Tears of our Ruins

Nightmare Vacation

CORA

Wow. This house is amazing. I walk through the quiet house by myself, taking it all in. The main room is a large open floor plan. It's two stories tall and painted bright white with wood floors. The entire room is decorated in white, different shades of tans, browns and teals. It has a very relaxing beachy affect. The back wall is two story high windows that show our infinity pool and the private beach beyond that. I step outside and deeply breathe in the salty air. There are neighbors nearby, but they aren't too close and lush greenery surrounds the house providing privacy. This truly is paradise. I have loved the Bahamas so far. It's beautiful here and I'm excited to spend the next week just relaxing, hopefully without any Elliot drama. Wishful thinking I'm sure.

After spending two days with my grandpa, I'm the first to arrive. Everyone else is flying out together. Ruthie told me to save the best room for her but I get the pick of the others. I look through all the bedrooms and frown as I try to figure out how this will work. Ruthie obviously gets the large master suite. I'm assuming that Ross and Amber will share a room since they're a couple. So that leaves three more rooms for five people. One of those rooms is a bunk room with 4 bunks. I'll leave it to them to figure out. I select a small room that has a large window overlooking the ocean. The walls are white shiplap with the same wood floors. The bedspread is white with pastel yellow, pink, and blue pillows. There's a blue couch sitting under the window. I'm sure I'll sit on that couch and stare outside when I need an escape. With Elliot here, I'll definitely need a place to escape. It's a cute and cozy room.

I sit my bag on the bed so the others know this one is taken, then I unpack and start putting things in the drawers or hanging them up. Everyone should be here within the hour. I grab a cute sea green bikini to slip into. It's a sports bra top and high waisted bottoms. I walk outside and lounge on one of the chairs, soaking up the hot sun. This truly is the life. I'm nervous about seeing Elliot though. Hopefully we just avoid each other then it'll be ok. This hot sun has me really relaxed.

ELLIOT

We're on a boat heading to the island our rental is on. It's so nice here. I've never been on a tropical vacation before. I'm definitely going to like this.

"Master bedroom is mine, bitches," Ruthie cheers as she holds her drink up. We all started drinking on the plane, but Ruthie hit it a tad too hard. It's her birthday so if she wants to get drunk, she can. "Cora should already be there and I told her she could have her pick. You all will have to duke it out over the remaining rooms."

I feel as if I've just been punched in the gut as a painful sensation rushes through my abdomen. I know my eyes are wild as my head snaps around to stare Ruthie down. "Cora? Cora's here?"

"Oopsie," she giggles. "Did I forget to mention that?"

"Uh, yeah! How could you not tell me this? It's kinda important!"

"Stop yelling at me, Eli! You can't be mad at the birthday girl." Fuck. How am I going to handle this? I figured she probably would invite Cora. They are good friends after all. I didn't expect Cora to want to come or Bobby to let her. I definitely expected Ruthie to let me know she was coming. Since she never mentioned it, I just assumed. "What? Would you not have come if you'd known? Grow up, Elliot! You and Cora can coexist for one week." That's not what I'm worried about. I'm worried about needing to pull her into my arms and kissing her silly.

"You gonna be ok, man?" Tucker asks as he leans against the side of the boat next to me.

"Sure. Why wouldn't I be? It's just a shock."

"Right, mate. I know how you feel about her, remember? I know everything you've been through. She's going to be prancing around you in bikini's all week. I don't think you'll be ok at all." Shit. Cora in a bikini. I've never seen her in one, besides when we were kids. Then she was just a stick. Now she's all womanly curves and sexy and I want her. My mind flashes to her standing in her bra right before we broke up and I groan. This dream vacation is turning into a nightmare. Does she know I'm coming or did Ruthie keep that from her too? These last two months, I've worked hard to get her out of my mind and here we are being thrown together. I'm pissed at Ruthie for doing this too me. She should have given me a heads up. Would I have come? Hell no!