26. SOPHIA
26
SOPHIA
It’s been several weeks since Ethan returned from D.C. a free man, hopefully for good.
There’s been remarkably little blowback from our adventure.
That’s not to say, I don’t ever look over my shoulder or wonder if I’m being watched.
Comes with the territory, I guess.
The words that Ethan muttered to me in the shower that last day on the run keep resonating within my brain.
You make me want to be a better human being.
I always say I never want to try to change a man, but what if he does so of his own accord?
It makes me feel special to have inspired that within him.
For the time being, Ethan has decided to stay at the family compound. It’s home for him, and since his parents are sitting in a jail cell awaiting trial, he doesn’t have to worry about them being around.
He’s still staying in the beachfront cottage rather than in the main house, and I can’t say I blame him. It’s much nicer.
I’ve moved in with him, although it’s not exactly what you’d imagine.
I have my own bedroom and bathroom.
It’s actually because I’ve just started my new marketing job in Virginia Beach, and his place is closer to work than my parents’ place.
Obviously, the situation between them and Ethan is still tense, but I think they’re coming around. As more and more dominoes begin to fall, and they are forced to admit none of it would have been possible without him, they tend to soften their position.
And it makes me happy.
Liam, on the other hand, is keeping his distance.
I try not to hold that against him. If my best friend took my brother and put him in a life-threatening situation, I’d probably be furious as well.
Speaking of best friends, Melanie has come around to accepting that Ethan and I are a couple and has even invited us to go out to dinner with her and her new boyfriend. I never did tell her about how Ethan described his breakup with her sister, and probably won’t do so. She thinks he’s just changed for the better, and in some ways, I guess he has.
Some things that happened in the past need to stay in the past.
Graham continues to call Ethan, begging him to come work for him, even going so far as to offer him a position as director, but Ethan believes it’s too much like what his parents were doing, putting their thumb on the political scales for their own benefit.
Graham is not a bad guy, and he doesn’t seem to be doing anything malicious, but that whole thing is a complete turn-off for Ethan at this point. Besides, he has no intention of popping up on the radar of the federal government for any reason.
Ethan has decided to go in the opposite direction and has applied for admission at Old Dominion for the Spring semester, and once he earns his undergrad degree, go for his law degree with the aim of working to extend legal protections to journalists and whistleblowers.
I’m very proud of him.
He is also teaching me self-defense.
I will say he’s very demanding as far as my physical fitness goes. He has started me running the beach with him every morning before work.
I’ve never been a morning person, but there’s a certain exhilaration in being on the beach and getting the blood flowing as the sun rises over the ocean. It’s magnificent.
I haven’t been able to get close to beating him in our mock hand-to-hand combat sessions, but that’s my goal.
One of these days I’m going to win.
It’s beginning to get dark outside as I stand in the kitchen in a pair of shorts and an ODU football jersey - which he claims he finds incredibly sexy.
The windows are open, and a nice cross breeze carries the scent of garlic and tomato through the house.
I’ve really taken a liking to cooking, something that had really never appealed to me before. There is something therapeutic about the creative process.
Interestingly enough, I find it carries over to my work as well. I tend to come up with better ideas. Maybe cooking just stimulates my brain.
“Ethan,” I call upstairs. “Dinner.”
No doubt working on his memoir. He wasn’t kidding when he told me earlier that he was becoming a writer. I read some of his work, and it’s actually quite interesting.
Of course, now he has more to write about.
He comes bounding down the stairs. It’s amazing how well his gunshot wound has healed.
“I invited Liam to come by this weekend,” I tell him as I fix a plate of spaghetti for him.
“Oh?”
“He said he’d try to make it, but not to hold him to it.”
“Well, I guess that’s progress,” he allowed.
“I don’t know why, but for some reason I feel responsible for all this. Don’t get me wrong, I love you and am glad we found each other, but I wish we could all just be happy together.”
“Give it time.”
After dinner, Ethan and I watch television for a bit. There are still stories about Harrison Whitmore and just how far his perverted little kingdom extended. Over a dozen girls, some as young as fourteen, were rescued from his property when police searched the place after his suicide.
“How does that even happen?” I ask no one in particular. “Don’t their parents care what happens to them?”
“Power plays with your head sometimes. If you think doing something or acting a certain way will gain you access, you’d be surprised how many people will willingly abandon what they know is right. I saw it all the time, and not just in my family, but in the Navy as well.”
I have about all I can take and turn off the television.
“Let’s go,” I say, taking his hand, leading him out to the beach.
The high, thin clouds are outlined by the moon, and the surf roars along the beach.
This is why I would have trouble ever leaving here.
Ethan has his arms wrapped tightly around me, his lips positioned near my ear.
“Miri mohabbat samandar ki tarah gahri aur chori he .”
“What’s that?” I ask, turning my head to face him.
“It means, ‘My love for you is as deep and wide as the ocean,’ in Urdu.”
“I thought you said you didn’t speak the language.”
“I didn’t when we first went in, but I learned. The Afghani people are very passionate.
And as I stared at the moon coming up over the horizon cradled in Ethan’s loving arms, I could almost picture the Esmeralda del Mar rising from her watery grave to sail off into the future.