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“I have my sources.”

I raised my eyebrow and asked again. “What are you doing here?”

“Can we talk? I would like to explain. Please?”

I noticed that he looked pretty rough. His clothes were wrinkled, his hair was sticking up, and he had dark shadows under his eyes as if he had not been sleeping. He looked a little thinner too. I felt his pain. It was the same way I looked when I had checked myself out in the mirror this morning.

“What’s the point of talking? There’s nothing to say. We had a fling and now it’s over. No hard feelings, OK?”

“It wasn’t just a fling,” he said stubbornly.

The door across the hall opened and my neighbor stepped out, looking at us curiously. “Are you OK, Teresa?” Mr. Ruiz asked. “Should I call the police?”

I gave him a smile. “Oh no, I’m fine Mr. Ruiz, but thank you for checking on me. Colin is...a friend.”

He nodded but shot Colin a stern look. I almost laughed. Mr. Ruiz was like eighty years old, and clearly he was willing to beat up Colin if I needed him to. “Just call me if you need me, honey, and I’ll come right over.”

“I will, thank you.”

I walked past Colin to unlock the door. “You might as well come in,” I said grudgingly. I wasn’t sure what he wanted to talk about, but it wasn’t the best idea to have the conversation in the hallway.

Colin followed me in, looking around curiously. I saw him taking in the tasteful but comfortable furniture, the artwork on the walls, and the riot of plants along the windows. “Nice place you have here.”

“Thank you.” I walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out two beers. Uncapping them, I handed one to Colin and gestured to the small kitchen table.

“You have about ten minutes before my food comes and then you’re done. Use your time wisely.”

Colin took a long drink from his bottle, then leaned forward to meet my eyes. “I’ve missed you.”

My heart fluttered, but I ignored it. “We barely know each other. What’s to miss? Besides, I’m sure there will be another tourist you can play with soon enough.”

A flash of pain crossed his face. “I want to apologize for misleading you. I was not playing with you. I know that there’s no excuse for what I did, but I would like to explain.”

When I didn’t respond, he continued, “My family is quite well known in certain circles. In Florida in particular, a lot of people know me, know my family. People take pictures of me for the local gossip rags, and wherever I go, women...and sometimes men... pursue me.”

“Must be tough to be popular,” I said with uncharacteristic sarcasm.

“I learned a long time ago that people cozy up to me for my money. They don’t care about me as a person, they only care about my wealth and my influence.” He took another sip of his beer. “It’s a weird feeling, never knowing if people like you for yourself, or just what you can do for them. Over the years, I have learned to be cautious, to choose my relationships wisely.”

Colin reached across the table and took my hand in his. I didn’t have it in me to pull away. The hum of electricity that was always between us felt oddly comforting after my long week alone.

“When I realized that you and your friends had no idea who I was, well, it was so nice to be a regular guy, you know? I didn’t intend to mislead you, but it was such a great feeling, just for once, to know that someone liked me for me. To know there was no ulterior motive, that it wasn’t about my money or my family name. I kept telling myself that I needed to come clean with you, that it was ridiculous for a forty-eight year old man to be pretending to be someone else, but I didn’t want to do anything to make you look at me differently.”

“So, what was your plan?” I asked. “To let me leave thinking I’d had a fun vacation fling with a handsome bartender?”

“You think I’m handsome?”

I rolled my eyes, then looked pointedly at my watch. “You’ve got about five minutes before I kick you out, buddy.”

“My plan was to finish my business meeting with that insufferable asshole John, then come to your cabana and ask you to take a walk on the beach with me so I could tell you who I really was. I didn’t anticipate running into you, having you find out like that.” He met my gaze, his eyes earnest. “I swear I was going to tell you before you left.”

“Don’t worry about it, it’s fine. I’m fine.”

“Are you?” He eyed me with concern. “You look tired.”

I sighed deeply. “I’ve had a long week. Look Colin, I appreciate you coming all the way up here to tell me why you did what you did, but you didn’t need to. The truth is, I understand why you did it, now that you’ve explained. I don’t have any bad feelings towards you, honestly.”

“But you do have feelings?”