Angie was furious at herself. From the moment she opened her eyes that day she was messing everything up. For a start, she woke up falling from her bed only to soon remember everything from the prior night and get frustrated with herself
Then she burned her hand serving her coffee and had to get it bandaged because it was too early and Julieta wasn't in the plaza yet - Though even if it was a time when Julieta was free to help she would probably get it bandaged it anyway just to avoid bothering her friend with something small.
She was just too distracted to do anything efficiently, her mind was elsewhere and working on the book store only made it even more clear. She was putting things in the wrong places, getting distracted in the middle of things and just dropping whatever she was doing to do something else.
"Okay what is happening?" Agustín asked dropping the stack of books he was carrying onto the counter.
"What?" Angie asked running her hand through her hair.
"You have just put a horror book into the history section. Something is wrong." Agustín pointed to the bookshelf in front of her.
She snorted "No I did-" She stopped herself as she looked at the spot he pointed at "Mierda."
"See. Something is wrong, you seemed so happy yesterday. Did he do anything?" Agustín asked frowning at her and her eyes widened.
"No! He didn't do anything wrong." Angie sighed "The only thing wrong is that I am a dumbass."
"Perdón?" Agustín asked in shock, never before he had heard his cousin using such a word to describe herself.
"Its simple, I messed up. I made myself look stupid, and I really hate it." Angie said frustratedly putting the book in the right shelf.
"Okay sit down and explain it, because I've never heard of Angie Martinez messing anything up." Agustín commanded taking the other books from her hands and motioning to the counter.
The young woman followed the advice and took a seat over the counter with a sigh.
"So, ayer por la noche, everything was perfect, we danced, we had fun, we talked it was just so amazing, so to make things interesting to the universe one of us would have to make a foul of themselves, and it was me."
Angie took a pause to breathe and Agustín motioned her to keep going as he took a seat by her side.
"So, to end the night he walks me home and decides to take the leap to give me a good night kiss, which is a huge move coming from Bruno."
"And you didn't like it or something?"
"No! It was perfect, but I wasn't really expecting for it." Angie started t gesticulate dramatically "And you know how I rather be prepared to every scenario." The man nodded "But I wasn't ready for it, so when it happened I was in shock. So, instead of a calculated response that would have perfectly ended the date, I said thank you and walked in closing the door on his face, no goodbye or anything."
Agustín took a second to absorb all her words "Wait, you hit him with the door?"
"No!" Angie shoved him lightly "I'm not that clumsy."
"Then it was not that bad." Agustín patted her shoulder lightly.
"Of course it was." Angie tried to run her hand through her hair only to get her fingers tangled in a knot, and as she tried to get it out it only got worst.
"Here let me help" Agustín said stopping her before she could rip the hair out of her head "Why it seems so bad to you?"
"Because I know how hard it is for him to make a move like that, I'm sure that it was important for him. Hell, from all I know it might even have been his first kiss ever. I just... I wanted to have given him a better response, something more assuring for him, make sure that he knew how much I appreciated the gesture." She sighed for the hundredth time that day "But my brilliant response was to slam the door in his face."
"Well, I think thank you was a very polite response from you." Agustín tried only receiving a glare from the girl, he cleaned his throat before trying again "Look, you were nervous, it happens to everyone, and if it says anything is that you really like this man because I have never seen you this nervous about anything. So, if this guy likes you as much as you do about him, he will be able to understand that, and if the way he looked at you yesterday says anything about it, is that he does."
"You know, you are not all that bad with these things." Angie smiled at him "Julieta will be luck to have your advices all the time."
"You're not hanging subjects young lady." The man said dramatically ignoring the fact that she was a few months older than him "Now, let's close the store for the day, we both know that I can't keep it in one piece, and if you can't keep your head in place to work we will end up burning this place to the ground."
The girl took a second remembering all the mess she had already made that day and shivered thinking about how many things she must have misplaced.
"Meh" She shrugged somewhat agreeing with the man.
