where only the sweetest words remain

chapter three

A/N: im going to try and post the next chapter on my regular-ish schedule, but im going to a wedding this weekend and i probably won't have any free time to write over the next four days. the good news is that i already pretty much have the chapter planned and the next couple of ones are going to be entirely new content. im excited to share them with you all!

//

June 2028

Samuel's throwing a load of laundry into the wash when Carla says something from the other room.

"What? I couldn't hear you," he replies, walking into their home office and finding her rubbing her thumb between her eyebrows like she does when she's trying to ease a growing headache.

Carla removes her gaze from her computer's screen and glances up at him, almost like she hadn't even heard him come in. Her shoulders sag as she gives him an apologetic smile.

"Sorry, I was talking to myself." At his raised eyebrow, she elaborates with a wave of her hand at her computer and a frustrated breath, "There's just some minor stuff with the wineries. It's nothing serious or even important, really, but I can't figure it out. It's bugging me."

Once she fully recovered from the flu, and even though she had ultimately agreed with him about how she deserves a break every once in a while, it hadn't taken Carla very long at all to completely throw herself into her job again. In spite of how it's kind of exasperating, he chuckles softly as he moves behind her chair and leans down to wrap his arms around her.

"You work too much," he reminds her, kissing her cheek.

"Like you don't," Carla scoffs.

"True," he concedes, "but you even work on your supposed days off."

She doesn't say anything for a moment, but then lets out a slow sigh as she eventually relents under his pointed expression.

"I know, I'm sorry." She reaches for the mouse and clicks out of her e-mail. "There."

"Don't apologize. You should just take a break—a real break, not for a few hours, and not because you're forced to because you're sick," he says, watching her lips curl in a small smile. Then he watches for her reaction as he adds, "Your birthday is coming up soon."

She huffs. "Very subtle."

"You haven't mentioned it even once, I was starting to think that you forgot."

"I didn't forget, it's just not really a big deal to me," she replies, shrugging a little. "I don't want a party or anything huge. I figured we'd just spend it together."

Samuel had guessed that she wouldn't want anything overly grandiose or that called too much attention to her; at most, he was going to offer going out for drinks with their friends. If she really would rather spend her birthday with just him though, he's not going to argue.

But he still wants to make it at least somewhat special for her. It's funny, because he and Carla have been through so much together, but they've never actually celebrated her birthday. In high school, they started seeing each other later in the year; by the time it came around during the following summer, they weren't really talking, and it had already passed before that last week they spent with one another.

"How about we go out to dinner, then? Just you and I," he suggests. "I won't even tell the waiter that we're celebrating, so the staff won't come out clapping their hands and singing a song as they bring us dessert."

He grins while Carla wrinkles her nose and giggles.

"That sounds horrible. The singing, I mean," she amends before looking at him, eyes soft. "Dinner, however, sounds nice."