MIAMI: MAKE UP

      Ethan's phone began to ring as he was talking with Danny. He took it out of his pocket. Tyler flashed on the screen. He slid to the green button and stood up. 

      "Tyler?" 

      "Ethan, you need to come back to San Francisco as quickly as you can," Tyler's voice sounded nervously from the other end. 

        "Why?" 

         "Your uncles are planning to move the voting date earlier than planned." 

         "What voting? I got a woman I want to marry, didn't they see that in the news?"

         "Mr Childress doesn't believe that. He says it could be a set-up for all he cares unless you come back here in flesh with your fiancée." 

        "What?!" 

        "I'm afraid, a lot of people seem to be on his side and they said the voting is going to be impromptu."

         "What of mom?" Tyler was silent.  "Tyler, where is my mom?" 

          "She collapsed on getting the news this morning..." 

          "What?!" 

   Danny looked at Ethan who was now gripping the rail of the deck and his knuckles had turned white. 

         "She had been rushed to the hospital and she is stable now." 

         "Can you put her through?" 

           "I'm at the office." 

           "Shit!" he cussed. 

          "The twins are in the hospital." 

           "I will be there tomorrow and I am going to cause a great ruckus, I think I have been so lenient." 

          "With your bride to be."

           "With my bride to be," Ethan repeated. 

           "We would be waiting for you." 

 Ethan hung up and grabbed the rail with both hands. 

          "Everything okay, buddy?" Danny asked coming up to him. 

          'Some...sad news... We got to leave tomorrow... "

       "What?" the women chorused as they heard that as they come in from the beach. 

       The men turned. Ethan looked at Faith.  "Er... Danny and Nora, you can stay as long as you like, everything would be provided for you. Faith I need to talk to you." He started inside. 

       "Wait, Ethan are you alright?!" Faith asked and followed him in. 

        Left alone, Danny and Nora stared at each other, Nora looked him up and down and went away. Danny followed her. 

       A few minutes later, Faith sat on the bed staring at Ethan who was staring back at her. She didn't believe all he had just said to her. She folded her arms across her chest and stared at him. 

     "I'm...I'm sorry to cut this short...I will understand if you don't want to go." 

      "And risk you losing everything you've worked so hard for? Come on, why don't you try to convince me harder?" she asked with a smile. 

      He smiled and walked to the bed and cupped her face with his hands. "Will this convince you, enough?" He bent and took her lips with his, giving her a slow sensual kiss. They kissed for a while. 

      She glanced up at him, her eyes filled with need, and she stared at him.  "Is that all you've got, Papi?" she asked biting the side of her lips. 

      His whole body cringed at that, he had to stride away, pull his control back, gripped it.  "This is a preamble to what I want to do with you. Breakfast is served."  His voice was raspy. 

      She was lying back, her arms serving as standing to her body. She smiled to herself. She loved the effect she had on him.  While he turned his face away from her, trying to put himself back in control because he didn't want Danny and Nora to wait up for them, she removed her robe, revealing the small rose-red nightie, she pulled the tiny sleeve down her right shoulder. 

     "Look at me, come on," she said in a pretty normal voice. When he turned, she spread her legs wider and put on that whole saucy aura again.   "Are you sure about that? Don't you think you want to do them now?" 

      Try as he could, he couldn't remove his eyes from her, he was stuck there just staring at her. She smiled at him, swayed her body from side to side and bit her lips again. 

      "F*ck breakfast," he said and strode over to her, grabbed her face and crushed her lips with his, kissing her passionately, hungrily, menacingly. 

        She kissed him back, her fingers fumbling with the buttons of his shirt. In a matter of minutes, they were satisfying each other and moaning with great pleasure. 

      Nora refused to go inside the room. She just sat on the couch in the living room staring at nothing in particular. She was ready to sit there like a statue for the whole day as long as she doesn't talk to Danny, or maybe she was not so ready, because as Danny walked past her to the bedroom, shirtless, she couldn't help but stare at him. 

