Excerpt from Archive of Unknown Universes by Ruben Reyes, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"Yes," Ana lied. "I made progress. Almost ready for Havana."

"I can't wait to be there," Luis said.

Luis kissed her. His lips were slippery, slathered in a layer of unscented Carmex. An excessive amount. Ana resisted the urge to wipe it off her lips.

"Can you believe Alanis Morissette was our age when she wrote Jagged Little Pill?" she said instead.


They were pumped full of adrenaline, the mix of nerves and possibility that makes a traveler's high so addictive. The air outside the airport smelled of car exhaust, and though the parking lot was filled with mid-century Fords painted in bright greens and oranges, they slipped into a dinky gray four-door sedan. When the driver asked where they were from, Ana said they were both from California, which prompted him to ask if they were siblings. Before Luis had a chance to answer, Ana told the driver they'd met in school. Luis stared out the window, fascinated by a tree with wide glossy leaves and hot-pink flowers shaped like pom-poms. Buildings were painted with the Cuban government's slogans: Unidad, compromiso y victoria. Hasta la victoria siempre. Luis whispered them to himself. Ana grabbed his hand, squeezed it. He returned the gesture before the landscape outside the window distracted him again.

The car passed by the Universidad de la Habana, cruised on the highway beside the Malecón for just a minute, and looped through a labyrinth of one-way streets ending at their apartment. Luis offered to carry Ana's backpack to the third-floor walk-up.

"I'm helping because I love you," he said, smiling. "Not because I don't think you can manage."

"Feminism thanks you."

Once their bags were unpacked, reality set in. They were in a country they'd never been in before, one they'd never imagined visiting. Simply too many obstacles stood in their way: the cost, the embargo, the mountain of bureaucracy required to get a passport, then a visa. Somehow, they'd done it, crossing into a new frontier together. Sunlight flowed in through a set of French windows, warming them up, making their faces glow, another gentle reminder that what they'd built between them was worthwhile.

"I should get to the university," Ana said.

"You have the whole summer," said Luis.

"Do you want to come with me?"

"It'd be weird."

"It'll be fine."

"I'll wait here."

"Alright," she said, heading out the door without a kiss.


The relationship had developed quickly, their reliance on one another growing fast and tight, like the strands of ivy on the redbrick buildings that towered all over campus. They constructed their schedules around each other. Luis was only ever a text away. Intimate secrets, shared as pillow talk, glued them together: neither had a relationship with their biological fathers, a civil war loomed in the background of their families' arrival in the United States, they both felt unequipped and out of place at an institution that valorized wealth. Love formed in opposition to the ugliness and injustice of their lives. It felt freeing, like an act of resistance. But would tethering oneself to a cause, instead of a soul, tempt the thread to snap?

A year passed, and they were still together—mostly happy, mostly stable. You're my first love, they admitted to each other, and reaffirmed their growing belief that existence was a task best done in a pair. The heat in Luis's chest felt like love, and though he sometimes worried he could be misjudging his feelings, he chose to trust their relationship, lacking another to compare it to. Ana wouldn't have invited him to Cuba if she didn't want him there, which brought a sense of peace that carried them through finals and move-out.

His mother, Elena, had grown accustomed to who'd he become in college—sporadic, ever-changing—but she still asked him whether he was chasing his girlfriend to Cuba. Her voice was light and joking, but the question carried genuine curiosity.

Excerpted from Archive of Unknown Universes by Ruben Reyes. Copyright © 2025 by Ruben Reyes. Excerpted by permission of Mariner Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.