Keep Your Girl Out of My Shoe Cabinet, Your Wife

Troy and my mother occupied the front seats of the car, driving through the night looking quite content. Sid stared through the window into the night. An awkward silence hung in the air.
It was 10 pm when we pulled up into the parking lot.

“I got your door.” Sidney mumbled, jumped out and walked around the back of the car to open my door while Troy went to get a luggage cart and started to put our suitcases on it.

When I stood on the other side of the metal detector, watching Sid untie his shoelaces and take of his belt to go through the security check, reality hit me hard. Eventhough it was late many people were at the airport staring at us and taking pictures. Little boys were held back by their mothers so they wouldn’t run over to Sid, elderly couples were talking behind their hands and girls gave me dirty looks.
People knew. Everyone knew. The news was out and the wave was just beginning to form.
The inspector told Sidney he was okay, so he took his carry-on luggage and walked over to me.

“You fine? You are a little pale. Do you need something to eat or to drink? You barely had anything at the reception.”

I smiled at his concern and shook my head.

“No don’t worry. It just all the people staring and gushing. I think reality is just catching up with me. I mean what are they gonna be like when they’ll found out the real deal?”

“Vivian… they will never find out about the thing with our families. The only people in the world who know are you, me, our parents, Taylor and Becky, so don’t worry okay? Everything will be fine.”

“Sidney I’m not worried about that. I did not mean the weird flashes of inspiration our parents had. I mean the kid. Canada will go crazy… most of all your little fan girlies… ”

“Sweetie don’t worry about it okay? It will work out. We will go on the plane now, wake up in London, take a walk through the city, take stupid pictures in front of Buckingham Palace, then fly to uhm….. Dohar, that’s in Qatar, get a cool drink and switch our planes and we will arrive in Male just in time for breakfast. Then we’ll spend two weeks on Kuramathi Island, you’ll have a blast, before we return to Pittsburgh and get everything settled okay?”

It sounded like a good plan so I nodded. A two week escape just sounded brilliant so the big wave could break down a little before the big news would hit some time soon. He placed his hands on my cheeks, lifted my head from his shoulder and smiled at me before taking my hand.
“Come on we have a plane to catch I think”
I squeezed his hand a little and followed him to the gate. It wasn’t open yet so we sat down, I laid my head back on his shoulder and closed my eyes.

“I’m soo tired. I will sleep all the way and you have to entertain yourself.”
He just fondled the back of my hand and answered: “I think I can handle that… my job offers quite some practice on doing so.”

I chuckled quietly and was just about to fall asleep when a lady declared over the loudspeakers: “Passengers to Air Canada Flight 860 to London Heathrow, estimated departure time 11:45pm please notice first class boarding now.”

I opened my eyes, grabbed my black weekender and stood up. Soon after I felt a hand on the small of my back leading me towards the gate. He handed the officers our passports and boarding card, they wished us a good flight and we could enter the plane. A thick silence arose between us as we walked through the gangway into the aircraft. A flight attendance brought us to our seats and as soon as I hit the seat I fell asleep.
Suddenly I was woken up by a sudden movement. When I opened my eyes I realized that the plane just had hit some turbulences and the rough air caused the sudden movement. Apparently Sidney had fastened my seatbelt before take off and now was fast asleep, leaning against my shoulder with his lips slightly agape. After a quick glance on the watch on the flat screen tv in front of us I found out that we were in the air since over 4 hours and the sun was already rising. The plane must have left the area over Greenland a short time ago. We were supposed to land in London in a little more than 1.5 hours so the flight attendances started to serve breakfast. Softly I nudged him between the rips and waited for Sidney to wake up. But instead of opening his eyes he just buried his head in my hair and his right arm sneaked over my stomach to the right side of me waist and held onto my shirt.

“Hey sir, you have to wake up if you want some breakfast and I have heard that big athletes need their meals or they will get moody and since it is your first time in London I can’t have you moody there… too many things to see in too little time.” I whispered into his ear, nudging him again. Finally he pulled back, opened his eyes and yawned.
“Good morning Mrs. … ”

“Would you two like tea or coffee for breakfast?”, an elderly flight attendance named Meredith asked.

“Uhm I’ll get a coffee and she will get a tea… what tea do you have? Caffeine free please.” Sidney glanced over to me as he ordered.

Meredith started listing all the teas she could offer: “Chai Tea, Darjeeling, Green Tea, White tea, ginger tea, peppermint tea…”

“Okay okay okay. I don’t need to know all. I’d like a decaf Darjeeling please… no sugar but whipped cream if you have.”

“Sure Mrs. Crosby. Would you like your coffee black or with sugar and cream?”

Mrs. Crosby ...Mrs. Crosby… Mrs. Crosby… Meredith’s words echoed in my ears. Mrs. Crosby… that now was my name. But it wasn’t me. To me Mrs. Crosby always was Troy’s mother.

“Viv you okay?” Sidney asked as he handed me my tea.

“Yeah I’m fine thank it just… not used to the new name and all. I mean Mrs. Crosby… that’s your grandmother, not me.” Sidney just laughed about my response.
“You’d better get used to it. We’ll get to hear it a lot now I guess. But speaking of you now being Mrs. …”

“What juice would you two like? We have Orange, apple, cranberry, blueberry, strawberry, tomato, lemongrass…”, a younger for some reasons nervous flight attendance interrupted us.

