Fantasy Reality

I opened my eyes a short while later and watched as Sid carefully folded up his clothes and placed them in his suitcase. He glanced in my direction and smiled when he saw that I was awake. “Carly, you are the most unorganized person ever”, he said as he picked up the clothes I had thrown on top of my suitcase earlier that morning.

“How long was I asleep?” I asked as I moved into a semi sitting position. “A while, over an hour”, he replied as he walked into the bathroom.

“Did you talk to Gabrielle?” Sid re-entered the bedroom with his arms full of my bath products. “No, I stayed here and started to pack”, he replied as he struggled to keep the bottles from sliding out of his arms. “Which I’m glad I decided to do because it’s going to take me the rest of the night just to find all your crap that’s scattered around this room”.

Fighting the urge to throw something at his head, I instead ignored him and shifted my eyes away from him packing my clothes into the suitcase. “If you’re hungry, I can go and grab you something to eat. Everyone else already ate and when Ron brought in my dinner, I didn’t want to disturb you”.

“Dinner would be great, I’m starving”, I said as I slowly moved into a semi-sitting position. Sid gave a smile. “I’ll be back in a minute”, he said as he walked out of the room. When he returned he had a tray that contained grilled chicken, baked potato and salad. Carefully, he placed the tray on top of my legs and passed me a bottle of water before he turned his attention back to the suitcase.

We were silent as I ate dinner and he continued to pack, as I chewed my chicken I realized that this was the last night I would be able to see him before I closed my eyes and the first thing I saw when I opened them in the morning. I couldn’t believe that we had managed to pull this off but I also knew the real test would be when we landed in LA and even more when we were in Pittsburgh

“Okay, I think I have all your stuff packed”, Sid said as he struggled to zip up the suitcase. I looked at him and glanced around the room. “Umm, Sid?”

“Yeah”, he replied as he picked up the suitcase and put it in an upright position.

“Did you leave out anything for me to wear tomorrow?” The expression on his face told me that he hadn’t. “What about my toothbrush? Did you pack that too?”

Groaning, Sid dropped the suitcase back onto the floor and unzipped it. He tossed my toothbrush towards the bed and started to look through my clothes. I saw a flash of leopard print and it hit me that there was underwear in that suitcase and he would have to go through it to find something for me to wear. “Wait”, I cried as I struggled to sit up.

“What? What is it? Are you okay?” Sid came over and helped me into a sitting position. “I’m good, I think that I can get my clothes”, I explained to him.

“That’s crazy, I’ll just grab something and leave it out for you”, he said as he walked back towards the suitcase and started digging through my clothes again.

“Hands off my panties Crosby”, I said as I swung my legs over the leg of the bed, grimacing at the spasm in my back.

Sid dropped the jeans he was holding and stepped back. “What?” he asked

“I’m not enjoying you going through my underwear, a woman's suitcase is a sacred thing”, I said as he rolled his eyes at me.

“Are you kidding me?”

“Do it look like I’m kidding you”, I said as I managed to stand. “Can you put the suitcase on the bed so I can pick out my clothes?”

Sid muttered something under his breath, but he did as I asked and placed the suitcase on the bed in front of me. I picked out my jeans, tank top, bra and underwear and then motioned for him to put the suitcase back on the floor.

Laying the clothes on the night stand, I shuffled the few steps towards the sliding doors and looked out at the beautiful scenery illuminated by the moonlight. There was so much that I would miss about this place, I was dreading getting on the plane the next day and having to keep up the act. Although, it was getting easier with each passing day; it was impossible to spend time with Sid and not develop feelings for him.

We slept soundly that night and I woke up just a few minutes before Sid and took advantage of the few uninterrupted moments of looking at his sleeping face and drinking in the lines of his face before he started to stir. His eyelids flickered and I turned my head before he could catch me staring at him.

I avoided Gabby and managed to steer Sid clear of her while we all gathered our things out front of the main house and climbed into the jeeps that would take us to the airport. We were among the last to board and I was thankful to slide into the leather seat and find a comfortable position.

During the 2 hour flight, there wasn’t a lot of talking. I spent most of it thinking about what I had agreed to and Sid was keeping himself occupied with his PSP. Not long before we landed, he turned off the video game and turned to me.

“You have an appointment with Dr. Hunt at Cedars-Sinai. He’s suppose to be one of the best back surgeons. You’re scheduled for an MRI tomorrow at 9 and he will see you at 10”, he informed me.

Raising my eyebrows, I gave him a sideways glance. “We’re not going to Pittsburgh?”
“No, we’re staying in LA and have to see if Dr. Hunt gives you the okay to fly”, he replied and leaned back against the seat.

“Where am I staying tonight?” I asked as I looked out the window and saw things coming more into focus.

Sid didn’t respond and I thought he hadn’t heard me, I was getting ready to ask him again when he finally said “I have a beach house rented in Malibu, you can stay there with me”.

A Malibu beach house? With Sid? Was it wrong that I was excited about this new development?