Finding Sam (Featured)

Chapter 25 - Cabo All Over Again

Erik's phone was buzzing somewhere in the other room as we lay sleeping in the bedroom. By 9:30, I dragged myself out of bed, took a quick shower and went into the living room to shut the darn thing off - or at least bring it to the bedroom in case it was an emergency at his clinic. Erik was so exhausted, he could have slept through an earthquake.

The phone display indicated that Serena had called him three times. She had also texted him six times. Though Erik's phone was locked, the display showed the most recent text when my finger grazed its surface.

This is going to be Cabo all over again. Don't you dare leave me.

The text left me stumped. What the hell was Cabo about?

I waited for the phone display to go dark before bringing it into the bedroom. Erik lay asleep on his back. The covers were pushed down around his hips, revealing a faint mark just above his hip bone, a remnant of what I'd done to him a few hours earlier. I crawled on all fours on the bed towards him, the note Serena left forgotten. There were so many things I still wanted to do to him before the day was over.

Erik's phone buzzed then, rattling the top of the bedside table. This time, Erik stirred, smiling when he saw me kneeling by his side.

"Good morning, beautiful."

"Good morning, yourself," I said. "Your phone's been buzzing up a storm by the way. I brought it in here just in case it was an emergency."

Erik reached for his phone and yawned as he looked at the display. A knot formed in my stomach then. What would he do? I thought. Would he ignore it?

He cursed under his breath. "I've got to make a call, Sam," he said, flinging the covers off his hips as he sat up along the edge of the bed. He didn't dial right away. Instead, I watched him scan through his messages before he got up, running his other hand through his hair.

Then his phone rang.

"I need to get this," he said, walking towards the living room to turn on the TV. For a few moments all he did was listen, pulling on a pair of sweat pants and pacing across the floor. It felt strange watching him then. His shoulders lifted and tensed up as he ran his fingers through his hair.

"I'm not telling you where I'm at, Rena," he was saying as I got up and began folding my clothes into my bag. "Look, I don't know what you want me to say but like I've said before, we're over. No, I'm not doing this to hurt you. God, if I were, I'd have done it a long time ago, but no. And no, you are not holding Cabo over my head. Not anymore. You hear that, Ren. Not anymore."

There was tension in his voice, controlled anger along the edges. There was also frustration as he took a deep breath and exhaled.

"I'm not talking to you anymore, Rena. I'll call you when I get back and we can talk then. And don't ever mention Cabo to me ever again."

If Erik was aware that I'd heard the entire thing, he didn't show it. He walked past me and went into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. A few minutes later, I heard the shower running. I was zipping up my weekend bag when Erik emerged from the shower, a towel wrapped around his waist. He came up behind me and tugged at my hair playfully.

"Hey, beautiful," he said. "What are you doing?"

"Packing up. I figured we might need to head back to LA right now."

Erik sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled me against him. "Do you have to be somewhere?"

"Don't you?"

He shook his head. "No, I don't. The only place I want to be is with you."

If I had wanted to ask him about Cabo, my resolve vanished when I saw his smile. "I just need to be home by five. I have to pick up Michael at Lorena's before six."