Page 18 of Decoded
Maybe if I lie to myself that I’m over Keaton, I’ll finally believe it. But one thing for sure is that it feels a lot better to be angry with him than sad over him.
“That’s the spirit,” Penny insists, “Your first night may not have started off great, but that’s just because your girls weren’there. The four of us are going to have a great time and put all this behind us. Fuck men. We don’t need them.”
The rest of my friends agree with her, and we pile out of the diner for our day in the city. Determined to have fun and savor these memories with my besties, I put a smile on my face and force out all thoughts of the man I married.
“Thanks so much,” I shout at my driver as I slam the door, running as fast as my chubby legs will allow towards the security line at the airport. I cannot believe I overslept and almost missed my flight. The line is long, so I hold my breath, cross my fingers and wish for the air traffic control gods to speed this process along so I don’t miss the only flight back home today.
Finally through security, I make a mad dash for my gate right as I see the airport employee about to close the doors. “No!” I shout at her. “I’m here.”
Bracing myself for another encounter like I had with Flight Attendant Dickhead, I’m shocked when she smiles at me and wishes me a good flight.
Shuffling down the aisle, which is not at all generously spaced, I make my way to my seat, noting there’s only two in a row instead of the three we had on the way here. At least I’ll only have to climb over one person this time.
“Excuse me, but I have the window seat,” I say with a smile to my seatmate. But when the handsome face with the neatly trimmed salt and pepper beard flashes a gorgeous grin and blue eyes so pale they look like they belong in the high sky, my smile quickly drops.
“Keaton,” I whisper, acknowledging the man who has haunted my dreams the past couple of nights.
“Hi, Anna.”
This can’t be happening.
Shaking my head in a panic I say probably much louder than I should, “No. No, I’m not doing this. Fuck no and fuck you.” I scan the aisle searching for anyone who can get me both home and the hell away from him. Landing on a graying woman with a kind face, I quickly flag her down.
“Miss!” I hiss and wave to the flight attendant standing a couple of rows back. “Miss, I am so sorry to be a bother, but is there another seat I could take?”
She walks my way and looks at the empty seat before turning back to me. “Ma’am, I am so sorry, but the flight is completely full. Is there something prohibiting you from sitting there?”
Just my husband who is looking way too good for me to sit here and act like I’m not bothered by him the whole way home.
Not wanting to get into that huge debacle with the patient woman waiting for my response, I try again. “Are you sure there aren’t any other seats available?” I try to show her the desperation in my eyes, but sadly it doesn’t seem to help my case.
“There’s really nothing we can do. Everyone has already taken their seats and, as I said, it’s a full flight.”
Defeated, my shoulders slump as I realize I will be sitting directly beside my husband for the next few hours. “I understand. Thank you.”
“Is there anything else I can help you with? Perhaps a drink?” She takes a quick glance at Keaton then turns back to me with a lifted eyebrow. A drink is the last thing I need since it landed me in my current predicament, but I do appreciate the solidarity. I turn my back fully to Keaton when I whisper, “ No thank you, but could I have an extender, please?” She gives me a kind smile and discreetly places one in my hand.
“Just let me know if you need anything else, Sweetie.” As she turns and walks towards the back of the plane, I face my husband and huff.
“Move,” I demand, crossing my arms and positioning myself so Keaton won’t touch me as he steps into the aisle so I can take my place next to him. Once seated and buckled, I turn away from him and look out the window, pointedly ignoring the hulking hunk beside me. But he refuses to provide me my peace.
“Anna Baby,” I roll my eyes but refuse to look at him, so he presses on. “Please don’t shut me out. Just let me explain why I wasn’t there the other morning.”
I can’t help but scoff and even though I really don’t want to speak to this man, there is no way I am going to sit here and listen to him drone on about his feelings when he doesn’t give two shits about mine. “Don’t shut you out? What? Like you did to me?”
“Baby, I never,” I throw my hands up, cutting him off.
“Stop,” I hiss at him. “Stop it with the whole ‘Baby’ shit, it just gives me the creeps.”
It definitely doesn’t, but I’m not about to tell him that.
“I don’t want to hear a word you have to say. I went from having one of the best nights of my life and experiencing so many things I had only dreamed of and on top of that, you had made it seem as though you cared about me, too. Like you really liked me. I mean, hell, you fucking married me.”
“Anna, I do care. I do really like you. And I want to stay,” I cut him off again before he can finish that statement.
“You want to stay? Because you sure didn’t stay. Do you have any idea how humiliating it was to wake up the next morning stranded in the hotel room without so much as a clue of where you took off? The longer I sat there waiting for you to return, the more humiliated and heartbroken I became. Until finally it dawned on me that you were never coming back for me.”
“I was coming back, Anna. I promise.”
