CHAPTER 31
JOSHUA’S POV
“Don’t worry mom, I’ll take good care of him here.”
Ish? I slowly opened my eyes when I heard Ish talking and when I fully got to adjust my sight. It was indeed Ish sat on the bed with a phone on her ears. After then she slowly put down the phone and stood. Before she could fully get out of bed, I pulled her to my embrace. She looked at with her beautiful eyes, seemingly shocked. I smiled down at her a little.
“just five more minutes.”
I say as I snuggled to her shoulders. She didn’t say anything as I fully rested all my weight on her. I felt so tired remembering everything that’s happened yesterday and last night; I swore I felt my blood gushing, it’s so alive and burning that I thought I wouldn’t be able to sleep things out for that night. But like some magical pill, with one less embrace and warmth of Ish, everything from my dark thoughts, my emotions, the devastation and everything just died down. And I could feel all my weight pinned on Ish as I never really remembered when I’ve slept in her arms.
“Let me prepare us some nice hot breakfast, Joshua.”
A moment later, I hear Ish say. I reluctantly let go of her as she smiled at me. I couldn’t help but smile myself looking up at Ish’s beautiful face.
“Stay and rest as long as you want. I’ll call for you when I’m done. We’re having a veranda breakfast.”
She giggled as I gave back a small smile. I felt restless still as I stretched my body on the bed. Just then, I felt something weird; the bed, softness was a little more different than our bed, the length also seems a little too short for my height when I’ve personally customized my bed for it to fit my height but this bed is literally shorter. And as I looked around, that’s when I realized that we weren’t in our room. I looked around for Ish but she wasn’t anywhere. I slowly stood and adjusted my body as I felt like I slept for too long that my body is not feeling like it’s time to get up already. I then walked around the room as soon as I adjusted my body; it’s cozy, the walls, the ceiling and even the floor is made of wood and I never felt this cozy in a certain room or place. Then I walked to the veranda when I noticed the sunrays coming from it. The door was… circle? And it’s a first for me seeing this type of door, even the windows are circle-shaped.
“Oh you’re here?”
Upon stepping out the circle door, I saw ishita also preparing food on the circle table. I couldn’t just answer her at all when I saw the view from here. The thick fog was still lingering amongst the mountains but literally, I can see the big mountains from here and everything, everywhere I look is lush greenery. It was just so cozy, so peaceful; I couldn’t feel any more relaxed than this.
“Where are we?”
I asked as I looked at Ish. She just gave me a quirky smile and I couldn’t help but smile myself. She was giving me a silly look and I could tell that she has done something that I don’t know. judging by the situation now, I really think she has done something without my knowledge at all.
“We’re in Sagada, Mountain Province.”
“What? How?”
I say as I again look around after hearing Ish giggling her heart out.
“I sneaked you out when you fell asleep last night. You literally didn’t wake at all so I didn’t have time to tell of the trip hehe.”
She says and giggled in between her explanation. I was just looking at her with furrowed brows as she again just giggled on me whilst she handed me a big brown cup of what seemed to be a coffee.
“This place is called The Shire of Sagada. As you can you, it’s very much traditional; from the building itself and to their very own accommodation and well, I’m guessing there’s a lot more in here that we’re about to see.”
I just was left staring at her and didn’t know what to say at all. I was the one who had plans for the both of us after the reception party but at us, Ishita did the work again herself. Dammit! I let myself get carried away from last night’s dispute and now I ruined everything. I heaved a sigh as I felt something warm from my back. Realizing it was Ishita’s hug, I came to rest my back on her as I held unto her arms around my shoulders. Nothing ever felt warmer now as we looked and enjoyed the beautiful view upfront.
ISHITA’S POV
“Don’t worry about anything for now, okay? We will go through it together, whatever may happen. And just know that I’m always here.”
I say as I hugged him tighter. He’s been quite since last night and he wouldn’t just talk to me until he fell asleep and I never felt so worried. I was scared he might indulge himself from all the shock and devastation upon hearing mom’s secrets; I was both glad and sad that he didn’t hear anything further that the last lines of mom. Judging by how he reacted with just the last lines, I don’t think he can handle more if he hears the whole story and I know for sure that it’s what mom is scared of too. I was bit reluctant leaving mom behind as I know she’d be feeling down and completely worried about everything but Ate Rosa assured me she’d take good care of her for the meantime.
