my babe .

[princess weathers]

Princess lays stretched out on the green striped lounger, her nude back toward the sky as her eyes reflect the blue of the salt water pool. She has a book folded in her hand and her brow is furrowed as she tries to read the contrast of the words, the world in itself is not reasonable, that is all that can be said. She’s been in one of those moments of time where life feels more difficult that what it’s offering, and the book in her hands is one that her therapist recommended. But now that she’s deep into the essay, The Myth of Sisyphus, it seems as though her therapist - much like her mother - has set to punish her. She’s been in the house since the morning and has spent much of the past five hours watching the sun raise high in the sky and letting her thoughts carry outside the edges of the book. Her back feels warm and she rolls over to expose her bare chest, unworried about the lack of privacy in Thompson’s yard. Last thing she heard was that he was in some city with the girls and likely a nanny, but her mind had been so full she couldn’t think of where exactly. She makes a mental note to check her phone when she bores of the sun. But in that second, she hears the sliding door and rushes to pull the book to her chest.

[thompson weathers]

As much as life had changed as the girls had gotten older and become more like actual people to their father, a week with them had proved challenging, so much so that he had eventually insisted they all stay at a Disney park. There the nanny had taken the girls on the boring kids rides, whilst Thompson had filled his boots with the more adventurous options, tiring himself out more than his twins. He still felt tired as they returned home, so much so that he'd decided to drop them off at Dolly's, their nanny in tow to ensure his sister wouldn't lose interest and let them drown in her pool. As he enters his home, he knows immediately that he's not alone. It's clear from how his housekeeper is behaving, from the slight off-ness vs how he'd left things. Simultaneously pleased and irritated, Thompson is quick to spot his wife through the floor-to-ceiling glass in his reception room, the beautiful blonde soaking up the sun by his pool, borderline naked. As he pulls the door open she hurries to cover herself and he smirks, giving the lounger a short shove with his foot. "Nothing I haven't seen before. You're trespassing, did you know that? I could have you arrested."

[princess weathers]

Holding the words of Albert Camus to her nipples, her lips quickly turn into a grin as she registers an extra familiar face. “I needed a pool,” she says as she removes the book to expose herself and sets it next to her. Her hand raises to shield her eyes from the sun and she looks up at his tall frame. Tommy’s face is dusted with a spray of freckles and his under eyes are shadowed with exhaustion, that could only mean one thing - Disneyland. And with that realization she laughs, “they’re a lot, aren’t they? The kids and the Mouse.”

[thompson weathers]

Princess has an innate glow that is only emphasised by the sun, her skin twinkling in its bareness as she reveals herself. Exhausted, he sits on the edge of the lounger, trying his very best to pretend he isn't pleased to see her but unable to keep the grin from his face. "Then buy one." He rests an arm on the other side of her, leaning across her nude torso with the comfort that comes from years of intimacy. She reads him like a book and he rolls his eyes, refusing to acknowledge her assessment. Instead he squints at her book, holding a hand to his chest and tilting his head at her. "Aww, Cece, are you pretending to be smart again? So sweet. Is it all to impress me?"

[princess weathers]

Her golden hair falls over her slim shoulders as she adjusts herself, "I have one, yours is bigger." He lays across her and she lets him rest there, her fingers raking through his auburn hair calmly. Her nose shrivels when he notices her book, wishing she had pushed it out of sight and not been caught in the embarrassment. "Oh gosh, it's that obvious?", she bites her lip and reaches to shove the book under the lounger, "shhh. You've seen nothing". She's gentle as she strokes him, her mind too tired to fight the natural comfort he brought her. "I forgot you were home today."

[thompson weathers]

Tom decides to bite back a response about how both pools are his, since that's not what marriage is about. Her fingers feel so good in his hair and it only serves to annoy him, how easily she can turn him into putty in her hands. As she goes along with his joke, her touch gentle against him, he can't help but lean down to kiss her softly. When he next speaks his voice has lost the sarcasm it was previously heavy with. "Are you ok? How are.. things?" Loss was not something he had a lot of experience in. "The girls have been going insane without you, and not just because they hate me."

