I groan and sigh as my alarm blares through the hotel bedroom, reaching over Santana I quickly grab my phone and turn it off as Santana rolls out of my arms and turns the opposite direction, sighing in her sleep. I feel like we just went to sleep, mainly because we did. It's 4:30am, but we were up making love until close to 2am; nice and slow, sloppy, sticky, and passionate, just the way we like. Luckily Emery was tired from the flight and the long day because I know we were louder than we should have been.
Slipping out of bed I head to the bathroom and shower before getting dressed in a pair of jean shorts, and a black v neck tshirt. I throw my wet hair in a high bun knowing it will dry in the Miami heat quickly and look through my suitcase for a pair of sneakers to put, settling for a pair of all purple Nike's, knowing Santana must have packed them, since I don't remember putting them in the suitcase. I apply a light layer of makeup and thank myself for packing up all my equipment last night, so I can just grab the bag this morning. I send my assistant a text, telling her to meet me in the lobby in fifteen minutes.
"Santana, honey I'm leaving." I whisper in her ear, kissing down the side of her face. "I'll be back in a couple of hours so we can go get breakfast with Emery."
Santana nods in her sleep but never opens her eyes, so I'm not sure if she heard me or not. I stare at her and debate waking her up but instead decide to send her a text message to let her know. I go to the room Emery is in and kiss all over her face softly, smiling when she smiles in her sleep, gosh I love this little girl. I can admit I never pictured myself as a mother, but from the moment I saw her sonogram and heard her heartbeat I've been in love. Holding her for the first time was such a surreal moment, after Santana pushed her out I practically walked on the nurses heels to see her, and the smile that crossed my face when I saw she looked exactly like Santana was unreal. She came out with all this curly hair and opened her big brown eyes and screamed like crazy, I knew she would have my heart. Santana and I got married young, we are the first to admit that, and we had Emery young, but we wouldn't change a thing, I love my life, I love being married, and I love being mom; but it is surreal to me sometimes.
Emery is laying flush on a pillow for some reason so I laugh and rub her back, she's so small for her age, truly taking after Santana, so seeing her lay on this pillow just enhances how small she is. Small but loud, she makes her presence known wherever she goes. She has such a personality, it's always a treat to see when it comes out. She's definitely not shy at all, no matter where we are. She's a mommy's girl and sits up under Santana a lot, especially if we are in public, but that shyness doesn't last long. I rub her back for a few more minutes before kissing the top of her head and leaving her room, making sure to leave the door open. When I walk back in the living room I see Santana leaning on the counter in front of the Keurig machine, half asleep.
Laughing softly I walk over to my wife, who's barely dressed, only wearing a pair of black lace panties and a thin grey tank top and hug her tightly from behind from rubbing her exposed thighs. "Go back to bed."
"I'm making you coffee." She rasps.
"Thank you, but go back to bed, baby, it's early." I repeat.
"Breakfast when you get back?" She asks, standing up and turning to lean more into me.
"Yes." I nod. "I should only be a few hours." I tell, running my hands up and down her back, images of last night flashing through my brain.
"I'm going to go cuddle with Emery, she still asleep?" Santana then asks, quietly.
"Yes." My eyes flicker down to her lips, I lean down and kiss her deeply. "Okay, I gotta go." I manage to get out when the kiss breaks. One thing about our marriage is that even after seven years the fire is still very much lit with us. I can still get turned on just looked at Santana, and I know she does with me too. I kiss her on the forehead and smile as she walks to Emery's room, turning to glance at me.
"Knock em dead." She winks before walking in.
"Whew." I exhale before grabbing my equipment and leaving the hotel.
"Nice, nice." I nod as I take picture after picture of the happy couple. I have a another camera set up to catch some pictures of the sunset myself, it's so gorgeous and I didn't want to miss getting some shots to share with Santana. "Now, let's get some of the two of you sitting on the sand together, pick whatever pose is comfortable for you two." I smile, picking up my old school camera that has film in it and getting ready.
Whenever I do a shoot I like to let people do what's natural and comfortable for them. I don't like to give direction, I think it stifles and ruins the essence of what photography is supposed to be about. One of the reasons I fell in love with taking pictures is being able to pull the beauty out of the smallest things. I started off with taking pictures of landscape and builtins, then I started to take pictures of people, just random people walking through the street. Each picture to me represents a story, I would craft these stories in my mind about the most random person running after a cab downtown or in Times Square. I would stare at my pictures for hours, just imaging these amazing lives for people, or these depressing lives for people.
