Better Sorry Than Safe

“Remind me again why you are flying,” Jimmy said as Matt got into the car.

“Because I need everyone to think that I actually am going further than Vegas.” After giving it some thought, Matt had came up with a story he saw no holes in. A week before he was seat to leave for Vegas he had told them he needed to get away for a while. He had said he had rented a small cabin in Wyoming for a week so he could clear his thoughts out and get away from everything.

Jimmy was the only one who knew where Matt was really going. He also knew a piece of information that was still a secret to the singer. Driving in silence, he decided that he would save the final piece of good news until they were at the airport.

While Matt went through the security routines, Jimmy waited for him. Of course if he had to wait much longer to tell his friend the good news he might start screaming. This is what Jimmy had wanted for years; all of his friends to just be happy. He had known that Matt hadn’t been happy for years, he knew that Valary was only happy part of the time with Matt, and he had guessed that Isabelle had convinced herself that she was happy.

“You alright man?” Matt asked, walking past Jimmy and taking a seat.

“I’m great! I also have good news!” Jimmy slipped into the seat beside his friend.

“Alright what is it?”

“Zacky is flying Lily out here for a visit while you are gone. So it will just be you and Isabelle for the week.”

“And her fiancé,” Matt said, his voice begrudging.

Jimmy shrugged his shoulders in response. Truthfully, he didn’t see Chris as that big of a
treat. He’d heard Isabelle’s deepest fears and doubts, as had Matt, and as far as he was concerned that told a story.

****

Isabelle was currently trying to get dressed while listening to Chris talk. Her cell phone was on speaker and resting on her dresser as she slipped into the tee-shirt. Normally she wouldn’t worry about talking to him this early but she wanted to get it over with.

“I was thinking that maybe we could get married at one of the hotels on the strip?” His question was enough to catch Isabelle off guard. Having her jeans only half way up, she lost her balance before catching herself on the dresser.

“And I thought we agreed to wait for a while to decide. Two weeks isn’t a while, Chris.” Isabelle buttoned and zipped up her jeans. Scooping up the phone she headed into her bathroom to apply her make up.

“For God’s sake Isabelle, you haven’t even went dress shopping! That is the first thing my sister did so they would have time to alter it or whatever. It is like you have no interest in the wedding.”

Isabelle was half tempted to say that she didn’t have any interest. But she was in a hurry so instead she said, “Alright already, I’ll go this weekend. Just relax and stop pushing.”

“I just don’t understand your thought process, that’s all. Woman are supposed to start rushing and possibly go crazy when they get engaged. You are willing to take all the time in the world and at your rate we’ll be lucky to get married by 80.”

“Believe it or not, I actually started looking things up on the internet last night so there. I’m not going to just jump into it either so stop getting in a hurry. If you are in the big of a rush then you plan the damn thing all by yourself.”

Chris chuckled from the other end of the line, “You are a piece of work, Belle.”

“So I’ve heard.” Isabelle was far too excited to slip into her usual bad mood. In less than an hour she would be enjoying her day off with the one person she truly wanted to see.

As the plane descended, Matt watched from his window seat. From their altitude he had a clear view of the strip. Knowing that it wouldn’t be long until he would see her, a splurge of excitement coursed through his veins.

Originally he was going to rent a car when he landed, but that had changed a week ago. When explaining his plans to Isabelle she had offered to pick him up when he landed. This had suited him just fine for the simple reason that it would allow them to spend that much more time together.

He had no idea what would happen this week but he didn’t care. As long as he was given the opportunity to see Isabelle then the trip was worth it.

Even thought he’d never tell anyone, he did have a plan. It wasn’t hard to tell that Isabelle was pretty much the same person that she had been when she left. He had known everything about her five years ago; her deepest secrets, biggest fears, soft spots, and of course her biggest pet peeves. Within three hours of seeing her he knew that most of those were still the same.

From what she had told him, Chris tended to do the things that bothered her the most. In Matt’s mind all he had to do was use the information that he knew to the best of his abilities. As far as Matt was concerned all he had to do was win Isabelle over.

Inside the airport, Isabelle was already waiting. There was an excitement flowing through her that it was almost impossible to contain. As she stood there she was fidgeting, doing so only to refrain from bouncing, with the hem of her tee-shirt and her heart and skeleton key necklace.

As people started filing in the doors, she stood tip-toed in an attempt to see Matt. When she saw the bill of a black hurley hat her heart lurched forward. She didn’t need to see the face of the person wearing it to know who it was.

Matt noticed Isabelle seconds after her eyes had landed on his hat. She stood there with a smile on her face, waving in his direction. Even from fifteen feet away he could see the joyous sparkle in her green eyes.

