Chapter 5

Bali

I couldn’t believe what my Gran and Pam had done.

Well, I could believe Pam to be high handed, but my own Gran? Not to mention that she was in cahoots with Niall! I have no phone to even call Preston and tell him the situation, and now I’m away with Eric until further notice!

I expected to be out of Louisiana by the end of the week, but here I am in Bali out of all places! I’m halfway across the world right now!

I admit Bali is such a nice place to visit, but I never imagined that I would be held hostage along with Eric by my own family. This is not how I planned my visit to Louisiana to go.

I had to settle things with Eric. I either stuck with my husband or divorced him after all of this. That was what was required of us. We needed to spend time together and then after decide if we needed to stay together and work on our marriage or finally divorce once and for all.

On the bright side, I get to soak up the sun and work on my tan. The downside? I was sharing a room at the resort with Eric. The downside to sharing a room with Eric was that we hadn’t spoken to each other since I was at the hospital the other day. I had no idea what to say to Eric. When he told me he was going to sign those papers, I didn’t expect to feel so…out of it. I was shocked when he said that, after so many years of denying me the chance for a divorce, I hadn’t expected him to change his mind so quickly when I told him about my past.

And his reaction really hurt.

I didn’t know how to even start up a conversation with Eric. My thoughts were all over the place, and when I thought about it, I couldn’t wait to talk to Claudine about my problems. Maybe I should have seen someone years ago and none of this would have been happening right now. But what’s done is done. Maybe, I could fix something,  or maybe not our marriage, but something, right?

I was snapped out of my thoughts, when I noticed Eric walking out of the bathroom, completely naked.

“Eric, put something on!” I shrieked. He had caught me by surprise, and I have seen Eric and his gracious plenty several times, and I know Eric’s body very well, but I wasn’t expecting him to leave the bathroom in his birthday suit.

And he was still as delicious looking as ever.

A part of me felt a little triumphant to know that I have been the only one he has been with so far, and that no other woman has gotten to know his body like I have. I then mentally reprimanded myself for thinking like that. Now was not that time for that.

But damn him! He still looked so good…and his gracious plenty was…well still as gracious as ever.

“Nothing you haven’t seen before, Sookie.” He said, giving me his trademark smirk.

“Just put something on, damn it.” I said, trying to distract myself by walking over to my suit case to find a bikini so I could go outside and enjoy the pool.

“So when do we meet with Claudine?” I tried not to look at him.

“Our schedule was on the bed; she gave us an hour to rest up and then head down. I was planning on catching up on some sleep. “

He still hadn’t put any clothes on. Damn him.

“Do you still wander around the house naked?”

“No one around but me  Sookie, come on—I’m Swedish, we love being naked. Don’t you remember?”

As if I could forget. Despite the distancing we had during our marriage, once he was home and well relaxed, he liked to shred his clothes off, and get comfortable. He especially loved sleeping in the nude. During the time we were together, I had lost track of the amount of times he had used this to his advantage.

“Seeing as you do remember…” He said with a grin. “Then I suppose there are no problems with me being in a birthday suit.”

I blushed like crazy, and then I changed the topic so my mind wasn’t on the Adonis in front of me.

“Eric,” I said, suddenly thinking about our family. “They basically sent us to a couples therapy. I can’t believe Gran was so highhanded…I mean I expect that from Grandpa Niall and Pam, but Gran? “

“That surprised me as well. But, we might as well enjoy ourselves..—Ah Sookie, I really like that Bikini.  Choose that one.”  He said reaching into my suitcase and pulling out the set. A cute red Bikini, and  red was his favorite color.

“Eric hands off!” I grabbed a pillow and wacked him with it. “Weren’t you exhausted? You have 40 minutes left until we meet Claudine, go sleep.” I said closing my suitcase, and I would not admit to him that I was going to wear the one he had picked out either.  Most of the clothes in my suitcase were all brand new, and most likely picked out by Pam.

“I’m suddenly not tired anymore.” Liar.

“Go to bed Eric!” I said throwing another pillow at him.

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EPOV

Eric’s bed in the airplane

We had a quiet airplane ride. Both Sookie and I slept most of the way there. We were both exhausted. I hadn’t slept since she had her breakdown at Merlottes, and she hadn’t had a chance to relax.  Hospitals aren’t relaxing at all. Regardless if you’re on forced bed rest.

Despite the fact that our first class ride had its own bed and everything, this is not a nice way to sleep in at all. I needed a real bed, my back was killing me by sleeping on those beds, I was way too big for them. My feet hung out and I’m sure I looked funny. Thankfully everyone was too busy trying to get some shut eye, to even notice how awkward I looked. I had twenty minutes to sleep and I took full advantage of those twenty minutes.

“Eric, wake up.”

