“You’re a madman,” she said as he opened his door and pulled her in passionately, wrapping her in his arms and kissing her desperately.

“You drive me mad,” he said when they finally broke their embrace. He kissed her gently on the forehead.

“Don’t you need to check out?” she questioned.

“There’s still lots of time.”

“What about lunch?”

“I can eat any other time but I don’t know when I’ll see you again.”

“You’re being silly, we have to get back to the closing session.”

“No we don’t,” he said, leading her to the bed. “There’s a conference in São Paulo, Brazil in a couple of weeks. Maybe we can see each other again.”

“I don’t know. Brazil? Anyway, we’re still here by the way. People will notice were gone,” she protested, but a jolt of excitement raged through her at the thought of exploring more of Emile in Brazil. But would it feel like this? Dangerous?

“Who are these people? Russian spies? They’ll just assume we had to fly out early. Stop thinking so much, Rebekah. Stop making excuses. You and I both want to be here. Together.”

She couldn’t argue anymore and fell into his embrace again, this time less hurriedly.

“It’s not exactly a one-night-stand if we’re here again,” she grinned as he undressed her slowly, taking care to kiss her all over.

“Well, technically it was only one night,” he pushed her onto the bed. “Besides, this was never a one-night-stand to me.”

This time he took her slowly, carefully. Making love to her instead of desperately trying to feed the desire. This time it wasn’t just all consuming lust. It was beautiful. He took his time to explore every inch of her body and her of his. They played, they laughed and they held each other closely, whispering secrets to one another.

The world outside ceased to exist but Rebekah knew it couldn’t last forever. She put the thought out of her mind as she reached up for another tender kiss, gently biting his lip as she pulled away.

After deciding to skip the closing session, she didn’t have to rush to leave this time. They held each other in a passionate embrace, naked under the air conditioner. They talked about their lives back home, their real lives, an existence outside of this hotel. It all seemed so far away still, foreign almost.

She told him about her job, her family, her favorite restaurants and other trivial matters of no consequence. In turn, he relayed his world to her, complete with a daughter from his previous marriage.

“What is your wife like?” she asked earnestly, part of her feeling a pang of jealousy. But she was curious as to the woman who managed to win his heart.

“Ex-wife,” he reminded her. “We’ve been divorced more than two years now,” he smiled. “Well, she’s lovely. I used to think she was the love of my life. We were together since we were teenagers. She’s a good mother, a great mother. But we’ve grown apart over the years. We want different things, that’s all. And she doesn’t understand my vision. Between the studies and the travelling and all the projects, I must admit I don’t get much time for family life. I try with my daughter. She’s my princess and she’s growing up too fast.

“My former wife used to complain that I needed to reconsider my priorities and spend more time with my family. But my career is my everything. I have worked so hard to get to this point, I can’t just give it all up now…I don’t know, I don’t know what I will do.”

He was vulnerable in that moment. She didn’t respond. She just pulled him closer and kissed him tenderly, breathing in his scent, trying to savor as much of it as possible for later.

A calm was between them; nothing of the hurried angst from the mid-morning quickie in her room.

“The closing session will end soon,” she eventually said with a sigh. “And you’ll have to check out.”

“I know,” he got up lazily and pulled her with him as he walked to the shower.

The hot water streamed over their sweaty bodies as they held each other tight for the last time, gently kissing, hands caressing one another’s naked skin that had become so familiar in such a short time.

“I don’t want to leave,” she admitted as he finally turned off the tap and wrapped her in a big, fluffy white towel. The same one he was wearing the night before. How could it only have been one day? It felt like their game was dreamt up eternities ago, and now they were fulfilling fate. She walked to the window, still wrapped in layers of towel and Emile, who was standing behind her as she stared out over the city one last time.

“I know,” he said, kissing her wet neck, arms folded over her waist. “I wish we could stay here forever.”

“I will miss the view.”

“Is that all you will miss?” He turned her around for a kiss and she held onto him tight, clinging to the warm body that she was addicted to.

“Of course not,” she said when they finally separated. “But it’s the only thing I can think of missing right now. I don’t want to think about the rest,” she admitted, finally breaking their embrace as she walked away from the man she feared she enjoyed more than the view.

She reluctantly put on her clothes, again, throwing the towel at him.

They paused by the door. The finality of it all was overpowering, shattering almost, and she tried not to think of walking out forever.

She put a hand on his cheek and kissed him one last time.

“Goodbye, Mr. Martín.”

As Rebekah turned around to leave, she made sure she had her empty notebook in her purse, and while walking back into the hallway, she couldn’t stop thinking of the weather in Brazil.