MIAMI: DANNY AND NORA'S FIGHT

      Faith was woken by Nora's voice. She stretched and noticed Ethan by her side. They had slept quite late last night. Nora and Danny's voices became higher and that was when Faith realised that they were quarrelling. She got up from bed and  strained her ears to hear what was happening. 

     "You neglect me even when we came for a vacation! Didn't we agree that it was going to be a break from work?!" Nora yelled. 

    "I don't get you because I still give you the attention! I came here because of you, just to make you happy and here you are still hassling me for what? For just checking in on my company?!" 

      "Wow, clap for yourself, then! You are doing a great job making me happy. You worked all night, until this morning and you are still working, tell me how that's gonna make me happy?! When we return from that Island tour and I want you to myself, then you tell me you are tired. You are still working even as I complain! Give me that laptop!"

      There was a shuffle which Faith assumed was a struggle. They were struggling with the laptop. She tapped Ethan slowly. Ethan mumbled in his sleep and went back, she tapped him again. 

      "Nora, what has gotten into you? Let this system go!"

      "It's Nora now, huh?!" 

    Faith tapped Ethan harder and he jerked up from the bed and faced her. 

      "Are you alright?" he asked looking her over. 

      "I'm fine. I think they are arguing," Faith whispered. 

      "You know that I have to work to put food on the table!" 

      "I don't work?! Are you kidding me right now? Danny, I work on shifts, yet I have time to cook, clean and need you but you, you have chosen this job over me."  Nora's voice was now cracked with tears. 

     "Babe, you know I have to build my company to the top, I am not choosing this work over you." 

      "Don't you dare babe me," Nora snarled. 

    "What do you think we should do?" Faith asked. 

     "I think we should play the mediators or what do you think?" Ethan replied. 

       "I agree." 

    They got out of bed. 

     "You know what? I'm tired of this argument. I'm tired of trying to be relevant all the time, I am leaving," Nora said and went to the closet to take her luggage. 

      "What?! Don't be irrational now." 

      "Wow! I'm being irrational? Great! Just great!" 

      A soft knock came at the door, they both glanced at the door, but did not attempt to go answer it. Nora was busy still packing her bags. 

   Ethan and Faith stood by the door for a while and when they got no response they knocked again. 

     "Who is that?!" Danny and Faith chorused angrily. 

     "Er... We are really sorry to intrude, but is everything alright?" 

      "Oh, my God, that's Ethan and Faith," Nora said. 

 Danny stood up and went and answered the door. He came face to face with Ethan and Faith.  "Hey, man, how are you this morning?" he asked as if nothing was going on. 

      "We are fine, what about you?" Ethan asked. 

   Faith tried to look past Danny into the room but realized it would seem to intrude, so she stopped. 

      "I'm sorry if we are intruding. We heard your voices in our room and we decided to come to check if everything is alright," Ethan asked.

      Nora barged out of the room, flinging the door wide open.  "I'm really sorry, I didn't know we were being loud," she said and sniffed. 

       "It's oka..." Faith started to say but Nora was already walking towards the living room and Faith went after her.  "Hey! Wait!" she called after Nora. 

       Nora ran all the way from the house to the beach, when she got to the beach, her feet sank into the wet sand, making it difficult for her to run as fast. Faith pursued her and had to flip the sand from her feet. She caught up with Nora at last. 

      "Hey, you didn't tell me you could run this fast," she said out of breath, placing a hand on Nora's shoulder. 

     Nora stood still and folded her arms across her chest. Faith looked up at her.  "I'm sorry I woke you up, I knew you guys slept quite late last night," Nora said. 

    "That's not the issue here. What's the matter with you and Danny?" 

      Nora started walking and Faith followed her. She had not seen Nora like that for quite a long time now, looking at Nora's face, she knew Nora was really hurt. 

     "You know you can tell me right?" she said when Nora didn't say anything. 

      "I...I...." Nora attempted to talk but tears won't let her talk. 

    Faith halted and held Nora's hand. When Nora halted, Faith did what Nora always did to her, even though she was smaller than Nora. She dragged Nora into her embrace and just allowed her to cry on her shoulder. It might have been a little misunderstanding but Faith realised it must have hurt Nora so much that she had to break down like this. 

      Nora rarely hurts and when they were just getting to know each other back in college, Faith had thought Nora was unbreakable. But a few incidents had occurred and had taught her that Nora cried and breakdown too. Aside from that, Nora served mostly as a backbone to anyone around her. 

     Nora wept on her shoulders for a while and got a grip on herself. Faith led her to some pieces of rocks and they sat down together and remained quiet for a while. 

      Danny stood by the deck looking over at the ocean. Ethan came to the deck with a bottle and two glasses. He handed Danny one of them and poured him a drink. Danny downed his drink and Ethan poured him another drink, he downed it too. Ethan watched him for a while. 

      "What's the matter?" Ethan asked. 

  Danny huffed and went and sat on one of the chairs on the deck, Ethan followed him and sat in from of him still watching Danny. 

      "You know you shouldn't be working on vacation right?" Ethan asked when Danny wasn't saying anything. 

     "I know man, but I need to work, you know. I appreciate everything you have done and your efforts to make us forget about our wedding issues, but I must say that I was busy and Nora just had to make me come here, while I have lots of work piled up for me. I don't want what happened before to happen again, so I'm just...just trying to get stable enough. No offence."

      "None taken. I understand. But if you were that busy, you would have said it to us. We would have  understood and I'm sure Nora would too." 

      "Yeah, I know she would, but I saw how excited she was about this and I couldn't decline. I have never really gone on a vacation with her, that was why I wanted that Italy trip to happen and she understood when it didn't. I didn't want her to feel bad about this."

     "Then, you should make her all happy. You agreed to come here with her right? Just let work be and spend some quality time with her. Pick a day and spend it in bed. You don't necessarily need to make love, you could hold her and talk about nothing in particular. It works all the time."

      Nora sniffed. "I feel I'm being so immature right now," she said. 

        "Everyone has a right to hurt," Faith said rubbing her back. 

        "Honestly, Danny is turning to someone I don't know anymore. Ever since Ethan gave him that money, he has changed, he only wants to work, work, work, work, I don't know if I should be happy about that or not. I think he feels it was because he wasn't working hard enough, that was why he failed the first time. I have told him severally that it doesn't matter if he works or not and that he was doing great in his job, but he won't listen to me."

      "I'm sorry about that," Faith muttered and took her hand.   "I'm sure he would realise it soon that he is hurting you." 

       "I came here to be with him but look what is happening. He worked all through the night and I just laid there wanting him and when I woke up this morning, he was still on that stupid laptop of his." 

       "I know how hard it is for you now, please stop hurting, he would come back to his senses," Faith said and hugged Nora. Nora hugged her tighter.  Faith pulled away after a while.   "I know what's going to light you up." 

        "What's that?" Nora asked feeling a bit better. 

       "Let's go to the market, get some foodstuffs and make a meal for the men."  Faith knew that Nora enjoyed cooking it was going to lighten her mood. 

       "That's a really great idea," Nora agreed.  "But, we don't know anywhere around here." 

       "That shouldn't be a problem, we could ask Martha to help us." 

        "I love it," Nora said with a smile. 

        "Let's go on our  own tour, no glider tour today." 

   They stood up, held hands and started walking back toward the house.