A Photograph of You & I

“Aina, darling, wake up.” Ville’s husky voice woke me and I shivered with delight as his breath tickled my ear.

“No, I’ll never wake up again,” I declared sleepily as I hugged the down pillow tighter.

“We’ll miss our flight, your mother will be sorely disappointed if you don’t come home.”

I groaned. He had to drag my mom into this. “Fine. I’ll get up.”

It had been little more than three weeks since the nights that Ville and I had spent holed up in his hotel. We’d since migrated to my apartment much to the utter disappointment of my cat who had lost her spot on the pillow next to mine. She slept at the foot of the bed now.

Ville chuckled and threw the blankets off of our naked bodies and I flipped over. He was sitting at the edge of the bed, fumbling for his cigarette pack.

“I’ll never get sick of this,” I said with a smirk as he looked back at me, a cigarette dangling between his lips. He removed it and leaned in to plant a soft kiss on my dry lips.

“Neither will I, sweetheart. Neither will I.”

I climbed out of bed and walked into the bathroom to turn the shower on. I nearly tripped over the suitcases that lay strewn about the floor.

Bam had declared that the adventure in England was over and that he’d be returning to West Chester. Because of the rush I’d left in, I’d decided to take leave of work and go back with him so that I could pick up a few things that had been left behind and to issue proper goodbyes to the Margera’s and of course, to see my own mother.

I stuck my hand under the running water and when it was warm enough I stepped in under it, shutting the curtain behind me. A few seconds later I heard the door click shut and Ville stepped in the shower with me.

“Saves water. Gotta jump on this ‘Go Green’ train right?” He defended himself as I raised an eyebrow. I laughed out loud and handed him the shampoo bottle.

“Are you nervous?” Ville asked as he emptied some of the contents of the bottle in his hands and handed it back to me.

“About?”

“Going back to West Chester?”

“Why would I be?”

“Like Bam doesn’t have some huge celebration planned. Fully equipped with obscene stuntmen, cameras, and most of Pennsylvania.”

“Oh that. Kind of. Most of the Crew already knows what’s been going on with us so I mean…it’s not like all the attention will be on us.” I stepped aside to allow Ville to rinse.

He laughed. “Yeah, okay Aina.”

“Hey, a girl can dream.” I began putting conditioner in my hair while Ville lathered up the sponge.

He made his way toward me and moved my hair aside as he began scrubbing my back. His lips made a soft path of kisses down my neck and I shivered despite the warmth of the water.

“Ville, we have to be good, otherwise this shower will last for hours and we’ll miss the flight back,” I murmured, enjoying the feeling as his hand began exploring.

“Hmm…we’ve got time, my love. We won’t be late.”

I smiled and turned around, taking the sponge from him. “You’d better hope so.” I smiled and kissed him, hard.

We emerged from the shower grinning like fools. We’d lost the hot water long ago but neither of us had seemed to notice, or care.

I handed Ville a towel and took one for myself, wrapping my body with it and stumbling into my bedroom. My legs were shaking like a newborn foal. Ville seemed particularly amused.

I took one look around the room and noticed that the bedroom door had been left open. I frowned and hugged the towel closer. I never slept with the door open. Someone, and I had a deep feeling I knew who that ‘someone’ was, was in the room.

“Ville…?”

“Yes, darling?” Ville walked out of the bathroom behind me, towel wrapped casually around his torso. I pried my eyes away from his body for about ten seconds to speak.

“Did you leave the door open?”

His green eyes flashed up to the door and then rolled within their sockets. “Out. Now.” He commanded and a chorus of deep chuckles erupted from various points in the room.

Bam, Dunn, and Dico all emerged from various hiding places, their faces red from obviously holding back their laughter.

“We thought we’d heard enough from the hotel room but damn Aina, you’re a screamer!” Dico sniggered as he collapsed on the bed. I cast a hard glare at Bam, the obvious ring leader in this circus.

“Really pervs, you couldn’t have left when you heard we were busy?” I asked, growing steadily more annoyed by the second. I noticed Ville had said not a word, but had gone over to the dresser to remove some clothing.

“Hey, we could have gone down the block and still heard you two, what’s the difference?” Dunn answered quickly. I felt the blood rising up in my cheeks.

“I hate you all.”

I stomped over to the dresser and snatched the sweatpants and t-shirt that Ville held out for me. I also snatched a pair of underwear and bra from the pile of clean clothes that sat on the floor.

“Out! Now!” I barked at the three boys who were still emitting quiet giggles. I pointed a finger at the door and waited for them to march.

“Oh we don’t get a show?” Bam smirked.

Ville finally spoke up. “Unless you want to be thrown out of the window by a very angry brunette, I suggest you guys go wait in the living room.”

Finally, someone took my fury seriously.

“You two are no fun.” Dico pouted before he slinked off into the next room, closely followed by his two cohorts.

I locked the door behind them. “Sometimes I really ha--”

“No you don’t, love.” Ville cut me off with a certain amount of patience in his voice that silenced me from going off the handle.

“This is why we had to leave that lovely hotel. They can’t keep to themselves for five minutes.” I complained as I got dressed.