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“Is that a no?”
Jada gives it one last struggle, but fails to escape. I cover my mouth with my hand to stop the laughter and a beat of silence passes.
“Get me out of here,” Jada says, giving up. I give her a kiss through the blanket on top of her head and work on freeing my wife from the depths of blanket hell.
We get ready for the day together in a comfortable silence once a truce is established. The thought that this could be how it is for the rest of our lives affects me more than it should, and when Jada makes me sit on the floor while she brushes my hair for me, fingernails gently scraping my scalp, I finally admit to myself that I want this.
“Come on,” she says, waiting at the door with her hands on her hips as I grab my wallet. “If we’re going to be up this early, I want the best breakfast in the world.”
“I hear you; I hear you.” I open the door for her, and she waits beside me. I notice her bouncing on the balls of her feet and shoot her a suspicious look as I shut the door to our room. “Why are you looking at me like that –”
Jada stabs her fingers into my side, and I grunt. She turns on her heels and runs as I take a second to recover.
“First one there gets to pick the food!” she calls back with a laugh.
By the time we get to the entrance of the bakery we had agreed on getting breakfast at, we’re both breathing heavily. Neither of us wanted to cheat by using the elevators so we ran down the stairs. Still, Jada skips her way to the door, celebrating her very close victory.
We eat with matching grins as we make plans for the rest of our stay at the resort. Jada seems insistent on going to each of the pools in one day.
“It’s like a checklist we have to finish,” she says. “Resort mandated checklist.”
“We’re going to be prunes by the end of the day.”
“That’s half the fun.”
I look at her and watch her as she tears a piece of her croissant off and pops it into her mouth. Her shoulders shimmy a little as she celebrates all the pastries she ordered for our breakfast. I can’t say no to her, I realize it’s physically impossible.
“Fine,” I say, reeling from my realization. “But we’re doing the lazy river first.”
“Deal.”
When we enter the lazy river an hour afterwards, we hold hands to stop ourselves from being separated.
“We’re like otters,” Jada says. “They hold onto each other while they float in the ocean to stay together.”
“You and your ocean critters,” I say, remembering our first dinner at her parents.
I follow her plans the following days as well. Jada’s smiles are enough motivation to convince me to do whatever she would like. I can’t stop myself from holding her whenever I can, and she always finds herself standing close to me on the rare occasions I haven’t pulled her in anyway. Even when she thoroughly beats me in bocce the next day and dances around me to celebrate her victory, I can’t help but pick her up and spin her around.
We can barely kiss with our smiles getting in the way.
“I’m going to miss this,” she says as we’re walking around on the final day. “It’s been nice.”
“Just nice?”
Jada rolls her eyes and squeezes my hand. “It’s been amazing.”
We’re walking together in a comfortable but somber silence past a few gift shops when I spot something out of the corner of my eye, and I pull to a stop.
“What's wrong?” Jada asks, raising an eyebrow.
“Nothing,” I say. “Wait here.”
I race into the shop and grab the little keychain from the display, dropping a twenty at the register and thanking the worker profusely before I walk out. Jada watches me exit the shop with a confused smile.
“What was so pressing you had to leave me out here?”
“A surprise,” I say and hold my hand out. “Give me your hand.”
