Martini Kisses (epistolary) ✔️

n a r r a t i v e

part 4

Milly can't breathe. Her chest feels tight, like there's a violent pressure pressing in on her lungs.

Tita Cecilia:
Ibalik mo na anak ko sakin. Umuwi na kayo.

The emotion rises in her throat just as her heart hammers in her chest in wild, heavy bursts. Immediately, she feels lightheaded, but she deletes the text before Kai can even notice something's wrong.

Thankfully, he's a few meters away, the waves splashing against his ankles as he talks to a man she doesn't know, although she can hazard a guess.

Tita Cecilia:
Natututong maging bastos ang anak ko dahil sayo. Hindi na marunong magpaalam. Kung ano anong tinuturo mo. Pati trabaho iniwan. Sisirain mo ba kinabukasan ng anak ko?

She swallows the lump in her throat. The urge to throw up is overpowering. She pushes it back down with long, measured breaths. Kai throws his head in her direction, eyes finding hers, as if making sure she's still there.

Despite herself, she answers with a smile. Kai furrows his brows but turns to the man again.

Another text comes in, but she doesn't bother to read it—can't bring herself to. The guilt is gnawing at her.

As a distraction, she hides her phone in her bag and lifts her gaze. The catamaran is looming over Kai and who she can only surmise as its captain, swaying in the waters with every ebb and flow of the waves.

She has no idea why the family yacht is here, when Kai called it over, and what he has set in store for them. Only that he made plans for the day for the two of them and she—she wants to be present.

To be there for it.

She's trying.

There's a crossroads in front of her, and she's hurting that it's even there, but even now, she's still trying. Trying to look for another direction, trying not to go and pick a side.

Kai ends the discussion with the captain with a handshake and beckons her over with an extended hand. He ambles forward to get her. Milly gets up from the sunlounger and meets him halfway.

"When did you request for this? I was with you the whole day," she asks.

Kai takes her hand in his, threading their fingers together. "Yesterday. While you were taking a shower."

"Why?"

"You said you want to get away," he answers, his thumb running along her skin. "We're getting away."

What does that mean?

She doesn't get to ask because he immediately gets to work after guiding her up the boat. Dropping lines holding them in place. Doing things necessary to undock. Things she can't understand.

"He's not coming?" she asks, eyeing the captain below as she follows him to the upper deck where the wheel, which he calls the helm, is situated.

"No, it's just us. Sit down," he says, standing behind the wheel.

Then it strikes her—what he means to do.

Milly watches, her emotions toppling over each other, as he maneuvers them out of the dock with expert precision.

She's forgotten this.

That the island maybe hers now.

But the sea is his.

* * *

The sea is glittering like diamonds, but she can't take her eyes away from him.