His Naughty Lessons

** Eli **

They did manage to stay calm and relaxed for a while. Perhaps it was the floral fragrance that truly served its purpose as advertised, or perhaps it was Harper truly being tired enough that she couldn’t find enough energy for the usual tricks. As a result, the two of them simply leaned against the silicone bath cushions for the rest of the hour, listening to the parakeets tweeting and chatting randomly about nothing important.

"Remember the parakeets I used to keep at home?" Harper reminisced as she stirred the bathwater idly, propping her elbow over his chest. "That pair of blue ones over there looks just like them. It’s making me so nostalgic! I haven’t seen parakeets since I let go of mine, and I miss their songs so much."

"Let go of yours?" Eli watched the milky water dripping from her fingertips, making a lovely sight that drew his eye to the soft glow of her skin. "I do remember the ones at your house, though I thought they were still there when I left for college."

"They were. But they were getting old, and my mom said they were probably going to die in a couple of years. I didn’t want to see that, so I set them free." Harper chuckled sheepishly. "Silly, I know, and I probably shouldn’t have. Hopefully they were still able to learn how to hunt for themselves and actually survived."

She picked up a purple chamomile from the water, casually brushing her fingers over its soft petals as her gaze followed the parakeets on the other side of the courtyard. "Though on the other hand, it wasn’t so bad that they at least got to see the real wild world out there, was it? Nature is so pretty, and like the hostess said, good for the soul too. Maybe it was worth the effort they had to go through to experience it."

She didn’t wait for him to come up with a wise response. Stretching her arms out, she placed the flower back in the water and let out a small yawn. "Oh well, I’m just being sentimental. It’s a miracle that I actually get to lament about life philosophy instead of counting down every minute to the deadline. Must be the calming bath doing its job."

That was a much needed achievement. Eli smiled, reaching for her arm that was still outstretched and brought her hand to his lips, planting a light kiss at the center of her palm. "Then we should come back again next Friday when all your work is done for a little while," he offered, "and the gala on Saturday will be a perfect celebration for your project’s first huge milestone."

"Ohh! The gala!" As if suddenly realizing the event’s existence, Harper gasped. "Right, more reason to come back for a last-minute recharge so that I don’t show up with eyebags and droopy shoulders."

Eli snorted at that. "You don’t have eyebags or droopy shoulders. Even if you do, you will still be more beautiful than the rest of the crowd, because that’s proof of your hard work to get to where you are." He gave her a pat on the back. "Although, speaking of which, they do have professional massage therapists here at the spa. We’ll go give it a try when we’re done. Supposedly the facials can fix whatever eyebags or temporary wrinkles, and the heated stone session is good for targeted pressure points. Or we can just check out whatever other special pampering that you find interesting."