•The present (the prologue scene is included)•

    It didn't take her more than five seconds to remember the dream she had last night; as if Sidoreli had asked her whether she wanted to stay at home alone and Anila had asked him not to leave, she had changed into pyjamas, a grey T-shirt, and white overalls, and they had even slept in the same bed, in her bedroom. She had woken up from time to time with the thought that he could have changed his mind and left to never get back at her, but every time Sidoreli had been sleeping soundlessly next to her.

    Had that dream really happened? The opening of the faucet in the kitchen made her suspect that it had. Anila slowly got up and went where she heard the noise.

    Sidoreli was placing a glass on the corresponding shelf when she entered. He turned his head back, looked at her, and shook his head in surprise.

    "That someone can be so ruthless as to manipulate with her beauty, the second she wakes up, I have only seen you."

    She smiled and rubbed her eyes, still sleepy, as she walked over to him.

    "Good morning, Anila." Sidoreli put his hands on her shoulders to bring her closer to him, and he hugged her tightly.

    "Good morning." Anila rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes to take a little of his dose of happiness.

    "I prepared a sandwich and fruit juice," he pointed to the two plates and tall glasses on the wooden counter. "If you don't eat them, tell me, and I'll cook something else."

    She eyed him suspiciously.

    "I'm not understanding who's the real manipulator here." Anila hid the accusation under the irony, and he arched the corners of his lips slightly so as not to be noticed that he was feeling guilty.

    When she found out about him and Amarildo, she would think that everything Sidoreli had done for her was to throw ash in her eyes and not that he had wanted to act in that way.

    "First, I suggest you drink a glass of water with two drops of lemon thrown in it. It gives you a lot of energy," he tried, indeed, to throw ash in Anila's eyes with that effort, to change the subject.

    He took out a bottle of water from the fridge, one lemon, two glasses from the shelf where Anila had placed them, and a knife from their respective drawers to cut the lemon.

    "Did you drink?" She placed her right arm on his back and the hand of her other arm forward on his left shoulder.

    "I will, now," Sidoreli replied, smiling at being so close to her.

    "Okay, I'm going to wash my face and come back." Anila left the kitchen, and meanwhile, Sidoreli prepared water for her.

    She returned after a few minutes, tying her hair in a ponytail with a black hair ribbon.

    "Where do you want to sit?" He put the glasses on the table.

    "Here," Anila approached the chair from the wall opposite the kitchen counter, and he moved the chair away from the table for her. "Thank you," she accepted his gesture and sat down.

    Sidoreli placed the plate and the glass of fruit juice on the table for her first, then his, and sat down in the chair opposite her.

    He looked at the food prepared for them, thought gratefully about God, and saw Anila with her hair tied back, a few strands left loose in front of her face.

    He paid attention to the feeling, as if he were living in the right way, that having breakfast with her wasn't unusual, but it was fulfilling what was written for them.

    He thought about that beautiful sunny day and that he didn't want to change anything in his life in those moments. He wanted to continue with Anila, to draw and work in the company, and he let out a breath of peace.

    "Enjoy the meal, Anila."

    She looked at his eyes, brighter from the golden rays of the soft sun entering the room through the window, and smiled, positively affected by their beautiful colour.

    "Thank you. You too."

    "Did you sleep well last night?" He asked neutrally, and Anila narrowed her eyes.

    "You tell me," she replied teasingly while leaning against the chair. "Since you were in the same bed with me. How did I sleep? Did I snore? Did I move too much?"

    "No, you didn't move, because I didn't move either." Sidoreli gladly entered the dance of speaking with implications, and Anila took the glass of juice in her hand.

    "You have taken the hand of this conversation," she commented with lowered eyes and disobedient lips, trying to stay straight so that she wouldn't laugh. Her cheekbones were highlighted by their redness, and she slowly drank the prepared juice.

    He smirked and placed both forearms on the table.

    "I have known this for a long time, Anila," he said, caressing her name as if he were intimately kissing each letter of that name. "I have just been waiting for the right moment to talk like this, and I'm waiting for other private things that you don't think about."

    Anila was distracted from drinking the juice and coughed from its bad passage down her throat. Heat flooded her entire face and made its way to her chest when he touched her arm.

    "Slow down. You can't enjoy it if you hurry too much."

    His soft and deep voice blocked the way for the oxygen to go fully into her lungs, and her heart was not being held back by the imagination that he was implying another thing. It seemed to her like the air in the room wasn't enough when she felt his feet between her ankles.

