“Who was that?” Jin asks as I walk back up to the pool deck.
I chuckle and toss the disposable phone onto my chair. “You know who it was.”
“Are you serious? We told them we’re done.”
“Apparently their new guy couldn’t get the goods through customs. Got seized at the airport.” I can’t help but chuckle.
Jim smirks. “Now they realize how good they had it.”
“Apparently not.” I walk down the pool steps. “I kept refusing, he kept trying to offer more and more money. That’s annoying as fuck, because if they could pay us more why didn’t they in the first place. But really it just drives home that they never respected us at all. That annoys me more.”
“Men like that don’t get that they need professionals to do this job well, and they never ever think of us more than just mules. They don’t get that there’s talent into it.”
“That is rude.” Jin agrees. He hooks his fingers in my Speedo. “They never appreciated us. Or bothered to look beyond skin deep.” He peers into my swim trunks. “To see all your beautiful assets and talents.”
I smile and kiss him. “I still don’t think they quite understand we’re a couple either. They called you my ‘buddy’.”
That makes Jin laugh and he covers his mouth with the back of his hand. “Dense fuckers!”
“Man, I still love the way you laugh. Your Japanese-ness really comes out. It’s adorable.”
“Oh come on, no it’s not.”
“It is too.” I kiss him again, and Jin’s lips linger on mine.
“It’s really hard to argue with you when you’re kissing me.”
I smile. “Talents.” I lean back into the water and push off my feet so I’m floating into the deeper end. A thought hits me and I bring myself upright. “Hey Jin?”
“Hm?”
“I didn’t give them that cell number they called us on.”
“Are you fucking serious?”
“Yeah.” I stand up. “If we’re gonna start a family, we need to make sure they can’t find us. Kids are leverage. We need to really disconnect.”
Jin gets quiet. “It was probably Raul. We’re going to need to get a new phone guy.”
“Raul probably knows him. No, we need to totally disconnect.”
“You think we need new IDs?”
I groan. “I don’t want to do that again.”
“We can’t be changing them once we start the adoption process.”
“Yeah I know.” I walk to the steps and out of the pool until I find where I left the phone. I toss it into the pool. Jin and I watch it sink.
“That was a good idea,” he says.
I sigh and get back into the pool. “Can we talk about IDs later? It’s so warm out here. Can we swim and make out and sunbathe naked, and THEN talk about IDs over a nice refreshing dinner of fruit and fresh fish as the sun sets?”
“You always have the best idea. Especially that bit about making out. I hate when guys think any sign of affection meant fucking. There’s just something so pure and nice about kissing boys.”
“Ah, yes, I love kissing boys too. Especially Japanese ones who have the most adorable laugh.”
Jin blushes a little. “If you want to be kissed, you need to get over here before I change my mind.”
I take off my Speedo and slingshot it over to him. “Sending these ahead!”
Jin catches them. “Hey! Ah, fuck, I wish I had my goggles so I could spy on you underwater.”
“I’ll keep my butt above the water for you.”
Jin clutches the Speedo to his chest. “You really get me.”
I laugh and nearly swallow water as I dive underwater. Every day I feel more and more assured that we made the right choice to put the smuggling behind us so we could finally focus on being together without any fear something may go wrong. We had money in the bank and all the time in the world.
I surface in front of Jin. He wraps his arms around me and presses his lips to mine. Our lives haven’t even started. I can’t wait for the kids.
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Captions are fictional.