After Tonight

“Abbey.” Rob kissed the side of my face and buried his head in the crook of my neck. “Abbey, love, wake up.” I groaned and rolled over. Rob was the only person I knew who chose flights absurdly early—there wasn’t even a sliver of sunlight in the sky.
By 6:30 we were on the curb; I leaned against a lamp post, trying to keep myself from falling sideways, and Rob awkwardly hailed a cab. He still hadn’t gotten the hang of it yet. Ten minutes later, we were still cab-less so I took over.
“It’s only because you’re pretty.” Rob muttered when I’d managed to get us a cab right away.
Inside the cab, Rob opened his arms for me and let me go to sleep—even at 6:45 in the morning it would be an hour drive. Out of everything I didn’t like about the city—and mind you there weren’t many things—the worst had to be the constant traffic jam.
Unfortunately, my pre-flight jitters came quickly which meant that I didn’t get any sleep inside the cab. After we checked our bags and got through security, I began to fidget with everything—one of my nervous ticks. I paced back and forth as Rob tried to figure out where the gate was. The last time we had flown somewhere together, we were nearly late and didn’t have time to fiddle around the airport. Every few seconds, Rob would look at me through the corner of his eye. My fear of flying was slowly getting on his nerves.
“I’ll get us some coffee, just go sit somewhere or go to the bathroom or something. Please. You’re making me nervous.” Rob put his hands on my shoulders and guided me in a different direction.
I turned around. “You don’t know how I take my cof—” If I walked away from him, I just might possibly walk out the door and get a cab home. That is how much I hated flying.
Rob silenced me with a finger against his lips. “Of course I know how you take your coffee, are you crazy?” He scooted me away from his, tapping my bottom with his foot for further emphasis.
I wandered through the sea of travelers in search of the bathroom—my stomach was a little queasy. As I stood at the sink, rinsing my face with cold water, I listed off everything that could possibly go wrong with the plane. The engine could explode, wings could fall off, windows could burst open creating a suction cup-like force that could pull me out of the plane…I needed a drink. Because it was so early in the morning, coffee would have to suffice until it was a reasonable hour for alcohol.
Then I made a mental note that if I carried a flask with me, nobody would know that I’d taken up alcoholism. It’d be my secret, well Jack Daniels’ and mine.
And then I remembered I’d never get it through security. Damn.
As I made my way back to the coffee stand, I heard Rob’s laughter. It was more a giggle really, kind of goofy. Whenever he laughed I did too, though at the moment I could only muster up a smile.
That smile faded when I saw Rob talking to the barista who had just handed him two cups of coffee; I wanted to ask her if she’d given a thought as to why he’d ordered two. Surely she wasn’t stupid enough to think he’d order two for himself. Oi vey. My eyes narrowed as I watched her take the flimsy jackets out of hands and slip them onto the coffee cups for him. Even I wouldn’t do that. I wasn’t sure if it was the barista or my nerves, but I wanted to gag.
Barista Whore, my unoriginal nickname for her, continued her conversation with Rob. I felt wrong for instantly accusing him of flirting—he had always claimed to be clueless about women and whether or not they were interested, and I believed it. But the more I thought about it and watched Barista Whore, the less I believed it—how could somebody like him be oblivious to interested women? He’d been hailed one of the “most beautiful people” by People magazine last year for Christ’s sake.
Did he even realize I was standing five feet away from him?
If that girl leaned any further over the counter, her plastic boobs would poke out Rob’s eyes.
She didn’t even look like she drank coffee. Why was she working at the La Guardia Airport Starbucks, hitting on my boyfriend?
Without dropping my gaze, I casually stomped over to Rob and the bimbo.
“Hi, excuse me.” I stopped Rob in mid-sentence. “My coffee must be getting cold.” Barista Whore eyed me up and down—as if I’d never had that happen to me before.
I slid in between Rob and the counter to grab my cup. Despite this creating space between the two, I’d placed myself in the most awkward situation. Literally. My arms were squished on top of the counter and my purse was stuffed into Rob’s stomach. I tried turning around, thinking Rob would move out of the way but he just stared at me, giving me one of his signature strange looks. Barista Whore placed a hand on her slender hip with attitude. Setting my bag down, I turned my back to her and shoved Rob’s coffee into his hands. He took the cup before I could spill it on him.
“We should get to the gate.” I looked at the time on my cell. We had a whole hour.
