by Shey Stahl
Leaning forward and trying to appear intimidating, I stared the man down. “You better give me that motherfucking test.”
He seemed to think I was joking and held back from giving me what I so desperately wanted to keep a secret right now. There was always the possibility that I could magically start my period while on the plane. You know, maybe gravitation could play a hand in this.
My frantic stare darted from the test to Leo, standing thirty feet away with Ami, and then back to the man who held my fate in his hands.
Evan started to grow impatient as well. “We’re gonna miss our flight. Is this really a big deal?”
“I have to ask my manager if I can return this.” When the security guard refused to hand it over, and I could see Leo looking at me curiously, I pulled out the only card I had in my arsenal.
“Do you really think that could be a weapon?” I asked giving him a stare down.
“Possibly.” His stare never parted from mine. It was as if he was trying to get me to cave purely on the fact that the asshole held all the cards right now, his only sense of control in a shitty ass job was being exerted. “I’ve seen people use a hairbrush as a weapon.”
“I peed on that,” I smiled, “like all over it before I hit the target.”
Needless to say, I got my suspicious item back and was well on my way to keeping this tidbit of information on lockdown until the time was right to tell Leo.
“Are you really—”
I cut Evan off by holding up my fist. “Shut up.” My hand connected with his chest as we retrieved our shoes and belongings from the bins. “Forget what you saw.”
When I boarded the plane, I was told by Evan that my seat was next to Leo. “Did you plan that shit?”
“No. How was I to know you wouldn’t be talking to him?”
I pushed him forward clutching my purse as I neared Leo, his face down staring at his phone. No way was I putting my bag in the overhead bin because with my luck, the bin would open during the flight and the test would fall in his lap.
Of course I had the window seat so I had to sneak past Leo to get to mine. I gave him a nice view of my ass and then sat down, my purse in my lap like I was transporting an organ awaiting transplant across the country. I could feel him staring at me, so I peeked over at him and he smiled.
I looked over at Evan on the other side of Leo sitting with Ami. “Switch seats with me.”
“No.” He looked at me like I was crazy for even asking.
Slumping back in my seat, I caught Leo’s stare as he put his hands behind his head. His eyes, mysterious at times but noticeably impure in thought, shifted to mine. “You get me for four hours.”
Leo Orting
Check to the head - A hit where the primary contact is made to an opponent's head. A major or match penalty in the NHL if such a hit is made from a lateral or blind side position. In other leagues and organizations, any check to the head can be a minor or major penalty, often including an automatic misconduct or game misconduct penalty.
Now she had to talk to me because we were sitting right next to one another. Well, at least I saw it this way because who could ignore me of all people for four hours?
No way would Callie be able to. She might be able to if we weren’t together, like the last month but now I was in her face and I wasn’t going anywhere.
“Now you have to talk to me. Four hours and you get to sit next to me.” I said this proudly but I don’t think Callie saw it that way by the look on her face.
In fact, the look said fuck you asshole. Get away from me.
Sufficiently chastised by her glare, I turned my attention toward my iPad. It was going to be a long trip.
It was some time after the first round of drinks I had ordered that I noticed Callie wasn’t drinking. Completely unlike her. “Want one?”
Immediately she shook her head. So at least we moved on from not talking to head shakes.
With Katy Perry blaring through my headphones, I contemplated what to say to Callie. So I took my napkin and wrote, I’ll show you mine if you show me yours?
And then slipped it over to her tray where she hunched over her cell phone.
Her eyes shifted to the note, then back to her phone but she smiled and took my pen from me.
You already did and showed 500 others!
She had me there. She even underlined 500. Twice.
But I wasn’t letting this go. We were friends and now nothing. Fuck that. I deserved answers.
Are you seeing that guy?
I slipped the note back over to her only to have her rip it up and throw it at me, and then turn back to her cell phone.
Tearing her phone from her hands, I made her look at me but she wouldn’t bite and kept turning her head. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing.” She reached for her phone in my hand but I held it higher like this was a game. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Well, you know, I’m confused.” I said in a hushed voice not wanting to draw attention to us. “We fucked and now you refuse to talk to me. Was it that bad?”
Oh God, did I hate saying those words. It wasn’t bad. She was fuckin’ screaming like a whore on my dick that night. I know for a fact she enjoyed that.
She reached for her phone looking like she was nearing tears. “Just give me my phone, Leo.”
Callie could easily reach it if she put down her purse but she refused and instead pressed the call button.
The flight attendant came immediately. “Can I help you?” Her arm on my shoulder confirmed this would go my way. She had been eyeing me since we boarded the plane.
“Are you shitting me?” Callie groaned staring out the window.
“Excuse me?”
Oh, this was going to be good. I hoped they got into a fight and maybe ripped some clothes, showed some titties. That’d be the best way to start a vacation in my opinion. I leaned back in my seat and watched the two of them with amusement.
“Excuse yourself.” Callie snubbed her. “Get him to give me back my phone.”
“Do I look like a mediator?” She laughed, smiling at me.
Wrong move girl. My hand casually dragged along the stubble of my jaw watching the two of them.
