Who said you had to let go? Who said you ever had to let go?
You did. You said he has to let go. This was your rule, Mrs. Davis…
…it was a stupid rule, then.
“Oh,” she breathed, rather than saying that. She couldn’t say that to him, she just couldn’t. He would start to realize things, and then he might end this thing they had going sooner than she wanted it to. “Well, uh… I— I’m not sure what to tell you…”
Arvil’s hand reached up to gently cup her cheek, caressing it with his thumb softly. God, she was beautiful. He should be controlling himself, but it was physically impossible to keep his hands off of her.
But then reality struck, the fact that she wasn’t his to do this with, and he cursed himself inwardly.
“You don’t have to,” he muttered, letting go of her and pulling away, exhaling through his mouth and avoiding looking at her. “You should sleep. Rest. So should I.”
Daisy leaned into Arvil’s hand when he set it against her cheek. Just as her eyes were starting to close, he was pulling away, speaking softly. She looked back up at him, hoping her disappointment wasn’t showing in her eyes.
“Right. Right, of course,” she mumbled, shaking her head. “I’ll just, uh, grab my things and then, ya know, rest for a bit…”
It took everything out of him to not press her up against the wall again and to kiss her breathless. He wanted to so badly, but it was wrong. Why did he have to fall for someone who couldn’t even be his? If they hadn’t met in these circumstances… could she have fallen for him, too?
He didn’t look at her, knowing his desires would be seen by her. And if she knew… she’d want to end this lie between them as soon as possible. She only carried this on because he had been a stranger, and there would have been no complications. He couldn’t create one when they’d come this far.
“Yeah,” he murmured, turning around to walk to his suitcase. “I need to get mine, too.”
Daisy closed her eyes again, taking a couple of quiet, deep breaths. When she opened them again, Arvil was already getting his suitcase.
“Okay. Well, I guess I’ll see you in an hour or so, then,” she sighed, reaching around him to grab her bag. Once it was in her hand, she turned around and scrunched her face up in dissatisfaction. If he had just kissed her—
If he had kissed her, they would have been weird about it this whole trip, wouldn’t they? So maybe it was a good thing…
When Arvil had his suitcase, he walked into his room and closed the door behind himself before leaning back against it, sighing.
“What am I doing…?” he muttered to himself. He needed to get his act together. But every time her flushed expression flashed through his mind, his need to kiss her only intensified. His need for her only got stronger.
He decided he needed sleep. He was too tired.
Arvil disappeared into his room before Daisy went into her own. Once she was behind her closed door, though, she groaned and collapsed dramatically onto the bed.
“This is so stupid,” she muttered with a yawn. Stupid brain needs to make decisions, not just watch as Arvil and I destroy each other with our minds.
Arvil took off his shirt and his shoes and socks before climbing on to bed, sighing heavily. All he needed to do was pretend she wasn’t in the next room, and he’d be okay.
He curled up, one arm over his eyes, as he prayed for sleep to take him.
Daisy had already taken her shoes off by the door, so all she had to do before sleeping was take her glasses off and set them in the nightstand. Once she was set, she crawled back into the bed and laid there for a moment. A few minutes later, she was out, the long trip having caused her to be very tired.
When Arvil woke up, it was five in the afternoon, which meant he had been asleep for an hour. He was still tired, but not worse. He dragged himself out of bed to take out a change of clothes, as well as his towel and bathroom essentials and entered the bathroom.
After he was done taking a shower, he walked into the living room and sat down on a ridiculously comfortable couch, his laptop in his lap. He'd tinker with a few games until Daisy woke up…
When Daisy woke up, she was still tired, though that was likely from having just slept. She rubbed at her face and rolled onto her back, staring at the ceiling.
She was on vacation… She couldn’t remember the last time she had been on vacation. What was she supposed to do? There were some sort of activities, she was sure, but what were they?
With a soft groan, she pushed herself out of bed and made her way to the bathroom, grabbing a new set of clothes on the way. She locked the door behind herself, turned the shower on, and stepped in.
