Meredith stretches as she comes out of a deep slumber. She feels a moment of confusion as to her whereabouts but then grins, remembering that she is on vacation. On Maui with Derek. And she giggles as she thinks about how much time she spent on him the night before. She opens her eyes and the smile she's wearing turns to a frown when Derek isn't in bed with her. She sits up, the sheet falling to her waist and pouts. Where is he?
Then she sees him sitting on the balcony. She scrunches her nose trying to remember the Hawaiian word for balcony or patio. Oh yeah, she remembers as she gets up and grabs the flimsy, light green silk robe she'd purchased just for this trip. The balcony is called a lanai. So she yawns and wanders out to the lanai and sits down beside Derek. "Good morning," she says and reaches for his nearly empty coffee cup.
"Good afternoon," he grins and laughs as she chokes on the cold coffee she'd just swallowed.
"It's not afternoon," she protests.
"It was eleven when I got up. And it feels like that was quite a while ago."
Meredith goes inside to glance at a clock and comes back outside. "It's twelve-thirty. In the afternoon. Why didn't you wake me up? I slept for over ten hours. I never do that."
"Meredith," Derek says with a laugh. "You're on vacation. Remember? You're supposed to get ridiculous amounts of sleep on your vacation."
"Okay," Meredith giggles as she leans over to kiss him. "What else am I supposed to do on vacation?"
"You know - normal vacation stuff. Have lots of sex. Eat too much, drink too much. Try something new," he finishes as he pulls her into his lap and nuzzles her neck.
"It sounds fabulous," she replies, curling into him. "I think I've been missing out all these years."
"What do you mean, 'missing out'?"
"I've never had a real vacation like this and especially never anything like you just described. I've taken a few days off here and there. And when my mom was alive - and lucid - every few years we'd spend those few days together. Usually doing something she considered cultural or educational."
Derek sighs and squeezes her tight. Then says, "While I have nothing against culture and education - what you just described is fucking dismal - not a vacation."
"And people wonder why I'm a workaholic," she giggles. "If this trip really is what you just described - lots of sex and excessive amounts of food, drink and doing new things - I'm going to want to do this again."
Derek pulls her face to his and gives her a soft, lingering kiss that makes her glad to already be sitting down. He then whispers, "I promise, it'll be all that and more. And we can take many vacations together."
"Okay," she replies, feeling content sitting with her arms wrapped around his shoulders. She turns to look out at the Pacific Ocean. "It's really beautiful here," she sighs.
"Tell me about it," Derek states.
"Oh," she tenses up - feeling like a jerk for her comment.
"Don't Mer," he says, rubbing her back until she relaxes in his arms again. "You can't feel bad for enjoying what you see - just share it with me."
"Okay," she says around the sudden lump in her throat. "What do you want to know?"
"I want to know exactly what you see," he answers in a low voice. "I can hear the waves crashing on the beach and the wind in the trees. I can feel that it's warm and slightly humid out here. I can taste the salt and smell tanning lotion from somewhere - I'm guessing people on the beach."
Meredith swallows a couple of times to control the urge she feels to cry. She moves in his lap so that she's sitting with her back directly to his front. She wraps his left arm around her waist and takes his right hand in her right hand and lifts it - up and over to the left of their bodies. And then she pulls it slowly back to the right as far as she can reach and whispers, "I see the ocean spanning this far and more. It's amazing - it seems to go on forever. The blues in the water are like nothing I've ever seen. Dark blues mixed with light blues and the sun shining across the surface. And when the waves crash on the beach it's a huge splash of vivid, clean white. Then the white lazily recedes back into the blue - just to do it again."
Derek places his head on her shoulder and his cheek right next to hers. He wraps his arms tightly around her and listens to her whispered words with his eyes closed - seeing her descriptions perfectly in his mind.
"The sand," Meredith continues, relaxing into him as she speaks. "The sand is a really light color. It's almost white, but not quite. And I can tell you from yesterday that it's the softest sand I've ever felt. It's the consistency of finely spun flour. From here - the sand sparkles like it's filled with hidden jewels. I know it's minute pieces of sea shell but it's beautiful. And you're right about the fact that there are palm trees and people on the beach. The palm trees are - well, palm trees."
Derek laughs at that and says, "Yeah, palm trees aren't very interesting."
Meredith giggles and continues, "There are a few kids down and over to the right building sand castles with their parents. Some people seem to be sleeping while baking themselves and others are reading books. And the common theme among them is color. Brightly colored towels, bathing suits and a few sun umbrellas. There's blue, pink, red, yellow and even some green. They all seem so happy and relaxed but that's a good thing considering they must be on vacation, too."
Derek pushes Meredith up and then pulls her back onto his lap so she's straddling him and facing him. He leans up and kisses her for a really long time. The kiss is full of passion and longing. Meredith moans into his mouth and pushes herself more tightly to him and Derek breaks the kiss.
"Marry me," he says quietly.