Page 27 of Karrington

“Maybe.” A ghost of a smile lifted the corners of her mouth before she forced it down.

“Come on. I want to show you something.”

With slight hesitation, she climbed out of bed. After grabbing her robe, she allowed me to take her hand and lead her downstairs to the dining room. As soon as she saw the spread across the table, she gasped and giggled.

“You got me caviar?”

“I did.”

Eyela walked over to the table and sniffed the bouquet of roses I’d gotten as well. “Are you going to join me?”

“Yeah, if that’s cool with you.”

“I’d like that.”

She washed her hands then prepared the spread of caviar, salted plain chips, Doritos, chopped chives, pickles, and crème fraiche. I didn’t care for the taste of it, but I indulged every now and again. Antonne and Haley had put me on to sturgeon caviar, which wasn’t as salty, so I could deal with that.

I told her I would only have one spoon of it, and she giggled. “You don’t like it?”

“Probably not as much as you. I don’t even like when shrimp and fish tastes too fishy.”

“Hmm…” She poured us both shots of vodka then a flute of champagne. “I get what you’re saying. The brand determines the quality and what you eat with it. If you have the right brand and the right chip, it’s good. I definitely wouldn’t advise you to have a bump.”

“Oh hell nah. I’m not doing that.” Her giggle was like music to my ears. As we sat down, I confessed, “I’m sorry, little one. I know this isn’t all it will take to make amends, but I want to dissolve the discord that has been brewing between us since our honeymoon.”

Her smile lowered as she sighed and put a small amount of caviar on her hand for a bump.

“It’s okay,” she muttered, causing me to use her chin to tilt her face in my direction.

“No it’s not. I didn’t really have time to work through a lot of things before the wedding, and I’ve been inadvertently taking that out on you by not being with you. Whether you believe it or not, I’ve been suffering too.”

Her head shook as she took a deep breath. “We don’t have to talk about this tonight. Let’s just enjoy each other’s company.”

I felt like she was doing that because she didn’t believe me but that was cool. I’d show her with my actions. My face twisted as she did the bump of caviar and didn’t bother to chase it down with anything. She laughed and covered her mouth as I said, “I should have asked for a kiss before you ate that.”

“You’re going to eat it, too, so you can still kiss me.” After putting a small amount of crème fraiche and caviar on a cheesy Dorito, she held it up to my mouth. “Here. Taste it like this.”

I thought it over for a second before obliging her. Adding it to the Dorito with the crème fraiche made all the difference in the world. I could eat it like that with no problem.

“Okay, so that’s not so bad.”

Her shoulders hiked and she did a shimmy before we took a shot of vodka. Eyela’s arm wrapped around my neck, and she pulled me close for a kiss. For the next several hours, we ate and talked, and it felt like I had my wife back.

16

Eyela

It was risky,but I was determined to get something back that Karrington had loved and lost. He’d put forth effort the night before last to fix things between us, which I appreciated. I didn’t want to get my hopes up, though, and he change his mind. That didn’t stop me from wanting to do something nice for him. Even when we weren’t talking, he was still going above and beyond for me and spoiling me, so I was going to do this for him and hoped it didn’t push him away.

Since music for him was like a genie when a bottle was being rubbed, I tied my robe and looked around to make sure everything was ready, then began to play the guitar. Sure enough, less than two minutes passed before he was opening the door. I held in my laugh because I knew he’d come.

As I stood, he looked around. His eyes froze on the easel, canvas, and paint. Before he could bolt, I walked over to him and grabbed his hand.

“What’s this?”

“Has it been that long, Mr. Lowe?” He smiled with one side of his mouth as I pulled him toward the easel. “I want you to paint while I play.”

His head shook and he dropped my hand. “Eyela, you know I don’t paint anymore.”

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