I woke to find Adisa gazing at me.
"You are really cute when your asleep." and she rolled in for a kiss, reaching up and tugging on my new earrings.
"Ouch!" they were still sore and throbbed a little.
"Baby." she teased. I gazed back into my lovers deep, brown, almost black eyes.
"I love you."
"I love you too."
I took a few seconds to take in her features, her broad nose, thick lips, high cheeks. I rolled to face her, placing my hand on her hip. She was in incredible shape, lean but still feminine. I was a very lucky man. It was weird to see her without jewelry, the fistulas in her lobes were larger than the holes in Rebecca, my wife's, ears, a mixture of years of wearing what I now new to be heavy, silver earrings all those years and the fact that they were clearly pierced at much larger gauge than was traditional back in Europe. They were very close together and evenly spaced and went from the middle of her lobe all the way up her ear. Adisa rolled on to her back and I notice I could see the hole in her septum. She seemed to be psyching herself up for the day. Then she effortlessly raised herself out of bed.
"I'm going to go shower at my hut and get a fresh skirt. I'll be back in a bit for our run." she wrapped her old skirt around her, grabbed one of my t-shirts and took the glass with her jewelry. On the way out she said "Call your wife."
"Good idea." I yelled after her and with that she was gone leaving me how to figure out how the hell was I going to explain my earrings to Rebecca. I thought about it whilst I was brushing me teeth, without inspiration. "Fuck it!" I grabbed my phone and made an audio call.
"Hey Honey!" Rebecca appeared on my screen with a bright smile, I could hear the kids running around behind her. I was suddenly very home sick. She really was a beautiful woman. Her face changed from a smile to confusion. "Something wrong on your end? There's no video and I can't hear you."
"Ermm--"
"What's wrong? Are you OK" genuine concern that I knew was about to be replaced by scorn.
"I still really like your nose ring, Honey."
"Thanks, Hun. I think I'm going to keep it for a while. I still can't see your face."
"Well--" I still couldn't think of an easy way of explaining this.
"Did you get in a fight?"
"Not exactly. I just went a bit--"
"A bit what?" Rebecca's concern was already starting to shift to irritation.
"A bit native."
"What do you--" I started my camera. Rebecca's eyes scrambled looking for meaning, and then she spotted them. "You got-- earrings?".
"Yeah." I smiled awkwardly and gave her a tour of my new jewelry.
"Huh." her concern changed, to a similarly awkward grin. "They suit you." and then she leaned into her phone "... its kind of hot."
"Really? I thought you'd be mad"
"Honey, you are a middle-aged, software professional and you've been threatening to do this for years. I'm genuinely surprised at how much they suit you." I blushed. "I really miss you."
"I really miss you too."
"Look at us, still cool at nearly 40." we both laughed at this. "Who pierced you?"
"Adisa."
"First the running, now the piercings--"
"Yeah" I interrupted, trying to avoid anything that might force me to lie. "She's been a good friend these last few months. Really helped to keep me sane."
"How good of a friend." Rebecca probed teasingly.
"Really good." one of the best parts of being a software engineer was the ability to miss social queues and get away with it. "I'm going to miss her. Hey check this out." I walked into the bathroom so I could show Rebecca my weight loss.
"Wow, hun. You look like you've lost half a stone."
"I think I might. I feel amazing!"
"I hope you can keep it up when you get back."
"Yeah, its always hard with the kids."
"How's the work going?"
"Good. The team has really come together and for once sales seem to have over sold. We're going to hire another ten devs."
"But you're still coming home in a fortnight, right?" there was a little panic in Rebecca's eyes.
"Definitely. I may have to come back at some point, but that really depends on Adisa."
"Why Adisa?"