Now it was my turn to order. “I’d like a cranberry juice and my hubby here goes with plain old OJ right?” Sidney smiled at me and nodded.

“Oh my god.”, the girl exclaimed. “so the rumours are true? I thought it was just bored twitter madness of Max and Army. You have to know Viv I’m your biggest fan. Really congratulations.” She got really red and began to ramble while spilling the most of the juice onto her cart. Unconsciously Sidney’s hand found its way to my thigh and remained there. Soon Meredith came over and excused for ‘Jessica’s unpleasant behaviour’ and explained that it was the girl’s first intercontinental flight.
I was just about to start eating my deliciously looking breakfast when a familiar feeling arose in my throat.
Quickly I placed my hand over my mouth an swallowed soon enough before it came out.
“wou mokey?” Sidney asked while chewing on his scrambled eggs.

“Your kid is just saying good morning so if you could just let me out so I can go to the restroom.” I whispered. He nodded, let me pass and handed me my bag from the overhead cabin. After throwing up I brushed my teeth, fixed my makeup and changed into a casual dress and my favourite louboutin mary jane’s. Then I out my hair into a messy bun and walked back to my seat.

“See I’m back and alive.”

Sidney let me pass again and put my bag back into the cabin. “You look great.” He said.
“Thank you… do you want some pancakes?” I offered, staring at them in disgust. “I don’t know what I was thinking when I ordered it… not hungry at all…”

After he finished breakfast Sid disappeared in the bathroom to change. At the airport we put the big bags in a locker, I put on my coat and put the essentials like tickets, wallet, Blackberry and camera into my handbag. I went to the ticket office and got us tube tickets. First we drove to the Queensway station, got ice cream and big Belgian waffles at Queens Ice and Bowl and took a walk through Kensington gardens. I showed him the Lady Di Memorial Playground, Kensington Palace and the round pond. Then we took some hilarious pictures of each others in front of Peter Pan’s Statue and took a trishaw ride to St. James Park, looked at the Westminster Abbey, walked the ‘Jack the Ripper Walk’ to the Tower, took some pictures of the Big Ben-as in the building, not Roethlisberger of course. Then we already had to go back to the airport.

“London is really nice… but it is way bigger than I thought.” Sid summed up a little flashed from the experience. “I really need to come back at some point.”

“Oh indeed you have to. You haven’t even seen the best things… like the tower bridge, Dali’s universe or Shakespeare’s globe.”

“Someone here seams to have a big crush on this town.”
We were waiting in a line for the security check.

“Well working in this town several times a year makes you quite familiar with some spots. I mean who can say that they did a Victoria Secret shoot in the London eye while the sun set… oh wait only I can.” I stuck out my tongue and pulled my Blackberry out of my bag realizing that it was turned off.
“Why is my phone off? I charged it at your house?”
“Oh I’m sorry. The flight attendance asked me to turn it off when you were asleep because of the take off”

I blushed slightly… I was so dumb at times. “Yeah of course… sorry I’m stupid.”
“No no you’re not just one question… the background picture is it…” he choked on his words.
I just nodded and handed him my phone. The default was the ultrasound picture that had been taken the day before the wedding.
After we boarded onto the plane we watched some movies, he slept while I read or we both entertained ourselves with our iPods. 7 hours later we were in Qatar to switch planes and continue our trip to Male. After another flight of 5 hours we finally arrived on the Maldives. We got our suitcases and carry on luggage and were welcomed by a nice heat, shining sun and a man in a black suit, obviously unhappy about his outfit but still with a bright honest smile on his face.

“Mr. and Mrs. Crosby, welcome on the Maldives. My name is Ekijenjo and I will bring you to our beautiful resort. Please follow me. Ahusan, Firushan.” He clapped his hands. Two guys came and took our luggage and started walking in the direction Ekijenjo had pointed out. Sidney took my hand and we followed them. They lead us to an aeroboat and Ekijenjo joined us and the Pilot on the plane while Ahusan and Firushan stayed behind after putting everything into the aeroboat. 20 minutes later we walked along a deck toward the beautiful resort. Ekijenjo went to check us in, while a girl named Tatsuya brought us into the amazing under water restaurant for a snack. The view was amazing. All the colourful fishes, small ones and even big rays swam by. When we had finished Raiee, another employee lead us to the so called Honeymoon Pool Villa. He handed us the key and told us that in case of a question there were phones in each room but as long as we were in there no one would come and interrupt us. I smiled at Sid about the irony of the whole story. He took the key and entered the house before unlocking the door first. A little irritated I followed him. Entering the living room I suddenly heard a way too familiar name.

“SIDNEY…. Finally I thought you forgot me.”

Becky ran through the room, jumped into Sidney’s arms and kissed him hard. He closed his eyes, relaxed and pulled her closer to him. Breaking the kiss Becky said: “Let’s go to my house and leave this one to your wife… we have 72 hours to make up.”

Sidney just smirked, picked her up, smirked at me and said: “See you later Viv, have a great time here.”