“Where are you going?”
I asked as Joshua suddenly stood and walked inside the cabin.
“I’m just gonna make a short call with my secretary. I cannot leave the company unseated without any notice and I will also give a call to my private investigator—”
“Joshua, I told you not to worry anything for now didn’t I?”
“It’ll not take long. I’ll just have to inform—”
“I already gave notice to your P. A though and I also called your private investigator and told him to take proper measures of everything.”
Joshua looked at me completely stunned as he tilts his head slightly to the left looking all confused.
“You did? Why would—I mean when did you do all that? You prepared the trip, took care of me and for sure you took care of mom too before the trip and now you even did all the talking—”
He was then silenced and looked pretty shock when I suddenly gave him a peck on his lips. I myself was shocked with what I did and so we were left staring at each other with the same expression; shocked and slightly opened mouth.
“I—that’s why I told you to not worry about anything… you should’ve listened to me first thing, look what you made me do—”
“Did you just…. Kissed me? On the lips?”
He asks and I literally felt like all my blood gushed to my face as I felt my cheeks heating up.
“No—I did not.”
“Yes, you did.”
He then smirked and came closer to me as he peeks his face when I tried covering it with my hair.
“I did not.”
“Did too.”
He resumed to tease me as I heard him chuckle while insisting on getting a look of my red face. I turned my back on him and covered my face feeling all too shy; embarrassment completely eating me and Joshua teasing me made me more embarrassed.
“I said I did not kiss you!”
“Of course you did; I felt your lips on my lips. You kissed me—”
“Stop it Joshua! I did not!”
And that’s when he laughed out loud while I was there fuming with both embarrassment and a bit rage.
“Don’t be shy coz you just did, literally did kiss me, sweetie.”
I started to run out of the cabin as Joshua followed me with still his words teasing the hell out of me. I couldn’t help but feel more and more embarrassed as he followed suit singing the words, ‘MY wife kissed me, she literally did.’ He was literally singing that until we reached the garden and people were already looking at us with weird looks. Some were laughing and some were just genuinely looking at us with adoration. But I wasn’t feeling any of it as I was more embarrassed and Joshua was there happily humming and singing his words over and over again and he was even dancing to his own mood. I was all ready to smack the hell out of him but I just was left watching him dance and sing happily with a really genuine big smile on his face. Just then, I smiled and realized how Joshua finally smiled after that distressed we face last night. I was really trying hard to think of a plan to make him smile and all the probing was worth it as I was now seeing him smile and even laugh his heart out.
“Oh~ now my wife is smiling while staring at me. What could she be thinking? Is she thinking of kissing me again?”
“Joshua!”
I literally ran and covered his mouth when he suddenly stopped dancing and caught me staring at him. He again laughed and easily avoided me while running away. Now I was the one chasing him while I tried so hard to stop him from mentioning the word ‘kiss’ coz everyone was already staring at us. We were already at the public garden of the shire we were in when he started teasing me so I’m guessing everyone already heard him sing those silly words; I couldn’t be more embarrassed than now, why this silly man! I couldn’t believe that Joshua could be this silly. We were literally running around the garden like two little kids!
“You really won’t stop singing?”
Joshua only giggled. By the time we were tired running around, I dragged him to a restaurant and for Pete’s sake, he was still going on with his silly song!
“I won’t and I’m literally gonna record this song and upload it on Spotify and make it a renowned-controversial song and who knows? It’ll be a phenomenon and we’ll get a good sum out of it, what’d u say?”
“Are you crazy! That’s just—oh please Joshua, just stop this silliness.”
I rolled my eyes at him as he just laughed again. He just wouldn’t stop! But still, I was more than happy he finally laughed and freed himself from any distress. I just watched him smile and eat his food happily while giving me a glance from time to time; he would just look at me and smile as I give him back a small smile myself. Right now, it just feels nostalgic. With everything that’s happened and with everything that we’ve gone through, I am just so happy that we are able to enjoy ourselves out in the free world at the very least. I never really imagined that I’ll be able to experience anything like this nor did I ever imagine myself enjoying the outside world with a man but look at us now, smiling and enjoying with one less mutual beat of our hearts.