“Oh really?” A devilish smirk came to his face. His voice was silky as he laid out his challenge. “Prove it.”

I thought for a moment.

“Fine.” I stood up, grabbed his hand, and pulled him to his feet. “Come here, bud,” I said in a sarcastic tone. Putting my arms around his middle, I squeezed him in a big bear hug. To my surprise, he reached around me and fastened his hands on my lower back. A delicious shiver ran down my spine, like a bolt of electricity, as he proceeded to hold me a little tighter, a little longer. I waited for him to let go, but he didn’t. It took nearly everything in me to force my brain to work and my mouth to whisper to him, “I think that’ll do.”

He tensed up before dropping his hands and letting me go. I quickly scooted back to my seat and threw the ball, wanting to get my turn over with. It bounced and landed in Domenico’s lap, and without putting any thought into my request, I ordered him to sing “Hey Jude” in Italian.

One of the girls jumped up and grabbed Adrian just as he was about to sit down. “Let’s go dance! This is getting boring.” Her girlfriends followed her lead, dragging Adrian away as he gave me a shrug that said What can I say, girls like me, and I’m too much of a gentleman to turn them down.

Vlad stood up and headed in the direction of the men’s room. Domenico finished his rendition of the song. He looked a little sleepy, and I wasn’t convinced he had given us an entirely correct translation. While still sitting, he took an awkward bow, nearly knocking his head on the table, then drooped his head down to rest on Kris’s shoulder. Adrian was now dancing with the girls. “I’m glad Adrian’s having fun,” I said to Kris. “I didn’t get a chance to tell you, but we ran into Marsela the other morning before the whole punching incident.”

“Ouch.” She cringed, then shook her head. “He tries to look carefree and all, pretending that he doesn’t give a damn, but he’s hurting, and being back here only makes it worse.”

The more I considered the soul-mate bond, the more I was persuaded that the ability to reconnect with our soul mates was more a curse than a gift. I really hoped Adrian and I would find the way to return the gift to the gods so that he would be free to fall in love with anyone he fancied without ever worrying that one day a soul mate would appear and ruin another relationship.

After a minute of silence, Kris suddenly exclaimed, “Hey! Why don’t we keep playing?”

“It’s just the two of us.” I laughed. “Unless you want to wake Domenico up. It’s his turn.”