*Cat*
Moans filled our ears as the rocking of the bed against the headboard finally ca to an end and I shivered from the lasting remains of pleasure as Elio pulled into his embrace, the two of us completely bare under the covers.
As we both caught our breaths, we glanced at one another with smiles. Elio tucked my splayed-out hair behind my ear, both of us not needing words to communicate at this point.
After a few minutes, when our heartbeats had slowed to a matching rhythm, Elio finally gave a smirk.
“Satisfied?”
“Very,” I answered back, grinning as I intertwined my feet around his, making sure we were locked together at every point. “That’s how we should start every day from now on.”
Elio laughed, bright and gorgeous sounding as the morning light ca through the cracks in the blinds, reflecting in his eyes. I smiled, happy to see him brighter than he had been last night. Despite his reassurances that his phone call was just a shipnt, my senses were stronger than that.
Sothing had happened, sothing that he didn’t want to tell .
I knew this routine well enough by now that I didn’t even question him. I wasn’t angry like I usually would be when he’d hide things from , nor was I disappointed.
I’d known that it would only be a matter of ti before he broke his promise, and now was as good a ti as any. It didn’t matter anymore, though. Either he’d tell himself later or I would find out on my own.
But for now, I would just savor the rest of this vacation as much as I could.
We headed out to the beach next and I wore a one-piece to hide the scar from the C-section, a coverall over the top as we walked along the beach, holding hands. The sea had always been one of my favorite places so I was acting a bit like a kid as I skipped across the sand, pulling Elio along with .
I even coerced him into building a sandcastle with , though it very ended with Elio’s perfectionism coming to the top and him defecting to build his own castle. I had to admit, I was jealous of his moat, which was why my sand citizens launched an attack on his.
Elio had got back by burying under the remains of my own sandcastle, pretending like we were deposed monarchs executed for their cris.
To wash off the sand, we finally headed into the ocean, only heading to the shallow part as the waves were a bit strong today. I was a good swimr, but Elio was overprotective. As soon as we got to where our feet couldn’t touch the bottom, that was where we hovered around.
That was why I hadn’t been expecting the sneak attack. Hands grabbed my back, dunking underwater. The salty seawater flooded up my nose but I didn’t panic at all, simply hovering underwater. I could see Elio on the surface, legs waving back and forth as he searched for to rise up.
“Cat?” his distorted voice called out, and right as I heard him call out with panic, “Cat?”
I grabbed both of his legs, wrapping around them like a koala, and pulled as hard as I could.
I grinned, bubbles floating to the surface as Elio saw . He wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling upwards to the surface. We both broke into gasps as soon as we had air around our lungs and I burst into giggles as his curls flopped around his face limply.
We spent a little more ti at the beach. I did so snorkeling while Elio found a few friends on the beach in so passing hermit crabs. One of them even exchanged his shell for the cap of his tal water bottle, which Elio promptly said no to.
It was only after we spent an hour digging up new shells for the little guy that he decided on a better, more natural one and Elio got his cap back. We spent the end of the day just cuddled up on the towels, watching the sunset.
By that point, neither of us could deny how much we missed our baby girl.
“I want to go ho,” I admitted to him tearily, “and see our baby girl.”
“ too,” he said, kissing the top of my head. “We’ve only got one night left.”
“But I can’t wait that long. We’ve been away for too long already,” I turned to him with pleading eyes. “Can we go ho tonight?”
He tightened his hold on briefly, glancing over at his phone which had been texting and ringing nonstop despite his attempts to silence it. I could see how anxious he was to get ho, along with how much he missed Emilia as well.
I didn’t say a word, though his distraction had been pretty obvious throughout the day. But I wasn’t going to start a fight again. I’d done that too many tis and it had only gotten the both of us hurt. If he was going to tell , then he’d tell .
“Okay,” Elio finally agreed to go back that night and I was relieved.
It was all too easy to pack up and check out a day early. The nightlife already starting to light up across the city when we got back to the jet.
