Celina laughed, a little shyly.

"Very much so. You sing with soul... And that first song... was it for me?"

Gabriel tilted his head, looking directly into her eyes.

"If it wasn't, it wouldn't be funny. May I sit down?"

She nodded, and he pulled up the chair in front of her.

And at that moment, in the middle of the bar, under the soft lights and the sound of a piano in the background, something inside her began to change.

Gabriel, with his charming manner, struck up a conversation.

"So..." he said, resting his forearms on the table, looking at her with that smile that didn't try to be charming, it just was. "Did you really like it, or are you just being polite?"

Celina smiled sideways, twirling the straw in her glass with her fingertips.

"Do you want the truth?"

"Always," he said bluntly.

"I didn't expect it. Not the music, not... being here. It was all so sudden," Celina replied sincerely.

"Sometimes that's exactly what we need: a little improvisation." There was lightness in Ga