One of the reasons I love engagement shoots is because you can feel the love oozing off of them. The couple I'm shooting today is William and Marie, they are high school sweethearts, survived going to college on different coasts, and found their way back together. I see hearts just floating around them when I look at them, beautiful couple. When a couple is truly in love I don't need to tell them how to pose, I want their love to guide them. Something as personal as engagement pictures should reflect your love and your relationship, not the direction that I give it for a few snapshots.
"Looking good you two." I beam at them, switching my film to capture some black and white pictures for them.
After another thirty minutes, I get all the shots I need and show them a few on my DSLR camera, smiling happily when they love the pictures. They had me the second payment for the shoot and I head back to the hotel, knowing that Emery is probably wide awake, while Santana sleepily lays on the couch or cuddles in bed with her, letting her bounce around and watch cartoons.
Walking back in the hotel I'm immediately rushed by Emery as she latches on to my leg and hugs me tightly. "Hi momma."
"Hey you." I smile, setting down my equipment and scooping her in my arms, smiling at her footed pajamas, her curly hair all over her head. "Where's mommy?"
"Her over there." She points to the couch, where Santana is cuddled in a ball, a blanket on top of her while she watches tv and sips a cup of coffee. She has her glasses on, her hair a mess on her head but still looks amazing somehow, she looks so effortlessly beautiful right now, I can't help but stare at her.
"Hey, Brit, how was the shoot?" She asks with a big smile as Emery climbs on the couch and wiggles to cuddle in Santana's arms, my wife lifting the blanket and snuggling her tight, kissing the top of her head, and setting her mug down, since she knows that Emmy will bump her and spill it.
"Amazing, reminds me of when we took our wedding pictures on the beach." I smile.
"Good, do you think you can set up your tripod and get some family shots of us tomorrow morning at sunrise on the beach?" She asks, running her fingers through Emery's hair and trying to tame it a little, Emery jumping up and playing in Santana's hair instead.
"That's a great idea, I would love that, jeans and white tank tops?" I ask her, "or do you want to do something different?"
"I love that." She nods. "That's perfect. We can see if anything catches our eyes at the mall today to wear, but I love the simple theme, can you do some black and white pictures too?"
"You know those are my absolute favorites, so of course." I nod. "I'll change for breakfast, then you can get dressed while I get Emery ready."
Santana stands up and hands me her coffee to finish. "I'll get her dressed now, so you don't have to worry about it."
An hour later we are walking down one of the Miami strips headed to breakfast. I have one short royal blue linen romper with a pair of gold sandals, my hair in a high bun since it's super hot and I want it off my neck completely, Santana is wearing a short floral skirt with a blank tank top, bright pink heels, her hair in a sleek high ponytail, with Emery in a matching outfit as Santana's, except she has on pink sandals. She's holding Santana's hand tightly while skipping alongside her happily, a huge smile on her face.
"How about here?" Santana asks, lifting her hand that's holding Emery's to point at a café.
"Sure." I shrug as she leads up in, immediately getting a table for us.
"Let's try to stay clean and pretty." She tells Emery, winking at her, Emery nodding quickly in reply as I reach in the bag I have with me and hand her iPad to her, letting her play a few games for a while.
A waitress walks over and smiles at us. "Welcome to Salatha's, I'm Teresa, I'll be your waitress this morning, what can I start you ladies with?"
"Lechee mimosa for me." Santana says quickly. "OJ for the little one, no pulp please, Brit, baby..." She then nods to me while accepting the menu.
"Bloody Mary for me." I smile. "Oh, and a pitcher of water please, with lemon if you have it."
"Sure thing, all the breakfast items are listed on the right side of the menu, children's menu is in the back. Today's specials are a fajita breakfast skillet, sizzling rib eye steak with scrambled eggs, homefries, salsa, cheese, onions, and peppers, comes with a side warm tortillas on the side." She smiles. "We also have waffle bites, which the little might like, they are mini waffles with cinnamon and brown sugar, with a flight of dipping sauces."
I lock eyes with Santana, who nods. "Can you give us a moment to look over the menu?" I ask.
"Sure thing, I'll get those drinks out for you." She nods and walks away.
"Mommy, help." Emery says, tapping Santana on the arm.
Santana looks and grabs the iPad from her, probably typing in a password, and hands it back to her, turning down the sound a little so we don't disrupt anyone else around us.
"Tink, do you want waffles bites?" Santana asks her, holding up the menu and tapping the picture for her.
Emery looks up from her ipad and nods happily. "Okay."
"That was easy." I smiled. "I think the breakfast special sounds good." I say, scanning the menu.
Santana nods and hums to herself as Emery stands up and leans on her shoulder. "What looks good?" She asks, Emery blushing while shrugging. I watch Santana point to each picture and explain what it is, having Emery identify certain words before she decides on a Denver omelette with pancakes on the side.
