Morina
“It’s a freaking topless beach, Bastian.” I stomped my foot.
Bastian didn’t even lift his head as he sprayed the fucking plants. “I really don’t care, Morina. Wear a t-shirt or dress or one of those cut up tops you always wear. You’re not going there in a bikini.”
“Well, quite frankly, I think I should just go topless.”
That had him looking up, his chiseled jaw flexing up and down.
Good. He wanted to be a jerk this morning, I would too. We could both be pissy about this event.
It was the morning of the oil company’s winter warm up event. Since the board meeting, it had been a week of him not here, then another week of him working a ton with his security following me around everywhere. I tried to go to the tiki bar one night and they’d called Bastian who’d told me to just come home.
We’d been on such good terms that I conceded but now I was irritated. What did he expect me to do once we divorced?
Never go out?
Was this the life I’d signed up for?
“I’m wearing the bikini.” I stomped off to my room and he swore in Italian.
Too bad.
We drove in quiet anger to the event until I threw out the question that was bouncing around in my mind. “You can’t leash me all the time. I’m going to do what I want. What do you expect after these six months?”
“You’re an Untouchable forever, ragazza. You’ll need to act like one.”
“We’ll be divorced.” I punctuated the words. “I’ve been to topless beaches and tiki bars before. I’m going to go again.”
“Well, use discretion in the future.” He shrugged and then had the audacity to pull out his phone.
It was a direct slight. He never looked at it and always kept it on silent when we were around each other. I did the same.
“In the future, I’m going to go wherever I please, do whatever I please, and see whoever I please because that’s what divorce means.”
He slid his phone back in his pocket, and his gaze jumped up to mine.
Fury glinted there now. Dominance.
I’d lured Sebastian out of hiding.
“I guess the honeymoon’s over, ragazza. Almost four months into this marriage and you’re discussing what you’ll do after our divorce.”
“The honeymoon never even got started,” I grumbled, because not only was I pissed, I was sexually frustrated near him all the time.
He hummed and his eyes tracked over my body, staying on my tits for far too long. My nipples tightened and his jaw worked overtime, no doubt seeing how thin the fabric of my top was.
“I have half a mind to turn this car around.”
“But you won’t. You’ll go and put on a good show for all your business associates. And I’ll smile like all is right in the world. Or maybe I’ll start our descent into divorce. Give the media something to talk about.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Interesting play, ragazza.” Then he sat back and combed his hand through his thick dark hair. “Maybe you have the right idea.”
He didn’t say another word to me through the car ride, and I stared out at the coast, stewing.
When we arrived, I got out of the door he opened for me but didn’t thank him. I straightened my sheer black skirt as it wafted in the wind and waltzed away from him.
My black bikini top was much less revealing than what half the women at the party wore. Ronald had decked out the beach with umbrellas and gold tables. Completely nude women covered in gold paint stood on platforms around us, shimmering in the sunlight.
I immediately grabbed a drink from a man serving from a gold tray and downed it as an older woman from the board came over.
“I knew your grandma, Maribel,” she croaked. She wore a skirt that only came half down her thigh. That was it. She’d embraced the topless theme like half the crowd. I wanted to hug her for it because she pulled it off better than most even in her sixties. “And she hated these parties.”
I watched everyone schmoozing on the beach, not one of them taking in the beauty of the ocean just feet away. “I can see why.”
The woman with dyed blonde hair patted my arm and smiled. “I used to hate them too until I just decided to hell with it. I’m going to do whatever I want. Now, I love them.”
I nodded, not sure what to say. I wouldn’t be coming to these events much longer.
She pointed to a man who couldn’t have been more than a few years my senior. “See that guy over there? Last time, I slept with him in Ronald’s spare bedroom.”
My eyes went wide at her.
“What have I got to lose?” She shrugged. “I’m not married and I don’t have kids. I’m doing what I want.”
“That’s great.” I took a gulp of my drink. What was she getting at?
“You should too. That’s what Maribel would want. She had you marry that man so you could do just that. She said you were a girl who stayed in this city and didn’t commit to anything because your parents messed your mind up.”
“Um…” She had way too much information. I glanced around, hoping no one was listening.
“Oh, don’t worry. No one’s paying attention to me. I’m the crazy old bat. But Maribel wasn’t. She thought you loved your parents too much and then they left over and over and it ruined you for commitment.”
I tried to cut her off but she held up her hand.
“I know she forced you into this arrangement. Perfect plan, in my opinion. Now, follow through and make sure you kick Ronald right in the balls by handing that stock over to Bastian. Don’t let us down.”
My eyes bulged at her confession. They’d all told Ronald his idea was great and I thought Bastian would be going against everyone. Turns out he was still winning the board members over one by one himself.
I turned to find Bastian as I patted the woman’s shoulder and thanked her. I needed to tell him that we were doing it, that this was all going to work in the end, that my city and his legacy would all be fine.
Then, I saw him.
And Elizabeth in pink bikini bottoms with no top.
She turned and brushed her chest against him as she said something.
He didn’t back away, instead his hand was on her back as he led her over to another couple to speak to.
Maybe the pain was in their perfection. They looked like a painting with the ocean as their backdrop.
My ocean.
My beach.
They tainted it standing there.
Then he looked over his shoulder and we made eye contact. He didn’t back away from her. He stayed right where he was.
She shouldn’t have been on his arm. He knew it and so did I.
I was his wife. Maybe my free spirit had deceived him. I might’ve been younger, dumber, and not as good looking, I could admit that.
Yet, Bastian was still my husband.
My heart shifted like the earth under the ocean and a tsunami surged. Underwater earthquakes, hidden beneath the sea, were the ones that caused the pain, the suffering, the suffocating power of those huge waves.
When I was young, I dreamed of riding one. I wanted to ride in on the power and see the world below.