If Ever (COMPLETED - EDITING)

Chapter 96 - 7 Years Later

Kai

"Happy 35th, old man." Ella said kissing my face, she was sitting on me. I groaned hungover. She was right, this was the best way to wake up though. I smiled and kissed her back. "Thank you, my love." I mumbled. She gave me orange juice and asprins for the headache. I cribbed about being old and hating hangovers. "Since when did they start lasting more than a fucking day?" I groaned, she laughed. I pulled her down and kissed her. We made out for a bit and went back to sleep, with me almost sleeping on her. I buried my face in her neck and passed out.

I would have been happy if this was how I got to spend the day. But Rob and Ella had surprised me again last night when we stepped out. They had all the boys and their families over and the night had been mad. I was dying. They had put everyone up at the hotel near by. The lot of them were staying for a full two weeks. They were making it a bit of a holiday.

Lou and Fred were telling them about going sailing and they were stunned I sailed. I told them Ella got me into it and they couldn't wait to go today. She'd booked them a tour of the northern lights and whale watching and some hikes and treks. There were so many things to do here. Ella and I were still finding new things to do all the time.

I'd even taken a fancy to bike tours. I had a riding license now and it was fairly easy to rent out a Triumph here to take a ride. Norway did have a few amazing bike routes and I thought about getting into it when I didn't go back to work. I could easily see myself riding around the place. And now that I was back here, I didn't see the appeal of going back to work if I was being honest. I was telling them about the riding.

Brig was so onboard with the idea. Emma, unsurprisingly was not happy. I told her this was one of the safest places to do it because the roads were so empty. He asked if we could do a day's ride while he was here. I said yeah for sure, I'd ask Ella to sort out the bikes; she usually did. He was asking what kinds they had and we got into a conversation about that.

It had been a mad night.

I knew everyone would be coming over in a bit. But we stayed in a bed a while, talking and kissing.

"Ella?"

"Hmm?" She looked at me, and I was blinded by her face and her eyes. How was this a thing after this long? To be fair, 9 years probably didn't seem like long to most people, but for Ella and I it was nuts. I brushed her hair off her face and kissed her good for a bit.

"I think I might be done with work, baby." I said. She looked at me a while.

"Why?" She asked, touching my face. I pulled her closer.

"I don't like being away, babe and it's not interesting anymore and I feel like I would rather be doing other things with my time. Like the tedium of thinking about it drives me a bit mad. I couldn't even care what they said in half the meetings last week. You know what I mean?" She looked at me again for a bit. I waited. But I knew her so well and I was used to her being silent like this. I think Ella would be fine not speaking at all if she was given the option. She just preferred not to, even if she had something to say. She kissed my nose.

"It wasn't ever you to begin with, Kai." She said. I nodded. She got me too well. I kissed her face. "Yeah, I know. It's lost all it's appeal, if it ever had any." She nodded.

"You've worked hard most of your life, baby, just do what makes you happy now." I kissed her again. 

"Yeah, I mean I was happy to do it before because that's all I ever did. And you know I wasn't even in the right head space to consider other things. But I don't want to fall back into it now. I mean, work can manage without me. I figure. What is the point of me having all this if I can't do what I want. I just want to be able to do other things. Maybe this is a temporary thing or maybe not I'm not sure yet, but I feel like for now I think I'm done for a while at least."