    "Like that," Sidoreli deliberately squeezed her forearm to get her imagination out of control, making it easy to read on her face what she was thinking about, and then he left her alone.

    Anila was reluctant to keep eating the sandwich because he could tease her more with words, but Sidoreli didn't bother her anymore.

    "Speaking about hurrying," he remarked. "I have to go to the company this morning. We're preparing an event for March 14th. Shall we head south after lunch? Let's go to Vlora today and return tomorrow evening. What do you think?"

    "Okay," Anila agreed. "Meanwhile, I will work at home. I'll come to the company at lunch."

    "Very good." Sidoreli finished his breakfast quickly and got ready to leave.

    "Text me when you come so that I can be free and wait for you at the office."

    "OK."

    He copied her smile, to his amusement as well, and kissed her deeply on the cheek.

    "I'll see you," he squeezed her hand and went to the stairs to leave the apartment building.

    He stopped at the head of the stairs from the cold that came from the floor below, took a deep breath, not to be shaken by the debilitating influence of it, and turned his head towards Anila.

    She was staring confusedly at the closed elevator, looked at Sidoreli when she felt his gaze on her, and moved the corners of her lips just a little to positively look like him as well.

••••
    At work, he couldn't stay fully focused like the other times, in order not to make mistakes and to risk his dismissal and Anila's departure as well.

    He constantly kept his eyes on the off-screen of his phone, wondering when she would text him, and checked his phone now and then to see if he had received a notification from her, but the vibration and ring to notify him hadn't worked.

    When Anila texted him that she had left home, all the tiredness from work vanished, and he hurried as much as he could to finish the meeting for the day before she arrived at work. They would pass by his house to get some of his clothes, and then they would head towards Vlora.

    He found Anila sitting on the side of the black armchair, facing the glass wall of his office, wearing white headphones, the same colour as her trainers, combined with the lavender slacks and dark blue blouse she was wearing.

    She had the phone in her right hand on her leg and her left hand on the back of the chair. She had wired headphones in both ears, and her facial expression was the same as when he had met her for the second time on a bus, and it had been raining, crushed by the pains that she had experienced in life, and she was ready to give up on everything. It seemed like she was listening to something sad on the phone.

    He wished he could take the last night back. He wouldn't have gone so far with her and caused her all that trauma, as if what she had already been through wasn't enough.

    The sea would do them good. He believed that after that trip, Anila would return to her happy state, and Sidoreli would be very careful in the future so as not to make her sad again.

    She turned her head in his direction and instantly lightened up.

    "Is someone bothering you, boss?" Anila took off her headphones and got up from the right armrest of the couch. "I can do something for you."

    He chuckled at her, flirting with her gaze, and walked over to her.

    "The little mermaid is ready for a heroic rescue," he returned the irony similar to the one some time ago in the bar, when she and Visara had met Daniel Hidri, and the smiling Anila pressed her teeth softly on her lower lip.

    "I appreciate it that you don't forget some important moments with me," she looked gratefully at him.

    "Anila, I don't forget anything about you." He was surprised that she thought the opposite, and he kissed her. "What were you listening to in your headphones?" He ran his left hand over her loose hair. "Did someone send you a message that upset you?" His facial features were immediately strained by the newly created suspicion.

    "No, I was listening to rain sounds on YouTube. I miss the rain very much."

    If she told the truth, that she had been listening to "Fourth of July" by Sufjan Stevens, she would be asked why sad songs, and Anila felt no emotional power at all to tell him what had happened to her that morning, after he had left her house.

    "I would like for it to fall today," she looked longingly at the office window.

    "Maybe it will fall for you," he kissed her on the forehead. "Shall we go to the sea?"

    "Let's go," the mermaid agreed, to return to her hometown.

••••
    She kept the window open on the way to Vlora and let the wind gently caress her face.

    She had written a letter to Sidoreli, which he would find at her house, where she had explained everything. She had wanted to take it with her, but out of fear that she would lose it or that something would happen to it and she couldn't rewrite it, she had left it in her bedroom in the second drawer under the table.

    He would understand. He would be revolted at first, maybe, but then he would understand her decision and turn the page for a new chapter in life. The moments with her would be considered an uncomfortable dream, which would soon be forgotten with the help of another woman in his life.

