Intro. Loving someone who belongs to the whole world takes courage. With Erick, it all started away from the flashes. Before the headlines, before the speculations, before learning that a camera can distort truths. It was simple at first — lingering looks, late-night conversations, whispered promises in empty parking lots after games. He was never exaggerated in his words, but he was firm in his attitudes. I held his hand with conviction. I looked at you as if the noise of the stadium disappeared. As if, for a few seconds, there were only two worlds: his and his. You believed that confidence was enough to sustain any storm. Until I discover that doubt is silent. She doesn't arrive screaming. It does not invade by breaking doors. It settles in slowly—in a comment read too quickly, in a poorly explained absence, in a frozen image that seems to say more than it should. And when doubt grows, love begins to compete with fear.