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Isabela paced worriedly, twirling her lip piercing between her manicured nails. Curls had strayed in frizzy fly-aways from her bandana. Bracelets jangled noisily on her wrists with every sharp turn, the only sound made in the otherwise silent room. Finally the front door opened with the harsh clink of the dead bolt unlocking. She went immediately to the threshold.
“Hawke! Thank The Maker you’re home!”
The newcomer hung her keys on the hook beside her.
“Why? What’s wrong?” Marian furrowed her eyebrows, expecting another over dramatic display from her lovely wife.
“I lost my cellphone today!” Isabela gripped Marian’s shoulders in despair, collapsing into her chest.
“Okay… well, let's try and find it. Have you tried calling it?” Isabela raised her somber head to nod.
“Last place you looked?”
“I’ve practically torn the apartment apart.”
“Oh. Alright then let's just try and calm down and we’ll retrace your steps.” Isabela got back up and wiped away a strand of hair from her forehead.
“You’re acting so nonchalant! It’s missing!” She resumed her pacing.
“Love, it’s just a phone, if we can’t find it, we’ll call and cancel the plan and switch it over to a new one.” Marian tried to be sympathetic, but really just knew it’d mean her going out and finding it for her.
“No, you don’t understand. I have everything on my phone. Every contact from the past 5 years, all of my photos, and all kinds of other things people shouldn’t see.” Marian was caught off guard and let out a disbelieving chuckle.
“Isabela? What kind of things people shouldn’t see?” Isabela’s eyes widened at the realization of what she’d said.
“Nothing, I mean. Nobody should see anything that’s my business, it’s just nosy.”
“No no no, you’re hiding something.” Marian gently held her wife’s chin upward. “I know when you’re keeping secrets.” Isabela brushed her away, continuing to deny the claim.
“I’m not hiding anything, I just need my phone Hawke, that’s all.”
So Marian went out, retracing Isabela’s steps from throughout the day to find the device. She followed a chronological list of where she’d been as Isabela was too “grief stricken” and “embarrassed” to come along. Marian was beyond annoyed, but this responsibility always fell on her shoulders, she might as well get used to it. So she made her rounds, to the coffee shop down the street, then to Merrill’s Tea shop (why coffee then tea?), then on to the shoe store, and nothing had come up. At this point, it’d been well over an hour of driving around questioning people before she reached the final stop, the grocery store. Inside, she went up to the customer services desk and immediately saw Isabela’s phone sitting on the desk behind the counter. It’s aqua anchor case unmistakable to recognize.
“Excuse me,” Marian asked the employee. “That phone there is my wife’s, she must have left it here on accident earlier.”
“Oh, so you’re her wife? That’s a relief.” The person seemed kind of cryptic.
“Pardon?”
“Oh, it’s just that when my manager opened the phone to try and call someone, it was open on some… interesting photos of.. You.” Marian’s eyes darted away from the employee and a bright flush blazed on her pale cheeks. “Here you go.” He handed her the phone and left with a sniveling grin.
Marian was extremely upset by the time she’d returned home with the phone.
“Hawke, it that you? Did you find it?” Isabela’s voice called through the living room where she sat painting her toes leisurely. When she turned and saw Marian holding the phone out, she smiled and got up carefully to retrieve it. “Where did you find it? I don’t even remember putting it down.”
“Oh they found it at the supermarket, and when they tried to use it they found something ‘interesting’. Any idea what that might have been? Love?” The tone of marian’s voice was strangely bitter and accusing, and Isabela was not used to it.
“I um, no clue. Maybe they found my stash of guilty pleasure songs?” Isabela said, unsure of her lying abilities for one of the first times in her life.
“No Love, I think they found photos of
.” Isabela caved, she couldn’t stand to have hurt Marian. She looked down and unlocked the phone before handing it back, still not making eye contact.
“Hawke, I’m sorry. I should have told you about them.” Marian took the phone and found a file filled with photos of her sleeping. Some photos were dark, only the camera flash bounced light onto her face. Others were in the light of morning, Hawke laid spread eagle across the bed, tank top and shorts wrinkled around her and the covers thrown onto the floor beside her. Then there were others… Photos of her naked, tits perky in the chill of the night, or lingerie sloppily falling off her shoulders and hips. Marian scrolled through what seemed like dozens of pictures, some dating back to before they were married.
“Really Isabela?” She never looked up from the phone. Scrolling to the top again, she finally saw the title of the folder.
For When The Sea Is Rough
“Oh, Isabela.” Marian looked back to her wife, who was now silently crying and holding her head in her hands.
“You know I don’t like to keep secrets from you, but this was, just something I started when we were dating because no matter what we were ever going through, you always slept like a damned rock. And you look so… sexy when you’re sleeping.” She sniffed and wiped away some tears.
“Oh yeah, nothing says ‘attractive’ like a smooshed face and drool.” Marian rolled her eyes.
“No, It was just- It was just supposed to be a one or two time thing, but then you started getting serious and then you convinced me to be too and I-I don’t know.” Her breathing became more steady now and the tears dried. Marian’s anger dissolved when she saw the splotchy redness on her wife’s face. Just like her, upset and defensive, but not apologetic.
“Thank you.”
“What?” Isabela was surprised when Marian leaned in for a hug and wrapped her with warmth.
“I love you, and this is actually kind of flattering in a ‘I feel like I’ve been stalked by my wife for years” kind of way.”
“You’re not so mad at me you’re going to stab me in the back?”
“I mean I was.” They broke the hug and met eyes. “I was furious and embarrassed, but I’m okay now. I don’t think we should ever go back to that grocery store.”
“Oh but they have my favorite wine on sale there all the time.” Marian laughed at the simple disappointment.
“Well Love, let that be a lesson for sneaking pictures of me. Let’s keep those somewhere safer, like a password protected external drive or something. I don’t know what I’d do if anyone else saw me like that.” Isabela hugged her again, this time burying her face into her shoulder.
“Of course Hawke, Maker forbid we taint your shining reputation… I love you too. So damn much.”