I gasped. I wasn’t expecting the tank in front of me, or the beautiful creature inside it. “You bought me a snake.”
“She’s a piebald ball python. I wasn’t sure what snake to get you, but then I saw her, and she has a smiley face on her, and I knew she was the one.”
The python in the tank was so small, mostly pure white, with small circular saddles of yellow and brown pigment along her body. The pattern in one of the saddles in the middle looked like the eyes and smiling mouth of the emojis Benny’s texts always contained.
“She’s perfect,” I breathed, reaching for the tank, needing to hold her. She let me pick her up, fitting perfectly in my hand.
My eyes blurred, and I turned to bury my face in Benny’s chest. “I love her so much. I loveyouso much.”
“I love you too, baby.” He held me back cautiously, and it only warmed my heart more that he’d given me a gift he was afraid of because he knew how much I’d love it.
I’d need to pick out an extra special name for her, but I had to get to know her first so I could pick something that suited her perfectly.
When it was late, I put her back into her tank and took her up to be with Aurelia and Juliette. Rachel took the kids home to put them in bed. Matthew insisted we leave the cleanup to him, and Ginny offered to help.
Benny and I showered off the remnants of cake and flour, and then we were exploring each other’s skin with gentle touches under brightly colored sheets.
“This is the best birthday I’ve ever had,” I whispered against his lips.
His eyes searched mine, looking deep into my soul, and I let him. I had no secrets, and nothing to hide from him.
“You wish your brother was here?” he whispered back.
I nodded. I wasn’t surprised that he found that without me telling him.
“We’ll find him, I promise.” He kissed the top of my head.
“Where are we going tomorrow?” I asked, because I wanted to focus on the good things. Onus.
“Somewhere we can be alone.”
“We are alone.”
“Somewhere we can be alone and loud.”
I chuckled. “Perfect. Because I haven’t made you scream for me in far too long.”
Benny groaned. “Won’t be as fancy as where we stayed for my birthday,” he sighed.
“I don’t need fancy.”
“You deserve it, though.”
I kissed him. Deepened it. “Wanna do something that’ll keep that pretty mouth of yours quiet?”
He nodded eagerly.
It was my birthday, and I planned to give myself another gift and ride his face until my legs wouldn’t hold me up anymore.
Benny had booked us a cabin on the coast for the weekend. It was small and perfect. We’d barely left it the entire time, not wanting to put clothes on or be far away from a surface we could fuck on as loud and rough, or soft and sweet, as we wanted to.
On Sunday afternoon, Dex had tried to call me, but I didn’t want to think about anything that wasn’t Benny, so I let it go to voicemail.
It was late when we returned home, and we were quiet so we wouldn’t wake Matthew.
Benny fell asleep quickly, but I found myself unable to. Mostly when I had him next to me, I was able to sleep easily, but sometimes it still evaded me, especially when I found my thoughts spiraling about Leon and what I could do to fix everything.
Deciding to go spend some time with my girls and watch my new baby for a while, I crept out of bed.
