A Lot Like Adiós

by Alexis Daria

  “No, actually. I feel . . . more. A lot more.”

  “You should tell her,” his father said decisively. “Now go back to the part where you sold the gym.”

  Gabe explained how Powell’s offer coincided with Fabian’s life changes, leaving Gabe in the position of buying him out or working with a board of investors. So he’d decided to sell.

  “It’s hard to run a business alone,” his father said knowingly. “You made the right choice.”

  “Sí, mijo.” His mother nodded. “And it means you built something really valuable if this Power guy wants it.”

  “Powell,” Gabe corrected, then huffed out a laugh. “Although Power is pretty accurate, since he held all of it.”

  “What about the work Michelle was doing?” Esteban asked.

  “I still have it,” Gabe admitted. “And we paid her. But I left suddenly, and I didn’t explain everything to her.”

  “You should do that,” Norma said in a mild tone.

  “I’m working on it,” Gabe said. “That’s what I was doing when you got here.”

  His father rapped his knuckles on the table like a gavel. “Okay, mijo. You fixed things with the gym. You fixed things with us. Now you fix things with Michelle.”

  A smile tugged at Gabe’s lips. “I will, Pop. Don’t worry.”

  “We’ve missed you so much, mijo,” his mother said, blinking back tears.

  Gabe swallowed hard, and told them the truth. “I’ve missed you too.”

  Something eased in his parents’ faces, like those words were enough. And hell, maybe they were, to start. But they had to be backed by actions.

  And despite the confidence in his voice, Gabe was worried. He’d already left Michelle twice. Would she give him a third chance?

  He could only hope his words to her would be enough, and that he’d have the courage to follow through on his plans. Because once again, he was going to need her help.

  And not just hers. His family’s too. His days of trying to do everything alone were over.

  Thirteen years ago

  Windows Messenger Chat Transcript

  Celestial Destiny: Episode 13 Planning Session

  Michelle:

  I don’t think Zack should leave.

  Gabe:

  Why not?

  Michelle:

  He should stick it out with Riva, even though it’s difficult. Together, they can make things better.

  Gabe:

  No, Riva should leave with him. They can give up everything related to their old lives and go off to have more adventures across the galaxy for season 3.

  Michelle:

  Riva won’t leave, though. That would be out of character. Badass bounty hunter, remember? She never gives up.

  Gabe:

  Even if it’s a lost cause?

  Michelle:

  Never.

  Gabe:

  Well, maybe she should.

  Michelle:

  She wouldn’t.

  Gabe:

  I have to go. My dad is yelling at me about the store.

  Michelle:

  Just think about it, okay?

  Chapter 27

  That’s it,” Gabe said in awe. “It’s done.”

  His mother looked up from the kitchen counter, where she was packing a box of homemade conchas—a thank-you gift for Fabian’s family, to go with the mountain of diapers, toys, and clothing she’d bought for the twins. Gabe had explained in no uncertain terms that he was never having babies, so she should enjoy shopping for his godchildren while she had the chance.

  She had taken him at his word, and come back with a slew of shopping bags.

  “What’s done?” she asked.

  “Celestial Destiny. It’s finally complete.”

  His mother just sighed. Gabe’s parents didn’t understand how finishing “el fanfeek” was going to win Michelle back, but they encouraged him to do whatever he thought would work.

  “Flowers are always a good idea,” his father grumbled as he rolled the suitcases over to the apartment door. He’d consented to more treatments for his shoulder and his knee, which he hadn’t even told Norma was hurting him. Norma had been delighted to find out that Gabe could also do back and neck massages, and demanded he work on her too. The regular PT treatments had put a spring in their steps, but maybe it was also the California sunshine and reconciling with their son. Gabe had missed the worst of the wildfire smoke from up north while he was in New York, and the skies were clear again—aside from the usual smog—by the time he’d returned.

