CHAPTER 23
PRESENT
“Málaga”
Maya
We landed in Málaga when the sun was about to set.
After about seven hours on a flight, we picked up our baggage, and a woman in her mid-twenties with long, brown, straight hair and a friendly smile welcomed us with a sign that read The Willows.
She was wearing a long, flowered, colorful skirt, a brown shirt, and a big tote bag with the logo of the company. She took us to the parking lot, and we left in a big white van to our hotel, about an hour away.
Evelyn sat with her in the front, practicing her Spanish even when the woman spoke English fluently. She gave some recommendations to Eve, and I closed my eyes for just a moment.
I didn’t sleep on the plane, trying to do as much work as possible so I could enjoy our trip here. My boss gave me a bit of a hard time asking for this Friday, and let’s be honest, for the rest of the weekend off.
Even though we didn’t work on the weekends, I spent more weekends than I could count going to the office, helping as much as possible with as many cases as I could.
After negotiating with him as good lawyers that we are, he gave me the Friday, and I even left sooner on Thursday, so I could make sure everything was packed.
When Aaron saw me coming home earlier, he was surprised. I knew that I hadn’t been the most reliable person to my husband for some time, but it stung a bit that he thought I wasn’t taking this trip seriously.
I woke up when Aaron touched my arm softly and told me we had arrived. My head was on my husband’s shoulder, and the rest of the family was getting out of the car. I rubbed my eyes and looked at my husband.
“We saw some incredible scenery on the way here. They took some photos.”
He was very excited about this. Not only was Cassie was achieving one of her dreams, but it had been more than two years since we’d taken a trip somewhere else.
After the driver left us at the hotel and they gave us our room keys, we took the elevator.
Mr. and Mrs. Willow were in one of the most exclusive rooms, a detail Cassie did to make sure her parents enjoyed their holiday.
Aaron and I also had a pretty big room with views to the sea. The view from the room was spectacular, the sunset with pink and orange tones over a calm blue sea.
Aaron came from behind and hugged me.
“It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?”
“It is,”
he replied, kissing my cheek. His hands were surrounding me, and I felt so much peace in that moment.
Tears hit my eyelids and I blinked several times to make them go away. I don’t know where that came from.
I was happy.
Finally taking a vacation with my gorgeous, amazing husband in a paradise place, with my family nearby. Maybe it was that. That I stopped.
That I had been tired for so long. That the scar was still there. I turned around and kissed Aaron on the lips. It was going to be just a peck, but he grabbed me by my hips and pressed me deliciously against his body. I turned the kiss into more. I wanted to climb my husband badly. I stopped the kiss, but he continued kissing my face and then my neck.
“I need a shower.”
“Me too. Let’s save water.”
He spoke against one of my soft points. I moaned. “For the planet, my love.”
I nodded along.
We entered the big bathroom with a shower and removed each other’s clothes. My pants were on the floor and soon my shirt, too.
I needed to focus to get him naked. There was a time where I was so used to doing it that we had a very well-danced routine to get the other naked as fast as possible. No matter the clothes, no matter the season.
I needed him to know how much I loved him, how much he meant to me, but I felt like if I started, I would not be able to stop crying—to stop the helplessness, the pain.
I knew he was waiting for me to tell him anything about my feelings, about what happened two years ago, but I couldn’t. I needed to let it be buried.
I was completely naked, and my husband only had his shirt off. He was wearing gray sweatpants to be comfortable on the long flight, and I just needed to take them off. Before my hands could lower his pants, my husband kissed me on the lips, grabbed me by my hair, and tugged, deepening the kiss. I moaned against his lips and took off his pants with only a little pain on my scalp.
We entered the shower, and instead of my husband kissing me more, he turned me around and turned on the hot water. I felt a light kiss on my shoulder, and then he removed his hands from my body. I turned around to see what he was doing. He was grabbing the hotel’s shampoo and putting it on his hands.
“Let me wash your hair.”
I nodded. This was not what I thought was going to happen. I wetted my hair, and he started to massage the shampoo on my hair. It felt amazing. I grabbed some shampoo and started to do the same to him. We were face to face, and my husband was looking at me with so much softness. I wanted it, more passion and fire, both losing ourselves in each other’s arms. This was a different type of shower, a softer, loving, caring one. We used to do this, but after ravaging each other.
“What are you thinking, Maya?”
“Not much.”
“I know you wanted something different, but I needed a shower first.”
