“I can’t believe you completely stripped me.” I bat Jyeon in the shoulder with one of his socks, shielding my breasts with his discarded T-shirt as he pulls on his boxers and pushes my bra towards me with one foot. He looks crazy sexy with all his tanned muscles on show, ruffled hair, and a smile on his face of a guy who just got his wife in every position known to man.
“Technically, you helped.” He walks off towards the desk in search of more items we tossed aside, and I use the back of the couch to get up from where we finally ended up. Behind the back of the longest side of the sofa on the furry rug in front of the fireplace back here. I am tingling all over, my skin blushed, and my face is overly warm from the last forty-five minutes' efforts.
“I should contact my old doctor for the morning after pill; we didn’t exactly take precautions.” I am very aware that when he realized he wasn't carrying any condoms, we had sex anyway. Too horny, too caught up, and making the outcome a secondary concern. Stupid, but this man makes me crazy sometimes, and logic flies out the window.
“Or you know… don’t.” He casts me back a serious glance, his brows furrowing as he finds his jeans and stops to start pulling them on in the middle of my office.
“I don’t think now is a good time to be getting knocked up while everything is…..”
“Why not?” he cuts me off, walking around and unhooking various clothing from strange places while tossing my own my way. I am practically wearing his t-shirt like a towel and fumbling to straighten out my bra with one hand. It feels weird to be naked in my office, yet looking around, this doesn’t feel like I remember. Maybe because of Jyeon, but somehow this familiar room and lonely place got a lot cozier today for the first time. Instead of being a stressful room of bad memories, I feel like I’ve come home, and all my previous fears seem stupid. I don’t know why I avoided this.
“Be serious. We’re nowhere near ready for a baby. Are we going to raise it on a boat while I am trying to find my feet in OLO again?” I cock my head to the side, giving him a disapproving look and shaking my head at how impulsive he’s being. It’s been five minutes since I came back, and it still feels like so much is unsettled.
“So let’s buy a house. One here and build one on the island. Let’s have a second wedding, solidify everything. You return here part-time, and we take it from there…. work it out as we go. Like we’re doing now.” The utter sincerity in his tone and how he’s stopped dressing to stand with his hands on his hips and watch me send my insides into minor freakout.
“Then we’re back six years ago with me working while pregnant and ….”
“No, we won’t be. I’ll be following your ass around and taking care of you. Over my dead body, would you be putting in the hours and effort like that again. I’m serious about the management team and a future where neither of us works as much as we did.” He juts out his chin in that sign of stubborn Jyeon moving in, and I turn to him, hoping to appeal to his practical side with a softer tone.
“There’s no rush. You’re jumping in with both feet before we catch our breath. Not to mention….. what if it happens again? What if I lose another one, like Tia….. what if we fall apart all over again.” Tears start stinging my eyes as it dredges up to the surface; the cold inner terror of losing another baby lingers in the depths whenever I think of her.
Jyeon softens too, his posture slackening as I become visibly upset, and he exhales heavily before walking toward me and tugging me into his arms to cuddle me in tight. Tucking my head under his chin and bringing every part of me to mold to his while giving me that perfect Jyeon bear hug that’s become necessary to my daily life.
“I’m not saying we should start actively trying for a baby. I'm saying leave it to fate. Don’t take the pill……. There’s no reason to think you couldn’t have a healthy pregnancy, and if the worst happened, I would never do anything to jeopardize losing you again. I would be your shoulder and support this time. I wouldn’t leave you as I did.” He rocks me from side to side while I cling onto the only fabric I have to cover my modesty, my stomach swirling with anxiety as I think about what he’s saying.
“Why is none of this too soon for you? Why aren’t you afraid? Slotting back into marriage, OLO, a baby…. don't you have any sense of pacing yourself.”
“I have known you since you were born. I have been married to you for six years…. four of those, we already had a home, jobs, and a baby….. this isn’t rushing anything, Sol. I want us to be happy and solidify this properly. To start over. We're not exactly too young to be jumping into starting a family again, and nothing scares me when I know it’s with you in my arms.”
I rest my temple against his throat, my body tuning into the steady beat of his heart as it brings mine to a calm pace, and close my eyes to fight the inner swirling of that knee-jerk apprehension I carry around. Sohla Park used to be so fearless, and I hate that the car wreck left me a much weaker person.
