The CEO’s Quadruplets

            “Are you nervous about seeing Amory?” Elizabeth asked playfully, trying not to sound too nosy.

            Bella did not care about the prying, and replied easily, “I don’t think so.”

            “It’s been a year.”

            “We saw each other at Christmas in London with my family.”

            “Where you had a terrible cold!”

            Isabella shrugged a little under the confines of the algae. “We video chatted every week, and we emailed almost every day. There were care packages and lovely letters.”

            “But we don’t live in Victorian England. S*x is something people have regularly.”

            “I think they were being intimate then too, Liz. How else did people have so many children?”

            Lizzie laughed. “I know. I’m just asking if you’ve got any nerves after all this time apart? I remember how you were with guys in college.”

            “Well, that’s a decade ago.”

            “But you’re still my Bella,” Lizzie said, and Isabella knew it was true.

            She had been more timid in her younger years. Her traditional family and sheltered lifestyle had made everything seemed like culture shock, but that made it all the more appealing. Isabella liked the feeling of new. It was just like when she went hiking the week before on the cliffs in Cape Town with some of her cousins she met for the first time. She stood at the precipice of the tall sloping landscape, and fought the intrusive urge to fall forward. Staring out at the setting sun, Isabella had felt like she could jump into the horizon. She felt small and massive all at once. It was the feeling of her youth, and it was the sense of wonder she sought to capture every day of her life.

            “I’m not anxious or anything, but… I kind of want to just get to tonight,” Bella said with a small wicked smile playing at the corners of her mouth.”Between you and me, I could toss the rest of my birthday aside. My family in South Africa threw me a party, and now I’ve seen you, so really now I want to just see him.”

            Lizzie chuckled. “I bet you would! I haven’t gone more than a week without Derek since we got engaged.”

            “How long have you been engaged now?”

            “Two years,” Lizzie groaned. “His freaking family keeps getting in the way of us setting a date. I love them, but when I think about it I seriously consider eloping like you did, Bells.”

            “It was not an elopement really…”

            Moving away from the fresh images of coastal cliffs, Isabella drifted back to the day now in her mind. The night before they laid in bed holding hands under the covers and let the warm breeze billow the sheer curtains of their suite. She remembered how the wine made her tongue loose, and she admitted she was tired of dating. Isabella wanted to be loved with no more nonsense. It was a game for the young, and her heart wanted a home and someone to belong to entirely. Amory vowed to give her than before the sun set on the next day.

In the morning, he made some phone calls over a light breakfast. A car took her to a boutique where she found a long white lace dress and a golden ring. She went to a luxurious salon to get her hair and makeup done. She had tea in a parlor a hundred years old before a classic little sports car came for her. Driving just out of this city to a private house, Amory stood with a justice of the peace, a wedding photographer, and a friend who worked in the city as a witness. Over the course of one day, he used his connections to get together all the essentials and wave the grace period for obtaining a marriage license. Isabella never questioned it. Holding a bouquet of wildflowers, she vowed to be his as the sun began to set over the horizon.

Amory kept his word.

Snapping back to the conversation, Isabella realized her best friend had been rambling the entire time she was daydreaming about her little wedding. Quintessential Lizzie, she had navigated the conversation to s*x yet again. There was no sense of shame or decorum in Lizzie’s mind regarding s*x. She talked about it so much for work that she was numb to blushes and stranger’s shock.

“So… are you going to head to his downtown? I mean, if he’s been faithful this long I think he deserves it.”

“He does not like that actually,” Bella admitted. “But I just haven’t seen him in so long, there’s just this anticipation that I didn’t realize I had.”

“I get it. It’s like when I knew I was going to have s*x after freshman formal. It ruined the whole night for me.”

“Weren’t you drunk?”

Lizzie shrugged. “Besides that.”

Isabella sighed. “I guess I know we’re technically married, but being apart for so long makes feel like this is the actual start of everything. Those first six months were like a long romantic montage. All the flowers and notes, nice dinners and weekends away… I don’t know if I ever got to know him. I just knew he loved me.”

“Isn’t that enough? That’s more than most people can say. Who cares what his favorite color is?”

“It’s blue.”

“See, B? You do know something about him. I don’t know that about my guy.”

“Derek’s favorite color is purple.”

“Oh yeah, you’re right,” Lizzie groaned. “I have to get out of the office more.”

Bella laughed as she said, “Oh my god, Lizzie. Right now, I just want to know when are we getting out of these stupid leaves?”

Lizzie laughed with her friend, adding, “I hope it’s soon. I’m starving!”

Not much later, they were unleashed from the seaweed and given their manicures and pedicures. Isabella chose a ballet pink to put on both her fingers and toes. She had forgotten how nice a manicure could be. Lizzie was admiring her French manicure and hot pink toes as the same young woman handed her another note from Amory. Refusing to read it aloud in the presence of others, Isabella let his voice fill her thoughts as she carefully took in each written word.