[princess weathers]

His lips feel warm and genuine, and she nuzzles into the mold of his body. He always felt like home to her. A body in which she could be her truest self, that held her greatest emotions from every spectrum. His question is one she has been struggling to answer. The past three months have felt like a dream, probably because it was a tragedy that often haunted the cellar of her mind. "I don't know," she answers honestly, her voice on her brink of something, tears maybe? "I'll see them tomorrow."

[thompson weathers]

As they kiss he resists the urge to search out her hand to see if she's wearing her wedding band, knowing it to be irrelevant to the complicated relationship they shared. Still, he was wearing his, a tan line forming around it as he traipsed around the world with his daughters in tow, trying not to wonder when he'd be able to hand them back to their mother. The crack in her voice breaks his heart and he can't help pushing hair out of her face, his eyes meeting hers properly. "You can take longer, if you need to. They won't remember, honestly."

[princess weathers]

Her cheek presses against him and the smell of his lingering cologne hits her with endorphins. She looks up at him, caught off guard by the softness that gives in his voice. She pauses, her ears listening to the steady thump of his heart as she relishes the calm that their relationship so rarely gives. She loves their passion, but in this moment she's not sure if she has much fight in her. "I want things to get back to normal," her voice is unsure. She didn't know what normal meant anymore. He felt the most normal to her, but that was past. "I don't know what more time would do."

[thompson weathers]

It's easy for Tom to ignore how many people are milling around in and around his house, a housekeeper, a nanny and a gardener all being regular attendees. It still feels almost uncomfortably intimate between the two of them, especially after a three month full separation-- the longest they'd experienced since meeting. She alludes to normality, but he has no idea what that looks like, hasn't had an idea what that is since they split. He goes for the safest interpretation. "Tomorrow you'll be watching Bluey with the twins and wishing you'd taken me up on that offer."

[princess weathers]

Princess laughs, "jokes on you, I love Bluey." She missed her family. The warmth of the girls and their sweet contagious happiness. Her heart had ached for them as she sorted through the chaos of her childhood, wishing that she could keep them safe from the meanness of the world. "I've missed them so much," she lulls as her fingers draw gently on his forearm.

[thompson weathers]

He feels guilty for not having the girls in tow, though he had no way of knowing that Princess would have shown up on his doorstep. He also knew she'd be happy to hear that he had reconciled with his sister, though they hadn't discussed it, he was sure she'd have known intrinsically how hard it was for him to not have her to lean on. "They're with Doll, I can go get them if you're impatient." Before he can help himself he runs a hand over her tanned stomach, her skin warm to the touch. "Though I'd rather keep you to myself for a while longer, if I'm honest."

[princess weathers]

She raises a brow at him, her inner gossip becoming needy for an explanation. "With Dolly? I thought you two were hating each other?" She smiles lovingly at him, her lips reaching to kiss his softly and her head settling back down to listen to his soothing beat. When she had arrived that morning it was for Tommy. Though he wasn't home, being here was the closest she could get without giving herself away. There was comfort in being amongst his things, in seeing glimmers of him among his immaculately decorated mansion. "Did you have fun with them?"

[thompson weathers]

"We've both been going through break ups, it's a bonding experience." In contradiction to what he's just said, he kisses her back, relishing the familiarity of her lips against his. He sighs, leaning back on the lounger and absorbing the sun, unable to stop himself from asking the question that was hanging between them. "Speaking of, where's your boyfriend?" Despite how much he had been torturing his former best friend since discovering their romance, bitterness still creeps into his tone as he asks the question. "Sometimes. God, they never sleep, I've never been so tired in my life."

[princess weathers]

"Did she break up with the normal one," she raises her eyebrows, "daddy must be thrilled." Princess holds her look of surprise at his next question, surprised that he hadn't heard. Or if he had, he was being abnormally kind about it. "I'm also going through a break up," she winces, feeling a flare of guilt for how it ended between her and Noah. A grand meltdown of emotion from her which resulted in her packing her bags, ghosting and letting his calls go to voicemail. "You have to be careful, they hoard sugar."