to feel like she had to do something in bed that makes her uncomfortable. But since he’s a guy he’s supposed to suck it up and enjoy it.”
“Yeah,” Rhea said. “His wife is emasculating him.”
“Look at you with your five-dollar word,” Willa said with a laugh. “It’s true though. She’s always bossing him around and he takes it.”
“I imagine she doesn’t like being told no about anything,” I said.
“Aw, sweet, sexy-ass Silas,” Rhea sighed. “I’ll slap his wife and call her a bitch for him.”
Willa laughed loudly and I let out a snort.
Seriously, though. I hoped Silas would be okay. And Shawn. Tonight, I would take my CBD gummy and some melatonin and hope that my mind would shut down and let me rest. I was sure everything would be fine.
No such luck. I’d finally fallen hard asleep when I got a text at two in the morning saying I needed to be to the airport for a six AM flight. I couldn’t go back to sleep after that, so I got up and showered, then quietly left the crash pad. The middle of the night was always my favorite time to drive. At one point up on a bridge I could see the Manhattan city lights and it always gave me chills.
This particular March morning was significantly warmer than it’d felt in a while. There was a hint of spring in the air, which filled me with contentment. As I pulled into the employee lot, my phone whistled and my heart leapt. It was Shawn.
Sangria? Nice! Sorry about last night. Had a rough time with Nat and ended up taking a sleeping pill to knock myself out.
A rough time? I got out of my car, locked it, and typed as I walked to the shuttle area. The air smelled like new grass and asphalt with a hint of gas fumes. The perfume of Newark.
Everything okay? I asked.
Got a second to talk?
Sure.
I climbed aboard the shuttle and smiled at the driver, answering my phone and sitting with my luggage between my knees.
“Hey,” I said.
“Hey you.” That voice. Would it always give me butterflies to hear it?
“What happened?” I asked.
“Yeah, it was pretty bad. She went to her friend’s bachelorette party in downtown Charlotte and called me wasted from her hotel room. She was trying to be sexy and I told her it was too late for that. She wanted to have phone sex and I told her no. She got super pissed. I was like, ‘You haven’t wanted any type of sex with me in six months. So why now? You only want me when you’re drunk and we’re not together?’ And she was like, ‘What kind of man would say no to that?’”
I covered my mouth, nausea rolling through me. Now I had to compete with this. She was probably realizing she’d taken him for granted and was having second thoughts about their breakup. Fuck! It made me queasy. All I could do was whisper, “I’m sorry.”
But he’d rejected her advances, which was huge. He’d been wanting her to want him back, and he had a chance to be intimate with her and didn’t take it.
He let out an audible breath. “I just want to jump on a plane with you and fly to Tahiti. Somewhere warm, just the two of us.”
My whole body sizzled and I suddenly felt overly warm in my jacket. “That sounds amazing.”
He sighed again. “Let me ask you something, Harlow. Would you come visit me out here in Japan?”
“Of course,” I said, my heartbeat accelerating at the seriousness of the conversation.
“And down the road…if things get more serious? Japan, North Carolina—I don’t know where the fuck I’ll end up.”
“I’d follow you anywhere, Shawn.”
A long pause of silence fell, and I jolted at my own words, realizing just how much I meant them. And maybe it was pathetic to say that to a guy I’d only recently met, but I didn’t care. We’d taken time to get to know each other in that short span.
“Harlow…” When he said my name, it was with so much reverence and emotion that I felt myself choking up.
“I can work from nearly any airport,” I said. “I can even switch jobs within the airline. And there’s always my teaching degree. I would like to teach someday, eventually.”
His voice was low and still filled with emotion when he said, “You’re a good piece of gear.” I giggled and he gave a chuckle. “That’s a Marine saying, a high compliment.”
“Well, thanks.”