Vista

The morning after

The sun shone brightly, causing me to squint my eyes and turn in the other direction. Ethan's beautiful face greeted me.

"Good morning sunshine."

I was still half asleep but when I realized we were out on the shore, I almost jumped.

"Calm down." He let out a little laugh. His voice was huskier than usual. "It's only eight."

He kissed my cheek and the crook of my neck. My heart raced at the feeling. When he kept doing it, I felt like pushing him off me because of the strong effect of his actions on me. Then I remembered that we were married now, and there were no Tom and Jerry games.

"You smell nice," he continued. My eyes got lost in my head. I hadn't said a word since I woke up from sleep. I held his shoulders in response to his pecks.

"What's our schedule for today like, baby?"

"Uh- we're supposed to- to stay here- spend the day- to leave tomorrow."

"Perfect." He stopped. "Let's go get some breakfast. Come on."

I sat up slowly, feeling very tired from our wedding. I managed to get on my feet, but I took more time to walk than I took to sit up. He held my hand.

"Heavy bones?"

I nodded. He wrapped the cloth around my shoulders and carried me on his back till we reached our bed. When we'd cleaned up, we prayed and then we ordered breakfast.

At about noon, he had an office hour. I called Elsa.

"Don't tell me about it. I'm still pregnant."

"Nothing's happened yet, El."

She was silent for a while.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing much. We just want to take things slowly."

"I'm quite surprised. Not you. Ethan? Really? He never holds back."

"It's going to be a long day."

"Let's do something. You have dinner planned for tonight, yes?"

"Yeah."

"Wear something nice. Do not put on any makeup."

"Why now?"

"I'll not tell you why but just do what I say. Do put on gloss."

She told me everything I needed to do. And because she anticipated it, she asked the employees there to set up a romantic dinner. The owner of the hotel was her very good friend and client.

"Thanks, El. I owe you one."

I felt her grin. "Like babysitting my baby?"

"What about your babies?"

She gasped. "No way. I didn't expect that. Husband snatcher."

We laughed for a long while.

After the call, I lay in bed with a book. Ethan joined me.

"Done?"

"Yeah. Here to massage my wife."

I smiled but shook my head. "I don't need you to. This is why we're here. Oh, we have dinner tonight. Beach wear, 9p.m."

"This sounds good. I was thinking of taking you out to town."

"I wanna finish my surprise."

He held the end of my braid and loosened it till my hair was all out.

"I need some hair bruh."

"Get it from your armpits."

The laugh he let out was so loud and long that I didn't expect to laugh at what I said.