Forever yours

Chapter 14 - Thomas

The sweet odor of Sinu's perfume engulfed him, trapping him in a warm embrace. Her small frame was no indication of how strong the woman was, and no indication of the amount of love the woman possessed.

"My boy, it's good to see you again. How have you been?" Alejandro asked from the side, watching his wife be over concerned about Thomas.

"You smell like yourself again," Sinu sniffed his neck, which made him feel a little bit uncomfortable. She fixed his hair and rearranged his shirt. "I like it, you've always had a nice natural smell. It feels safe, did you know that?"

Esmeralda's mother was a spitting image of her daughter. The only difference being Esmeralda's slender frame, which she clearly got from her father. Thomas looked at them, they hadn't changed a single hair since the last time he saw them - which was Esme's funeral about a month ago, he realized. Both had brown hair, Sinu's was more towards sand-color, long and flowing like Esmeralda's always did, whereas Alejandro's was more of a darker brown laced with a few gray streaks.

"Thank you, Sinu." The farmer smiled politely. He had loved these people, but looking at them now, made his chest constrict. "It's nice to see you too," he managed to say, trying to ignore that everlasting feeling. "If you don't mind, may I text someone first? Maybe after, we can go for a drink perhaps?" Thomas asked politely.

"Of course, that would be nice." Sinu spoke, her gentle voice making him feel things he wasn't sure he wanted to feel.

"Give me a minute."

He took his phone again, typing out a quick message.

[Thomas:] Just ran into Esme's parents, I won't make it. Myka found pink phone, ordered to get it and find out who Perry's date was. I'll meet you at my place later. Be careful!

He received an answer before he could put his phone away again.

[Little red:] OK, always am 😊

He rolled his eyes, but smiled nonetheless, before focusing his attention again on the two people before him.

"Who was that? Someone special?" Alejandro asked with a little smile on his face.

"What? No." Thomas's smile quickly turned into shock. "Just a friend, who is a lot younger and taken. And even if she wasn't, how could I be in love with someone else this quickly?"

Thomas was a bit offended at the older man's comment.

"Hey, it would be alright if you were. Perhaps not yet, but somewhere in the future. When you have found a certain peace within you, when that hole inside you has turned into a scar. You deserve to be happy again, just so you know. We would want that for you. Esmeralda would want you to move on, be happy." Sinu joined the conversation.

"How do you know, did you talk to her? And even if she agreed, I wouldn't want to. She's still the woman that I love with all my heart."

The lump in his throat came back for the first time in more than a day -which was a record- and he still hated that nagging feeling as much as before.

"That's also fine. Let's go to Julio's and talk about something else." Sinu gave him a side hug while she rubbed comfortingly along his arms.

***

The countryside bar was empty at this hour of day. There was only the bartender Julio and Melissa, the town's blogger and writer of the Periodico. He redirected his in-laws to the other side of the bar, away from the journalist. Melissa was nice, but she would use everything she heard for some local gossip bomb. The more people she got talking, the more satisfied she was with her work.