"Oh, this one!" Natalie's excitement is beyond my understanding, and even after we left the hospital, her enthusiasm and optimism allowed me to relish our honeymoon. As she looks over which restaurant she wants to go to for dinner, I smile and take her hand in mine. "I can't decide! They all look so good!" We stand outside the tour guide's office, looking over pamphlets of different sites and eateries, waiting for the place to open.
"It's still too soon to decide where to eat, it's only-," I look over at my watch, "7:30, Natalie, let's go take a look at the shops." Natalie frowns in protest. She really loves food, which is hard to believe with how small she is, but I'm overly enthralled that she isn't anorexic like most models I've worked with. After picking up the few pamphlets that intrigued her the most, we're on our way to see the sites of Catalina Island. Although we initially decided to wait for our honeymoon, Natalie insisted on it, especially after the incident with her mother at the hospital. I had no objections; however, I did want to wait until she was one hundred percent better.
"I'm really not materialistic, maybe we can go see the dolphins?" Natalie suggests after looking at some shoes through a window, looping her arm in mine.
"I'm not materialistic either, but don't you want to get some new clothes and shoes? At least while we're here, I don't mind at all," I say, and she tilts her head in contemplation then kisses me.
"When we get back, let's just have fun for now," Natalie responds sweetly.
Once we arrive at the port, we stop by the shop to buy bottled water. As I pay for the water, I overhear a couple of young men talking about Natalie, who is completely oblivious and looking for her name on a souvenir keychain.
"You think she's here alone?" one of the young men rhetorically asks. He's tall, blonde, and a little scrawny. The second one is a little shorter, square faced, and toned.
"I think she is, let's ask her," the second one says, and starts to walk over to her.
As the cashier hands me my receipt, I keep my eyes locked on them, ready to intervene. I slowly stride behind them, ready to scare them away. Little did I know Natalie was very capable of taking care of herself. As soon as they approach, she turns to them with a bloated face, like a puffer fish, eyes squinted, ready to kiss whom she thought was me behind her. The two young men, seem startled and freeze in their steps. Natalie relaxes her face and smiles at me.
"Sorry, did I scare you? I thought you were my husband," Natalie says so sweetly, making my heart skip a beat and a hot blush rush from my neck to my face.
"H-husband?" the blonde one replies. Both slowly look behind, to find me sternly staring down at them. "Uh, s-sorry dude, uh-s-sorry!" and with that they rush out the exit, not looking back. It was clear what they were after. I wrap my arm around her, pulling her in to kiss her forehead. She giggles and hugs me tightly.
"Were you worried about little ol' me?" Natalie playfully asks. I scoff at the question after seeing how comically she handled that situation.
"I'll admit, I was worried, I sadly regret it now," I reply, and Natalie pouts her lips in disapproval. "How did you know they were coming over to you?" I ask; a little surprised that she acted as if she knew what she was doing. Natalie lets go of me and turns to face the exit.
"I guess I'm just used to it," Natalie answers, and turns back to face me with a bright smile, "Plus, I recognize your cologne from a mile away." I smile back at her as she reaches out her hand to hold mine.
We make our way to the ferry, putting on our life vests and getting ready to set sail. Natalie is like a child, excitedly peering out to find the dolphins. Our tour guide is carefully explaining the safety guidelines and what we might be seeing on our tour of Catalina Island Dolphins.
"We'll be shortly arriving towards the most common place for the bottlenose dolphins," the tour guide explains.
Natalie is so distracted, I'm almost jealous of the dolphins. I come up behind her and hold her tightly. She softly strokes my hands but doesn't take her eyes off the shores. "I've always loved dolphins," Natalie begins to explain, "I've never seen them up close before, and my father promised me we'd come here someday." Natalie finally faces me and plants a soft kiss on my lips. "Thank you for doing this with me." I begin to feel aroused and try to calm myself down by thinking about dolphins. Those fuckers are really in it for me today.
"The Pacific bottlenose dolphin travels and hunts for squids around Catalina Island all year round. They usually travel in droves of 20 or more," the tour guide continues. Natalie is too distracted to listen, and I can tell this is important to her, so I take a mental note of everything the tour guide is saying.
"Oh! There!" Natalie interrupts, pointing towards a small cove inhabiting numerous dolphins who look as if they are putting on a show. I hand Natalie some binoculars I brought along, and she quickly looks into them. "They're so beautiful." Natalie sighs deeply and looks over to me with her big doughy eyes. "Do you think we'll be able to get closer?" she asks so softly; I almost didn't hear her.
"Hmm," I pull out the brochure to find out, instead of asking the tour guide who looks like she doesn't want to answer any questions. "Well, we're only halfway there, relax, I'm sure we'll get to see them up close," I answer her. A small boy walks up next to Natalie and comments on how fun dolphins are, and how he wants to grow up to be a dolphin. Natalie starts telling him facts about dolphins; facts that I don't think even the tour guide knew. I never knew they use sonar to communicate. Apparently, my Baby Doll knows more than the mental notes I had taken down.
Delete Mental notes.
The small boy and Natalie excitedly laugh as the dolphins make their way towards us.
"Please remember not to feed or agitate the dolphins," the tour guide anxiously explains. One dolphin begins to dance in front of Natalie and the boy, who are giggling. Another dolphin makes its way behind another, and splashes water towards Natalie. The small boy becomes frightened and runs back to his parents, who are laughing hysterically. Natalie's laughter is contagious, and I begin to laugh with her. I don't think she's ever experienced anything like this before. She turns to me and pulls out her camera.
"Okay Mr. DeMille, can you take our picture?" Natalie asks and hands me the camera. I pull her into me and face the camera at us with the dolphins behind us. Natalie's smile, bigger than I'd ever seen, makes me want to drag her back to the room.
After a romantic dinner by the ocean, we return to our suite, kissing each other feverishly from the elevator to the room. Occasionally, I stop to look and make sure no one is around. As I rush to unlock the door, she licks my neck and causes my knees to tremble.
"Natalie, s-stop...," I softly plead, "L-let me open the door first." I managed to open the door after three tries, not realizing my mind is somewhere else now. Natalie softly grabs my arm and pulls me into the room. She stares at me for a long time, with a face full of contention.
"This was such a perfect day, I almost don't want it to end," she sweetly says, then plants gentle kisses on my neck. I caress her back and kiss her head softly. She begins unbuttoning my shirt, and I stop her. Natalie raises her eyes towards mine quizzically. "What's the matter?" she asks. I hold her hand close to my heart.
"I want to make sure you're okay," I explain, even though I've wanted this all day, "I don't want to just jump right in, you only left the hospital two days ago."
"But I'm better, I don't feel terrible now," Natalie begins to defend herself like a child," I swear, this isn't too much for me." I look over her expression carefully, and pull out my phone, to which Natalie looks surprised.
Love me, love me...Say you do...
Natalie's full lips slowly curl up into a smile. I hold her close to me, kiss her deeply and carry her over to the bed. Natalie witnesses a side of me that night that she did not expect. A loving man who gave her what she needed. Love.
Let me fly away with you...