CHAPTER 3

"Come with me to Rio de Janeiro," Suzana whispers before taking Bruno's lips, pressing his body against the bed where they recently made love. She continues to shower his face with kisses until she reaches his ear, where she seductively nibbles his lobe before whispering again, "Come with me... You won't regret it."

"You know I can't," Bruno replies, caressing Suzana's short hair and guiding his fingers behind her ear. "We've already talked about this, my parents need me here in Parati. You know about my mother's situation... and my father..."

"But it's only a few hours from here... It's only six hours... You can come on the weekend..." Suzana suggests, interspersing her words with light kisses on Bruno's lips. "Spend the weekend with them..."

"Just as it's only six hours for you to come from Rio and spend the weekend with me here in Parati," Bruno retorts, observing dissatisfaction taking over Suzana's face. "It's not that simple, is it?"

"I didn't say that, but if that's what you want, I'll do it," Suzana replies, holding his face. "If you ask me to, I'll stay. Just ask..."

Bruno holds Suzana's hands, moving them away from his face, and then gently pushes her body aside, taking a deep breath. She tries to snuggle in his arms, but he delicately pushes her away and then gets up to go to the bathroom. Suzana listens to the sound of the shower being turned on and then decides to join him, thinking they could take a shower together. She approaches, kissing Bruno's back as he turns away, keeping her at bay. She huffs and then says, "What's the problem?"

"What do you mean? Problem? I'm taking a shower..." Bruno says, turning towards the shower.

"I don't know if you noticed, but there's a naked woman in the shower with you..."

"Yes, I noticed..."

"And then? Aren't you going to do anything?"

"Suzana, we just made love..." Bruno argues, turning off the shower.

"And that has never stopped you from having another round with me..."

"I'm tired," Bruno says, limiting his response before returning to the bedroom.

"Are you tired, or am I already out of the picture?" Suzana asks, walking behind him.

"What? What's this story now?" Bruno asks, raising an eyebrow.

"That's right. I haven't even left, and you're already replacing me with someone else."

"What place? Suzana, we have nothing," Bruno says, putting on his shorts.

"How is that? We've been in this for over a year, and you're telling me we have nothing?" Suzana questions, irritated, getting dressed.

"Suzana, I've always made it clear that our relationship is purely casual and won't progress beyond that. Nothing more than that..." Bruno reinforces, seriously. "I'm sorry if you had expectations about us."

"You know, here I was thinking you'd feel bad about me choosing my job over staying here with you... What a fool I am!"

"I wish you the best, Suzana. You know I care about you, but that's all it is... Believe me, I won't feel bad because I have nothing to offer you or anyone else," Bruno explains. "You deserve someone better than me. You deserve someone free of any obligations and who will walk the same path as you. But that person isn't me... I can't move to Rio de Janeiro. I can't offer you more than this here," he concludes, pointing to his tiny room.

"Ask, Bruno. Ask me to stay, and I will," Suzana says, getting closer to him. "I'll stay here with you."

"I won't ask, Suzana," Bruno refuses. "In fact, I ask that you leave. Go, take the job, and be happy."

"Bruno, I love you," Suzana declares. "Don't push me away."

"It's precisely because of that, Suzana, that you should go. You're in love with me, but I'm not... I don't feel the same way."

"You're being so cruel right now," Suzana says, grabbing her things. She looks at him and says, "One day, you'll regret what you're doing..."

"Maybe, but it's better this way," Bruno says, looking at Suzana as he opens the door. "Believe me."

She approaches Bruno and kisses him, and he doesn't resist. Suzana steps back and then leaves through the door of Bruno's room, which he closes with force before lying back on his bed, breathing, relieved... That was a close call.

***

The curtains of the room abruptly open, letting the sunlight invade every corner of the room and touch Bruno's face like a warm punch. He blinks rapidly, not understanding what was happening until he associates the silhouette standing next to his bed with his elderly father.

"Good morning, my son," Nilton says, smiling at Bruno. "Are you going to stay in bed all day? It's already past eight o'clock, and soon the store will be full of tourists."

"Good morning to you too, Dad," Bruno says, stretching.

"Dad? Did you sleep with jeans on?" Nilton asks, staring at his son. "Didn't the girl come over last night?"