“No, I get it. This is nice.”
“Nice, huh?”
I nodded. “I have a surprise for you.”
“What?”
“I made a reservation in a nice restaurant close to the hotel. If you’re too tired, we can skip it, maybe order room service.”
“No, I want to go.”
“Great, then we finish the shower and get dressed, and then after dessert we can talk about how nice this is.”
He grabbed the shower gel and started massaging it on my body. I didn’t realize how tense my whole body was. I was shaking with need, feeling my husband’s hands on my back, my shoulders, my whole body except the part that needed him the most. I arched my body, inviting him to touch me where I wanted it, but he just smirked at me.
“Does my wife need me to get her off?”
I moaned. His pupils got darker. “So needy. I would be a bad husband if I didn’t satisfy my wife’s needs, right?”
“A very bad one.”
“Well, I guess I’m not so nice.”
He turned me around and let the water wash my shampoo away while he made sure every strip of hair was clean. Then, I made sure that my body was clean. I wanted to put the shower gel on his body, but he didn’t let me. We both knew that we wouldn’t leave if I put my hands on him. He cleaned up, and we got out of the shower.
I dried myself and tried to get ready as fast as possible. After the shower, I realized how hungry I was.
“Are we going alone to this place?”
“We are.”
A romantic dinner date in Spain. I searched in my suitcase for the perfect outfit and found a red dress with little straps and a flowy skirt. I put on some matching red heels and lipstick. I let my hair dry out, and my wavy hair made the look. When I finished, I saw Aaron putting on a white shirt and dark pants.
“Stunning,”
he said with a rough voice.
I got closer to him and did the last button of his shirt.
“I have a gorgeous husband.”
I saw his cheeks get red quickly. “Cute, too.”
He grabbed my ass and gave me a little slap.
When we got out of the hotel, we started to walk by the promenade. The sunset was done, and a beautiful night with an almost full white moon and little stars lit up the night. The night was a little chilly. We were holding hands and seeing the little shops that they put on the street, selling everything from jewelry to postcards, and even some snacks.
Aaron stopped, and I looked to see what caught his eye. A little artisanal shop that sold colorful jewelry.
“Buenas noches, pareja. If you need help with anything, let me know,”
the old woman said behind the counter.
“Muchas gracias,”
replied Aaron with an accent. “Look at these earrings, my love.”
I followed his eyes and saw pretty, circular earrings with a mosaic of colors on them. They had some red roses on them, too. “They match your dress, don’t you think?” I nodded.
“They’re beautiful.”
“Perdón, nos gustaría comprar estos pendientes,”
replied Aaron, surprising me with how much he remembered from our Spanish lessons from high school. The woman was putting the earrings in a cute small box. “También queremos una biznaga,”
he said. I kept looking at the small trinkets that she sold.
“My love,”
called Aaron. I turned around and found him with a big grin and his hands behind his back. “Left or right.”
“Left,”
I said curiously. He gave me the little box with the earrings inside.
“Because you’re preciosa, I’ll let you choose the other surprise, too,”
flirted my husband. I couldn’t contain my smile, even when I was also rolling my eyes.
A floral arrangement of white flowers with a strong, summery scent was gifted to me by Aaron.
“They’re called Biznaga. They’re white jasmine flowers—just your luck that the typical flower in this city is your favorite one.”
I contemplated them. They were gorgeous. “They’re handmade. They unite the small flowers one by one to create this one. The frame is made of dried thistle.”
He surprised me with a small jasmine flower too, putting in in my hair.
We thanked and said goodbye to the lady, and stopped in front of a lovely restaurant with a patio, looking at the sea. It had little lights on it and soft music was playing.
“Here we are.”
“It smells amazing.”
The mix of spices with the aromatics and the salty air from the sea filled the air.
We sat down after giving the waiter our name, and Aaron gave me the box with the earrings. “Try them on.”
I opened it and put them on. “I was right.”
I didn’t know how they looked, but from my husband’s eyes, they were more than pretty. I grabbed his hands. “Thank you.”
He tried to brush it aside. “I mean it. For the earrings, the surprise, everything.”
“Of course, my love.”
The waiter came with the menus and explained to us that they specialized in tapas. We ordered some of them and looked at the sea. It was such a perfect night.
“Do you think Cassie’s nervous about tomorrow?”
“I’m sure she’s somewhere still, making sure everything is perfect.”
