she had been suppressing for years had been insisting on catching her off guard when she least expected. Besides, the way Germán was indirectly hinting to his desire to start a family had made her ask herself whether she was fully ready for that. Would she ever be?

She approached the only bench she saw that was still free. Unfortunately directly facing the boys playing soccer. Considering the distance to be safe enough, she sighed heavily and finally sat down. Everywhere she looked there where children playing, mothers pushing strollers, carrying toddles by their hands, a few pregnant couples here and there. She tried to imagine how it would be if she was one of these women. What was still holding her back? What if the IVF didn't work right away? Would she be able to cope with the failure? Hiding behind so many questions, she knew exactly that there was only thing that still scared her. "What if it happened again?"

***

It had been a long day at the court for Germán. He was member of the jury on a homicide case and the current hearing had been going on for two days with no end in sight. There were many witnesses to be heard and they were proving difficult to crack. Each day it extended until it was physically impossible to proceed. Though it was supposed to continue very early the following morning, he was very thankful for the break and in desperate need of a hot shower.

Having told Alícia not to wait for him, he didn't expect her to be up when he arrived at their apartment, so it was a happy surprise to see some light coming from under their bedroom door. He carefully opened it, in case she had fallen asleep with the lights on, like she did more often than not, and saw that she wasn't inside. A book lay open on her beside table, and now that he listened closely, there was some music coming from their suite. A mischievous smile formed on his face as he started to undress. To his delight the door was not locked. He peeked inside and there she was, covered in foamy water in their spacious bathtub, still oblivious to his presence.