Bruno had spent a lot of his night rethinking all of his day, for the first time in a long time not out of pure anxiety, but simply to enjoy a bit more the new memories he had just formed. For him, the whole night had been the most perfect day in his whole life, and it was showing during the entirety of the next day.
From the moment he woke up he had a feeling that it would be a good day, he couldn't even know if it was related to his gift or just a whisper from the happiness left from the day before.
And if there was one thing that the madrigal woman learned that day, it was that Bruno simply couldn't hide when he was happy. During the entire breakfast they would exchange knowing looks about Bruno's bright smile, they all had seen him dancing with Angie the night before, so there were no doubts about how much of a success his date had been.
Even the couple of prophecies he had to deliver that day didn't seem all that bad, though it could be because he was so excited about seeing Angie after his chores that he didn't even focus enough to care about the visions he offered.
As soon as he was free from his duties he passed by a flower shop to get something to give Angie - It just felt like the right altitude to show after their first date.
So when he reached the book store door he had in hands a full bouquet of goldenrod and white jasmines - For good luck and sweet love, respectively, he had asked the nice lady by the counter the flower meanings s he wouldn't get anything that could seem bad, knowing Angie and her knowledge for weird facts he wouldn't be surprised if she knew flower meanings by hart.
What seemed peculiar to him, was how the windows and door of the store were closed, it was not n usual sight. But he thought that she could be showing something with the magic lantern she had, this kind of projectors seemed to work better in the dark
He tried the door and a click was heard as it opened.
"We are closed for the day." He followed Angie's voice, the woman was laying on the counter as she read something, the only light in the place coming from a table lamp besides her, she had her nose basically shoved in a book.
Bruno gulped, this was not the reception he was waiting for.
"Uhm, even for me?" He asked and the girl jumped at the sound of his voice.
The sudden move on her part only resulted in her falling from the counter, at least this time it wasn't face first. Bruno caught her mumbling something around the lines of Please kill me now while I can pretend I have some dignity left, before getting up from the ground.
"Oh, Hi! And no, never for you, I mean, the door is always open for you, unless it is after nine because we tend to lock everything... I'm gonna quit talking now." The girl hid her face between her hands and let out a muffled scream.
"Angie, are you okay?" The man frowned at her attitude.
"I'm sorry, I'm just a bit embarrassed about last night, slamming the door on your face was not my brightest moment." She said slightly muffled by her hands.
Bruno extended one of his hands to take hers off her face.
"You shouldn't be." He said softly and offered her a kind smile "For me, you looked really cute all flustered."
"Really?" He nodded pulling her into a hug that she was quick to retribute, nuzzling her face into his hair.
Brno took a deep breath catching all his courage "For me, you are always cute."
He felt her giggle close to his ear and then she kissed his cheek "You'll make me blush."
"Good." He muttered as they pulled away and then he remembered the flowers in his hand "Here, para ti."
The girl gave him a bright smile taking the bouquet from his hand and smelling the flowers.
"They are stunning, thank you." She said softly "So you came all the way here just to give me this? I'm feeling guilty now."
"The flowers are just an excuse, I just really wanted to see you." Bruno scratched the back of his neck.
"Well, I'm happy to see you." She said softly "What do you think about us taking a walk? I don't think we have gone back to that river since I came back to Encanto." Angie suggested as she took one of the yellow flowers of the bouquet to place behind her ear.
"That sounds great, may I?" He offered her a hand that she took without a second thought "What is it?"
She looked at her hand realizing she had offered he bandaged one "Oh, I've been having a bit of an Agustín's day, I got burned with coffee this morning."
"You could have gone to Julieta with this." Bruno frowned.
"It is just a small bruise, it is not worth bothering her." Angie shrugged.
"You could never be a bother, for me or any of my sisters." Bruno argued "Are you sure you don't want to get it fixed? It would only take a second."
"It is fine, I promise." She said and Bruno shook his head before bringing her hand to his lips o give it a soft kiss over the bandages.
"If you are so sure." He sighed "Let's go for that walk."