“Really—?” Then Rob got my jist. Either that or he thought I was going to get sick. Rob nodded slightly at the woman and thanked her for the coffee. Once we were headed in the opposite direction, Rob cleared his throat.
“What?” I asked sharply. I sucked down some coffee through gritted teeth.
“Care to explain?” I could see him looking at me through the corners of my eyes. I shook my head.
“There’s nothing to explain. I wanted my coffee and we had to go to the gate.” Rob took a second to mull over my words, tapping his fingers on the sides of his cup. His face lit up in no time.
“Somebody’s jealous.” He beamed proudly, as if admiring himself and his handsome-ness. His arm wrapped around my waist and happily pulled me into his side. Kissing my face, he laughed. “I wondered why you kept looking at her like she’d just blown her nose into our cups.”
“Ha. She was totally flirting with you. And, I was not jealous.” Rob was known to get a little cocky whenever he thought I was jealous.
“I’m not one for blondes anyway.” That crooked grin was mocking me. I rolled my eyes and took another sip coffee.
We sat down at the gate in silence. I just wanted to drink my coffee and picture myself on the beautiful beaches of Hawaii. Rob stretched his arms above his head in a yawn. He could say all he wanted about not knowing when somebody was hitting on him, but he did know when to back off; that was something we had in common—we didn’t press conversation when it wasn’t necessary.
“Abbey. Look at me.” I turned my head to see him peering at me earnestly, from behind his coffee cup. “I mean, really. If you think I’d take that over you…”
“So you admit she was flirting!” I grinned triumphantly, ignoring his sincerity and pointing my finger in his face.
“I was waiting for you—she was just making conversation—” His grabbed his hair out of frustration and sighed loudly.
“Yeah, with her boobs!” Alright, I realize that was the equivalent of a nine-year-old’s comeback but I knew I’d caught him.
“Really, Abbey? That’s the best you’ve got?” Rob raised an eyebrow.
“Yes.” I answered stubbornly, looking out the window at all the metal death-traps people called “airplanes”. Rob said nothing for the next fifteen minutes or so.
“I think it’s kind of cute,” Rob stretched his arms above his head. “when you get jealous.” I rolled my eyes.
“I wasn’t jealous. I just don’t like watching you flirt with other women.”
“Love, that is the dictionary definition of the bloody word!”
“Alright fine!” I threw up my hands, frustrated. “Can we just forget this and go to Hawaii?”
Rob shook his head, a sly grin appearing on his lips. “So you admit you were jealous?”
…
I buckled my seatbelt and took a deep breath—the plane had begun to take off. Gripping Rob’s hand and the arm rest, I squeezed my eyes shut. Breathe. I felt Rob’s breath on my neck as he leaned over to whisper in my ear. At that moment, the plane lifted off the ground with a violent shake. Gasping, I cringed and dug my nails into Rob’s flesh. He in turn, gave a small yelp.
“Abbey, love, you’re fine.” He chuckled slightly, sighing off the pain I’d caused. “We’re in the air. Relax. I’m here…but I think my hand is starting to separate from my wrist.” Rob spoke softly, trying to not hurt my feelings.
Sighing, I slowly opened my eyes to look at him. The corner of his mouth was hitched up in a small smile though red claw marks shown against his pale skin. “Sorry.” I smiled sheepishly.
The rest of the flight was obnoxiously turbulent. I had tried, and failed, numerous times to fall asleep against Rob’s shoulder so instead I sat with my arms crossed, gnawing away at a stick of gum. Rob stuffed his ear buds in his ears to drown out the constant rattling of the plane, and quite possibly my constant complaining as well. As I was nearly shaken out of my seat, I gripped Rob’s arm and tried to push all thoughts of this being a bad omen from my mind.
Hours later we arrived in our sunny destination. I wobbled through the airport, wanting desperately to vomit while Rob wanted to rip out his hair; clearly this vacation hadn’t started off the way he’d planned it to. I began to feel better once we were outside. The fresh air about knocked me over—so different from New York—and the sun’s rays made everything sparkle. Hawaii was everything I’d expected it to be, and I hadn’t even left the airport.
At the resort, I went inside to check in while Rob got the bags out of the car. I watched him through the window. He had his black sunglasses on, as well as the usual knit cap. He was trying to be incognito, though I told him a while ago that the paparazzi had no doubt figured this “disguise” out since he wore it every day. I’d already seen a few of them at the airport.