"Suzana came..." Bruno says, getting up and heading to the wardrobe to look for his uniform. He puts on the shirt and then takes the pants, throwing them over his shoulder before heading to the bathroom. "We broke up."

"Another one? Just wait until your mother hears this..." Nilton says, with a disapproving look on his face.

"If she even remembers Suzana," Bruno says from inside the bathroom.

He takes a deep breath and counts to three, expecting his father to appear at the bathroom door looking unhappy. Bruno knew he touched on a delicate subject: Loreta's early Alzheimer's. She was diagnosed about two years ago when the first symptoms started to appear. Today, despite having no cure, Loreta undergoes treatment to slow down the progression of the disease. Well, Nilton swears the treatment is even reversing Loreta's mental state, but for Bruno, his mother is becoming increasingly lost in her mind.

"Well, today your mother perfectly remembered the route of our morning walk," Nilton argues, standing at the door confidently. "I let her lead, and she did it perfectly."

"I'm very happy, Dad," Bruno says before sticking the toothbrush in his mouth.

"Don't lose faith in your mother," Nilton requests. "I'll be waiting for you in the kitchen."

***

***

In a matter of minutes, Bruno came downstairs and found his mother in the pantry having coffee, while his father was arranging something in the kitchen. He sits next to his mother, who calmly eats a banana cut by Nilton:

"Good morning, Mom," Bruno says to Loreta before attempting to kiss her on the cheek, but she pulls back in alarm.

"You can't kiss me, Niltinho..." Loreta whispers to her son. "My father is right there in the kitchen, he can see us... I don't know how he let you stay here tonight."

"It's because it rained a lot yesterday, Loreta," Bruno lies, entering his mother's narrative. "I promise I won't try it again in front of Aroldo."

"What is it, son?" Nilton asks. He observes his wife and then his son. He extends the thermal bag toward Bruno and asks, "Did something happen?"

"Nothing, I'm just telling your daughter, Mr. Aroldo, that I have the best intentions with her," Bruno says, looking at his father.

"That's right, Daddy," Loreta affirms, staring at her husband. "Niltinho is really good to me."

"Thank you for the compliment, Loreta," Bruno says, holding his mother's hand and caressing it gently while observing her expression change.

"You're not Niltinho, are you?" Loreta asks, holding the young man's face.

"No, I'm Bruno, your son," Bruno corrects before kissing his mother's forehead. He takes the bag from the table and says to his father, "Well, I have to go to the store. Good morning to you both."

Bruno takes big steps towards the garage, where he grabs his bike and cycles through the streets of Parati to his family's store. The store is a bicycle and pedal boat rental shop located in the city's historic center. The idea of bike rentals was Nilton's, which rents them by the hour, day, or package with multiple days and progressive discounts.

However, Bruno has always had the desire to expand the business into tourism, offering personalized experiences for tourists, including himself as a guide for a few hours or a more comprehensive itinerary over several days. Bruno guides visitors to beaches, waterfalls, or other preferred locations, while Loreta prepares snacks, drinks, and isotonic beverages. However, with his mother's new condition, this responsibility has fallen to Nilton. To compensate for his father's absence, Bruno invited his friends Gabriel, Lucas, and Jonathan. Jonathan is in charge of managing the packages and accounting, while the other three handle the tourism and customer service aspect. It was in one of these personalized packages that he got involved with Suzana, but not just with her, as he felt attracted to all the female tourists. However, with Suzana, he went further, and in the face of how everything happened, this is the only thing he regrets: he shouldn't have mixed business with pleasure.

"But I understand," Lucas says, finishing arranging the bicycles outside with Bruno. "Suzana was so hot! Impossible not to resist and not want to have some fun."

"Yeah, I thought she was enjoying it too, but apparently, she wanted something more serious," Bruno says, finishing securing the last bike. He turns to Lucas and says, "But you know what, this is a lesson for me..."

"It's like my late grandma used to say, God rest her soul: don't dip your pen in the company ink," Lucas says after making the sign of the cross.

"Yeah, from now on, I'll never mix business with pleasure again," Bruno says, seriously.

"Really?" Lucas raises his eyebrows.

"I swear," Bruno confirms.

"That's good news for me," Lucas comments, excitedly looking over Bruno's shoulder. "Because that hot girl coming this way is all mine."

Bruno looks at his friend and then turns around slowly, only to come face to face with Helena walking on the sidewalk.