When I fully opened his shirt, I saw him.

A long scar crossed his chest.

And another smaller one near the shoulder.

I looked up.

-What happened?

Manuel smiled gently.

—A heart attack three years ago… and a complicated surgery.

I felt a lump in my throat.

—You never told me.

—I didn’t mean to worry you.

I remained silent, observing those marks.

Manuel’s body was not the same as I remembered from our youth.

But mine wasn’t either.

My hands also had age spots.

My skin was no longer firm.

Our bodies told stories.

Life stories.

Of losses.

From years that never returned.

And then I understood why I had felt that pang of sadness.

It wasn’t fear.

It was the weight of everything we had lost.

Forty years.

Forty years we could have spent together.

I approached him.

I gently touched the scar.

—I thought it was too late to love again —Manuel said.

I shook my head.

—It’s not too late.

I looked him in the eyes.

—We just arrived… wiser.

Manuel took my hand.

We lay down next to each other.

There was no rush.

There were no absurd expectations.

Just two people who had found their way back after a lifetime.

And at that moment I understood something very simple.

True love doesn’t always come when we’re young.

Sometimes it comes when we have lived long enough to understand what it truly means not to be alone.