We were both exhausted and neither of us talked as we slept through most of the flight, landing soti around midnight. As soon as we landed, however, Elio was answering calls again, trying to hide his conversation from .
It did piss off a little bit to think that he thought I was so naive I wouldn’t notice, but I said nothing. Even in the car on the drive back and even when we arrived ho. Mom greeted us with a tired look even though it was so late.
Elio helped unpack while Mom explained all about Emilia’s past few days and how much she had missed us. She was snuggled up in her crib, fast asleep with her fox plushie, gripping tightly to her rattle in her other hand and my heart lted at the scene.
I didn’t want to wake her so I kissed the top of her head, sneaking out. I thanked Mom before she left for the night. Surprisingly, I was wide awake, probably due to the ti zone difference and after I’d settled into pajamas, Elio decided he had one more surprise for .
“Excuse ?” I said, eyes narrowed dangerously as I turned to him.
“I’ve got to run to et Franky,” Elio repeated, avoiding eye contact as he explained. “It’s about the shipnt he called about.”
“Uh-huh,” I said, crossing my arms. “And you have to do this at midnight because?”
“It’s important,” Elio said vaguely, trying to escape this conversation.
But I wasn’t about to let it go that easily. Just because I was angry at him didn’t an I was happy.
“Let get this straight. You’ve got to go et Franky at midnight, as soon as we land because a shipnt, which you told wasn’t anything important just yesterday is now suddenly important? So all those calls on your phone weren’t anything, right?”
“Cat,” he scoffed. “You’re overreacting again. It’s just so business I’ve got to take care of.”
“Right.” I tensed, struggling to keep my cool after that gem of a line. You’d think after all this ti, he’d know how to talk to a woman. Clearly, he didn’t. “Well, I’m not going to stop you but Elio....”
A tense smile played on my lips as I stepped forward to him and he anxiously looked anywhere but as I grabbed the collar of his shirt, pulling him to my eye level. “Don’t treat like I’m stupid. I knew sothing was going on the entire ti, and I gave you plenty of chances to explain yourself and still, you keep hiding things from , just like I knew you would.”
I let go of him, shaking my head at him as I headed back to bed, ignoring him fully as he tried to grab my wrist with a “Cat–”
“Go, Elio.” I gave him a condensing smirk. “Go and work out your ‘shipnt.’” Then I crawled into bed, fluffing up my pillow under my head, and got comfy as I started playing a ga on my phone.
Elio seed to have realized he’d fucked up again and he hovered around in our bedroom for a while, calling my na quietly a few tis but after the three tis I just ignored him, he gave up.
“I’ll be back,” he called out and the bedroom door shut behind him as I didn’t even give him the ti of the day.
‘Let him go,’ I thought, feeling no ounce of sympathy or remorse for my silent treatnt, ‘Let him do whatever was so important and leave out of it again.’ I didn’t care one bit.
Normally, I’d call Anna to co over to cheer up, to bring so much-needed backup and perspective because I knew she wasn’t afraid to tell when I was being an asshole. But it was also past midnight.
Even if I knew she would co running if I called, I didn’t want to bother her like that, not over this. I knew what she’d say anyway, considering how many tis I’d confided in her about this sa exact goddamn thing.
I played on my phone, checking my emails and texts for any news for a while, simply drowning out my thoughts in the mindlessness of the internet before I grew tired enough to go to bed. I rolled over, happy to be in my own bed this ti as I stretched out, even grabbing Elio’s pillows now that he wouldn’t be needing them.
I wasn’t going to wait up for him this ti. I wasn’t going to pretend like I was the good happy wife. I was tired of this. I was going to get a good night’s rest and maybe sleep in in the morning and spend the whole day with the daughter I missed so terribly.
And he could do whatever he wanted and get ho on his own ti.
I didn’t care one bit.
And I took that flippant attitude with as I fell asleep, dreaming of beaches and underwater reefs with sea turtles who were the wrong color and massive hermit crabs who shed their shells to steal Elio’s car.
I took a little pleasure from seeing his devastated look in my dream as his car scuttled away from him.
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