“You don’t know how glad I am to see you!” Isabelle said, just as Matt engulfed her in a bear hug.

“Trust me,” Matt chuckled, “I have a pretty good idea.”

****

Less than two hours later, the duo were looking at each other across a table. Isabelle had listened closely as Matt had explained what the guys thought, all while contently snacking on the chips and salsa that sat between them. Now, though, she had a few questions she had to ask him.

“Wait a second. You are actually lying to the guys? Who are you?” She popped another chip into her mouth, washing the taste down with some tea when she finished chewing.

“Yeah. Its not like I want to lie to them but what choice do I have? They would all either follow me here or demand a full explanation. And God only knows how Zack would react if he found out any of this. Besides, next time I’ll have to tell them the truth.”

“What reason would Zacky have to overreact? It is like you said last time, we aren’t doing anything wrong. Just two old friends spending time together.” And for now it was true. Aside from the two kisses they really hadn’t done anything wrong. But secretly she wasn’t sure how long that would be true.

“Because he is your brother? I’m not even sure that he would, but he might.”

“Does Val know where you are?” Isabelle asked, looking down into her tea glass.

Matt had decided that it would be best to tell Isabelle in person. It just didn’t seem like something that fit into their conversations on the phone. Not at this point in their friendship anyways. “She thinks the same thing as the guys. But we, uh, broke up two weeks ago.”

“Wow, you didn’t say anything about it. Why? What happened?” Isabelle was tempted to tell him that he should have added the words for now. She knew all about the way his dating life had been going the past few years, not only because he told her but Jimmy had given her every detail. It wasn’t the first time that those two had called it quits.

“It never seemed to fit it and I didn’t see the need in bringing up a whole new subject, so I decided to tell you in person. It just wasn’t working out. It wasn’t fair to either of us to keep stringing out a relationship that just wasn’t working it.”

Before either of them had the chance to say anything else, their orders arrived. For several minutes they ate in silence, both wrapped up in their own thoughts. Matt knew that she was thinking that he and Valary were only broke up for a while. Isabelle had moved onto a question that was eating away at her.

“What time do you have to be at work tomorrow?” Matt asked, adding a little sound back at their table.

“Three in the afternoon. So lucky for me, I can stay out as late as I want to tonight.”

“Well what should we do then?”

Isabelle just shrugged her shoulders. If it was any other person asking this question she might have cared. So long as it was Matt asking she didn’t. Just spending time with him was enough to make her content. “I don’t really care. Whatever you want to do is fine with me.”

“But you know your way around the city so well. You are the one who knows everything that there is to do.”

“Fine then, I guess I do care what we do. I want to stay somewhere on this strip. That is all I’m going to say though so there.” Isabelle playfully stuck her tongue out at Matt.

Matt chuckled and rolled his eyes. “Then I guess we’ll just have to figure it out as we go.”

The almost banter between the pair came to a complete halt the moment that Isabelle’s cell phone went off. By the frustrated look on Isabelle’s face Matt knew that it had to be Chris. “Phone call?” He asked as she pulled her phone out.

“No, text message. I vote that for today we forget all talk of him. I will even turn my cell phone off.”

Matt smiled across the table and nodded his head. For now he didn’t care about the long-term effects of the moment. All he wanted was to spend some quality time with Isabelle. Even the thought of what would happen when it was truly time for her to make a decision were freed from his mind.

****

The sun was setting and the lights of the strip were coming to life. The pair were watching out the window of the tram that ran between the Mandalay Bay, Luxor, and Excalibur, on their way back to the hotel. Most of the afternoon had been spent walking around and talking, attempting to make plans for the following day.

As the tram came to a complete stop and the doors opened Matt finally asked the first question on his mind. “You wouldn’t mind if we went up to the room for a while would you?”

“Not at all. I mean why would I mind? We’ve been walking around for most of the afternoon.” Isabelle moved closer to Matt, without even realizing it.

The trip through the casino to the elevator and up to Matt’s hotel room was silent. Both were too wrapped up in their own thoughts to focus on a conversation. They had been in the room around 5 minutes when the silence was finally broken.

“I think I’m going to run to my place and get a shower and a change of clothes before we do anything else,” Isabelle said, “do you wanna come with me?”

“Actually I was going to do the same here. Do you wanna stay here tonight? There is a spare bed and no one would know where you are, it might give you a break from everything.”

Chewing on her bottom lip, Isabelle thought over the pros and cons of the action before deciding. The largest con was that there could be hell to pay the next day. The largest pro was that Matt was right, no one would know where she was. We’d just be sharing a hotel room, we’d sleep in different beds, and there is nothing more than friendship between us. What could it hurt?