After washing up and getting dressed, Daisy made her way out to the kitchen. She stopped when she saw Arvil on the couch, his laptop in front of him.
“Did you really bring your work on vacation?” she teased quietly, cautious of how he would react after what had happened not long ago. “Didn’t you know you’re supposed to relax?”
Arvil glanced up from his laptop at hearing Daisy's voice and cracked a smile. She was being cautious, and rightly so.
"This is me relaxing," he told her, drumming his fingers against the smooth surface of his device. "I was just waiting for you. And don't worry; my company won't be calling me during this, so we'll go uninterrupted on that part."
Daisy’s hummed, jokingly feigning disbelief. She smiled and made her way over to the couch. Sitting beside him, she crossed one leg over the other and turned to face him.
“So… What’s the plan for the rest of the day?” she wondered as she glanced at his laptop. “What were you doing, anyway?”
"I was working out on the update of a game my team and I have been working," Arvil answered, looking over her briefly before shifting, turning the laptop to her slightly. "Teenagers have been getting into RPG games lately, so we created one which we called Lost Souls. The main character gets sucked into an alternate world, where he or she has to then find a way to get home. They learn that the only way to do so is to find the Elders of the alternate world. We also put in an unusual way for NPC's to communicate with the players, not necessarily repeating the same thing over and over again for the game to be interesting enough, and each player gets a randomized quest, so chances are you might not get the same quest as the player before you."
Then he paused, realizing he had started to ramble. He promptly shut the laptop and set it aside before turning to Daisy fully. "Are you hungry? Should we go out to eat?"
While Arvil was speaking, Daisy had simply watched him. Her smile had softened, her eyes taking him in with adoring amusement. She didn’t even realize that her expression had gotten gentler, it had just happened.
When her husband finished his rambling and closed the computer, she raised her eyebrows slightly. She’d actually been interested in what he was saying, but if he didn’t have anymore to explain about it then there wasn’t much she could do to keep him talking.
“I could eat, I suppose,” she mused, glancing down at the laptop before looking back up at Arvil. “Did you have anywhere specific in mind?”
Arvil blinked when he noticed the soft look on her face. His heart jumped a little when he realized the look was meant for him, and it didn’t feel like a lie. She couldn’t have been faking it.
He tried setting his thoughts and shook his head, running a hand through his hair, burning her soft expression to his memory.
“Not really,” he said, clearing his throat. “But we can see when we go outside. There are about eight restaurants here, if I remember correctly.”
Daisy noticed the change in Arvil’s expression, and she tilted her head to the side curiously. What was he thinking? Why was he looking at her like that?
“All right. Why don’t we go walking around and see if something catches our attention?” she suggested.
Arvil hummed in reply before he nodded. “Sounds like a good plan. We can also check out the activities here,” he mused. “See what we can busy ourselves in.”
“Sounds good to me,” Daisy agreed with a nod. “The Bahamas are supposed to be good for swimming and diving, right?”
“Yeah,” Arvil pulled himself off of the couch and straightened, “One of the reasons why we picked this place, yeah?”
Daisy hummed, standing up and straightening her shirt. “Right. So, are you ready to go, then?”
“I am,” he nodded, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “Did you text your parents, by any chance? That you reached here safely?”
Daisy blinked, raising her eyebrows. She shook her head and shrugged a little.
“No, I didn’t. I hadn’t even thought about it, honestly… I don’t think they even expected me to, anyway. It’s a honeymoon. We’re not supposed to be thinking about parents.”
“It’s a good idea to let your parents know, though,” he said to her gently. “So they’d know you’re safe and that nothing happened. Even if they think I’m with you and everything will be fine.”
Daisy let out a long sigh and looked away from him. She shook her head, glancing down at the floor.
“I really didn’t think it matters, Arvil. They’ll just end up wanting me to send a million pictures if they know I’m thinking about them during the trip. I want to be able to relax for these two weeks, not stress about my parents,” she murmured.