334 Honeymoon gift
“The others have left.” He said just as they heard a knock on the door to announce the arrival of their breakfast.
“I’ll get it.” He told her and opened the door. He then received the tray and placed it on the table. “Why are you in such a hurry?”
She grabbed his arm. “Because we have a farewell party to prepare.” Her stomach growled before she could take one more step. She laughed and rubbed it. “Right after we have our breakfast.”
She freshened up and returned to the bed, where he had just poured them each a cup of coffee and set it beside a plate of cookies, bacon and sunny-side ups.
“Yum.” She dropped her towel and sat down to eat, making Desmond eye her body with desire.
“If you keep walking around naked, the last thing I will eat is breakfast.” He warned.
“I’m not walking around, I’m sitting.” She batted her eyelashes innocently.
“You know what I mean.” He took a long sip of coffee to calm himself. His was caffeinated and luckily, it was also iced and might cool him down a little. His wife was in a hurry to start planning the farewell party, after all.
As soon as they finished their breakfast, she slid into a sun dress and dragged him out the door. Thankfully, Ximena and Liam had not only filled their bridal chamber closet with skimpy lingerie. There were normal clothes too, just not normal sleepwear.
.....
He followed her down the ship, laughing at how jovial she was. “You are quite fast for a woman in her second trimester.”
She did a hair flip in exaggeration. “What do you know? Not even pregnancy can hold me down.”
She certainly wasn’t going to be held down by anything. There was a marketplace not too far from the port. She dragged him into store after store gathering things she would need for the party. By the time they returned, she was so tired that she slumped into bed for a nap.
He kissed her forehead with a laugh. “You can’t be held down, huh?”
“Shut up.” She swatted him away and fell asleep almost instantly.
When she woke up, the sun was setting and she couldn’t believe how long she had been asleep. Was it her new superpower?
Luckily, the party was to be held this evening and Ximena and Liam knew better than to leave without saying a word. At least she hoped they did, because she would hunt them down and skin them alive if they tried to pull any funny stunt.
After a quick snack, she went to find them and luckily, they were on the balcony with Natalie, Devonte, Zeus and Desmond.
“You are finally awake.” Natalie waved her over with a smile.
“Sleepyhead.” Zeus taunted.
She glared at him. “Do you have any problem with that?”
Seeing that Desmond looked ready to punch him for making fun of his wife, he waved his hands. “No problem at all. You can sleep the apocalypse away if you want.”
“Good.” Zaria brought the gift she was carrying and gave it to Ximena and Liam. “No matter where you go, if you need me, I’ll be there for you.”
Ximena pulled her in for a hug and then patted her stomach. “I’m gonna miss you, little angel.”
“You know my due date. If you dare miss it…” She narrowed her eyes exaggeratedly for the threat to sink in.
Ximena laughed while Natalie teased,
“What’s the worst that could happen? If she misses it, I’ll be right there then you will see she is unreliable and take away her role as godmother. I know someone who can fill in that gap.”
Ximena laughed at her attempt to make fun of her. “I hate to admit it but I’ll miss fighting with you, Nat.”
Natalie hugged her. “You can call me any time of the day or night.” When Devonte cleared his throat, she corrected herself. “Any time of the day. We can fight all you want.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” said Ximena, then she hugged Zeus. “Did you ever get together with the girl you wanted?”
“Forget about her. She doesn’t know what’s good for her.” He huffed, making Ximena want to tease him.
“Don’t be a sore loser. There are many other girls in Imperium. You just have to open your eyes.”
“Shouldn’t guys his age be the ones with women falling at his feet?” Liam remarked, but he was just jealous that his girlfriend was giving so much attention to another man. He was younger and not her type but still.
After several more hugs and gifts, Liam and Ximena were the first to leave to start a new chapter in their lives.
Meanwhile, Natalie asked, “Where are the two of you going for your honeymoon?”
“We are traveling.” Zaria answered. “I have always wanted to see the world and it turns out, so has Des. So we will spend these two weeks visiting different parts of Olphire, and each year afterwards, a different country.”
“We plan to make the rest of our lives a lifelong honeymoon.” Desmond added, placing a hand over her shoulder.
“That’s so sweet.” Natalie swooned.
“You mean cheesy.” Zeus rolled his eyes, making Natalie tease him yet again.
“Are you jealous that your sister got married? It’s okay. You’re allowed to be sad.”
“Why would I be sad? It’s a good thing that she married the love of her life.” Though he had to admit, he would miss her a lot. He knew she would still be close to him since they worked in the same company but after marriage, everything seemed to change as the couple focused on having their own family. He would miss making fun of her height at the dinner table and fighting for the last slice of pizza just to get a rise out of her.
“Oh, before we forget.” Natalie glanced up at Devonte to remind him of something.
“Right.” He took out a USB flash drive and gave it to Zaria.
“You already got us a wedding present.” She reminded them. To be exact, it was a ton of presents ranging from gift cards to books they loved, to matching couples’ outfits custom made for them and a collage of their pictures in a flowery frame. They certainly had gone all out.
Natalie waved her off. “Oh, this is not from us. Evan had to leave earlier so he asked us to deliver it.”
Guessing it was a recording of their wedding, she thanked them.
….
Finally, everyone had left and it was just the two of them left. And the crew, who made themselves scarce unless they were delivering food or cleaning their room.
She wasn’t sleepy after taking a nap earlier so she sat on the bed and connected the USB flash drive to her laptop.
She then poked Desmond and peeked over at him. “Are you sleepy, husband?”
“Not in the slightest. I took a nap.” He set aside his tablet fast so she wouldn’t see it and ruin his surprise. He looked over at her laptop and realized she was going to watch a movie.
“Isn’t that Evan’s flash drive?” He asked, pointing at the flash drive sticking out of her USB port.
“It is. I figured since he knows we love watching movies, he got us a movie. Or maybe it’s a recording of our wedding? The photographer said it would take a week for him to send the video to us and I think that’s way too long.” If that was the case, then how did Evan get it so fast? She wondered.
But what else would he get them in a flash drive and specifically call it their honeymoon gift? She opened it and it was a collection of files, probably songs.
“You may want to lower the volume first.” He warned just as she double clicked to play the first one.
“Why?” She asked and got her answer the next second when a moan blasted the speakers. She covered her mouth in embarrassment and frantically tried to lower the volume, but of course her laptop chose this time to lag and not react immediately to her clicking.
He finally came in to help her and managed to lower the volume when the erotic trailer had finished playing. They exchanged glances and burst into laughter.
“What did you think a honeymoon gift would be if it involved a flash drive, especially if it came from Evan?”
_______
AN
What do you think of Evan’s gift?
2. Just to answer a question I’ve gotten frequently: why I pause books randomly?
Unless I’m super busy outside writing, it’s mostly because I lack motivation. I believe every creator needs motivation and getting zero reaction on content is one of the fastest ways to lose it.
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