“She told me that she had a tour for us to spend the morning seeing some things close to this place, and then after lunch, we need to get ready. A car will pick us up and take us to the city center where the runway takes place.”
“Have any idea of what we are going to see tomorrow?”
“No idea, she just gave me the minimal details of when to be ready and what type of clothes to wear.”
“It must be hard to make sure your fashion show is going to be perfect while organizing her family’s trip.”
“Yes, but you know how she is. She’s always trying to take care of us.”
“I know it wasn’t easy, but I’m very happy that you could ask for these days so we could come here.”
“I am, too. I negotiate for a living, husband. I knew I was able to get him to give me some days.”
“Of course you would.”
“It’s been some time since we went on a trip.”
“Yes. Maybe once I finish my case, we could start traveling more?”
“That would be lovely. We still have that list that we made of all the places that we wanted to go.”
“It’s true, I forgot about that. It was a very long list.”
“It was. You remember that you badly wanted to go to the Lake District in England.”
“I do.”
“Maybe we can go next if you still want to visit.”
“Of course I still want to. It was pretty much all of our literature classes’ poets surrounded by a gorgeous landscape of trees and melancholy.”
“It sounds right up your alley.” I nodded.
“What about you?”
“I would love to go to Japan, or New Zealand. Australia too. Argentina would be lovely.”
“Now I remember who made the list that long, but I have to agree.”
Truth be told, Aaron did grow up knowing that he would be able to travel. For me, the idea was so strange that it took me a while to realize that I had the money to pick a place on the globe and go. He had better ideas and was clear about all the wonderful places we would visit someday.
The waiter came with a couple of plates. One was a mix of croquetas. I tried the wild mushrooms first, clinking it first with Aaron’s, like we were clinking glasses of champagne. “Por nosotros,”
Aaron toasted. I smiled at him and repeated the words.
“Did you practice Spanish before coming here, or do you still remember from high school?”
“Both. I have been practicing, learning a few words, and remembering some stuff. And sometimes at work I speak Spanish with a Colombian coworker.”
“Do I know this coworker?”
“I don’t think so. Her name’s Margarita.”
“Oh, a woman.”
He nodded.
“She’s very sweet and lovely. Makes great cupcakes.”
“That’s wonderful,”
I said with an edge. I tried not to picture a gorgeous, Colombian woman giving my husband a cupcake while he was eating it from her hands.
He smiled at me.
“Sadly, she’s leaving soon.”
“A pity.”
“We’re preparing her birthday party.”
“So thoughtful.”
“Not every day one turns sixty-five.”
I looked at him, surprised. He smirks. “She’s about to retire. Is everything okay, my love?”
“Now it is.”
“Were you honestly jealous?”
“I—I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Of course not. You still have smoke coming out of your ears, though.”
“Stop it. You did it on purpose.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Of course not.”
He grabbed my hand and looked at me, his smile falling.
“Maya, I love you.”
I relaxed. “Nothing to worry about, baby.”
“I know, I just—I know you wouldn’t cheat. You’re the most loyal person that I know, but that doesn’t mean that others don’t get crushes on you. You’re someone that makes people very easily have a crush on you.”
He laughed. “It’s true. I mean, look at you.”
“You’re going to make me blush, my love.”
“I mean it.”
He was about to reply when I stopped him, saying, “Also, I have a trick to make me stop being jealous.”
“You do? Tell me about it.”
I got close to him and whispered in his ear, “I’m the only one that knows how you sound and look when you’re coming. I’m the only one that has made you come apart from yourself.”
His blush got redder, and I smiled at him. “It always works.”
“I’m sure it does. I need to start using it. Or maybe not; it would make me unproductive.” I laugh.
“Oh, poor husband.”
The waiter came with more plates: pimientos del padrón, pisto, patatas bravas, pan con tomate, tortilla de patatas, and even a little portion of paella, even though we knew that normally Spanish didn’t have paella for dinner.
The food was decadent, and we were full when we left the restaurant, but we ordered some dessert to take away for later. La tarta de la abuela looked delicious.
We did the walk back to the hotel, and by the time we arrived, the long day caught us. Aaron was yawning on the elevator, and we decided to call it a night after putting the dessert in the small fridge, removing my makeup, and putting on some PJs.
We laid in bed and Aaron spooned me. As soon as I closed my eyes, I felt Aaron’s breathing against my neck even out. He fell asleep. I fell soon after.