“Eric.”  I heard a sigh, and I turned over, pulling the blanket over my face.

“Give me five more minutes.” I muttered, burying my face into my pillow.

I heard her sigh again.

“Eric, wake up and put some clothes on. We have to go see Claudine. You told me to wake you up in twenty minutes, and as far as I’m concerned you’re not the type of man who likes to show up late anywhere.”

“Twenty minutes is not enough time to sleep off this damn jet lag.” I said.

“Your body must be sore everywhere, don’t think I didn’t notice how weird you looked in those tiny beds.” I heard her chuckle.

“Then you understand that I need to sleep.” I said, still not daring to open my eyes.

“ You can do it after we meet with Claudine, now stop being stubborn and get up.” This felt really nice. We were having a civil conversation.  I missed speaking to her like this. I opened my eyes, and I looked over at Sookie, who had completely changed out of the clothes she had worn when we left the USA. She must have showered while I slept. She looked beautiful in that stripped playsuit she was wearing, god I really wanted to see her in that bikini though.

“Fine, Fine. I’m up, I’m up.” I grumbled, tossing the covers to the side, and getting up at an extremely lazy pace. I could feel Sookie’s eyes on me as I started to get out of bed.

“See something you like, lover?”

“Nope, just making sure you actually get up.”

“You don’t think I would actually go back to sleep once you turn your back, do you?” She gave me a look that said that pretty much said she believed I would.

“You’re my husband, I still haven’t forgotten your old habits, Eric.” She said with a smile. It made me ache when she called me her husband.  I didn’t say anything else, and just proceeded to get dressed.

Once I was ready, the two of us headed down to the lounge area to meet with Claudine.  We arrived at the same time as she did. Claudine greeted us with a smile. She pulled both Sookie and I into a hug.

“Cousins.” She said cheerfully.

“Cousins?”

“Yes, Sookie is my cousin, from the Brigant side. She is my cousin and because the two of you are still husband and wife, you are also my cousin. Now, let’s get seated then, shall we?”

I wasn’t sure I felt comfortable enough  with more family interfering here.

“Now that we know each other’s names, let’s get right down to business. I assume the two of you know why you’re here?” How could we forget why we were here. We’re both here as hostages after all.  Sookie and I both nodded and took a seat next to each other.

“Okay, good then. What I will be doing with both of you is that I will be seeing the two of you alone, starting with Sookie first. It will be an hour each, we will get to know each other during that hour and as you feel more confident with me then I hope you can open up and tell me what has happened to distance the two of you so much. Once we have worked with each other individually, then I hope then I can bring the two of you together, and there you guys will talk more freely. My goal is that you two can open up to each other, and have a true heartfelt conversation. Not leaving a single detail of your lives out. I hope you get to know each other again, outside of our sessions and inside our sessions.

Starting tomorrow, I would like to meet with Sookie first, then the day after I will meet with Eric. A day each for the two of you, so you can enjoy yourselves afterwards, “

So she was basically a marriage counselor, or a therapist.

“How long do we stay in Bali for?”

“Until I deem it necessary for you two to leave.” She smiled. “Consider this an intervention, you two will try to recover a relationship, it doesn’t have to be your marriage but your family wants the two of you to behave and act like friends, good friends. I know your story, both Pam and Gran have told the tale many times. “

Sookie shifted in her seat and spoke up. “Listen here,” Yeah, my spitfire was still pissed about this ‘intervention’.

“No Sookie, I will listen to you tomorrow during our session.” Claudine looked at the time on her cellphone. “I will be leaving the two of you now—and by the way you will get your phones back when we have made progress, basically until I say so.  I’ll see you tomorrow after lunch, Sookie, I have arranged for the conference room to be all mine for the remainder of my stay here, any who time for me to leave, bye bye!”

Well that was weird, and did she just say until she said so? Shit, I needed my phone. I needed to call Pam.

“I can’t believe them!” Sookie was fuming. “Until she says so? I need to call Preston, I…” She stopped and looked at me.

“Preston Pardloe?” Preston fucking Pardloe out of all people she could have picked she picked that guy. “you prefer that uptight—“ I  was going to call him every insulting name I could think of but Sookie interrupted me.

“Eric, stop. I met Preston a few months ago, and he’s a nice guy I’m not going to let you insult him in front of me,  he really is a good guy.” She sighed. ” Anyways, I’m going to go work on my tan, see you later Eric.”

I was all by myself. My only hope for Sookie to get back to me, for us to be together again; it was all up to me now. With the help of Claudine I was going to do everything I could to get Sookie back to me.

But first, I needed a drink, too much crap has happened in the past hours and I needed a drink to be able to process everything that had gone on.

No, a drink wasn’t enough maybe two…or three…yeah that sounded right.