Plans to Make & Hearts to Break

"Hey, honey!" I grinned. "How's California?"

"Stressful," Danny said simply. "There's so much going on, but at least it's all on track and I should still get home in two days." I could hear the smile growing in his voice.

I grinned as well. "Yay! This week has felt so long. I don't feel like I've heard much from you!"

"It would help if you answered your phone, Nicole." The sentence ended with a small laugh but I knew this was something he'd waited to talk about. I'd never gone an entire day without talking to him while he's traveling, until yesterday.

"Ugh, I know," I rolled my eyes, "I was distracted. Really. I've been trying to finish unpacking."

"So busy that you couldn't even talk for a minute?" He snapped. Ugh. It isn't a big deal.

Slowly, I took a deep breath. After a long exhale, I spoke again. "I can't stay by my phone twenty-four-seven, Danny. I've got to do things, too. It would be so much easier if you'd just stay home once in a while." As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I knew they were the wrong ones.

"Just stay home and do what? Live week-to-week from crappy magazine paychecks?"

"At least I can make plans that don't involve sitting in a chair at thirty-thousand feet." I spoke bitterly. Never in the past has Danny made comments about my writing. I could sustain myself well, and I know he'd seen me do it. "What is this about, Danny?"

I heard him audibly sigh. "All I ask from you is five minutes of your day, to remind myself that I have something to go home to. It sucks when you just ignore my calls."

"And it sucks to have to wait for you to get back from California, New York, Kansas, Arizona, wherever!" I snapped. "All you ask from me is five minutes?" I almost let out one bitter laugh. "All you ask from me is to live on your schedule and stay glued to my cell phone, just in case you call. All you ask is for me to spend weeks at a time worrying that maybe you won't make it home. You're always living in your next trip, even when you are home. All you're asking is that I take second place to a job and an airplane, Danny."

"Dammit, Nicole. You know you're more than that." There was a long pause. "Whatever. Talk to me after you make another stupid blog post about how much being in a 'faux-long-distance' sucks, yeah? I don't wanna hear it."

With that, the line went dead. I bit my lip, fighting back tears. Danny and I never fought. Not like that, at least. We didn't resort to petty insults and raised voices. That's not how we made it as far as we have - we talked through things and sorted out our problems. I stared at the screen of my phone for a moment before trying to call him back - maybe the call just dropped. Who knows. The phone rang twice before clicking onto his voice mail; definitely not just a dropped call.

My first instinct in this situation was to call one of my best friends, Jessica We grew up together, and though we were apart now, she was the one I turned to when my relationships got rocky.

"Hello?" She answered the phone. I attempted to respond, but the dam had broken, and all that got out was a broken sob. "Nicole? What's going on, hun?

"We got in a fight," I finally managed to choke. "Danny's not even home and we got in a fight!"

"Oh no," She cooed. "Are you okay? What happened?"

I explained the story to her with as much detail as I could. By the end of it, I was done crying.

"Well, why didn't you just answer the phone yesterday?" She questioned.

"I was with William," I responded, knowing exactly what her next question would be.

"....Who is William?"

I chuckled. "My neighbor. He's pretty cool. He plays music! I didn't want to answer the phone with him there."

"And you couldn't answer the phone with him there because..." Jessica prompted. I could tell by the tone in her voice that she knew where this was going, but maybe she could talk some sense into me.

"Because he isn't... currently under the impression that I... am in a relationship?" I said slowly.

"Nicole! You need to control your inner flirt." She laughed. "And also make sure that this William doesn't cross any boundaries you might regret."

"Oh, there's no need to worry about that..." I trailed off. Yes, there definitely was.

"Don't tell me. He already has."

"You just told me not to tell you!" I laughed. "But seriously, what's wrong with a little harmless flirting? I won't let anything come of it. I love Danny, I really do. It's just nice to get attention, I guess."

"That isn't fair to Danny, though,." Jessica sighed. "You know it isn't. And it isn't fair to William to use him to fill in Danny's place while he's away."

"You never let me just have fun," I pouted. "But I know you're right. I'll... get him to back off." I guess.

---

Somehow... the total opposite of that happened. As I went through the day, I continued getting more frustrated with Danny. I even tried calling him once more, again for the call to ring and cut to voice mail. How could he belittle what I chose to do for a living and then flat out refuse to speak to me? All of this was so unlike the Danny I loved, and I really didn't like this side of him.

So, in an effort to distract myself, and get some sort of petty, revenge-like feelings, I wound up inviting William over for a movie night. We were sitting very close together on the couch, and the further we got in Lord of the Rings, the more comfortable I got basically cuddling with him on the couch.

"I can leave so you can sleep," William whispered, gently tousling the hair on the top of my head.

"No, no, it's okay," I mumbled sleepily. "I'm still watching. Stay." My eyes were very closed.

"Whatever you say," He spoke softly.

We were quiet again. I'd started dozing off when I swear I felt him place a small kiss on top of my head, much like Danny always did.

Danny. I was laying with Danny, right? We'd been watching a movie. "I'm sorry I was mad at you," I mumbled to him. "I'm sorry. I just... missed you." Finally, the world went dark and I drifted into sleep.