All Chapters of No Return: Chapter 101 - Chapter 110

They arrived in Bariloche to a rainy, windy late-spring afternoon. As any Californian traveling to Patagonia, they hurried to wear their winter jackets, caps, scarves and gloves. To find all the locals in the airport were in short sleeves.The wind pushed them a couple of steps to the side when they walked out to take a taxi.“You couldn’t fall for somebody living in fucking Riviere, could you, bastard?” Sean snarled, holding the door for Jo to get into the car.The taxi took them down a road flanked by pine trees in the early nightfall, up to the freeway that led straight to the city. It ran parallel to the lake that opened on their right, huge, dark, choppy with foamy waves. The city lights spread ahead along the coast for many miles.They checked in at their hotel about seven. Jo stopped Jim before he got into his room.“Don’t take a nap. We only have time for a shower and a quick bite,” she said.Just

“There she is!”“Finally!”“Man, you’re soaking wet!”“Here, have a drink to warm up.”Silvia spotted him right away. All the way across the bar with Miyen, hands in his pockets, his black cap down to his eyes, keeping his face in the shadows. She paused to say hi to those closer to her, giving her heart a chance to stop hammering her chest. As if. He was watching her, completely still, like a ghost of himself.Sean and Jo were sitting at a table with her cousin Leandro, Karim and some more. Jo jumped to her feet and threw her arms around Silvia’s neck with one of her bright grins. They hugged tightly. When Jo stepped back, Silvia nodded hi at Sean. He nodded back without the slightest trace of a smile, for a change.“Silvia! Listen!”It was AC/DC’s Back in Black. Some of her friends pushed her to the middle of the bar and she headbanged with them f

The bus left them to a light snowfall that promised to get thicker, and Silvia tugged at Jim’s sleeve to make him cross the empty road with her and Claudia. He was about to ask why the hell all the streets on that place seemed to go uphill, but he got distracted, watching the snow swirl down in the subsiding wind. He just took Silvia’s hand and let her guide him, not paying attention to what she and her friend whispered in Spanish.“Are you making him pay, bringing him on the bus and making him walk all the way to the Black Rock?” Claudia asked, amused.“What? No! Look, the wind’s stopped and it’s so beautiful to walk. The park must already be all white.”“Are you hearing yourself? Is that what you’re really thinking about right now?”Silvia grinned and Claudia shook her head, chuckling.They walked her up to Beltane, waved goodnight at her as her dog barked as to wake the whole neig

It was hard to remember to keep breathing as she watched him. Jim wasn’t sleeping, just resting, eyes closed, one hand on his chest. And she was doing her best to keep the balance on that tightrope between fascination and dread of this so-real naked man lying by her side, relaxed and helpless out of his own will.Now she knew Jim was right. It was no whim, no challenge, and worst of all, it was no mirage. He’d stated it so crystal clear she was still shaken, and facing it had emptied her inside.There was nothing left. Everything had been ruthlessly wiped away by this understanding that laughed in the face of any other idea, sensation, emotion, hope. Now she could only acknowledge that he loved her, and he’d just left her out of excuses. Goodbye denial. He’d just given her so much that he’d left her with nothing.She had to be at her job in a couple of hours, and she didn’t feel like moving at all. Their phones were still off.

The silver sedan stopped at the hotel door right when Jo and the Robinsons walked out. Silvia got out and motioned for Sean to take her place on the passenger seat, signaling the other two to get in the backseat with her.Jim swallowed a scoff, seeing the way she avoided eye contact with his brother, and let her stuff him against the window.As soon as they drove back onto the street, Miyen glanced at Sean and nodded to his phone, plugged to the dash. “Pick some,” he said, turning his attention to the traffic again.Sean threw a punch to the backseat, to make Jim stop sinking his knees in his kidneys just to piss him off, and took a moment to look at the music options. Jo and Jim chuckled when he picked Eminem’s When I’m Gone.Miyen rapped along, nodding to the beat as he drove. Until he glanced over his shoulder and said, “Sil.”Jim turned to Silvia in surprise when she sang the chorus.“Yo