“I won’t cause any more trouble,” I joked as I took the ice and squashed it to my wound. I actually didn’t feel a thing; the benefits of alcohol always outweigh the detriments.
“Let us know if you’re feeling dizzy, any nausea, double vision, ringing in your ears,” she requested. “Seeing things.”
“Got it.” I nodded.
“Taking off in just a few minutes,” she replied kindly.
My eyes fluttered closed as she disappeared and the attention on me subsided. Which only reminded me how wickedly tipsy I was when my entire equilibrium shifted and the shuttle started spinning. God damn Natalia for being right, and fuck me for thinking I could house a couple hours’ worth of drinks in a couple minutes on an empty stomach. That airplane paper bag was whispering to me.
I slid the ice down my face to rest on my neck and keep from overheating and through half-lidded eyes a familiar mop of brown hair and a faded black hat waved into focus down the aisle.
I sat up, too fast. “Frankie?”
Maybe I hit my head harder than I thought.
“No, my name's Karl,” the man sitting beside me said. “You sure you’re okay?”
I blinked hard, sobering miraculously fast, the pulse in my neck picking up in my ears.
“I’m fucking seeing things, Karl.” My fingers clamped around the metal armrests and my gut twisted the closer he came. Until it was undeniable that Frankie was stalking toward us, head shifting side to side scanning the already filled seats. “Frankie!” I shouted louder.
He looked up, nostrils flaring and gaze hooking onto mine. I could tell he was out of breath from running. He lifted his hat, passing a shaky hand through his hair and replacing it with renewed determination.
“What are you doing here?” My mind raced. “Why are you—”
“I don’t want to wait until the end of the month to see you.”
Every single humming conversation came to a deafening halt around us.
My lips parted, astonished. “What?”
“He said he doesn’t want to wait until the end of the month to see you,” Karl reiterated from between us.
“I—thank you, Karl. I think I got this.” I actually couldn’t believe what I was seeing, that he was standing in front of me. The plane was about to take off to Colorado, which meant…
He came for me.
“I don’t understand,” I told him. “I thought…”
“It’s simple,” he started, fingers fidgeting at his sides. He took a deep, centering breath. “I don’t want to be away from you. I don’t want to wait to have you again. I don’t want to waste another day of this weird, insane, intense fucking thing that we’ve made together.”
Karl nodded intently, nudging me with an elbow.
“I don’t want you to go back to Colorado and eventually date other men, because I don’t want to stay in Coconut Creek and date other women. Okay? I—” His brow deepened and he took a step closer. “What the fuck happened to your head?”
“Oh.” My hand instinctively shot to the blossoming bruise on my forehead, shielding it from scrutiny. “Is it bad?”
“Got her good with my boot,” Karl informed him.
Frankie massaged the bridge of his nose with one hand as he dug into his pocket with the other, pulling a crumpled airline ticket from his pants and handing it to the man beside me. “Can we do a trade? I have a great seat a few rows back.”
Karl unwound the ticket and shrugged at it.
“What about now?” Frankie dug back into his pocket for a wallet and cash.
Karl finally stood and swiped the small fold of bills out of Frankie’s hand.
“You’re insane.” I huffed a sigh of disbelief as he dropped down next to me. “What are you going to do? The job, your mom—”
“I don’t care. I don’t care about anything right now but this, O. I care about you, and being with you, and figuring it out one day at a time. But what I don’t need to figure out anymore is—” He cupped my face gingerly, battling with his next thought. I got lost somewhere in his eyes waiting for it. “Fuck it—I’m in love with you.”
An atom bomb must’ve exploded inside my body. The waves of that confession ricocheted from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. I lit up like a firework. “You’re…”
“I love you,” he repeated. “I love you, Ophelia. I said I wouldn’t get attached. I said I wasn’t ready for anything serious. I lied, okay? I lied about every last bit of it. Because I knew the second I met you I was fucked forever.” Frankie’s thumb swiped gently down my jaw over and over again. “Forever.”
My throat was so dry it took several seconds of swallowing around the lump stuck there to whisper out those three profound and necessary words. “I love you.”
“Yeah?” he breathed, as if worried I wouldn’t feel the same. Stress evaporated from his face and his fingers slid into the hair at the nape of my neck. Something was shaking—his hands, maybe.
“Yes,” I confirmed eagerly, brushing his nose with mine. “What the fuck, Frankie. Yes.”
All that love poured out of the two of us in a desperate kiss. I wound my arms around him, pulling him closer, my hip digging into the armrest. My head still throbbed, but every single thing was right in the world despite it. I was in love. And I knew that before Frankie ever said it. I was in love with a man who chose me over everything else—his fears, his family, his past—and he was in love with me, too.
A crescendo of applause broke out and all eyes were on us around the cabin, peeking over seats, hiding behind cell phones. The flight attendants waited enamored, but impatiently, for the show to be over. I laughed into the crook of Frankie’s neck and the bill of his hat hid us away as he curled over me, picking up the forgotten bag of ice and running it over my head tenderly.
“Can’t leave you alone for five minutes, Trouble.”
“I agree.” I said. “You should never, ever leave me alone again.”
“I’m glad you said that, because I am in dire need of a place to stay.”
“I’m sure we can figure something out.” I shrugged casually. “You did share your bed with me in my time of need.”
Frankie leaned down and kissed me softly again. “You think they’d notice if we snuck off to the bathroom?”
Heat flecked my cheeks and I bit back a grin. “You never quit.”
“Never,” he said. And that was a promise.
The deafening beat of helicopter wings whirling above the cockpit stuck my already terrified body to the copilot’s seat like glue. I couldn’t hear myself think, let alone Frankie shouting at me from across the landing pad as he hopped into the humming aircraft with a round green helmet and placed it snugly over my head.
“How’s it fit?” he asked.
I tugged the buckles down on both sides, fumbling with the snaps while my ever so helpful and impatient boyfriend batted my hands away and secured the heavy helmet effortlessly. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” I shouted back. Frankie patted my head and knelt down between my knees so we were level. “Does your boss know you’re doing this?”