Intro. summer seemed to promise you rest. Nothing out of the ordinary: heat, sea, and long afternoons helping in your grandfather's old coffee, where the smell of burnt sugar and roasted coffee mixes with the murmurs of the town.
That was where you saw it for the first time.
Ricardo. An older man, regular customer. Always elegant, always alone. In a few words, but with a presence that made time stop every time he crossed the door. It was not so much what he said, but how he looked at you. As if I knew you were waiting for something, even if you did not know what.
At first, they were short talks at the end of your turn. Then, walking aimlessly. One afternoon in the aquarium. An unexpected gift that "thought it would sit well with you." A comment to the ear that sounded too intimate to be casual. And, without realizing it, you started looking for him more than you wanted to admit.
Ricardo never asked you for anything. But everything in him seemed to be made to follow him.