"Sit down, baby." Santana tells Emery, lifting her and sitting her in the booster seat we have for her.
"Feel like doing some shopping?" I ask Santana with a smile.
Santana raises her eyebrow at me and nods slowly. "You know the way to my heart."
2pm
After breakfast where Santana had four mimosas, which I will admit irritated me, because what are you doing? We have our daughter with us. We went and did some walking on the strip where Santana proceeded to have two martinis, so now as we are doing some light shopping, I have a drunk wife with me and a four year old who's asking for everything her little eyes can spot out.
"Score!" Santana yells loudly. "Shoe sale, come on Emery, let's get some shoes."
Emery looks up at her and smiles brightly as Santana leads us into a boutique. I watch her walk around and look at each shoe closely before getting the sales clerks attention to get her size. I roll at my eyes when I see her sway a little and go over next to her, still keeping an eye on Emery, who is walking around the boutique, and place my hand on her lower back, causing her to turn and smirk at me, while I keep my slight glare at her.
"Mommy, this one?" Emery asks Santana, shaking her arm.
Santana looks down and smiles at the shoe Emery holds up to her, a pair of red snakeskin stilettos. "Good choice." She winks at our daughter, who gets excited when Santana grabs the shoe. "Yo, I need this in an 8 too, wait, an 8 and half, I want to keep my pinky toe in tact."
"Santana." I whisper harshly.
"What?" She asks, turning around quickly and nearly falling over. "Look how narrow this is, I don't want corns." She shrugs.
I catch Santana and whisper in her ear. "I can't believe you got drunk this early with our daughter, seriously." I snap at her.
"Calm down." She frowns. "Are you having fun, Tink?" She asks Emery, who yawns and nods quickly. "See."
I roll my eyes at her just as the clerk comes out with her four shoe boxes, she walks over and takes a seat, lifting Emery in the chair next to her and begins to try on the shoes, dancing around in them as Emery claps, before nodding in approval and pulling out her credit card to pay. I glance at my phone when I see Emery yawn again and begins to curl in a ball in the chair.
"Come to momma." I kneel down and open my arms, smiling when she trots over, and pick her up, knowing she will fall asleep on my shoulder.
After Santana pays we head back to the hotel where I lay Emery on the couch since she's fast asleep, slipping her sandals off of her, while Santana stumbles to the bedroom, her drinks all catching up to her at one time. I roll my eyes as she collapses on the bed. Slipping her shoes off I toss them to the side and head back out to the living room and lay down with our daughter.
7pm
Santana really pissed me off earlier today, this is supposed to be a family trip, well it's a work trip for me really, but anytime we have Emery with us, it's a family event; and she knows that. I don't know what's gotten not her lately, but I don't like it and I won't tolerate it. Yes, we both drink and get high from time to time, but never when Emmy is with us or around, especially on a vacation like this. When Emery woke up from her nap I got her dressed in her bathing suit and the two of us hit the beach. Emery of course asked about her mommy the entire five minute walk, and since i couldn't tell her that mommy is drunk, I had to think on my feet and just distract her with the promise of ice cream after we played in the sand.
"Whoa." Emery smiles as we build our sand castle, her loving our one on one time just as much as I am.
"You are doing so good." I tell her, leaning over and kissing her on the cheek as she pats a wall down.
"Preston builds sandcastle in his box." She tells me quickly. "I help."
"I bet you two build some pretty cool ones at Quinnie's house." Quinn has a huge sand box for Preston in her backyard that Emery raves about all the time, a hint that she wants one, Santana however is not budging on letting her get one, fearing that Emery will just track a bunch of sand in the house daily. I pick up my camera and start to take pictures of Emery playing in the sand, catching the sun as it starts to set.
Emery is favorite muse for my photography, her innocence and youthful seems to just jump off the film. I have my black and white film in and catches shots of her smiling up at me, concentrating on her sand castle, and her smiling brightly while in mid laughter. Her little laughter in infectious and I start to laugh with her, taking shot after shot.
"Best sandcastle I've ever seen." I hear softly.
Glancing over my camera I see Santana and take a few pictures of her but I don't speak, she knows me well enough to know that I'm pissed at her right now, so she looks nervously at me before kneeling down next to Emery.
"Mommy, here, you help right here." Emery tell her, handing her a small shovel.
"Thanks, baby, you are doing such a good job." Santana smiles, glancing at me again.
"Thanks mommy." Emery shrugs, watching Santana start to dig a small moat for her.
I continue to take pictures of the two of them before setting the camera down, on the small tripod I brought, and setting the timer to catch some shots of the three of us playing in the sand. Santana leans over and tries to kiss me on the cheek, but I lean back so she can't, a move that she quickly catches and sighs before glancing at Emery, who is happily playing.