Storms & Saints

chapter one

CHAPTER ONE
" Last Stable WiFi Connection Breaks "

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          "HONEY...," ETHAN PAUSED AFTER EXITING the bathroom wearing nothing but his pool shorts and that beach towel across his forearm. Though he's put enough sunscreen on his face to make it seem like he was missing a French Renaissance wig, wrinkled formed as he scrunched his expression from confusion to a downright disappointed realization.

Right before his eyes, Thea had settled in cozily at the only desk in their room, along with all her gadgets at the ready before her and even her button up good shit on.

"What?" She innocently looked over her shoulder.

Ethan sighed, his own shoulders dropping, "Please tell that beautiful swimsuit of yours is underneath the formal attire and you're just about to tell your posh little friends to fuck off."

"Don't be ridiculous," missing the tonality in his voice, Thea rolled her eyes playfully, "I cannot talk to my stakeholder board like that, dear." Instead, she turned back ahead towards her pending conference and gazed over the laptop at the mirror to fix the neatness of her white, almost silvery hair, that her boyfriend had messed by interrupting and making her turn around. "I don't swim and it's going to rain today anyhow, so I thought I might as well get this meeting over with and save myself from getting so seasick I will have to skip dinner."

"Don't do that," Ethan sighed, tossing his towel on the bed. Watching him through the mirror, Thea observed at long last the signs of disappointment morphing into annoyance as the man placed his hands on his hips and bowed his head. "Can you just stop being like this for one damn day?"

"Like what?"

"We're on a holiday, damn it!" Ethan raised his voice exponentially, forcing Thea to once again turn around.

"A holiday you wanted," she reminded him.

"Don't you turn this on me now," he warned in retaliation.

"You know how much I hate boats and deep waters, but here we are anyway," Thea leveled her tone back to a certain degree of calm. "I wanted to give you the gift that you would have loved, regardless of my phobias and shit. I am even taking those darn pills the doctor recommended for seasickness. So could you cut me some slack on this first day at least? I am trying my best."

"The whole point of a holiday together is for us to actually be together," Ethan shook his head and looking into his eyes, Thea couldn't help hut see the very same thing as in every other man she's been with before. Or rather said, she was witnessing the absence of something... of that spark that gave her hope each time that this was going to be it, that she would have finally found the one.

Rome wasn't build in one day, but it burned down into one. Thinking of that when it came to her lovelife had Thea's heart clench in sympathy for those soldiers in denial who refused to belive their glory days are over when the flames first raged before their eyes. They sat in denial until their own bones became ash.

Similarly, she found herself trapped in a loop of denial. She's tried so many times now to find the one and have a family of her own that she learnt the signs of a relationship doomed to a sad ending by heart. Yet, staring those signs in the eyes, each time Thea chose to ignore the unavoidable ending and cling even tighter — maybe this time she could fix it all, maybe this time she could keep Rome from burning.