    If Anila had known that Visara had been in a relationship with Danieli, she would have committed suicide a long time ago. Her sister had someone by her side; her parents had a child; she would have been married; and they would have had grandsons and granddaughters. Life would have known how to comfort them. Anila had carried the exhausting weight of life on her shoulders only because of Visara, but now she would no longer. She was starting to feel herself a burden in the lives of others with her unhealed traumas, and she had to save them too.

    Maybe she wouldn't make it that day. If not, she would say that she had been swimming in the sea, and no one would suspect that she had wanted to kill herself.

    Sidoreli could find out the truth if he insisted, and she had to find a strong excuse for him, but since she probably wouldn't need it at all, she didn't bother to think about it in those moments.

    "I think it will rain. The clouds are getting very dark," he said.

    "Can we go to the sea first?" Anila asked, not strong enough to insist and too fragile to give reasons why.

    "Sure," Sidoreli changed direction to fulfil her wish. "I know a quiet place where we won't be disturbed by anyone."

    "Thank you." She ended the mini-conversation between them with those words and gave all her attention to the view from the open window.

    Sidoreli parked the car by the sea and got out of the vehicle after it.

    "For sure, it will rain," he looked at the grey clouds gathered above their heads.

    Anila smiled slightly and approached the sea with him. One side in front of them seemed deeper. Surely there was also some creature that, if it bit her, could bring her instant death.

    To die in the open water while it was raining; she liked it as a scene. The comfort from imagining the last moments hugged her lightly, and Anila took a deep breath, feeling ready.

    Sidoreli looked around to see if there was anyone, and when he saw that they were alone, he turned to her. The wind was stirring Anila's loose hair, sometimes revealing her calm face with a sweet look and sometimes hiding it.

    How seriously Anila had taken the manipulating thing, Sidoreli didn't know for sure, but he could easily swear that he felt enchanted by her. She was worth the risk to know the truth about Amarildo so that there would be no barrier between them and for him to wake up every morning next to her, like that day. He wanted to completely have her presence, to consult with her about anything, to ask her opinion, and for her to be a part of all his memories.

    He would sacrifice. Let the sky be consumed by lightning and her accusatory shouts. He would react like the sea in those moments. He would bear everything calmly and fight, not to lose her.

    "An..."

    She left her white bag on the sand and began to take off her trainers.

    "What are you doing?" Sidoreli followed the movement of her hands while also removing the white socks with surprised eyes.

    "I'm touching the water a little." Anila smiled at him. "You stay here," she asked, turning to the sea. She turned her head to make sure he was obeying her and turned back to the sea.

    A little more.

    "You're going far." Sidoreli didn't like her behaviour.

    The water was reaching Anila's waist, but it seemed to him as if the cold of the sea was freezing his body.

    "Get out now," he asked in a low voice, while in his mind he was shouting at her indignantly.

    A drop of water fell on his face. And another one. One more.

    "It's starting to rain; come." He kept calm as he approached the shore in alarm. "Let's sit somewhere and have a drink while watching the rain from the window."

    Anila looked at the calm sea around her, held her hands under it, and moved them slowly. It had been so long since the last time she had swam, and now the longing was floating free under the dividing line between water and air.

    "I want to stay here forever."

    Her wish sent shivers down his spine, and the rain didn't wait until he convinced his girlfriend to come out of the sea; it began to fall like unstrung ropes.

    "You're choosing the sea over me?" Sidoreli thought to manipulate her with laughter. "Don't pretend like you don't know, either, which one is the wrong choice."

    Anila responded to his flirtatious laugh with an affirming look, that she was choosing the sea, and Sidoreli's laughter faded.

    "Get out of the water." He ordered sharply as his facial features turned stern.

    She kept her head down, not moving.

    "Anila, you're making me regret that I suggested we come here." He no longer had the nerve to continue her game. "Get out."

    "OK," she breathed deeply. "Can you bring me my trainers, please?"

    Sidoreli looked at her with dismay at her behaviour and turned back towards the shore. He should've thought about doing something else and not have accepted the approach to the sea.

    He tilted his head immediately towards the latter, when he heard a crash far away from him, he felt the lack of his heart on the left side of his chest, when he didn't see Anila anywhere, and thought that she had just attempted suicide.

    "Anila!"

    The deafening thunder on the horizon joined his call, and Sidoreli ran through the obstructing waves, which didn't want their guest to be taken away, terrified that it might be too late to save Anila and himself.