Violet shivered as she laid in the hotel room bed, window a/c unit going full blast, covers drawn tightly around Clementine, leaving Violet with none. She frowned, looking over at Luke to make sure he wasn't cold, he was still sleeping, cuddled up in his footy pajamas with an extra fuzzy blanket snuggled around him. Seeing that he was fine she turned back to Clementine, loosening the blanket from around her so that she could press herself against Clementine's back, pulling the blanket over the both of them.
"Mm?" Clementine mumbled in her sleep at the feel of her wife's body pressing against her, absorbing her warmth.
"Warm me up," Violet said, snuggling her face into her wife's back, "You're toasty."
"I'm a toast." Clementine mumbled, half asleep.
Violet chuckled, "You're toast?"
"Mmhmm," Clementine yawned, "a toast."
Violet grinned, loving when Clementine said silly things when she was half asleep. She always denied vehemently saying them the next day. Violet didn't know why she denied it, she thought it was adorable. She had even videoed her talking once and Clementine just shook her head and said it wasn't her, she was just being stubborn for the sake of being stubborn. Violet smiled at the thought, loving the way her body fit against Clementine's, enjoying the quiet of the morning before Luke woke up, demanding to become the center of attention once more.
Clementine rolled over in Violet's arms, now facing her, "You feeling okay?" She reached down and placed her hand on Violet's stomach, "You haven't thrown up yet. That's good."
"It's still pretty early. I'm only a few weeks." Violet's eyes traveled over Clementine's face. It had matured over the years that they had been together, but she was just as beautiful as ever. "You're beautiful..."
"You need to put your glasses on." Clementine stretched, snuggling back under the blankets, only the top of her head showing.
"I don't need glasses since I had laser eye surgery, remember?" Violet kissed the visible top part of her head. "Go back to sleep. Luke shouldn't be up for another hour." Violet said, looking at her watch.
Violet closed her eyes, focusing on her lower abdomen, where a life was currently growing. It was a strange thought, something she thought she would never experience, never wanted to experience if she was being honest with herself. She would do anything for Clementine though and she wanted another baby as bad as she did, a 9 month sacrifice would be worth it in the end. Anything to keep Clem safe. If she focused intently enough she could sometimes feel the tiniest flutter in her stomach, the tiny fetus moving lightly, she was honestly in awe of the whole thing.
Violet sighed, looking over at Clementine who was still now, sleeping again. Violet carefully got out of bed, pulled on her jeans and a white short sleeved button up shirt. She slid on her flip flops, ran her fingers through her messy hair. She grabbed the room card and her cell phone and quietly exited the room. Violet rubbed her sweaty palms against her pants as she stepped into the elevator and hit the number 2.
Clementine awoke to the sounds of crying, "Vi, could you get him? I just need five more minutes..." She snuggled deeper into the covers. Waiting to feel Violet move beside her, but she never did. "Violet?" She asked, poking her head out of the blankets and looking around. Violet wasn't in bed.
Clementine climbed out, reaching down to pick up a crying Luke. "Shhhh, it's okay Luke, Mama's here." She patted him on the back soothingly. Where was Violet? "Vi?" Clementine called, checking the bathroom, she wasn't there. Clementine walked to the balcony, not there either. She opened the sliding glass door, stepping out onto it. Luke looked around, quiet now. Clementine scanned the beach with her eyes, looking for a blonde head, no where.
She was starting to get worried. Clementine went back into the room, Luke fussing as they left the balcony. Clementine grabbed a pack of baby yogurt bites and poured a few on the bottom of the pack and play and stuck Luke back in, he grinned as he sat up and crammed the bites into his mouth. Clementine grabbed her cell phone and unplugged it from the charger and called Violet. As it rang Clementine paced back and forth in the room, "Answer... answer, answer. Come on Vi..." No answer. The phone beeped and Clementine left a message, "Violet where are you? I'm just worried, please call me back and let me know if you went for a walk on the beach or something okay?"
