Brown sugar and Lavender

Chapter thirty six: Biggest surprise, best surprise

Addison's POV:

We got to our hotel in California rather quickly after the plane landed. I was tired, but excited, and Meredith seemed to be keeping a secret from me; she kept taking phone calls she wouldn't let me listen in on and sending texts with the phone screen tilted away from my view.

"You're not cheating on me, are you?" I joked once we got back to the hotel and Mer had taken a third phone call in one hour. Someone was really needing to talk to her.

"Yes, I have an Italian lover named Maximus and we're here so he can sweep me off my feet" she deadpanned as I fished through my bag for some pajamas.

"You better be joking"

"No, I swear, Ricardo is waiting downstairs at the pool with a baguette or something"

Rolling my eyes, I went to the bathroom to take a shower and change. "You're such a dork" I call over my shoulder.

"You married me so that makes you a dork lover"

~

The next morning I woke up to Meredith rummaging through bags with her phone balanced in between her shoulder and her ear.

"Seriously?" I ask groggily "right after we sleep together you get your phone out?"

Mer quickly hung up the phone and tossed it on the bed. "We didn't even have sex last night"

"And after this display of ignorance, you're not getting any tonight either" I stood up and went to the bathroom.

"I'm planning a surprise" she told me through the door "I've got our whole day mapped out; first we're going to get some breakfast at a nice cafe down the street, then we're going to go to the beach and get tanned, and at three o'clock we've got reservations" she finished explaining as I walked back out to the room to find some clothes for the day.

"Reservations at three?" I ask "that's pretty early for food, don't you think?"

She just shrugged, ignoring the question and starting up a new topic of conversation.

There was something up with her, I easily knew that because I knew her like the back of my hand, and she was not acting like herself. But one way or another, I knew she'd tell me whatever she was hiding.

~

Three o'clock rolled around rather quickly, after several hours spent roasting in the sun. Meredith burned easier than she tanned, so she spent the trip lathered up in sunscreen while I got some nice color to my skin.

"I don't really feel like eating, can't we just stay here for another couple of hours?" I ask Mer when she says its time to leave the beach and go to dinner.

"Tomorrow we'll come back, I promise Addie baby, you'll love where we're going" She assured me as we packed up our things, folded the towels and headed back to the car.

"It isn't fancy, is it? Because I've only got this sundress on" I point out. I had just thrown on a yellow and white sundress over my bathing suit, something cute but functional, with a pair of flip-flops. I wasn't dressed for anything that would be considered formal.

I was dressed like a soccer mom on her way to an after game barbecue.

"What you're wearing is perfect" Mer assured me again, as we got in the car and she began to drive.

"I still wish we could've spent more time in the sun; it's a nice break from the rain back home. I'm sick of the dreary Seattle weather" I complain as I look out the window "this trip was a good idea; thank you baby"