I went out to help him wheel in the bags. Even though we’d made up, in so many words, the ride over was still quiet. Though I was mad that he apparently thought of himself as the “non-jealous type”, which he certainly was not, I crossed my fingers that I hadn’t done any permanent damage that morning.
After lugging our suitcases up to the bedroom, Rob and I took an opportunity to explore before we ate dinner. The Grand Wailea was a beautiful resort—it was absolutely enormous. We made it all the way down to the beach and I for one, could not wait to get into the surf. The aroma of salt water and SPF lotion was hypnotizing. I glanced over at Rob, who was bent down rolling up his jeans. He looked up at me and smiled. I narrowed my eyes at him. What did he have planned?
Finally getting back to his usual self, Rob lifted me onto his back and waded into the turquoise water.
“Don’t you dare drop me!” I squeaked. I wanted to go in the water, but not in my jeans. He looked back at me over his shoulder and grinned. I knew that grin too well. “Don’t!” I shouted, laughing now.
He let me slip, my toes skimming the water, before he caught me. “Wow, that was close.” His sarcastic tone was complimented with an idiotic facial expression.
“Too close.” I shook my head, laughing. He could have dropped me for all I cared, I was just glad we’d finally gotten out of the funk we’d been in since the airport.
…
We walked up to the main lobby hand in hand. I’d planned on showering before we had dinner—I reeked of airplane.
“Thanks.” I smiled at the man who had held the door open for me. He nodded and smiled back. Rob always did that; it must have been a guy thing. I heard Rob snort behind me.
The resort had a great restaurant, or so my research led me to believe. Fortunately we could go in casual clothing since neither Rob nor myself packed anything “fancy”. Rob was seated across from me in the dimly lit alcove. We had a spot on the balcony overlooking the beach. I nearly swooned at its beauty in the evening. Once we ordered a small appetizer (airplane food just doesn’t satisfy), Rob and I enjoyed one another’s company talking about things we needed to catch up on. I had yet to ask him to be my date for Allie’s wedding though I wasn’t exactly thinking he was going to turn me down.
“That bloke is staring at you again.” Rob’s eyes narrowed as he picked up his glass of wine.
“Who?” I leaned in over my plate, whispering.
“At the bar. You know, the wanker that held open the door for you this afternoon.” He took a long swig of the maroon liquid. I could faintly remember this occurrence.
“Oh.” I didn’t bother pressing the matter, not only because I could it was upsetting Rob, but because I did not care. “So Allie’s wedding is coming up in the fall…do you think you’ll be home?”
“Unbelievable.” He muttered, eyes still focused on the man at the bar. I folded my arms across my chest. “Uh, when is it?”
“October. I forget the date, but it’s on the fridge at home.” He looked at me with sudden interest and reached across the table to grab my hand.
I discretely looked in the direction of Rob’s eyes. Sure enough, the man at the bar was the same man who had opened the door for me earlier in the afternoon. When he caught my gaze, he winked. Ew. The guy was somewhat attractive, but he would have never snagged my interest out of a crowd. He also looked a few years older than me and I wasn’t into dating older men.
“What a prick!” Rob hissed, intertwining our fingers. I was eating dinner with a five-year-old.
“Rob, let go of my hand.” I furrowed my brow, trying to untangle our hands. “This is absolutely ridiculous.” Rob bit his lip, getting a little frustrated.
“What if I want to hold your hand?” Rob asked defiantly, like a five-year-old.
“And when our food comes, you’re going to keep at it?” I replied sarcastically. “You would never do this if that man wasn’t looking over here. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice, but it’s not you. And it’s weird.”
He let go of my hand with a sigh of annoyance and went back to chugging his wine. When the waitress came over to ask him if he wanted another glass, he merely smiled his brightest, most attractive crooked grin and handed her the empty glass. I leaned back in my chair, sipping my own wine with a smirk. The pretty young waitress left the table smiling and looking flustered.
“So are you planning to bring her back up to the room with us?” I asked raising an eyebrow.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He smiled smugly and moved on to chewing the ice cubes in his water glass. Each crunch made me want to stab his hand with the fork. Or at least throw the candle holder from the center of the table at his head.

Rob’s P.O.V.
After the waitress left our table, I looked back at the man at the bar. He was alone, drinking some sort of tropical colored liquid. Not only was he in a horrendous black suit with a tie that reminded me of the drapes at my mum’s house, he was older. Mid-thirties would be my guess. Totally not Abbey’s type. I watched her as she “secretly” glanced at him. He winked again. One more time and I could guarantee he wouldn’t be able to open that eye when I was through with him. Abbey looked back at me, stifling a giggle with her hand.
