Page 136 of Love Unavoidable
Tenley butts in before I can say anything. “Oh, it’s better than that. They finally admitted they have feelings for one another, and then Sadie here had to come back to Texas to take care of her sick mom. But the young man, Ethan, still wants her, only she told him to back off. Now she’s realized that was a mistake and we are off to tell him in person she still wants him. If he’ll have her.”
“Oh god, Tenley.” I turn to touch her shoulder. “What if he doesn’t want me? What if he’s moved on? I didn’t even think about that.”
“Moved on from a few weeks ago? Not likely. That boy is a smitten kitten.”
“Come on, people. Let’s go.” I bounce up and down in place willing the line to move faster.
“Would you like to go in front of me?” The lady in front of us asks. “My flight doesn’t leave for another hour, I have plenty of time.”
“Really?” I ask. “That would be wonderful, thank you! Thank you so much!”
We squeeze past her in the line, now one person closer to victory. I decide that if one person is that nice, maybe more people will be.
“Excuse me.” I tap the man on the shoulder in front of me.
He turns around. “No.”
“No, what?” I ask.
“No, you cannot move in front of me in line.”
“Okay, but—” Tenley starts.
“I heard the whole story, I don’t care. I have a plane to catch too. Sorry.”
“You don’t sound sorry,” Tenley mutters.
“Sshh.” I backhand her in the stomach. “He’ll hear you.”
“He heard you,” the man says without turning around. I look at Tenley, eyes wide. She shrugs in return. We move up one more person in line.
I check the time, we’ve got five minutes to get to our gate.
“We are running out of time,” I tell Tenley.
“Maybe some other nice person will let us move ahead of them in line,” Tenley says loudly. “In the name of love.”
The woman in front of the man in front of us turns around. “You can go in front of me in the name of love.”
“Ohmigod, thank you so much!” I smile big at her and move to push past the man in front of us. He puts his arms out across the aisle as a blockade.
“Excuse me,” I say.
“No.”
“It’s not up to you, she said we could go in front of her,” Tenley says.
“If you go in front of her, you are still going in front of me. It’s not fair to just cut in line because you think you have a better reason for traveling than anyone else. You should have arrived at the airport sooner if time concerned you. Like I did. Like everyone else did.” He waives his arms gesturing to everyone around us.
“You have no heart,” Tenley says. He scowls at her.
I wait until he puts his arms down and then try to slip past him, somehow he gets an arm in front of me and pushes me back.
“Hey!” I say. “You don’t need to be a dick.”
He looks at me. I look at him.
I’m pissed now, so fuck this guy. Tenley does a chin nod and a step forward with her arms outgangsta style, like an invitation to “take it outside.”