“No,” Callie shifted in her seat clutching her purse tighter. “You look like a fuckin’ flight attendant who’s not doing her job and looking to get fucked by a Chicago Blackhawks hockey player.”
“That’s where I know you from.” She gleamed smiling wider.
I grinned but it wasn’t out of affection for her. It was more amusement. I glanced over at Evan to see if he was paying attention but all he was doing was shaking his head.
“I’m not finished…” Callie snapped, glaring past me at the woman and ripping a bag of pretzels from the flight attendant’s hands. “Go ahead. Get his number. He won’t call you because you’re nothing new. He gets so much pussy on any given week that he doesn’t even have to try anymore. And I can tell by your personality already, you’re boring. Not worth it to him.” Callie then glared at me. “Now give me my goddamn phone, Leo.”
I couldn’t help myself and broke out laughing. Completely turned on by that, I handed Callie her phone back and waited for an explanation as to where that came from.
The flight attendant scrambled away, more than likely to cry and I felt bad about that for a half a second. My attention was on Callie, flushed and staring at me.
“That was hot.” I said when I could speak again. It was a little hard to do so through my laughter.
Callie raised a questioning eyebrow at me. “Shut up.” She turned in her seat to face the window trying to ignore me.
“You’re sexy.” I said leaning toward her letting my stare drift south intentionally.
She smiled, crossed her legs toward the window, but didn’t say anything more.
Turning to Mase on the other side of the aisle, I gave him a shake of my head as I mouthed wow and fanned myself. He just laughed at me. It may not have been talking
but something seemed different about us right now. She wanted to ignore me but something inside of her was telling her not to.
That something was just begging her to talk to me and let me in.
With a devious smirk, I slowly winked at her when she snuck a glance at me. “You know you want to talk to me.”
She said nothing but did offer another smile.
Callie is hard to judge sometimes. Just when you think you know her, she does and says something you’re not expecting. Sort of like not talking to me after the best sex ever.
That smile was her way of letting me know that she did want to talk to me. She may not have known what to say or how to start but that was beside the point. I had four days with her. The universe was created in just seven so I was pretty confident in my abilities to get her moaning beneath me in half that time.
It was somewhere around the three-hour mark and I was starting to get restless. I don’t like being on planes. I feel like a caged animal. I need room to roam. Funny enough, I spend a lot of time on planes and buses. Two places you can’t just walk outside and get some fresh air. Mase liked to joke that I was claustrophobic, and I would agree. No sense in arguing with the obvious.
Needing to get up, I stood, leering at Callie. “I’m going to the bathroom. Care to join me?”
Without offering me so much as a look, she raised her right hand and middle finger.
I had half a mind to lean over and suck on that finger. Maybe then it’d get her attention.
Instead, I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. “Your loss. Maybe I’ll see what that flight attendant is doing.”
Callie unbuckled her belts and stood. “Go!” She hissed waving me forward.
Fuck yes!
Well, that was my initial thought until we got to the bathrooms in first-class and she just stood there. “Go.” She waved again.
“You first.”
“No, I mean you go and I’ll wait.”
“So you mean to tell me you walked me to the bathroom like I’m a child just so the flirty flight attendant wouldn’t find me?”
“Go to the bathroom.”
She wasn’t going to admit it but look at her, all flushed and fine, she fuckin’ loved me but wouldn’t admit it. That’s okay though. I could play this game, too.
Not so gently, I pushed her inside the smallest bathroom I’d ever been in and shut the door, locking it before she could protest. “Let me out, Leo.”
“No.” I laughed, my hands on her hips. When she moved, wanting away from me, my fingertips grazed the skin I had been dying to touch. “Not until you talk to me and tell me what happened this last month.”
She stared at me intently, either wanting to punch me or kiss me. Either one I’d probably find hot right about now.
“You got me alone, now what?” I whispered, leaning in intending to run my lips over her collarbone. Just simply staring at her was killing me.
With our bodies touching, Callie shifted, her gaze falling from mine to my chest, her body language signifying an angry defiance. “I wasn’t…” her words fell short.
I stilled, not even breathing, waiting to see what could possibly be the reason. There was something she didn’t want to say to me. I wanted to lift her chin, make her look at me, give her the opportunity to say anything to me and know that if anyone had my attention, it was this girl. At this very moment, her beauty rendered me speechless, so pure and captivating. I took a moment to look at her, remember everything I loved. My head spun with thoughts of forever with her and I struggled to catch my breath. I heaved in a breath, about the time she did when those eyes that were torturing me.
Callie’s mouth fell open, withholding words I so desperately wanted to hear on the tip of her tongue stuck there. She closed her mouth and smiled, her hands moving to my chest. She couldn’t hold out when we were alone like this.
She rested her body against mine but never made an attempt to say anything. We went through turbulence, the plane shaking slightly, gaining our attention but still, failing to pull us out of this trance.
It was then I wondered, how, if possible, I could make her feel what I feel. The dirty side of me wanted to fuck her in the bathroom. But the side that wanted this girl to know I cared, wanted to take her hand. Hold it. Make her feel this beat in my chest that thumps for her. I did my best to act casual and pretend I wasn’t dying inside.
