They fell back into their private world in the opulence of the hotel suite. The late afternoon sun cast long shadows across the room as they made love, not with the frantic desperation of the previous night, but with a slow, deliberate tenderness that spoke of reconnection and reassurance. It was in the way Camila's hands lingered on Lívia's hips, in the way Lívia's fingers traced the lines of worry on Camila's forehead, in the quiet, shared breaths after they'd both found their release.
They ordered dinner from room service, eating in their robes on the plush sofa, the city lights twinkling below them. The conversation flowed easily, meandering from shared memories to future plans, carefully skirting around the looming question of what happened when Camila's flight left.
"I've been thinking," Camila said, swirling the wine in her glass. "About what you said. Having a place to go when things feel overwhelming."
Lívia looked at her, waiting.
"What if... what if we had a place that was ours?" Camila continued, the idea taking shape as she spoke it. "Not here, not in São Paulo. Somewhere in between. Or somewhere completely new. A place that's just for us."
Lívia's eyes widened. "You mean... like a vacation home?"
"Or more," Camila said, setting her glass down and taking Lívia's hand. "A base. A neutral ground. A place where we can meet without one of us being a guest in the other's life."
The idea was vast, overwhelming, and deeply appealing. It was a tangible solution to the abstract problem of their distance.
"Like where?" Lívia asked, her mind already racing with possibilities.
"Somewhere with mountains and an ocean," Camila mused. "Somewhere we can both breathe. Maybe in the south of Spain, or Italy. Somewhere we can get to easily from both our cities."
They spent the next hour dreaming, sketching out a fantasy life that felt both impossible and essential. A small stone house with a garden. A shared studio space where Lívia could work and Camila could read. Long, slow mornings and lazy afternoons.
It was a beautiful dream, but as the night wore on, the practical realities began to creep back in. Camila had a demanding career she couldn't just abandon. Lívia had three more months in her residency, followed by an uncertain job market.
"This is crazy, isn't it?" Lívia finally said, though she didn't sound unhappy.
"Probably," Camila admitted. "But sometimes crazy is the only thing that makes sense."