About half an hour later Violet still hadn't shown up, Clementine's heart was pounding. It wasn't usual for Violet to go out without telling her where she was going and it was even more unusual for her to not answer her phone. Clementine called Sophie, not knowing what else to do.
"Clem? What's going on?" Sophie sounded like she had just woken up, or more likely been woken up by Clementine's call.
"Soph, can you come to my room and watch Luke for me? Violet's gone and she won't answer her phone... I'm worried." Clementine said, holding Luke and pacing.
"Of course. I'll be right there. What's your room number?" Sophie responded. Clementine gave her the number and hung up the phone. She set Luke on the floor and hurried to get dressed. As soon as she heard a knock on the door she opened it wide, finding Sophie there.
"Thank you Soph, thank you so much!" Clementine hugged her quickly, stepping out of the room, "Oh, um, what room is Minerva in?"
"201, why?" Sophie asked, picking up Luke and raising an eyebrow.
"No reason." Clementine waved her off, rushing to the elevator, mashing the down button impatiently. Sophie closed the door behind her, concern etched on her face.
Clementine crossed her arms, taping her foot impatiently. The elevator dinged and she hurried onto it, hitting the button for floor 2. The plan was to go to Minerva's room, threaten her to never come near her family again, maybe punch her again if necessary, then check the pool area and beach for Violet. Her plan was laid to waste though as the elevator doors opened, Clementine could see the door to room 201 from the elevator. Before she could step out, she saw room 201 open and out walked Violet. She was buttoning up her shirt as the door closed behind her.
Clementine's heart dropped, she felt sick and she couldn't stop the broken "...Violet...?" that came out of her mouth. Violet's head jerked to the side, her eyes met Clementine's.
"Clem, wait-" Violet started but Clementine jammed the door closed button before Violet could reach her. She pushed the ground level button after the doors closed, not sure where she was going to go next, not sure what she had seen. Violet was leaving room 201. Room 201 was Minerva's room and Violet was leaving it. Clementine shook her head as the elevator opened on the ground level. She walked to the hotel employee standing in the lobby.
"Excuse me, what time does the pool bar open?" Clementine asked, trying to look casual.
"At 11a.m. ma'am," The older woman said.
Clementine looked at her watch, only 9:30a.m., "Thank you," she threw on a fake smile and wandered out to the sandy beach, kicking her shoes off and leaving them there as she continued towards the water. She stood there for a minute, letting the water lap over her feet. The phone in her pocket started to vibrate. She pulled it out and saw that it was Violet. She held down the power button, shutting it off. A tear started trailing down her cheek. She wiped it away furiously and started walking down the beach, feet in the water as she traveled along the coast.
Her heart ached in her chest. It was a pain that Clementine had never felt before. Her world had been perfect for so long. She and violet dated, married, got good jobs, had their son and now Violet was pregnant with their second child. She had spent her entire life building a precarious castle made out of sand, only for one wave to come and wash it away. How fragile life was. How easily it could crumble to the ground.
More tears seeped from her eyes against her will as she walked down the beach until the hotel was out of sight. As the sun rose higher into the sky, it was starting to get warm out, Clementine bent over and rolled up her now sopping wet jeans up to her knees. She pulled her t-shirt off, revealing her spaghetti strap tank underneath as she turned around and started walking back toward the hotel.
By the time she reached the white sandy beach in front of her hotel her shoulders burned red, feeling warm to the touch, she was certain they had burned but she didn't care. Clementine slipped her feet into her tennis shoes and walked mindlessly to the pool bar just as they slid the partition open.
"I want the strongest drink you have." Clementine told the man as he looked at her sitting on the bar stool.
"And a good morning to you too!" The chipper bartender said, "Vacation not going as planned?"
"You could say that." Clementine said, turning away, hoping to avoid any more conversation, but accidentally stepping into a more serious one.
"Clem? Clementine?" a familiar voice asked. A recognizable boy, well, man, walked up to her, wearing swim trunks, unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt and his same ol' beanie.
