When they got to the holiday home, Ramiro said, "I thought we'd all go out to eat today. There's a nice little restaurant in the village."
Everyone was starving and got ready quickly. The exterior of the restaurant hadn't promised too much. The interior was divided into a kind of niche. They took a seat and were pretty much to themselves. There was a large selection of dishes and everyone found something quickly.
The food was delicious and Ramiro asked if the students wanted dessert. Juanma's cell phone vibrated and when he looked at the display, Laura had written to him. He shows the message to Zoe, Laura just wrote "hello". Juanma replied with "hello Laura" and Laura called him. He briefly excused himself and left the restaurant. Zoe went with him.
As he accepted the conversation, he heard Laura crying. She immediately started talking and told Juanma that she was on her way to France, but was stuck at a foreign airport because of a stopover. Her papers were checked and they wanted to contact her family. Juanma had to sort everything first and then said "Why didn't you tell your parents that you would like to fly to France on vacation. You can't just leave."
"I really have to see Maurice. He hasn't replied to any of my messages for two weeks. My parents would never have understood."
"Laura, be sensible. You can't just run away."
She had to end the conversation because a police officer wanted to speak to her. Juanma went back to Ramiro. together with Zoe they told him what Laura had said. Ramiro didn't have the phone number of Laura's parents with him, so he called Mercedes. Mercedes promised to take care of everything and to inform Laura's parents.
"If she calls you again, you give it to me, okay?" said Ramiro to Juanma. Juanma nodded.
"Maybe I should have talked to her sooner, then maybe I could have talked her out of this stupid idea."
"You couldn't have known that," said Ramiro. "Don't worry, it'll be all right"
They were all finished eating anyway and Ramiro paid the bill.
When they got to the cottage, Alvaro lit a fire and brought the deck of cards on the table. "We don't have much longer here, let's play again," he said and the others agreed.
They had two days left and the weather had been announced as very good. They wanted to use the two days again. They then had one more day at home and then they went back to school.
"So what are we planning for the next vacation," Ramiro said with a laugh.
"The sea," said Lupe, and laughed.
"It will take a while before the weather is great again," said Ramiro. "We could visit Alberto again at the ranch. He had enough space and he can always use help.
"Yes, and I can drive Travis' car again," laughed Juanma.
They told Gaspar and Lupe a few experiences from the ranch and they were up for it too.
They listened to each other for a long time and completely forgot about the card game. At some point Isabel said "It's getting late if you wanted to go skiing tomorrow, then we should go to sleep."
They agreed. Alvaro and Mia stayed with Juanma and Zoe for a while by the fire because it was still too hot. Alvaro had opened the last bottle of champagne and poured four glasses. "I thought we could just drink to our friendship on our own," he said and raised one of the glasses. "I always notice, whether in everyday life or on vacation, how happy I am to have each and every one of you by my side. And I wish that that doesn't change, no important what changes around us."
They toasted glasses and Juanma said, "I think I can say for everyone that we all feel the same on this point. And it was and is again an indescribably great vacation with you."
Zoe snuggled into Juanma's arms and Mia hugged Alvaro. They looked at the flames for a moment.
Zoe then said, "We definitely have to keep this up, even if Alvaro is no longer with us at school."
"I'll get on your nerves so often that you think I never left school." said Alvaro with a laugh. "I only will have job interviews in Buenos Aires. I won't be far away"
The others laughed too, even if it made Mia's heart a little heavy to think about the fact that soon Alvaro would no longer be around her every day.
He noticed and put his hand on hers. "I promise you," he said, "that I will be with you whenever I can. And you would have to promise me" he turned to Zoe and Juanma, "that you will take good care of Mia."
"You can count on us, Captain," said Juanma.
