EMBRACE winrina

CHAPTER NINETEEN

I was actually genuinely surprised that Karina had been allowing me to sleep in the same bed as her for the last week. I woke up next to her on Sunday morning, although she was, of course, still sleeping. My mind was beyond occupied, thinking about my own fucked up life and now Karina's mom too, even though I should have just let it go because it had absolutely nothing to do with me.

Needless to say, getting even six hours of sleep was basically a joke at this point.

I was sitting at the island in the kitchen drinking coffee when Karina woke up. She looked at her sleeping niece before making her own cup of coffee, nodding to me, and walking back into her bedroom. I really couldn't tell if she was still mad at me or if she just wasn't in the mood to talk lately.

Honestly, it was probably a mix of both.

Soon, Addy woke up and immediately started chatting my ear off. Karina re-entered the room and started making her niece, who had scurried off to play with her toys, breakfast, and eventually she spoke up. "I'm going for a bit of a ride in about half an hour to take Addy to her grandparents' house. As much as I love her, I could really use a break and she has more fun there anyway. Just thought I'd let you know."

I nodded and looked back down at my homework, coincidentally the work for her class, and she placed a plate of food in front of me. "You wouldn't want to go, would you?"

I looked up at her. "Do you want me to go or are you just trying to be nice?"

She shook her head. "Well no, uh.. their.. house is a good fifty feet from probably the most beautiful beach I've ever seen. I... thought maybe you'd like to go. You said it was one of the things you wanted to do, on Halloween; I'd feel like a bitch if I didn't at least offer."

I met her eyes. "So you are just being nice?"

She sighed. "You don't have to make this so hard. I want you to go, Win. Really, I do."

I wanted to just be happy that she was thinking of me, but there was still so much tension between us that wasn't going away. I wasn't sure how a day alone with her at the beach would go. Not to mention, we couldn't be together in public. "Won't people see us together?"

"It's a private beach," she said, tapping her foot on the floor. I suppose my lack of the immediate response that she was probably hoping for was making her frustrated.

Finally I nodded. I really did want to go, and I also wanted to work through the tension between us. I wasn't going to bring up her mom, even though I really wanted to, but it was possible that we could still... talk. "Okay, I'll go."

She eyed me for a moment before nodding. "Alright, well, we're leaving in a few."

And that was that. She walked away and I heard her talking to Addy in her bedroom. I'd gotten a shower the night before so I changed while Karina and Addy were in the bathroom, and before I knew it, we were all in Karina's car. Addy was mostly the only one to talk, but I continuously stole glances at Karina while she drove. She seemed much less angry, and I'd almost go as far as to say she looked content.

Our relationship was so fucking exhausting.

One minute she was icing me out, the next she was doing something sweet like offering to take me to the beach. Granted, she was already going there, but it was still sweet of her to offer.

She confused me so much.

After about an hour and a half of driving, Karina turned down a street and I noticed the brown fence at the end, in front of tall sand dunes. I wasn't able to see past them, but I watched as Karina pulled into the driveway of a beautiful beach house. "Wow," I muttered, eyeing the house.