"A beanie? At the beach? Really Gabe?" Clementine smirked as the drink was set on the bar next to her. She gave him her room key to have her drinks charged to the room and started sipping on her drink.
"It's my trademark look, I can't go without it," He beamed as he sat on the stool next to her, he reached out with an arm, giving her a half hug, "It's been a long time. How have you been?"
Clementine took a long sip of her drink, coughing slightly as it burned it's way down her throat, trying to avoid Gabe's question. She wasn't usually a drinker. Sometimes a glass of wine with dinner or some fruity concoction at a party but never more than one and never anything strong. She set down her empty glass and signaled for another.
"Good." She answered simply. Things had been good, perfect in fact until this morning. Until she saw her wife leaving her ex's hotel room first thing in the morning, buttoning her shirt up. She was spiraling out of control and she focused on Gabe. "How are you? How's Mari?"
Clementine sipped at her second drink as Gabe talked, "Great! I just got a new job coaching a college baseball team. It's the best job ever. I've got a really great group of boys this year, I think we're going to have a really good season. Marianna is teaching Kindergarten, back at our old Elementary school. Isn't that cool? She and Duck just got married last year. Everything's going well." Gabe turned and ordered a drink from the bar.
"I have a son." Clementine started, loosening up a little bit, trying to talk about something that didn't hurt, "His name is Luke. He'll be one year old in a couple of weeks. He's got the cutest blonde hair and the deepest green eyes..." her heart ripped, even the thought of her little boy was painful. His eyes were a mirror of Violet's, she couldn't look into them without seeing her. "Here, I'll show you a picture." She finished her drink, waving for another as she powered her phone on. As soon as it turned on, notifications started popping all over her phone. Countless missed calls, voice mails and messages from Violet, a few from Sophie. Clementine felt guilty as she swiped the notifications away, she had just abandoned Sophie with her son without an explanation.
Clementine pulled up her camera and swiped, the first picture that popped up was of Violet and Luke playing in the ocean, laughing, tears threatened to spill again as her chest ached in physical pain.
"I... don't want to try and get too personal... we haven't seen each other since middle school... but, are you okay?" Gabe asked kindly, turning to face the curly haired girl that had been one of the closest friends of his childhood. They had never dated but he had definitely had a crush on her. He wasn't sure but he felt like she had had a crush on him as well.
"I... I think my wife is cheating on me..." Clementine blurted out, unable to keep the thought to herself anymore, knowing she shouldn't say anything until she had a chance to talk to Violet, but unable to hold it back. The dam had burst and she sobbed into her hands.
Earlier
Violet watched the elevator doors, "Clem, wait-" she started, but the doors had closed and she was gone. Nonononono, Violet screamed in her head. She knew this didn't look good, she needed a staircase, where was the staircase?! She ran around the floor, looking for the emergency fire exit. The image of Clementine's heartbroken face etched into her mind and tearing her apart.
"Why are the stairs so hard to find?!" She yelled to herself as she ran around, looking down corridors frantically, "If there was a fire I would be dead. dead. dead. dead. I'm dead without the fire..." Violet's breathing quickened as she finally found the staircase, she ran down them as fast as she could, skittering into the lobby. She looked around, eyes wild, nothing... No Clementine.
Maybe she went back to the room? Violet ran back to the staircase, running up them two at a time. She called Clementine's number as she ran. No answer. By the time she reached the seventh floor she was breathing heavy, gasping for breath and running for the room door, swiping her card and jerking the door open.
"Clem, it wasn-" Violet stammered, coming face to face with Sophie.
"Clementine went out looking for you, she was worried." Sophie said, sitting on the bed, watching cartoons with Luke.
"Well... she found me..." Violet ran her hands through her hair nervously.
"Then where is she?" Sophie questioned, confusion on her face.
"She ran off when... when she.. uhm, found me leaving Minerva's room..." Sophie's jaw dropped.
"Violet... Vi... Why? What were you doing in Minnie's room?" Violet could hear the slight shake in Sophie's voice, the disbelieving tremor in her words.
