04

When I entered the house, I closed the door behind me and leaned against it, breathing heavily. Julian had made me very intrigued and curious about him. Who was he? Because I was so awkward around him, in a way I had never felt before in my life. I felt like a fool for what happened in the car, I was vulnerable and if he was a bad man he would have taken advantage of me with ease.

My mind was fuzzy, I was on the verge of crying. Was it normal for me to be attracted to a strange man and practically allow him to touch me without protest? But I felt in the depths of my being, something told me that he wasn't just anyone, I felt it as soon as I laid eyes on him. The man was a Greek god of beauty. Except that was beyond beauty, I felt something different with his touch and closeness. His deep, beautiful voice, his confident, elegant presence.

I decided to let it go. Sure it was fleeting and I would never hear from him again.

"Grandma! I'm home." I called.

"I'm in the kitchen!" she screamed.

"Your blessing, grandma. I'm starving... How are you?" I walked up to her and greeted her with a kiss on the cheek.

"God bless you daughter. I'm heating up lunch, I've been waiting for you to eat." She said stirring the pan.

"I didn't need grandma... Damn, I'm sorry I took so long. It wasn't my fault. I waited more than half an hour for a bus and none came by, same thing in the morning, I had to walk." I explained.

"I understand daughter, I was just worried about you, I tried to call you but it was getting voicemail. I already told you to put credit on that cell phone, but you never accept it because you say there's no one to call, but what about me?" She made a hurt look, but I knew it was a joke. Dona Florence was very playful.

"I'm sorry grandma. Besides, something very strange happened on the way back, there wasn't a bus going by and a man drove by and covered me with mud and immediately afterwards he offered me a ride, I wouldn't accept it because of the that you taught me, but he reminded me of the maniac on the loose and I preferred to hitch a ride, besides it was quite close to here and he didn't seem like a bad person." I explained when I realized I was talking too fast.

"Go take a shower, you're all dirty and you're going to catch a cold. Then you're going to tell me what this hitchhiking story is all about." I tremble at the base. I didn't want to be scolded by my grandmother at 18 years old.

I just nodded and went up to my room, I went into my bathroom taking off my dirty and wet clothes, I put the clothes in a bag and soon after in the dirty clothes basket so as not to get the others dirty or wet. I looked in the mirror and saw some ribs sticking out but that's ok, I ate like a lion, so my thinness wasn't my fault.

I got under the shower and shivered as the hot water fell on my cold skin, I washed my hair and scrubbed my whole body, removing all the mud. I closed my eyes and automatically started thinking about Julian's touch on my skin that went up in flames at the moment, I was so intrigued as to who he was.

I finished my shower, dried off, put on an old sweatshirt that I loved, combed my hair and went down to talk to Dona Florence. Arriving downstairs she was sitting on the couch watching TV.

"Hey." I said softly sitting down next to her.

"Hey. Let's eat." She got up and turned off the television.

I put my plate, which looked more like a mountain and grandma put hers. Lunch was rice, beans, grilled chicken, and lettuce and tomato salad. We sat down at the table and started to eat, I devoured the food as if I hadn't eaten for days. It must have been around one o'clock in the afternoon.

"I was at the stop waiting for a bus to go home." I started to speak. "As usual, but it had been more than twenty minutes and none had passed, then a man walked through a muddy puddle in front of me and got me all dirty, as you saw me coming, all dirty." I took a break and drank some water remembering that pair of blue eyes. "I cursed at him and decided to walk away, very irritated for having a bad day. Soon he was there with the car stopped, I went to him to take satisfaction, but he was kind to me and offered me a ride, and he also knew about the escaped maniac and worried that I was alone." I suppressed a smile at the memory of him coaxing me into the car.

"Under other circumstances, I would think it was bad that you took a ride with a stranger, but this man brought you home safely, my love. The buses went on strike without warning and passed on some news about the maniac's case, revealed his name. meet this man to thank him for bringing my little girl home." She replied with a relieved and affectionate look at me. I felt much more relieved that she understood and I gave her a warm smile.

"Thanks

for understanding grandma. But about the maniac, what is his name, do you have his portrait yet? I heard that the profile he likes is redheaded girls." I asked strangely interested.

"His name is Julian Vicenzo, but the photo has not yet been released. They just warned us to be careful, but they believe he is not here in our city. And in the newspaper they did not disclose anything about the profile of the girls he attacked." Upon hearing that name, my heart turned a drum inside my chest. I swallowed hard and immediately tried to dismiss that silly thought.

The Julian who brought me home didn't seem remotely insane, there could very well be several people with the same name. But I couldn't long ignore the fact that I was almost obsessed with a man I'd met less than two hours ago. He already dominated every second of my thinking and I didn't even want to think about him. Julian...

"So he doesn't seem crazy to me, on the contrary, he seems to be very smart to plan all this, or he had help. Disappear all documents and information about him." I felt a strange chill all of a sudden.

"But nothing will happen to you princess, I pray for you every day. And recharge your cell phone so you can call me when you're going to be late." She said and I realized she was trying to reassure me by changing the subject.

"All good." I said finishing my food.

My grandmother and I talked a little more about random things, then we finished the food, I washed the dishes and tidied up the kitchen. She went to the porch to read a book as usual. I kissed her and went up to my room, I was tired and wanted to get some sleep.

Arriving in my room, I lay down on the bed and started looking for my cell phone inside the backpack, desperate not to find it, I opened all the pockets but it wasn't there. I went to my dirty clothes and checked them just in case, but I couldn't find them either. There, he had lost his cell phone, what a hell of a day it was!

I lay on my back and stared at the ceiling in silence. Amazingly, at that moment, nothing was going through my head. I ended up falling asleep, only waking up hours later.

My stomach started growling so I got up and went to find something to eat. I looked at the clock and it was almost four in the afternoon. My grandmother was napping in her armchair with a book on her lap, I went over to her and covered her with a blanket, it was cold.

I went to the kitchen and made some coffee, I loved coffee. I took some cookies and ate them. When I was going back upstairs to the bedroom, Grandma's cell phone started ringing. I ran to answer it so as not to wake her up, I knew that at night she didn't sleep very well, she never told me anything but I knew. I picked it up without looking at who she was and answered.

"Hello" I whispered running up the stairs.

"Hello, Eloise." The dark and strangely sensual voice sent a shiver through my being and I shuddered.

It was him.

Julian.