“You have a deal. I’ll go to my place, get a shower and some clean stuff for tomorrow, and then I’ll come right back.”

“Ok, I’ll see you later then.” Isabelle smiled at Matt’s goodbye before she left the room.

The closer she got to the apartment the more sure she was of her choice. At first their had been a tinge of guilt in her stomach; she knew it was wrong to do this to Chris. But she wanted to see Matt so much that she kept telling herself they weren’t doing anything wrong. She was not cheating on Chris, she was just spending time with an old friend.

The almost non-existent tinge of guilt exploded the second she turned into the parking lot of the apartment. Chris’s car was parked next to where she always parked and he wasn’t in it. She had suspected that Lilly had given him a key before she left, just in case something bad had happened. Just as she was about to turn the wheel and leave, figuring he hadn’t saw her car yet, the door opened.

“Damn it!” She hit the steering wheel before pulling into her parking space. Now she wouldn’t have a choice but to face him.

He was at her car door before she had even opened it, looking relieved. “Thank God you are alright! I haven’t heard from you today and you weren’t here. I thought something might have happened.” Chris was already pulling her into his arms before she could think of plausible excuse.

“I haven’t gotten any phone calls or text messages,” She lied, her heartbeat speeding up. She had never outright lied to him before and she was afraid he would see right through it.

“I started with text messages around lunch and calls this evening. When I didn’t get any kind of reply I came over here to see if you were here. Lilly gave me a key before she left in case something bad happened. Where were you?”

Normally the inquiry of her whereabouts would have angered Isabelle. But the look of relief on his face, and in his voice, only made her feel that much more guilty. He wasn’t trying to be possessive or over-protective, he was just worried sick that something bad had happened.

She pulled her phone from her pocket and sighed. “It must have gotten turned off. I’m sorry, I’ll keep a better eye on it from now on. I was just walking around the mall and thinking about stuff.”

“Well how about some dinner and you can tell me what you have on your mind?” Chris placed his arm around her shoulders, the relief fading from his voice.

“Actually I’d like to be alone tonight, if you wouldn’t mind.”

“Are you feeling okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just need some time to think. So I’m going to go rent a hotel room for the night and just get away from the norm.”

“You don’t want to spend time with me then. Did I do something to make you mad or something?” Chris sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

The look on his face was enough to make her heart ache. He honestly thought that he had done something wrong. For a moment Isabelle wanted to tell him to sit down on the couch and she’d make them dinner, that she had time to spend with him before her alone time. But then she pictured Matt’s face in her mind and wanted to scream.

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” She said, placing her hands on his cheeks, “I just need this. It isn’t that I don’t want to spend time with you, I just need time to think. Besides after we get married we’ll always be together.”

Suddenly her guilt turned into fear. He looked so happy at the prospect of being together all the time and being married, so completely ready. Isabelle, on the other hand, was suddenly absolutely terrified.

“So I’ll call you tomorrow sometime. I’m going to take a shower and then I’m leaving.”

Matt was beginning to wonder if she had changed her mind when Isabelle knocked on the door. He opened the door and smiled, she had brought an overnight bag with her which meant she hadn’t changed her mind. “You okay? You look a little flustered.”

“Earlier you asked me what I wanted to do tonight and I said I didn’t care. Well I changed my mind. If you are up for it, I want to go to the Hard Rock Café and drink. If you don’t want to do that then we’ll do something else, but that is my vote.”

“Isabelle, what happened? Of course we will go do whatever you want to do, I told you I didn’t care what we did. But what happened?”

“He was waiting for me! Apparently I got him worried because I wouldn’t respond to his text messages or phone calls and because I was gone. And you know what? I didn’t even get pissed off at him for wanting to know where I was or because he was at my home. I actually felt bad for worrying him,” Isabelle said, letting her hair loose from the pony tail she’d put it in before leaving her place, “I’ll tell you the rest when we get there and after I have some fruity mixed drink in front of me.”

“You aren’t wanting to get drunk just because of whatever happened are you? Because that doesn't sound like you at all.”

“No! I don’t have intentions of actually getting drunk. I just want a fruity tropical drink in front of me at the place I feel the most comfortable. For some reason it relaxes me and right now I really need to relax.”

“Let me grab my wallet and we’ll go get a cab. But you are going to tell me everything when we get there. That is what friends do,” Matt said, carefully reminding her they were just friends. He wasn’t sure why she was so stressed out but if it had something to do with seeing him then he would have to find a way to fix it.

Isabelle just walked over and hugged him. At the moment she didn’t care about how they truly felt about one another. They were friends and that was what she needed the most.