  “If this doesn’t work, flowers won’t do anything. This is Michelle we’re talking about.” Gabe saved the file and opened a new email.

  To: Michelle Amato

  From: Gabriel Aguilar

  Subject: Celestial Destiny

  The end.

  Love,

  Gabe

  Before he could talk himself out of it, he attached the document and hit send. A second later, the “Message Sent” notification popped up. It was truly done now.

  Gabe leaned back in his desk chair, awash in satisfaction and exhaustion. Between finishing the story and spending time with his parents, he’d barely slept the last two nights. But now, something sixteen years in the making was complete.

  Celestial Destiny had always been his way of showing Michelle what she meant to him. Maybe he’d been too subtle then, but not anymore.

  He just hoped he wasn’t too late.

  “I’m taking the suitcases down to the car,” his father called from the door, and Gabe jolted.

  “Wait, let me help you.” Gabe got up and felt a series of pops in his joints. He’d done way too much sitting over the last week. But he couldn’t have his dad hurting his shoulder again right before he left.

  At the open door, Esteban knelt and picked something up. “Tienes un package,” he said to Gabe, handing over a cardboard tube.

  “Did you order a poster?” his mother asked, coming over with the box of conchas.

  “I don’t think so,” Gabe muttered. And then he saw the label, and his heart leaped. “It’s from Michelle.”

  His mother bounced on her toes. “¡Ábrelo, zángano!”

  Gabe shot her a wounded look. “Mami, don’t call me zángano.”

  His father came over with a kitchen knife. “Here, open it.”

  Gabe took the knife and cut the packing tape, then popped out the plastic lid at the end of the tube. He passed the knife and lid to his dad, then stuck his fingers in to pull out a rolled-up piece of paper.

  Tucking the tube under his arm, Gabe unrolled the paper. A huge smile broke out on his face when he realized what it was.

  Michelle had made him another collage, a physical reminder of their friendship—just like the one she’d given him after high school graduation. Just as the story he’d sent her would—hopefully—show her what she meant to him, this showed him clearly what he meant to her. There were recent photos and older memories, all blended together to show him what he’d already known.

  He loved her. Always had and always would.

  And then there were the words scrawled across the bottom, a quote from the final episode of Beyond the Stars.

  Part of me will always be waiting for you.

  Hope lifted his heart. Maybe it wasn’t too late.

  “I need a shower,” he said, leaping into motion. His mother helped him pack and his father helped tidy up the apartment and package the perishables from the fridge, which Norma had stuffed to the gills. Gabe bought a ticket for the same flight his parents were on, then called Fabian on speaker while he threw on some clothes.

  “I need a huge favor,” he said when Fabian picked up the phone.

  “Anything, bro. Just name it.”

  When Fabian arrived, Gabe and his parents loaded up the car with their luggage and all the gifts for Fabian’s family. They were also giving him all of Gabe’s groceries, since Gabe didn’t know when he was coming back. Fabian took a concha out of the box immediately a
nd nibbled on it as he drove them to the airport.

  “Señora Aguilar, these are the best conchas I’ve ever tasted,” Fabian mumbled through a mouthful of pan dulce.

  Gabe’s mother preened. “Call me Norma. And don’t forget to send me photos of tus bebés.”

  At the airport, they unpacked the luggage and Fabian said his goodbyes to Esteban and Norma. Then he turned to Gabe.

  “You can do this,” he said, clasping Gabe’s hand. “Don’t hold back.”

  “Not anymore,” Gabe agreed, pulling Fabian in for a quick one-armed hug. And then he and his parents raced through the airport to make their flight.

  Celestial Destiny

  A Beyond the Stars Season 2 Fanfic

  Episode 13

  By BxGamer15

  FOR CHELLEBLOCKTANGO

  Zack returned to Gardaron Port.

  Zack soared away from Planet Salazarin and prepared to engage hyperspeed. But as his fingers hovered over the ship’s control panel, he paused.

