The Unspoken Vow

Chapter Fifteen

Nyah

The last few days of our honeymoon went by like a breeze. I didn't think, didn't even imagine it would go that well, but it did and now, sadly, we were home.
Ivan had to go to a business meeting right away, so soon after we arrived and when I woke up, he was already gone. I got out of bed, feeling the subtle throb in between my legs from last night. Despite how tired we were from our flight, we still managed to drive each other crazy, crazy enough that exhaustion was forgotten and sex consumed us the rest of the night.
I felt myself heat up, there was no doubt he could make me feel good every single time. And to my pleasure, ever since the first time we fucked, we weren't interrupted again.
I was about to go into the bathroom when I found a gift basket on the desk. I looked at the ribbon where a card was tied to it, my name written in cursive.
I untied the ribbon, feeling my heart flutter with anticipation, peeled off the cellophane and was met with a basket full of coloured tabs for my books, erasable pens and I smiled remembering our conversation during our honeymoon.
There was a note beside the pack of pens that said "try these instead of pencils". What was it with him and his gifts?
Along with the tabs was an e-reader and his favorite book in paperback.
I smiled, my heart warming. Damn it, damn him for being so thoughtful in everything that he did for me.
I was about to text him to tell him my thanks but I decided to wait and do it in person.
After admiring each item in the basket, I went to his bathroom and cleaned myself up, washed my face, brushed my teeth and I realized Ivan had put me in one of his shirts, his scent clinging onto it.
It was right there that I noticed our differences. Everything in his room was neat and organized compared to my messy bedroom; it was as if no matter what I did, I couldn't keep my room uncluttered.
The bathroom was neat, with his electric toothbrush on its stand, the toothpaste upright beside it. On the other side of the silver faucet was a bottle of hand soap. I opened the medicine cabinet and found an extra bottle of toothpaste, his razors and shaving cream. Nothing more, nothing less.
It was all so precise, exactly like him.
I went back to the bedroom, to his desk where his desktop was, a pen holder holding two black pens, one blue pen and one red pen. I sat in his chair, trying to envision him sitting here and smiled. Ivan always had this look when he was focused on something, his mouth closed, his shoulders relaxed and his brows furrowed slightly in concentration.
There wasn't anything Ivan did that didn't take up all of his attention. Our honeymoon and him in bed was proof enough of that.
I blushed at the thought, my skin tingling.
"Nyah?" Eliana's voice burst my bubble of tranquility and I quickly got out of Ivan's chair and slipped into my bedroom through the connecting door, to find Eliana already propped on my bed, still in her pajamas.
"If that was your attempt at trying to sneak into your room, it wouldn't have worked anyway, everyone in this damn house could hear you two," she said, shivering. "I'm guessing the honeymoon went well?"
"It was amazing, thank you, I got you some gifts!" I grinned, trying to take the attention off me.
"Ivan got you a gift too, didn't he?" She asked, excitement shining in her eyes at the mention of my gift. "Well, gifts, actually, the car and the book," she said as I rummaged through my suitcase, finally finding the things I bought for her.
She squealed with excitement at each dress, skirt, bracelet and whatever other trinket I gave her and thanked me with a big hug and a kiss on the cheek.
After a while of sorting through her new clothes and accessories, she began talking again, returning the spotlight on me. "Nyah, I think my brother is in love with you," she said, admiring her arm which was now adorned with all the bracelets I got her, as if the words she uttered were talk of the weather.
"Why do you say that?"
"Oh my god!" She exclaimed. "You should have seen how stressed he was over what pen to get you. We spent hours at the stationary store because he took so long testing all of these pens out. He literally wrote and erased with every erasable pen the store presented him with. And the damn book!" She grumbled as if frustrated with him. Eliana had never been the most patient and I could only imagine her tagging along with Ivan to shop for the contents of the gift basket.
"His favorite book or whatever it was, he said he really wanted you to read it because it was the kind of book you would enjoy reading," she took a deep breath. "They don't even publish it in English and he contacted the publisher to translate one for you." She threw up her hands and gaped at me. "Are you kidding me?" She asked, exasperated. "Come on, Nyah, over the years I lived with Ivan, not once did he ever try that hard for a woman, not even ten percent of that. Anybody that's got a working brain would be able to see that he's absolutely in fucking love with you!"
I felt my eyes prick and my heart ache from how much I cared about him too. How much I loved him and the fact that I was only coming to terms with it now. I've fallen in love with him and it didn't take much to make it happen.
Ivan was so amazing to me, everything he did was full of kindness and god, I wish he would come home sooner so I could show him how much I felt for him.
"Listen, if you were married to any other man, I would ask for the details, but given that it's my brother you're blushing for, I'd rather not know, wanna go for a swim?"
After collecting myself, and locking away my feelings for now, we quickly changed into bikinis and went to the indoor pool behind the house. I spent so much time with Ivan lately that Eliana Barry even crossed my mind and I felt bad, because Eliana was always the one that I went to first for everything that happened in my life. Memories of her last outburst came back to me and I tried to push away that thought too. Maybe she just wasn't having a good day that day.
I lowered myself into the water as Eliana sat at the pool's edge, drinking her soda. I noticed it then, a new tattoo on her hip, she always loved to get herself tatted up but she always told me about them, and judging from the way it was a bit faded, I knew it wasn't brand new.
"You never told me you got a new tattoo," I said.
She looked at me then at the tattoo on her hip, it was Medusa's head in red ink. "I thought I did," she said, shrugging. "I got it because I've always liked Greek mythology, you know that, I had the biggest crush on Percy Jackson, remember?" She grinned, hopping into the pool.
Why did I have this feeling that it was much more than that?

~~~

It was only Eliana and I at home, so we made our own dinner. Eliana did most of the work because I couldn't cook to save my life, I just helped her with cutting the veggies.
We ate at the patio, the fairy lights twinkling above us like fireflies.
"What's going on with you, Lia? I feel like all we've talked about the past few weeks is me,"
"Nothing's new with me," she said, shrugging.
Worry stung my heart, Eliana wasn't usually like this, she wasn't the type of person to give you answers like that, she didn't speak with few words. What the hell was going on and why wasn't she telling me?
"Lia, are you okay?" I asked, carefully, not wanting her to have another outburst.
She smiled at me, that easy smile of hers that, had you been anybody else, would have fooled you into thinking she was fine. But I was her best friend and I knew there was something she was hiding from me.
"I'm okay, Nyah, stop worrying," she said.
"I wish you would just tell me what's going on so I can stop worrying,"
"It's nothing," she said, looking down at her plate, she barely even touched her food. "I just miss dad,"
I almost believed that was the whole reason.