Brazilian Summer

Epilogue

A strange sense of recognition washed over Rachel when she looked around herself at the Rio de Janeiro International airport with its grey tiled floor and yellow signs marking directions to the different gates. It hadn't been too long ago that she had waited for her luggage, anxious to finally meet Rafa who was waiting behind the sliding doors.

And yet, things had been completely different back then. She was mourning over her lost relationship with Clive. Life in general was lacking a clear direction and she'd felt lost and lonely. But everything had changed. In fact, it was her that had changed most of all.

Luckily, the check in had been quick and easy and neither passing through the security check nor having her passport stamped at immigration had taken very long. Despite the fact that she was now making her way towards her boarding gate to catch her flight back home it was hard for Rachel to grasp that she was leaving Brazil.

She had started feeling very much at home here, maybe even more so than back in London. With Rafa and Luisa she was leaving a big piece of her heart here and though she couldn't wait to hug her girlfriends and her parents back at home it wouldn't quite be the same as the sisterhood she had felt with her two favorite Brazilian ladies. Rachel tried to remind herself that despite the distance separating them they would still remain present in her life and they would make plans to see each other again as soon as possible.

Her thoughts drifted to Felipe as she continued her way past the small shops offering tourist their last chance to grab a souvenir for loved ones back at home. Oh Felipe... It was even harder to leave him here than her friends!

Rachel would have never guessed it was possible for her to feel so close to someone else other than Clive before she came here. Another fling, let alone a romance, had seemed light years away and yet here she was, almost considering to turn around and run back out of the airport just to give him one last kiss.

The last night they had spent together had been magical. They hadn't done anything special really after Rachel's party at the beach, the evening program consisted only in ordering food to Felipe's apartment and trying to soak up as much as possible of each other's company. It almost made Rachel chuckle now that she had been reluctant to even let him go to the bathroom by himself. She had waited so long to see him again, she had simply wanted to make the most of the time they did have together.

Being back in Felipe's flat - in his bed - had brought her the most exquisite combination of feelings: everything seemed so familiar, she'd been there before and there were no surprises. When she first stepped into the apartment again and was hit with his personal smell, a mix of laundry detergent and some cleaning product with a hint of lemon, it felt to Rachel that she'd been there a thousand times already. But then as they spent more time she discovered so many details about the place that she had missed the last time she was there. Had there been flowers on the kitchen counter that night they had first slept together? Was that clock over the couch there before or had he bought it in the time they hadn't talked?

And Rachel didn't just notice more details around the place but her heightened awareness also expanded to Felipe himself. In the afternoon she had still wondered how she could know him so well already after just a couple of weeks but in their conversations they touched on so many topics where she founds out new information that she quickly had to correct her initial sentiment. He revealed lots of opinions she didn't know he had, some she could completely agree on (that Mexican cuisine was one of the best in the world), others they would have to debate further in the future (that it was completely acceptable to not have seen Pulp Fiction).

When it started getting later Felipe had eventually suggested they get ready for bed in order for Rachel to get some sleep before her long night on the plane the next day. Suddenly a nervousness had kicked in, stirring up the butterflies in Rachel's stomach again.

'I'll give you one of my tshirts to sleep in and I think I have a spare toothbrush in the cupboard above my sink. Let me check', he'd said to her and gotten off the couch already heading towards the bathroom.

Rachel had also gotten up to take their dishes that were still sitting on the coffee table to the sink in the kitchen. To her surprise she had felt excited at the thought of spending another night in Felipe's bed. The nervousness she would have expected wasn't nearly as bad as she would have thought. Taking a deep breath she had tied her hair up into a knot at the top of her head.

When she had reached the bathroom Felipe had left the door ajar and she had caught a glimpse of him leaning on the sink brushing his teeth. Rachel had stopped for a moment and relished in the familiarity of the moment - a strange feeling yet again because she'd never actually seen him performing his oral hygiene before. But this memory was something she had wanted to bask up and remember.

Rachel had leaned against the door frame with a small smile playing on her lips until Felipe had caught her eye in the mirror and waved her in. She had washed her face and also brushed her teeth before he had led her back to the large closet in his bedroom where he had taken out a white tshirt that was way too big for Rachel along with some of his shorts.

For the entire afternoon and evening already they had treated each other with such familiarity that everyone who didn't know their history would have easily vouched that they were a couple. It had probably been because of that that Rachel hadn't given it much thought when she had come closer to him and lifted her arms in encouragement for Felipe to help her strip down.

He had obliged with a smile on his face this time and as she stood in front of him in only her bikini top and denim shorts he hadn't been able to resist kissing her right then and there. Thinking back to that moment now Rachel could still feel her lips tingle and a warm shiver cascade down her back.

They had spent the night tightly intertwined with each other and Rachel had never felt such a strong desire to melt into someone else, to fully merge and become one person. The morning had come way too quickly for her taste.

They had stayed in bed for as long as possible without risking for her to miss her flight. After a hurried breakfast and a quick stopover at Rafa's place to pick up Rachel's suitcase Felipe had dropped her at the airport an hour earlier.

Their goodbye had been emotional and romantic, it had been harder for Rachel than she would have anticipated to physically let go of Felipe. But at some point she had known that this would have to be their last kiss and she had made sure to make it a good one before she had finally ripped herself away and started her way through the security check.

Weirdly enough it had only occurred to her now that even though they had spent the entire night and morning together they had never really discussed the future or defined where their relationship was headed. In fact, Felipe had never said anything at all about his feelings after confessing that he was in love with her in Paraty. Rachel smiled to herself as she realized how much that would have upset her a few weeks ago, she was sure that it would have made her feel pretty insecure.

But right now all she could feel was grateful for how fate had them made cross paths again on her weekend getaway. And for the time that they had gotten to spend together after that.

For some reason Rachel felt so secure in the way they had treated each other yesterday that there wasn't a doubt in her mind that they would see each other again. Maybe there wasn't a concrete plan in place yet but you could always make one, right? And yeah, she didn't know where they were headed exactly and what the future would hold for them but she felt more than confident that there was a future. And what a privilege it was to get to explore it together.

All of these thoughts were going through Rachel's head as she got to her boarding gate. Most of the passengers of her flight were queuing already and the ground staff was already announcing over the intercom that boarding would commence shortly. Taking a look out of the airport window Rachel admired the beast of an airplane that would carry her over the Atlantic Ocean and back towards home as she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket.

She pulled it out and unlocked it and the words staring back at her from the screen only intensified the warm feeling in her stomach and made her lips split into a big smile. It was from Felipe.

'So how would you feel about coming back for Carnival in two months?'