They walked in a comfortable silence to the river as Angie kept plying with his hand as the man guided them through the trees, even if she could remember clearly their old spot asking her to remember the whole way after nine years would be asking too much from her poor memory.
"Oh I missed this forest." Angie said excitedly as she jumped over a root.
"Really?" Bruno asked smiling at her happiness as they walked.
"The places I lived didn't have all that much para explorar.'' Angie commented "Oh last week I received some map books that I'm really excited to read."
"You enjoy studying maps?"
"You should know by now that I just like learning new things, and maps are things that are always changing, so I have to keep checking them."
"Okay, then what would be the top five things you have read about?" Bruno asked pushing a branch out of the way, so Angie could pass.
"The sea is definitely my favorite thing, period."
"I'm hurt." Bruno snorted, and the woman rolled her eyes at him.
" You are a close second. Back to books, horror stories, Dracula from Bram Stoker in special. Then mythologies from any kind. Fantasy books and then books about music and musicians."
"No romances in the list?"
"Not on the top five, romance is not really my thing." She frowned "No offense on that I mean-"
"I get it." Bruno cut her, since last nigh he seemed more comfortable with her, as if just by just knowing his feelings were reciprocal a huge weight was taken off his heart "I was never really into reading romances either, I've always been more bout myths."
"And superstitions?" Angie guessed.
"Well, who do we have to blame for it?" Bruno squeezed her hand as he raised an eyebrow at her playfully.
"I just gave you a gift, you are the one who took it as some kind of religion." She said back in the same tone.
Bruno was ready to reply when she jumped ahead, they had just reached the clear space by the river. She seemed to glow with happiness under the sunlight as she would spin around feeling the clear grass under her bare feet.
"You really like this place, don't you?" Bruno asked smiling fondly at her as she jumped in the river holding her skirt to keep it from getting soaked.
"How could I not? We decided to be mejores amigos in here." She said turning to him to see the man taking seat in the grass.
"And you also threatened to cut off my finger if I ever found another best friend in here."
"This promise got us here, didn't it?" She left the river to sit by his side.
"You got us here, and I'll never be able to thank you enough about it." he said before leaning back onto the grass "Look, that cloud looks like a rat." He pointed up.
"For you clouds either look like rats, or like clouds." She shook her head in disapproval "May I?"
The man nodded and she laid close to him, her head in his chest as they looked at the sky, from time to time pointing at clouds to describe what they saw - Bruno would always argue about whatever she said actually look like a rat just to annoy her.
"Do you have any story to tell?" She asked after some time, as she played with the edges of his poncho.
"You want to hear one of them?" He asked smiling.
She shrugged smiling back at him "I want to hear whatever you want to share with me." She said softly.
The man gave her a kiss in the forehead "So, there was this family who had this huge ranch..."
It was a story quite different from the one he told years before, this time it was about a family who dealt with horses and donkeys, but they were under the risk of losing the whole property to the bank, so they were forcing their oldest daughter to marry a wealthy man. The problem was that she was already in love with someone else, but she couldn't risk being this selfish when she had the chance of saving her entire family.
He stopped the story by the point when the girl had to finally tell the man she loved that they wouldn't be able to stay together. Angie saw as his green eyes turned back to her waiting for her approval just like he did many years before.
"It was great, you are amazing at it." She said smiling at him and the boy hugged her closer to his chest "Someday you have to help me with the storytelling days at the store, if you are not too busy."
Bruno smiled, he knew how much that store meant to her, specially the story telling days, and she really wanted him to be a part of it.
"I would love to." He said and felt her hand caressing his cheeks, following his stubble.
"Hey, can I do something stupid?" She asked smirking at him and he nodded softly.
Her lips felt so soft against his, just like last time, but this time she seemed more into it than last time, like she really knew what and how to do it. Maybe he had surprised her more than he thought he would in the past night
And this time, when both of them were fully confident of what they were doing, they knew that this would be how they would like to spend their time from this moment on.
It was just the start of something, the start of great Destino.