She squirmed, seeming to want away from me. Like if she didn’t, she would say something she didn’t want to.
“If I did something to upset you, just tell me.” I whispered over the hum of the jet engines, my lips barely moving around the words. My hand touched her cheek, grazing her jaw. “I’m not dumb enough to think you love me, or anything like that, but I thought we had something.”
Her eyes moved to mine, normally bright eyes that were now tear-filled and apprehensive. “I didn’t mean to ignore you.”
There was a stretch of silence that filled the bathroom, neither of us moving our gaze from one another. I wanted to kiss her, feel those soft lips pressed to mine and the sweet taste of her tongue I knew so well, but I also didn’t want to push. She was moments away from tears, no way could I push her into something that she didn’t want right now.
My eyes closed and I pressed my forehead to hers, my arms tightening around her waist. She willingly let me hold her for just that moment, and then reality came crashing back, feeling her resistance. “Why did you take her home with you?”
My head snapped back, confused. Why would she think that? She knew why? She took that douchebag home with her.
“Because you came with that guy.” The back and forth between us was so familiar, like nothing had changed, but something had and I couldn’t place it.
“So because there was a man next to me, and at no point did I ever touch him, you took a girl home?”
My heart ached hearing her say that. Okay, so maybe I misread some things that night, but still, she wouldn’t fuckin’ talk to me so how was I to know? Right?
Or maybe I’m just an asshole and assumed the worst. Wouldn’t be the first time.
“Tell me what to do…” I cupped her face in my hands, “tell me how to fix this. When you left, and didn’t call. I know what that meant. It meant stay away. I know that. But you didn’t say it. If you want me to leave you alone, then say it and I will but you have to mean it.”
Shaking my hands away, her chin lifted, her jaw taking on a determined set I loved because it was her feisty side. “You assumed I was with him.”
Yep. There was the assumed part even though there was a certain amount of hesitation to her words that I caught.
I leaned back letting go of her, my hands resting beside my hips on the sink behind me. “I know.”
“Excuse me, you need to get out of the bathroom.” A voice said on the other side of the door.
We both turned to the door, Callie rolled her eyes and reached for the door. Cracking it just an inch, I smiled at the flight attendant. “Wanna join us?”
Callie stiffened and pushed away from me, the absence of her warmth felt immediately. “You’re such a dick.”
Nothing new. I was a dick.
Without another glance in my direction, she moved past me.
I let out a heavy sigh and then watched as Callie stared at the flight attendant, and then back to me. Not sure why I did what I did next, but I did.
I reached down and adjusted myself, like we’d just done something in there.
Callie rolled her eyes, pushed me back into the bathroom to which I fell on the toilet and then she went to her seat after growling at the flight attendant. She actually growled at her.
Laughing, I picked myself up, winked at the flight attendant, and made my way back to my seat. Or, if we want to get technical about it, I was escorted back to my seat. “You got handcuffs back there?” I asked her when she pointed for me to sit down without a scene.
I was only joking but the flight attendant motioned me forward with a beckoning finger. “I do
n’t… but the air marshal two rows back does.”
Callie smacked my shoulder. “See what I mean?”
“What?”
She rolled her eyes and turned toward the window. “If you don’t stop talking to me, I’m going to tell the captain your bag is ticking.”
So many threats coming my way.
“I swear to God, Leo,” Mase warned pointing at me when I sat back in my seat. “You get us thrown in a Mexican jail and I’m going to murder you.”
“Don’t make threats like that. It’s rude.” I slouched in my chair reaching for my phone and headphones. “You could never murder me anyways. I’m too nice of a guy.”
Callie didn’t talk to me the rest of the plane ride, nor did she talk to me while we were getting our bags or on the ride to the hotel. We were staying at Esperanza, the same place Remy and I stayed last year when we came down here.
As soon as we walked into the hotel, Ami’s eyes went to the brochure filled counter.
“I wanna go.” Ami remarked with interest in seeing the rest of the country.
Mase shook his head. “No. We don’t leave the resort.”
“And why not?” Ami could stand her ground when she needed to, or wanted to for that matter. Callie walked away, looking out at the pool and ocean behind it. I could see it from where I stood, waiting for our room keys.
“Because. You’ll get kidnapped and held for ransom. This country boasts the highest number of kidnappings for ransom.”
“That’s only in the movies.” I said, adding myself to the conversation, whether they wanted me in it or not.
“Then you go.”
I shook my head leaning against the counter losing interest. “No fuckin’ way.”
Besides that, this was my time to get even with them. If I could get them to go somewhere, I could sneak in their room.
“You guys should go out to eat or something. Be alone, have some Mexicans serenade you.”
Mase rolled his eyes only because he knew that’s exactly what Ami wanted. Her vision of going to Cabo was thinking it was something like Spain. Which it wasn’t. Two completely different countries and cultures. Though I’m sure you could get serenaded in both, you’re more than likely to get shanked in Mexico.