“Why are you encouraging him?” I could feel my face getting red; however, that could have been from the wine.
“Why are you freaking out?” She tilted her head, pondering her next move. “Oh wait, you’re jealous. Well isn’t this deja-vu?” Abbey leaned back in her chair, grabbing her wine glass and swirling the contents.
“This is different.” I hunched over my plate, clasping my hands together. If she didn’t look incredibly sexy, I would be glaring at her.
“How so? I think it’s exactly the same—girl flirting with you equals me getting jealous. Guy winking at me equals you getting jealous. Voila!”
“I wasn’t encouraging it. I was just waiting for you, completely oblivious I might add.” Her jaw dropped.
“And me sitting 100 feet away with you is encouraging him how?”
“Well for one, you keep looking at him—”
“So do you! Does that mean you think he’s cute too, Rob?” She interrupted me, hunching over her plate in the same position I was in.
“Let me finish.” I inhaled sharply. Her brown eyes smoldered in the candlelight. “There was this afternoon, with the door. You sure were chummy with him.”
“I said thank-you.” She began to shake her head, laughing a little.
“It was the way you said it.”
“Oh please. You had an entire conversation with Barista Whore.”
“Who?” I laughed now.
“The coffee girl. You know who.”
“You named her Barista Whore? Not one of your best, love.”
Abbey just shook her head and went back to picking at the appetizer. In a matter of minutes, the waitress arrived with a fruity-looking drink. Expecting her to say it was on the house, my jaw hit the floor when she said it was from a gentleman at the bar. Abbey accepted it graciously, turning the man and shouting a big thank-you across the restaurant complete with a flappy wave.
“So where were we?” She had placed the drink directly in front of her mouth and sucked the pink liquid up through the green straw. My fists were clenched so tightly, I could feel my blood vessels popping all over.
“I don’t believe you.” I was seething by then.
All she had to say was, “This is delicious.”
“You’re doing this on purpose.” I finished off the third glass of wine that the waitress had placed in front of me.
“Really, you should try some of this.” Abbey smiled smugly.
“Fine. If that’s the way you want to do this.” I muttered, gritting my teeth. If there was one thing that Abbey was, it was absurdly frustrating. She widened her eyes, wiggled her fingers and mouthed “oooooh”.
When the waitress delivered the food, I laid on as much charm as I could muster. I’d never thought I had a knack with women, but tonight I really wished it pull through for me. As I worked my magic, as Abbey would say, I watched Abbey out of the corner of my eye. She was sitting there, shaking her head and slurping down her drink.
I’d found out that our waitress was named Mona. She was born on the island and was currently enrolled in the university. She had to be at least five years my junior but I ignored it and focused on the point I was trying to prove. My favorite though, was when I asked if she was single. The second I’d asked the question, Abbey choked on her drink and starting coughing profusely.
“What exactly are you trying to prove?” A bewildered look was plastered on her face. “You already know that I get jealous when you talk, I mean flirt, with other women. What’s your point here? Just wanting to see if the locals know how to show a fellow a good time?”
“I was not flirting with the coffee girl. You know that. But you—you took the drink!” Abruptly, Abbey stood up and pushed her chair in. The glasses and silverware rattled.
“I am going to the bathroom. Please make sure Rob is sitting here when I get back.” I rolled my eyes as she walked away.
I couldn’t keep myself from watching her hips swing furiously. Abbey had a certain walk when she was angry with me—and it was only when she was angry with me. I’d seen her when she’d gotten in fights with her sisters or whomever but they never evoked “the walk”. As she neared the loo, the man at the bar had gotten up to make his move. At first I thought he was going to follow her in and I stood up, but instead he “bumped” into her.
Before speaking, Abbey looked back at me briefly no doubt checking to make sure I was watching. I wasn’t able to look away fast enough and she caught me staring, mouth agape. Without hesitating, Abbey smiled at him and fluttered her eyelashes. She placed a hand on his arm and said something that made him smile. Five minutes and she went into the bathroom. The man walked back to the bar, occasionally glancing at me. I followed him with my eyes, hoping to instill some sort of fear. I have no idea if that worked.
Abbey came back to the table, a satisfied smirk on her face.
“What are you doing?”
“I am playing your game.” She sat down a cut into her salad. “You started it.”
“Fine.”
“Game on.”