  What in the galaxy was he doing? Going back to his dead-end life working as a bartender in a port city? Leaving Riva, the one person who saw him not as a savior or heir to his father’s throne but as a real flesh-and-blood person, after finally reconnecting with her after all these years? Turning his back on all the work that needed to be done?

  You couldn’t pick your family, but you could choose how you played the cards you were dealt.

  So what if his father was a monster and his mother was a manipulative liar? Zack hadn’t turned out like either of them, thanks to his aunts and uncles, and thanks to Riva’s friendship, the grounding force in a life marked by chaos.

  Yet here he was, choosing to fold and thus proving himself to be worse than the king and queen. He was a coward, running away from his responsibilities, leaving his mess for other people to clean up because he couldn’t be bothered to face where he’d come from and what it might mean about him. He was too enamored with his own pain to set it aside and see what was really before him.

  Riva.

  His people who relied on him.

  And the few who’d stayed behind to temper the king’s worst impulses.

  It was time to play his cards, for better or worse.

  Zack engaged the navigation AI. “Set a course for the Salazar Compound.”

  “Are you sure?” the computer asked. “You just left there.”

  “I’m 100% sure.”

  “Well, if you’re sure you’re sure . . .”

  With the ship on autopilot, Zack took the MacGuffin Device and went to the engine room. He stared at the cube for a long time. It looked so innocuous. Who would have thought it had the capacity to wield so much power?

  He held the cube on the flat of his palm and squinted at it. Then, using his telekinesis, he flung it into the engine’s reactor core.

  Zack landed the ship right where he’d taken off from.

  “Shut everything down,” he told the AI. “I won’t be going anywhere for a while.”

  “Very good, Your Highness.”

  Zack paused. The AI hadn’t referred to him by his title in years, and if it had, he would’ve corrected it. But now? It fit in a way it never had before. Not like something unwanted, but also not like something he deserved.

  No, it was more like something to grow into. To aspire to deserve. To prove himself worthy of.

  Zack found Riva in the great hall, reviewing a holo-map with one of his uncles.

  When he approached, Riva looked at him with a mix of apprehension and hope in her amber eyes. His uncle took one look at the two of them and scurried off, claiming he’d left the hoverdrive on.

  “Where is it?” she asked.

  “Gone,” Zack said. “Destroyed. You were right. It’s too dangerous to exist. No one should control something like that. Not even me.”

  “So you . . . came back to tell me that?”

  He shook his head. “No. I came back to rule. On one condition.”

  The corner of her mouth quirked. “What’s that?”

  “I’d like you to rule with me.” He took her hand. “My connection with you has always been the best part of me. If I’m going to do this, and do it well, I need you, Riva.”

  “You do. But you’ve been gone a long time,” she said. “How do I know you won’t leave again?”

  “You don’t,” he answered honestly. “I can’t guarantee I won’t get the urge to run again, but I can promise I’ll tell you when I’m feeling that way, and why. I hope you’ll give me another chance, and love me through it when those feelings come up. I know it’s a lot to ask.”

  “It is. Lucky for you, I’m an expert bounty hunter. If you try to leave again, I’ll just track your ass down.” Her voice softened, and the look in her eyes was pained. “But please don’t make me.”

  “I won’t.” He slipped his arms around her waist and looked deep into her eyes. “I love you, and I’m sorry it took me so long to figure out where, and who, I need to be.”

  “I got used to it,” she whispered. “Like I said, part of me has always been waiting for you.”

  “You don’t have to wait any longer,” he promised. And then he kissed her.

  Chapter 28

  Michelle was skewering vegetables in her parents’ kitchen when someone knocked on the back door. Odd, since it was unlocked, and people had been coming in and out all day. They were having a family barbecue for her nephew Henry’s seventh birthday. The combined Rodriguez-Amato family was so big, the tradition was to throw house parties for family birthdays, followed by a smaller “friend” party another day.

