in total, it’s even possible that Carlos has been sleeping this whole time.
I inch the door open and tiptoe into the lounge as quiet as a mouse, as I’m clicking the front door closed I hear Carlos from the stairs, “Kate! Where have you been? I’ve been worried sick!” he cries out, running across to me and throwing his arms round me, “Why are you wet?” his concern changes to confusion as his skin makes contact with my clothes.
I step back, keeping my hand behind my back, “I’ve got a surprise for you” I mimic his announcement. His eyes light up at the mention of it, the last surprise I got him was me trussed up in a lace corset, so no wonder he’s excited.
Revealing my hand, I hold my inner wrist up to him to see, it takes him a nanosecond to comprehend what I’m showing him, before he grasps my hand and pulls it in for a closer look, “I don’t believe it, you’ve just gone and done this? On your own? Where did you go?” He’s full of questions but the beaming grin on his face says he’s blown away by the gesture.
I explain where I went and he confirms it is the same place he used, which by all accounts is a very reputable place; I’m inwardly relieved that I don’t have to worry that I inadvertently contracted some incurable disease in the process. I’m never normally spontaneous, so I had all but convinced myself that in doing something so uncharacteristically risky, Karma would punish me with the worst possible outcome.
Carlos tells me that he had taken the design in himself, so it’s likely that it was his template they used on me too, it’s all linking together in a perfectly romantic way, not dissimilar to our matching double eternity tattoos.
Taking me to the kitchen sink he lovingly removes the cover and bathes my wrist under gently running water, rubbing his thumbs over the surrounding skin to remove the last traces of blood. Once it’s clean you can clearly see the sweeping black lines, encircling each other in one continuous loop.
Bringing my hand out of the water Carlos leads it to his lips, dropping a delicate kiss on the edge of my palm, just below the tattoo; then taking a towel he dabs away any residual moisture, before reaching into a drawer and fetching out a tube of cream. With a feather light touch he smears a layer of cream over my inflamed skin and re-wraps it loosely in a clean sheet of cling film, “Just to keep the sand off the cream” he explains. I love the way he cares for me when I’m hurt, even if it is self inflicted.
Morning turns to afternoon and afternoon fades to evening without us even noticing, we are so wrapped up in our ‘eternal’ love it’s like a dream. We sit away from other people out in public places, giggling in corners, sharing in private jokes only funny to us. We are attached to each other at all times, holding hands when we walk, wrapped in each others arms when we stand, legs entwined when we sit, to the outside world its sickly sweet, but to us it’s essential. Without a constant contact between us, we feel lost, empty, incomplete; nothing is right until we are together, moving as two parts of the same person, like our life is one long, erotically charged Salsa dance, the music to which plays in our hearts.
We are perfect partners, undoubtedly made for each other, it’s as though all of the heartbreak we have both suffered has been designed specifically to unite us together; a complicated patchwork of events, so masterful it could only have been constructed by fate.
After our boat trip we had promised Blair and John we would meet for this evening festivities; the whole resort is a buzz with anticipation, the bar has been decked out to the nines with brightly coloured banners and paper lanterns hanging from every available point. Whatever the Mariachis is, it is truly celebrated here.
A circle of chairs has been placed around the courtyard, with a further two wider ones around them, with only one small gap in the circles that leads into the bar. The seats are filling rapidly, from a heaving crowd that feeds in from the bar, drinks in hand. Carlos spots Blair and John, fighting to keep possession of the seats they saved us in the inner circle.