Chapter 16: 16

The next day morning after the wedding was bright and fresh to the world. The newly weds had already left for their honeymoon and the people who had come for the wedding were starting to go back to their places.

In the midst of all these things, Arthur and Ethan were sleeping soundly in Ethan’s room, on his bed.

Ethan twirled in the bed, it was his cue to waking up. He rubbed his eyes and looked around the place. It was instinct as always.

When he felt someone’s body weight on half of his body, he turned to his left. There he was, the love of his life, Arthur, sleeping next to him, naked. Ethan slowly moved the blanket to see if he was always naked. As expected, he was indeed naked and it was almost confirmed that they had shared a lustful night. It’s not like he was complaining about it.

Arthur stirred before opening his eyes and tried to gather his thoughts about his surrounding. He noticed Ethan staring at him. Strangely, he didn’t panic. Neither of them did. They simply looked at each other.

“I love you. I have always loved you,” Arthur said.

“Then why did you leave me?”

“I couldn’t lose everything. By everything I mean, my mom and little of my father’s reputation that he didn’t want me to ruin.”

“Does that mean I was nothing to you?”

“Ï didn’t mean it that way,”

“Then what did you mean?”

“You mean a lot to me, Ethan. More than you can imagine,”

Ethan stayed silent for a while. He didn’t know what else to ask. He didn’t know if Arthur’s explanation could suffice to all the pain that he had experienced all these years.

“Say something,” Arthur pleaded.

“You are married,” Ethan stated the fact.

“Yeah. Had to,”

“I didn’t,”

“I know,”

“Your wife seems to be nice,”

“Yeah. She is the sweetest person I have ever met,”

Ethan nodded his head because he had nothing against Emily to dislike her, “Amity is a little firecracker.”

Arthur laughed, “Yeah. She is very spoiled and I love her to the core.”

“So… what do we do now?”

“I have no idea,”

“Do you realize that you have cheated on your wife,”

Arthur sighed, “I know.”

Ethan leaned down and kissed Arthur. The kiss started as warm and soft at first and later turned into a rough and hard. They both ended up having another round of sex before showering together.

Ethan came out of the bathroom with a towel draped around his torso. And Arthur was fully dressed in his last night’s clothes and was using Ethan’s phone.

“What are you doing with my phone?”

“Saving my number,”

Ethan smirked and walked to his bag and grabbed a fresh pair of clothes.

“So, will you keep in touch with me?” Arthur asked getting off the bed and walking towards Ethan.

“What do you think I will do?”

“I hope you will,”

Ethan wore his clothes and turned Arthur who was watching him all along, naked to fully clothed.

He kissed Arthur’s lips and said, “ I love you.”

After the silent promise, Arthur went to his suite. On the way to his room, he thought about the excuses he could give to his wife and daughter.

He knocked on the door and waited until it was opened by Emily. She was wide awake, freshly dressed, and ready to leave for their home.

“Where were you last night?” she questioned, as they walked inside the room.

“Uh… I stayed back with my friends. I don’t know when I’ll be meeting them again.” He didn’t dare look at her. Guilty was killing him inside.

“Thought so,” Emily mumbled and went back to packing their bags which she was doing before Arthur knocked on the door.

She wanted him to do the same. Spend time with his friends as much as possible. Because, once they are back to their home, his old routine would be back. Work, home, work, home. Nothing else.

He walked to see Amity on the bed trying to wear her pants.

“Hey, Princess,” she looked up at him and smiled.

“Hey, Papa.” He walked to her and helped her to wear the pant.

After wearing her clothes, she brought a comb and gave it to Arthur, he understood it.

She sat on his lap while he started to comb her hair.

“Where were you, Papa? I looked for you when I woke up,”

“I am sorry, Sweetie. I had stayed back with my friends. We’ll all leave today know so I won’t be able to see them again for some time.” Amity nodded her head in understanding. It was a pretty simple excuse, but definitely not what Arthur had done. He had walked into complicating his life. But was it really complicating? After all, he was Ethan’s first and still is in their hearts.

“I am so sad to go back home. I had so much fun here,” she said.

“I know, Baby. But don’t worry you can have more fun when we go on summer vacation.”

Amity remembered something and turned to Arthur, he had confused look on his face, “Can we go to New York for summer vacations?”

“Why New York?” Emily asked, as she came and sat beside Arthur.

“Because Ethan said I could visit him,”

“Really?” Emily questioned, raising her brows.

“Yes, Mommy. Ethan said he will take me around and show New York if I visited him.”

Unknowingly, Arthur had a smile formed on his face. So his next meet up with Ethan would be in summer if he agrees to his daughter’s request, he thought.

“Okay, then. New York, it is,” Arthur said kissing Amity’s cheeks.

“Yay!!!” Amity cheered loudly for getting what she wanted. Little did she knew her dad had a different motive for this summer vacation.

After a while of more chit chatting, the little family was ready to go back home. Arthur got out of the suite last, after checking everything.

“Where did she go?” he asked about Amity when he didn’t see her next to his wife.

“Ethan’s room,”

He simply nodded and dragged their luggage in one hand and held Emily’s in another and walked to the elevator.

At the same time, Ethan came out of his room with Amity in his arms. She had filled in about the bride’s bachelorette party and how much fun she had and also about the summer vacation plan and parents’ permission to it. Ethan was more than happy to know that he was going to meet Arthur in the summer and he couldn’t wait for the summer to arrive.

All of them met at the elevator and exchanged smiles. Each of the smiles having different meanings.

Arthur put out his arms to Amity to go to him and she did. She clung onto his neck, “Did you say bye to Ethan?”

She shook her head and leaned forward to kiss Ethan on the cheek and said bye.

And then the elders. They shared sweet bye and hugs before leaving the venue. It was time to go back to their lives. Everything would be the same except for Ethan and Arthur. But what would be different is still unknown.