Chapter 25: Vacationing in Maui (Part 2)
Meredith stretches as she comes out of a deep slumber. She feels a moment of confusion as to her whereabouts but then grins, remembering that she is on vacation. In Maui with Derek. she giggles as she thinks about how much time she spent on him the night before. She opens her eyes and the smile she's wearing turns to a frown when Derek isn't in bed with her. She sits up, the sheet falling to her waist and pouts. Where is he?
Then she sees him sitting on the balcony. She scrunches her nose trying to remember the Hawaiian word for balcony or patio. Oh yeah, she remembers as she gets up and grabs the flimsy, light green silk robe she'd purchased just for this trip. The balcony is called a lanai. So, she yawns and wanders out to the lanai and sits down beside Derek. "Good morning, baby." she says and reaches for his nearly empty coffee cup.
"Good afternoon, baby." he grins and laughs as she chokes on the cold coffee she'd just swallowed.
"It's not afternoon," she protests.
"It was eleven when I got up. It feels like that was quite a while ago."
Meredith goes inside to glance at a clock and comes back outside. "It's twelve-thirty. In the afternoon. Why didn't you wake me up? I slept for over ten hours. I never do that."
"Meredith," Derek says with a laugh. "You're on vacation. Remember? You're supposed to get ridiculous amounts of sleep on your vacation."
"Okay." Meredith giggles as she leans over to kiss him. "What else am I supposed to do on vacation?"
"You know - normal vacation stuff. Have lots of sex. Eat too much, drink too much. Try something new," he finishes as he pulls her into his lap and nuzzles her neck.
"It sounds fabulous," she replies, curling into him. "I think I've been missing out all these years."
"What do you mean, 'missing out'?"
"I've never had a real vacation like this and especially never anything like you just described. I've taken a few days off here and there. When my mom was alive - and lucid - every few years we'd spend those few days together. Usually doing something she considered cultural or educational."
Derek sighs and squeezes her tight. Then says, "While I have nothing against culture and education - what you just described is fucking dismal - not a vacation."
"People wonder why I'm a workaholic," she giggles. "If this trip really is what you just described - lots of sex and excessive amounts of food, drink and doing new things - I'm going to want to do this again."
Derek pulls her face to his and gives her a soft, lingering kiss that makes her glad to already be sitting down. He then whispers, "I promise, it'll be all that and more. We can take many vacations together."
"Okay!" she replies, feeling content sitting with her arms wrapped around his shoulders. She turns to look out at the Pacific Ocean. "It's really beautiful here," she sighs.
"Tell me about it," Derek states.
"Oh," she tenses up - feeling like a jerk for her comment.
"Don't Mer," he says, rubbing her back until she relaxes in his arms again. "You can't feel bad for enjoying what you see - just share it with me."
"Okay," she says around the sudden lump in her throat. "What do you want to know?"
"I want to know exactly what you see," he answers in a low voice. "I can hear the waves crashing on the beach and the wind in the trees. I can feel that it's warm and slightly humid out here. I can taste the salt and smell tanning lotion from somewhere - I'm guessing people on the beach."
Meredith swallows a couple of times to control the urge she feels to cry. She moves in his lap so that she's sitting with her back directly to his front. She wraps his left arm around her waist and takes his right hand in her right hand and lifts it - up and over to the left of their bodies. And then she pulls it slowly back to the right as far as she can reach and whispers, "I see the ocean spanning this far and more. It's amazing - it seems to go on forever. The blues in the water are like nothing I've ever seen. Dark blues mixed with light blues and the sun shining across the surface. And when the waves crash on the beach it's a huge splash of vivid, clean white. Then the white lazily recedes back into the blue - just to do it again."
Derek places his head on her shoulder and his cheek right next to hers. He wraps his arms tightly around her and listens to her whispered words with his eyes closed - seeing her descriptions perfectly in his mind.
"The sand," Meredith continues, relaxing into him as she speaks. "The sand is a really light color. It's almost white, but not quite. I can tell you from yesterday that it's the softest sand I've ever felt. It's the consistency of finely spun flour. From here - the sand sparkles like it's filled with hidden jewels. I know it's minute pieces of sea shell but it's beautiful. And you're right about the fact that there are palm trees and people on the beach. The palm trees are - well, palm trees."
Derek laughs at that and says, "Yeah, palm trees aren't very interesting."
Meredith giggles and continues, "There are a few kids down and over to the right building sand castles with their parents. Some people seem to be sleeping while baking themselves and others are reading books. And the common theme among them is color. Brightly colored towels, bathing suits and a few sun umbrellas. There's blue, pink, red, yellow and even some green. They all seem so happy and relaxed but that's a good thing considering they must be on vacation, too."
Derek pushes Meredith up and then pulls her back onto his lap so she's straddling him and facing him. He leans up and kisses her for a really long time. The kiss is full of passion and longing. Meredith moans into his mouth and pushes herself more tightly to him and Derek breaks the kiss.
"Marry me." he says quietly.
"What?" Meredith says surprisingly.
"Marry me." he repeats and to his astonishment she starts laughing and giving little kisses all over his face. He hugs her tightly and asks, "Is that a 'yes'?"
"Yes." she answers. "Yes Derek, I will marry you." Meredith kisses him again - a quick little peck on the lips. Then she pulls back again and giggles. "I was trying to think of the best way to ask you about us living together when the lease is up on my apartment."
He teases her, "Oh, you want to live together? You don't want to be a married couple living at separate residences?"
"Very funny," she replies. "Derek, we're engaged," she giggles.
"We're almost engaged."
"What? You asked, I said yes, we're engaged."
"Almost," he says again and kisses her as he gets up and carefully carries her inside. He deposits her on the bed with a bouncing flop and she laughs.
"I get it - there has to be engagement sex before it's official."
Derek makes a little acknowledging sound as he pulls open the nightstand drawer and pulls out a little velvet box and sits on the bed with her. "You need this - then the engagement will be official," he says as he opens the little box for her to see the sparkling ring inside.
"Oh my God!" Meredith sighs as tears fill her eyes. "You had this planned!"
"I knew I wanted to ask you here in Maui when the time was right."
"I mean, asking me to marry you wasn't a spur of the moment thing. You knew in Seattle. You bought a ring…"
"Does it matter?" Derek asks. "Would you have said no if you knew I had bought the ring already - with the intention of asking you here?"
"Of course, it wouldn't make a difference. The ring is absolutely gorgeous, Derek!"
"I'm glad you like it," he answers with a grin as he pulls it from the box and carefully slips it on her finger. "Lexie will be pleased that we chose well."
"Lexie helped you pick it out?"
"Yes! Thank God she did. Mark was originally going to go with me, but then Kathleen freaked me out with stuff about the 4 c's."
"The 4 what?"
"Exactly," Derek laughs and kisses her. "So yeah, Lexie went ring shopping with me. What you're wearing is a 1.25 carat, princess cut, solitaire diamond set in platinum. I know I'm missing a couple of the c's but Lexie assured me…"
"It's perfect!" Meredith interrupts Derek. "It's beautiful, sparkly and most important - it's from you, and a symbol of the life we want together. I'm not worried about the 4 c's stuff." She leans forward and places her hands on the sides of his face. She gently kisses him, lingering. Then whispers, "I think it's customary to have newly engaged sex."
Derek laughs and pushes her back on the bed. They take their time loving one another - both blissfully happy.