“Okay… I won’t take a pill this time, but we use condoms next time.” I’m pretty sure we took months to fall pregnant with Tia without contraception, so I’m overthinking for nothing. I am not even in the fertile phase of my cycle and overthinking. If it makes him happy, then I see no harm in it.
“Okay…. Fine. So, about a house….”
“Don’t push it.” I elbow him in the ribs and get a snort of reaction from minorly winding him.
“Babe… it makes sense to buy a house here and have a place of our own like we never did. Something with room to grow and a garden for little feet. We could also build one on the island to go back and forth, given I have some investment plans you might want to look at.” He distracts me with the latter half of that sentence, and I tilt my head back to stare at him. Ignoring his plans for several living abodes.
“Such as?” my curiosity is piqued, given he mentioned this before, and I shut him down, but I know the islanders would be more than happy to boost tourism and bring more cash to their shores.
“Ahhh, she’s interested now, I see. House and baby, no…. but improve your island getaway and boom.” He bops me on the nose with a fingertip, teasing me without seriousness, before letting me go and bending over the couch to retrieve the dress I was looking for. Holding it out to me.
“Come on, spit it out, Park. Tell me what plans you have for my island.”
“On one condition.” Jyeon winks, wandering off towards the tiny kitchen area in the back of my office and rifles around the mini-fridge, looking for bottled water that isn’t ancient.
“Which is?” I pull my dress over my head while he has his back to me. I'm still shy when we’re not in lovemaking, even if I had my breasts in his face twenty minutes ago.
“You let me plan our vow ceremony within this month. There’s no reason to wait, and I want that wedding band back on your finger. I want to wear mine and know it means something more than it ever did.” He turns to me with a frown, seeing me covered up even if I am still without underwear and now moving to pick up everything of mine so I can dress appropriately in the bathroom away from watching eyes.
“Fine by me. I already agreed to the ceremony. Do whatever you want as long as it’s small and on the island.” I smile salaciously, limiting his options because I know he has extravagance in his blood.
“Deal…….. so after that, you’ll work with me to build a portfolio to present to your islanders for using the barren land outside the village for a luxury spa and retreat, and maybe some sort of wilderness experience like you guys started in the forests. Camping, lodges….. we can talk it out.” He butts against the counter, holding an unopened water bottle and lounging casually while still sexily topless. Watching me while in all Mr. Business mode.
“Fine by me. We always had plans to try and attract investors for that. I guess OLO is the company to do it.” It looks like he is warming me up to put my fingers back in the OLO pie by being sneaky and hooking me with what he knows I’ll want to submerge myself in. I haven’t even picked up one piece of paper for the annual breakdowns, yet I’m agreeing to this. Who knew good sex was his best bargaining chip? Wiping away all my stupid fears of the last weeks about coming here, my brain and blood are roaring to get their teeth into a project that means something to me. That man is way too clever.
“I want you to be head of the project under my guidance, as your first official OLO responsibility. No time limit, no pressure, and I’ll do whatever you need me to while easing you into other areas of work. I’ll be generous with the budget as long as it includes us building a love nest.”
I like the boat as a temporary pad, but it’s not roomy enough, and sometimes the swaying in rougher storms makes me restless and unable to sleep. I roll my eyes at him, but I guess I am not against having a small home of our own there, given how Bryant and Greta seem to be cozying up in the shack more often than not. I heard him asking her about an extension on the rear to build a proper apartment and know that man has no intention of going anywhere.
“I have a condition.” I pause and chew on my lip before smiling his way. Knowing I already agreed.
“Go on.”
“We include a budget to fix up the Tarry Shack and make it worthy of becoming a franchise. The shack serves a good menu, and I can see it being a profitable brand with a few tweaks to its theme. It’s a good business model, and I know the food will suit a lot of palettes if we target seaside resorts and islands like ours. Greta deserves success and financial stability on her own merit. Family-friendly and quaint seafood shack has potential.”
Jyeon stares at me for a long hard minute, and I wonder if he’s thinking I am crazy and that it’s a waste of money. He seems to be considering while chewing on the inside of his lip before he breaks into a smile.
“There she is….. And you thought you had lost that business brain and Sohla skill of old.” He winks at me.