Unsung Heroes

It was our second to last day in Rio. I’d taken Ash to all the touristy parts, and he decided his favorite was Ipanema, the world-famous beach that I grew up on.
Ash started calling me his “girl from Ipanema” when I told him I grew up living in an apartment overlooking the water. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this excited, before. I tried to explain to him that the real “girl from Ipanema” died before I was even born, but he didn’t seem to hear me.
When we got to the water, Ash was first intimidated by all the men wearing speedos, because he was wearing black and gold board shorts, and while Ash is in AMAZING shape, and I think he’s hot, he does not like speedos. At all. In fact, when I suggested it, he looked at me like I’d asked him to walk naked into a gay strip club. He looked completely like a tourist, but he was more comfortable in the board shorts.
I would have laughed, except I was self-conscious wearing the bikini I’d brought with me – it was the only one I had, and as soon as Ash saw it while I was packing, he insisted that I brought it with me. It was a black one with spaghetti straps tied behind my neck and at my hips, and the bottoms were basically a thong and the fabric on my breasts was about twice the size of my actual nipples, and each triangle was decorated with a silver fleur de lis.
Ash has done nothing but gawk at me, but I could feel how exposed and noticeable my baby bump was. My skin felt unusually exposed, especially since I was more comfortable in pants and t shirts. I didn’t really have tan lines, but I was definitely feeling the difference. Especially since my skin was a lot more sensitive than it used to be, and I could feel the wind and sand and sun a lot more than I could before I got pregnant.
The first thing Ash did when we got there was kick off his sandals and pull his shirt over his head, dropping them on the ground between us and running into the water, diving under the waves.
I slipped my black woven cover up from over my head and kicked off my own sandals. The only things we brought with us were our clothes. All of our money and IDs were in a sealed, waterproof bag in one of Ash’s pockets. No one takes clothes because there’s no value.
Ash, waist deep in the water, turned to me with his hair plastered against his head, smirking sharply in my direction. Raising a hand, he motioned for me to join him by crooking a finger, his eyes watching me almost dangerously.
I blushed slightly and walked quickly to the water, making sure not to run so I wouldn’t hurt myself. If I started running, Ash would run to meet me to make me stop and probably reprimand me for moving too much. He was becoming more and more protective the more pregnant I got. While I sometimes found it sweet, I didn’t like being treated like an invalid.
The water was cool against my skin and made me shiver. I shuffled through the water to Ash, the water coming up around my lower stomach while it just hit his waist.
“Hey there, beautiful,” he purred, pulling me to his chest and lowering himself with me with him so that we were crouching up to our shoulders in the water.
I smiled and wrapped my arms around his shoulders, pulling myself closer to him. My rock star sort of sat down in the water and gently pulled me onto his lap by my hips so that I was straddling him, our groins very close together.
“Hey,” I said quietly.
He smiled understandingly. “Hanging in there, babe?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I’m so glad you came with me. I don’t know how long I would have lasted had you not come with me.”
My rock star smiled and moved to rest his forehead against mine. “How’s the baby doing?” He cupped my belly.
I giggled lightly as he gently tickled my stomach with his fingertips. “Baby’s fine, no movement yet, so I haven’t been feeling much.”
Grinning, Ash moved back slightly and dunked under the water, suddenly, and then came back up much closer to me than before, his long hair plastered against his skull and the back of his neck.
“Being in the water bringing up any memories, babe?” He purred, curling his hands delicately around my hips, over my ass, and pulling me forward so that my legs wrapped around his waist.
I shrugged, “I guess. I used to sneak here with my friends after school when my grandparents thought I was in afterschool classes. They didn’t like me wearing bikinis they thought it was ‘unladylike’, and would give boys the wrong idea.”
The look on Ash’s face was one of disbelief, like the thought of my grandparents thinking that about a bathing suit was absolutely insane… which it was.
“Yeah, because logic,” Ash said rolling his eyes and moving up and down with motion of the waves.
I watched his eyes move to rake down my front and he looked back up to meet my gaze and smirk.
“Although,” he purred, “If it was you I saw on the beach, I’d probably have just as hard of a time as anyone keeping my hands off of you.”
I laughed and kissed the tip of his nose. “Thanks for that, babe.”
I suddenly felt very cold in the water as it lapped at my sides, and shivered slightly in Ash’s grasp.
He rubbed up and down my sides gently. “You okay babe?”
“Yeah, just a little cold,” I said while trying to keep my teeth from chattering together.
Suddenly, I found myself being picked up out of the water by Ash, bridal style. I made a surprised noise and immediately wrapped my arms around his shoulders and clung to him.
Ash chuckled and pressed a kiss against my temple as he hiked up the sand to where our clothes and towels were. Thankfully, they were untouched, and no one seemed to be interested in them enough to search through. Like I said, Ash had all our money in his swim trunks, but you never know if someone will try and look through the pockets.
After Ash set me on my feet, I carefully lowered myself onto the towel to stretch out under the sun. Closing my eyes against the sun’s rays I covered my lower belly with one hand almost subconsciously.
I felt movement next to me and I knew that Ash had stretched out on the towel to my right. I could hear him shuffling around underneath the shouting of locals, tourists, and merchants selling beach food and juice amongst other things.
Feeling Ash stretch out on the sand next to me, I reached out blindly until I made contact with his hand, and grasped it, feeling his fingers curl around my palm and squeeze gently.
I smiled to myself as I drifted into a pleasant limbo, where I wasn’t really aware of anything other than my stomach, my boyfriend’s hand in mine, and the feeling of the sun and wind against my sun-kissed skin.