  “It’s open,” Michelle called, and continued poking chunks of zucchini.

  When the door remained shut, her mother spoke up from where she was stirring a huge pot of arroz con gandules on the stove. “Go open it. It might be Ava with her arms full.”

  Michelle went to open the door, but it wasn’t Ava.

  It was Gabe.

  Michelle sucked in a breath, her heart pounding in her chest, but she couldn’t stop the smile that spread over her face.

  “It’s you,” she said, with something like wonder.

  “I’m back,” he said, and there was a note of finality in his voice, like this time, he was back for good.

  Michelle would have told herself that was just wishful thinking, if she hadn’t received an email from him the day before signed Love, Gabe.

  And if she hadn’t read the story he’d attached to that email. But she had read it, and she’d been thinking about it all day.

  Part of me will always be waiting for you.

  She’d been waiting, knowing with certainty that this time, he would come back for her.

  And here he was. Holding a familiar cardboard tube.

  The basement door swung open and Ava entered the kitchen, her gaze bouncing like a pinball from Michelle, to Gabe, to Valentina, to the skewers.

  “Go upstairs,” Ava said quickly to Michelle. “I’ll take care of the vegetables.”

  Michelle mouthed thank you, then grabbed Gabe’s hand and towed him past her mother and cousin and up the stairs to the craft room, where it was blessedly quiet. For the most part, everyone else was in the backyard eating or playing video games in the basement.

  “I read it,” Michelle said, the second they were seated on the edge of the bed.

  “All of it?”

  “All of it.” Her heart twisted and tears sprang to her eyes. “You were always trying to tell me. I’m sorry I didn’t see it.”

  “You weren’t the only one,” he said, opening the tube. To her surprise, he pulled out not one but two rolled-up papers. One was the professionally printed collage she’d sent him, but the other was more delicate, the edges yellowed with time and old Elmer’s glue. He unrolled it, and Michelle saw with a start that it was the first collage she’d made him, from actual photos she’d cut out and glued together onto card stock. Puffy foam stickers spelled out “BEST FRIENDS” across the bottom in rainbow letters.

  M
ichelle took the first collage, spreading it out carefully on her lap. Gabe did the same with the new one, and they stared at them, side by side.

  BEST FRIENDS

  Part of me will always be waiting for you.

  “It’s Friendship 2.0,” he murmured, referring to her list.

  “Yeah,” she said softly, warmth suffusing her chest at how clearly he saw her intent. “It is.”

  “This was made with love,” Gabe said, touching the corner of the old collage, the one that showed them between the ages of six and eighteen. “I saw the ‘best friends’ part, but I didn’t see everything else that went into it. I was too caught up in my own unrequited love story. And then when we finally . . . I thought it was too late, because I was already leaving.”

  His gaze shifted to hers, and she saw love there, but also fear. “Is it too late, Mich?”

  She swallowed, glancing down at the new collage. Part of me will always be waiting for you. Did he even need to ask?

  “Too late for what?” After the way he’d left, she wouldn’t make this easy on him. Even though the story he’d sent had broken her heart and put it back together all over again.

  He set the papers aside and took her hands in his. “For me to love you,” he said softly. “I feel like I’ve been waiting forever to tell you that I—”

  “I love you,” she blurted out, then grinned at his look of surprise.

  “I was trying to say it first,” he protested.

  “Sorry not sorry. You took too long. Now kiss me, you marble-faced nerd.”

  She leaned in, and the first touch of his tongue on hers opened the floodgates on her feelings. She’d been so scared she’d never feel this again. Never touch him or taste him again. So she poured all that fear, all her love, into the kiss. They were gasping and groping at each other by the time they finally came up for air.

  “You left me again,” she whispered against those soft, soft lips.

  “I’m sorry. That was the last time. I promise.” He pressed his forehead to hers, like he had when they’d argued by the front door that first morning. It felt like ages ago. So much had changed since then.