Imperfect Perfection (Sequel to The Light in the Dark)

Basking in the sun

"Wake up." Zach whispers in my ear.

"I'm up already." I murmur, though I wasn't really.

       "Come on." Zach whispers.

         "Ugh." I mutter and roll over onto my back so I'm looking at Zach. "This is the best sleep I've got since like... The summer before my last year of college."

        "Come on." Zach says teasingly and picks me up.

        "I can sleep like this too you know?" I laugh and lean my head against his shoulder.

       "The sun is about to rise if you want to watch it." Zach tells me.

       "Hmm that sounds relaxing. Now leave so I can get dressed." I say and he sets me down.  "Bye." I say and shove him out the door.

•••

"Ready?" He asks when I come out.

       "Yeah come on or we'll miss it!" I say perkily and drag him out from below the deck to the top that is only scattered with a few people. "Look." I at and point to the sky turning from a navy to orange.

       "Beautiful." Zach murmurs and we find two chairs and sit against the end of the ship. "Thank you for marrying me."

       "My pleasure." I laugh and lean against him. "I could be somewhere else right now."

"That's why I proposed. Because I didn't want you to leave again."

"So what are we doing today?" I ask.

"After we watch this beautiful sunrise we will go downstairs and I have a surprise." He says.

       "Okay." I say and put my elbows on the edge of the boat and Zach leans closer to me.

•••

"I got the water slide early." Zach says. "Nobody is even going to be here."

"Don't these things go over the ocean?" I ask my eyes wide.

"Yep." Zach smiles. "You'll be fine. The chances this will break are very unlikely. And at the end there is this pretty cool pool."

       "You go first and make sure I don't drown on the other side." I tell him uneasily.

       "You aren't gonna drown." Zach laughs.

       "You are still going first." I say stepping back.

      "Fine." Zach says and slips easily into the blueish clear slide that tunnels out of the ship. Then he is gone. I wait for a bit and tug at my ruffles top that comes down a few inches above my belly button. It is a blacktop and bottom and the top has little pineapples which are kind of adorable.

       "You can do this Holly." I tell myself and slip into the slide. It doesn't go as fast as I expected it to and I'm glad because between that I got to float over the open ocean that is so clear and shallow you can almost spot the starfish basking in the sun. Then I can spot this island with vibrant grasses and a rocky shore. It was beautiful and the sun was just above the horizon.

       Then it was in a dim room and under the water. I came up with two arms around me a second later with a gasp of sudden shock.

      "You okay?" Zach asks but I'm smiling.

       "That was amazing." I grin widely.

        "Told you." Zach brags.

       "Stop boasting. You were right." I say and wrap my arms around his neck.  "You know, you are a lot more better looking now than you were when I first met you." I note.

        "Why do you say that?" Zach asks teasingly.

       "Cause then you were just hitting puberty. Or just out of puberty I don't know, and now you have abs and all." I say smirking though he can't see it cause my head is buried in his neck.

        "Oh lovely." Zach says. He picks me up higher after a minute so that I was higher than him and he kissed me gently. It was an eye opener to everything. For just a minute I forgot I had my dead friends baby and I forgot that I was married and I forgot everything. For just a split second I didn't care about anything. But I could feel my hair unattractively sticking to by back with beads of water trickling down my lower back. It was perfect for that moment. But nothing was how I planned. Nothing had even turned out how I wanted but it was perfect.