Think About that Tomorrow

“I can’t believe you were traded,” she said into the phone. She couldn’t believe that it had happened that way. As she heard the news, Kimber waited for him to call, and that was just how she answered the phone. Tyler’s ringtone had woken her up from the nap that she took after the trade was announced.

“I know. Um, K, can I come over?” he asked. She sighed and agreed. Her friends all told her about the partying that he had been doing, and she saw the pictures of him kissing those girls that he didn’t know well or that he had only known for the night. They were all expecting her to just give up on him despite the fact that they were never official. He would come to her apartment when he needed someone who just wouldn’t be that hard to deal with.

She pressed play on the movie that she had been watching, Gone with the Wind. Just as she got through part of the movie, there was a distinct knock on her door. Kimber kept the movie playing since she had seen it at least ten times. She could quote it as she walked to the door, and she mouthed the words as she unlocked the door. Tyler kissed her on the forehead as he entered the apartment.

He heard the movie, and he raised an eyebrow at her. She shrugged. Her brothers had thought that she was just trying to drown her feelings in ice cream and older romance movies. She wanted to just focus on the things that she liked. It was just her fault that she liked things like that. He took her hand and led her to the couch that she had spent quite a few nights cuddled up to Tyler on.

“I can’t believe you’re watching this again,” he said as he plopped down on her ugly paisley couch. She shrugged and sat next to him. He draped his arm across her shoulders and kissed the top of her head as she mouthed the words to the movie. He knew a good bit of the movie as well, and he didn’t think that it was normal for her to love a movie that was so long and so old.

“I like it. Sue me,” she replied as she rolled her eyes. “So when do you have to go to Dallas?”

“Soon, but can we not talk about that. I came here to forget about that. I didn’t want to think about it with you.”

She couldn’t blame him. Her friends had blown up her phone about it. Just like they had done with the fact that he was making a fool of himself and partying the way he was. Kimber had just become almost numb to it. And she couldn’t seem to stop having her feelings for Tyler. He was always just sweet to her, and she was sent such nice things by him. Like when he was in Switzerland, he bought her a nice scarf and sent her pictures almost every day. Now she was just his sidelined girl.

Tyler got up and grabbed a beer for himself as she was too engrossed her movie to get up. He brought her back a bottle of water knowing her habit of not wanting to drink until after she got water. He knew all of her quirks like that, but he didn’t have any reason to remember them. At least not in her mind.

“You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how,” said Rhett Butler on her screen. He knew that that was one of her favorite lines in the entire movie. She could tell he remembered that as he shook his head.

“That’s a cheesy ass line, y’know,” he joked. Kimber elbowed him hard. “Hey! I was just fucking with you.”

“Don’t make me regret letting you come over,” she said. He sipped his beer and started to watch her rather than the movie. And when the movie finally came to an end, he just sat there with her waiting for her to kick him out. He had gotten angry texts from mutual friends knowing that she had supposedly been upset with his actions, but he couldn’t go back and change what had happened between the two of them.

They sat in silence as the credits played out before the two of them. Kimber had a feeling that she knew what Tyler would want now that she wasn’t distracted by the movie that she had been playing for the two of them.

“You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how,” he whispered. She looked up at him with a smirk.

“And I suppose that you think that you are the proper person.”

“I might be,” he said not caring to actually finish the full line. He knew, as well as she, that the scene wasn’t about Rhett kissing Scarlett, but he pressed his lips to hers. She could taste the beer, and he could taste the peppermint on her mouth. She closed her eyes slowly just trying to keep this in her memory.

She didn’t know how, or if, things would change a lot during their time apart. She knew he was bound to find a better girl for him back home or maybe even in the South, but he didn’t want to think of her replacement actually being a girl from the South like Scarlett. And as he pulled away, he saw the worry on her face.

“What are we even? I mean, you’re doing whatever you do with girls you just met, and soon you’ll be really far away,” she sighed. “Tyler, if you go, where shall I go? What shall I do?”

He stared at her, not surprised that she really continued quoting the movie. He knew she was a film student and obsessed with her movies, but he didn’t believe that she was still trying to get the quotes in the conversation. He brushed his lips against hers.

“Frankly, my dear, I…. I’d be lying if I said I don’t give a damn. You know I care about you. Hey, don’t pout like that. I fucked up… a lot, but listen to me. We can try to keep seeing each other. I’ll visit you, and you can visit me. There are these handy things called cell phones,” he went on. Kimber cocked an eyebrow. As the TV reverted back to whatever was on cable, they were able to ignore the background noise.

“I don’t know if I can believe that,” she said sadly. He couldn’t blame her. She knew his reputation. She had seen it firsthand having been at parties with him. But she was sure that things could be harder for the two of them.

“What if you came with me to Dallas when I have to go down there?” he inquired. “I mean, not move down there. Just go down when I have to report to the team for media and that whole circus?”

She shrugged. He deserved a yes, but she wanted to talk it over with others. It wouldn’t make sense for her to go down there with him. And he didn’t know about her hatred of the state of Texas. Not that it had any true roots other than the fact that she was not a big fan of the state from when she had been years before.

“Think it over?”

“I’ll tell you some time soon.”

“So do you forgive me for what happened the other day?”

“If I have to.”

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into another kiss. Crushing his lips against hers, tasting the mix of peppermint from her candy and the beer after she had taken a sip of his drink. There was a lot to make up for to her, and he was hoping that now he was going to be able to do it. Kimber was one of the few girls in town that he had gotten really attached to. She was the first one that he had called after the trade. She pulled away, and he looked down at her disappointed.

“What are we?”

“We’re something. I’ll tell you some time soon.”

“I hate you so much sometimes, Tyler. You better tell me soon.”

“How about then I just kiss you often since I know how?”

“I can live with that.”