By the time we were leaving, we’d packed a spare suitcase full of Brazilian coffee – trust me, after growing up on the stuff, it’s virtually impossible to drink the stuff you can get in America. Ash tried some of it at my old apartment when he’d stayed over one night and then started ordering it for himself after that. I know that’s basically how I met Ash, but I doubt I would have been in any shape to actually brew coffee that day. I can’t drink any until I have the baby because of the caffeine, but it lasts forever.
I drug my suitcase out of my old bedroom and into the main living area. My Vovó was sitting on the couch, a frown etched into her face. She was sitting stiffly, her back ramrod straight with her arms crossed tightly over her chest.
I felt Ash come to stand behind me.
“Our taxi will be here any moment,” I told her quietly. I felt Ash gently take my suitcase from me and he moved to stand next to me with both bases, giving me a knowing look before going out into the main hallway to wait by the elevator for me.
Vovó harrumphed once to herself and crossed her legs, but otherwise she didn’t move nor did she acknowledge me.
Taking a deep breath and firmly planting myself on the ground, I lifted a hard gaze to her direction.
“You may say you don’t care about me. You can call me whatever name in the book you want. But it doesn’t change my situation in the slightest. You made life for me hell. You pushed me down every chance you got and tried to turn me into some man’s submissive little bitch.”
She flinched slightly when I swore.
“You may never want to meet my baby. You may say you never want me to come down and visit. You can say that you never want to see me again after the funeral when he does pass. You can claim whatever the fuck you want. But I want you to know that you don’t own me anymore than you owned my mother. She left for the same reason I did and tried to keep me from your grasp because she knew what would happen to me. Had it been up to her and they were still alive, she probably would have sent me to my dad’s family. She knew you would try and break me and my spirit and have me under your control. She knew you would try and control me, my life, my friends, my clothes, my music, my boyfriends, everything that wasn’t a normal bodily function. I am just lucky she didn’t turn out how you wanted her to and that her and my dad loved me with all their hearts. I will live my life forever missing them, but taking to heart that even though they’re gone, their love will stay with me until I die. And I will love my child how you never did.

“Not only did you not break me or my spirit, but leaving you was the best thing I could have done for myself. I am in a happy relationship, I have great friends, and I have a job. You should have just wished for me to be happy, but it wasn’t enough for you. You wanted me to be a perfect little doll you could marry off to one of your friends’ children who might have just used and abused me for children and a clean home. Not only will that never happen, but I got news for you, too.

“Unlike you, I won’t crush their dreams. I won’t control their diet. I won’t tell them how to dress. I won’t tell them what kind of people they’re allowed to be friends with. I will never, ever disown them, and I will not ever tell them that they’re going to hell. I am going to tell them every day that I love them, and will support them no matter what. If they become prostitutes or murderers, I will still love them. Because they are my family, and that comes before any religion or personal moral.
“So unless you come to your senses and you tell me that you realize that, and support me and want to meet your great grandbaby and support me and the love of my life, I do not want you to contact me unless it has something to do with Grandpa. I will not endure your negativity for the sake of my sanity, my boyfriend’s, and my baby’s. You don’t scare me anymore. I don’t know if you ever loved me, and you may be my grandmother, but I wouldn’t trust you with anything. Good bye.”
I turned to leave, but then smirked and turned to her again to see she had somehow become even more stiff.
“Oh, and I have tattoos all over my body, before I got pregnant I drove a motorcycle every day, I don’t have them in right now but I have more than ten piercings, I renounced my faith in God and have become an Atheist, and I don’t think Ash and I will ever marry because we are perfectly happy how we are now. I used to party and drink every night that I didn’t have to work the next day. I put myself through school without any help from you. Oh, and before me, my boyfriend was a heavy drinker, partier, and ladies’ man who got more tail than anyone you or I will ever meet.”
And with that, I turned and marched out the door, slamming it behind me and pressing my back into it, sighing deeply and shutting my eyes.
“You okay, babe?”
I opened my eyes to see my amazing boyfriend standing there and watching me with concern in his eyes. He was reaching a hand out to me in case he needed to help me.
Smiling, I pushed myself off of the door and walked to him, wrapping my arms around his shoulders and kissing him deeply. He made a noise of surprise but wrapped his arm gently around my waist to pull me to him.
Pulling away and smiling up at him with my arms still around him, I gently whispered, “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
Ash grinned widely and pulled me into his side to kiss me long, and hard, slipping his tongue between my teeth to wrestle briefly with mine, and it went straight to my core.
“If we didn’t have a plane to catch, I would take you right here, right now against the wall,” Ash growled into my ear.
“I love you so fucking much and I am SO proud of you for standing up to your grandmother like that. I can’t imagine that was easy.”
I picked up my suitcase and pressed the call button on the elevator.
“Actually, it was much easier that I thought it would be. I kind of just said everything I have ever wanted to say to her.”
Laughing once out loud, Ash wrapped his arm around me and guided me into the elevator. “It that why it took as long as it did?”
I playfully hit his chest. “Oh shut up!”
He smirked. “I love you too, babe.”

Notes

Hey guys!

I am so sooooo sorry it took me so long to update! But here is a chapter! I have had class five days a week this semester and I work 15 hours a week. This week I am working more that 30 because of Mother's Day, so I have no idea how I was able to finish this, and I'm sorry it isn't as long as it normally is, but I tried to post something instead of making you guys wait even longer.

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