        She tried to convince herself that he wasn't all that adorable and sexy, at least not for today. But when Danny came out of the bedroom, went to the kitchen and reappeared with two mugs, she could no longer stay angry with him. But she had to play hard. She kept her face turned away from him, now staring at the breakfast table.  Danny went to the table took a chair and sat in front of her. She tried to turn the other way, but he held her arm. 

       "Hey, listen to me, I'm sorry." 

       "Well, I've heard that a thousand and one times," she said and looked down at her fingers, picking them. 

       "If those thousand and one times were meaningless to you, this time, I mean it and it's coming with a promise. Please look at me."  She glanced at him and returned her gaze to her fingers.  "Babe, I'm at fault, alright. I'm sorry for doing that. I promise it would never happen again, alright. Look, I know and I appreciate the effort you put in in our relationship and I am going to respect that from now on." 

      "I don't know when we would get the chance to go on a vacation like this again." 

       "Not just on vacations, but in our everyday life. I will work when I'm supposed to and we would have our couple's time when we are supposed to, I promise, you would never have to beg for my attention again." 

        She slowly looked up at him.  "You promise?" 

         "I promise. It's not even going to be a fifty-fifty thing. I would give you my undivided attention, just as you give me yours."

    Nora smiled.  "Why don't you come closer?" Nora asked. 

     Danny leaned closer and she kissed him deeply. They slowly stood up, and he lifted her and sat her on his body. She wrapped her legs around him, wrapped her arms around him and he carried her towards the room. 

         "That was so quick," Ethan whispered to Faith as they left their bedroom toward the living room. 

        "Well, it's called quickie for a reason," Faith whispered. 

         "Ahem," someone cleared their throat behind them. They turned to see Martha. She smiled at them. 

          "Martha!" Ethan said as they walked into the living room. 

         "Good morning, Mr Fl—Ethan, Miss Prescott, how was your night?" she asked cheerfully. 

          "It went well thank you," Ethan replied as they got to the dining and sat down. 

        Martha dropped the jug of orange juice she had brought. 

         "How was yours, Martha?" Faith asked. 

    Martha smiled at her.   "It was peaceful, my dear." 

           "Please, call me Faith next time." 

           Martha smiled at her and nodded. She left when she was done pouring the juice into their cups. 

         "Do you think she heard what we were talking about?" Ethan asked as the soft steps of the woman receded. 

         "I don't think, but what if she heard?" 

          "But where are Danny and Nora? Thought they would be waiting for us." 

           "We are right here!" Danny called as he walked towards them holding Nora by the waist.  "Well, we waited for you and when you didn't show up, we went in to get something." 

      "Someone people have made up, huh?" Faith muttered to herself and sipped her drink. 

        "No, we came out waiting for you. We didn't waste time inside, right honey?" Ethan asked Faith. 

      Danny pulled out a chair for Nora and sat beside her.  "I'm sure you spent more time in the bedroom than you thought you did." 

         "What are you talking about spending more time?" 

         "What are you thinking? You spent more time in there talking, remember? You asked Faith to follow you into the room, after hanging up." 

     Ethan was dumbfounded for a while, and then he recovered and chuckled.  "Yeah, certainly." 

     Nora had dished food for Danny and herself.  "So, Ethan what was it that made you so mad earlier?" 

          "Babe, table manners, we can discuss this after breakfast," Danny said slowly. 

         "Moral taught us that talking while eating is a bad table manner, but the best conversations are held over meals," Ethan said. 

         "Hmm, that makes sense," Nora agreed and stuffed food into her mouth. 

         Faith watched Ethan with admiration. 

         "So we say what to table manners when we eat as friends?" Ethan asked. 

          "To hell with table manners," Nora said with a stuffed mouth.  "I feel you." 

       There was a light chuckle at the table. 

       "Well, Faith and I had to travel to San Francisco, we have a company to save and my mother just got sick." 

         "Oh, we are sorry about that," Danny said. 

         "If you are going, then we should go too. It won't be the same without you here," Nora said. 

         "She's right. We thank you for everything," Danny added. 

         Danny's phone started to ring and he looked at it. "Oh, my God, it's the detecti ve!" 

         "Answer it and know why he is calling," Nora said. 

        They all stared eagerly at him as he slid to the green icon.