*SO SORRY FOR THE WAIT*
But he looks so angelic in this picture, doesn't he? It's the eyes, man.
Zayn's POV
"She seriously misses you, Zee. And you've only been gone for like, four days now," Charlie tells me.
"Put her on- fuck, my fucking sunburn. Son of a bitch."
"But I think that will only make it worse. I think she's gonna have to get used to it," she continues, ignoring the pain from my blistering, cherry red skin. Damn shoulders. And not to mention my nose. Guess spending a better part of the afternoon on the yacht three days in a row will do that to you. And okay, without Charlie here to remind me, I forgot to put on sunscreen.
"Put her o-"
"Because you're going to be going on a business trip again- let's face it- and she's gonna have to get used to us not being around all the time."
"Charlie," I pinch the bridge of my nose between my fingers, which was not one of my better ideas, let me tell you. "Ouch- fuck. Please put my baby girl on the phone. I'd like to speak to her." I hate the thought of her being so down in the dumps at me being away. It makes sense though; she's at the age of separation anxiety. And ya know, she's kinda glued to my hip.
Charlie sighs, but I hear her calling Li over to her. She puts me on speaker, after telling me to talk. "Hi Li Li. It's daddy."
"She hears you," Charlie says, sounding distant due to being on speaker. "She's looking at the phone. Maybe we should Facetime? Are you in a place where you can do that?"
"Yeah, alright. I'll ring you," I tell her, ending the call. It's probably best that Li sees me, contrary to what Charlie believes. It's like two thirty in the morning here and I've had an exhausting few days, but I'd stay up all night long if I had to in order to talk to my family, you know? I Facetime Charlie while I carefully pull a shirt on over my head (another one of my not-so-bright ideas), her immediately picking up. She tells me to hold on while she props the phone up on something so the kids can see me.
I run a hand over my hair that's growing back in rather quickly, smiling at the camera as Li's eyes widen and the three kids all try to crowd around Charlie's small phone. "Daddy, you dere! You in da phone! How you gotted in dere?" Marley giggles.
"Well, you see," I tell him, relaxing back against the headboard. "I have a camera in my phone and mum has one in her phone too, so we talk to each other through them. And we can see each other too."
"Oh, I gonna do dat?"
"When you have a phone, you can too. For now, you can use mum's phone to talk to me and see me. And I can see you."
"Okay. Daddy when you comin' back? It's been a lot of days a-and we been waitin' a lot of minutes for you to come back," he says, scratching at his head. He looks tired as shit, so I bet they had a full day at camp. Good thing tomorrow's Friday, then. "And mummy sayed we can- we can watch da movie wid da fishies when you gonna come home!"
"I know, buddy. You bet we're gonna watch that movie, but guess what? I only have three more days until I see you guys, and mum," I briefly catch Charlie's eyes and wink. "You think mum misses me?"
Charlie narrows her eyes and the kids giggle. "I think she misses you da mostest, daddy!" Marley exclaims.
"Yeah?" I look at Charlie once more, holding her gaze as she sits on her calves. "Me too." And for good measure, I run my tongue over my bottom lip. Dick move, I know, especially when I can see her swallow from here. I even throw in a small smirk and tug at my bottom lip, chuckling as she shifts around uncomfortably. I'd probably take it so much further if the kids weren't plastered right in front of the screen, watching my every move.