"I went down there while Clementine was sleeping this morning." Violet sat on the bed next to Sophie, Sophie gave her a disapproving glare, "Don't... don't look at me like that! It's not what you think."
Sophie raised her eyebrows, "I'm waiting for an explanation. A good one."
"I just wanted to talk to her." Violet shrugged, "I knew Clementine wouldn't approve, but I just needed to okay Soph?" Sophie continued to look at her dumbfounded. "I wanted to make sure she stayed away from Clementine. I know how vindictive she used to be. I wanted to tell her not to ever talk to my wife again. Then she spilled this drink on my shirt." Violet gestured to her shirt. "So I took it off but then she tried to make a move on me and I rejected her and started to leave and then... there was Clementine standing in the elevator looking like I stabbed her in the heart and I can't find her!"
Violet's eyes watered and Sophie patted her hand, "She's probably just cooling off somewhere, she'll be back, let's give her some time."
"Yeah... okay..." Violet answered, standing up and walking anxiously around the room again.
"It's been over an hour, I'm going to look for her." Violet said resolutely, going towards the door, "Are you okay here with Luke?"
"Can I get him dressed and take him to the pool?" Sophie asked.
"Yeah, yeah, that's fine, his swim stuff is hanging in the bathroom drying." Violet opened the door.
"Good luck!" Sophie called after her.
Violet headed down the staircase again, her body was too full of nervous energy to stand and wait for the elevator. When she got down to the bottom she scanned the lobby, exited out the back and scanned the pool area, just as she started to move on to the beach she heard a familiar giggle coming from the bar area off to the side.
She looked in that direction, spotting a very familiar curly headed brunette doing shots at the bar with some idiot in a beanie. Who wears a beanie to the beach? Violet marched in that direction, fear replaced by anger as the beanie boy rested his hand on her wife's bare shoulder. Her blood boiled.
"Clementine, we need to talk." Violet said, voice shaking.
"The time for talking is over, the time for drinking is now." Clementine laughed as she raised her shot clinking it against Gabe's, both of them throwing it back. Violet folded her arms, eyeing the boy next to her wife.
"And you are?" She asked the idiot in the beanie.
"The name's Gabe, me and Clementine went to school together. I moved away in middle school." Gabe explained, seeming less intoxicated than Clementine. "Are you her wife?"
"Yes." Violet positively seethed, "Are you trying to get my wife drunk? Clementine hates getting drunk."
"She was upset because of you, I cheered her up, you're welcome." Gabe clinked glasses with Clementine again as she had her glass in the air, waiting for him. Another round down.
"Come on Clem, let's go to the room and talk, I'll get you some coffee. That always seems to make you feel better." Violet said reaching out for her wife.
"No." Clementine said, leaning back against the bar, "I don't want to go with you." She pushed Violet's hands away.
"Clem, we need to talk in private." Violet grabbed her gently but firmly by the hand.
"I don't want to talk." Clementine attempted to pull her hand away.
Gabe stood up, puffing his chest out, "I think she said that she didn't want to go with you."
"You got her drunk. Clementine doesn't get drunk. I'm not going to leave her out here for you to take advantage of." Violet released Clementine's hand, standing up to Gabe, staring him right in the eye. Gabe backed down slightly.
"You cheated on her. What right do you have bossing her around?!" Gabe countered.
"I didn't cheat on her! I would be stupid to cheat on her, look at her!" Violet yelled waving her arm in Clementine's direction.
"You didn't cheat on me?" Clementine asked, eyes wide, lip trembling.
"Of course not, now can we please go talk in the room so I can explain it to you?" Violet pleaded, Clementine nodded slightly, placing her hand in Violet's, swaying slightly as she stood. "And then I'll explain it to you again tonight when you're actually aware enough to understand what I'm telling you." Clementine nodded again, half smiling, allowing herself to be led back into the hotel.
"Bye Gabe! See you later! Maybe we can catch up more at dinner?" Clementine yelled behind her as they went. Violet glaring as she walked.