Escaping to Ireland

Liam

Vinessa stayed in my arms as she drifted to sleep. I wanted to find Shawn and beat the living hell out of him. Adultery was uncalled for. No one deserved that type of sneakiness, especially a woman like Vinessa. It sounded that she did love him; at least, she had found that once in her life. Wasn't it better to have something for a short while instead of never at all?

Vinessa stirs a few hours later, taking her head off my shoulder, cracking it from side to side. I no longer was able to stare at her whenever I wanted to. Thanks to the fiery redhead next to me, the morning that had started off horrible had turned into a surprisingly good day.

"Good you are up," I said, looking down at her sleepy eyes "they should be serving lunch soon."

"I had lunch for breakfast," she yawned, stretching her arms out to the side.

"You should still eat." My voice came off as demanding rather than caring.

The flight attendant takes our orders, jotting down a beef salad for Vinessa and the barbeque chicken for me. "Mam, how many hours are left till we land?" Vinessa asked while she was turning away.

"We have about seven hours left, sweetie," she said with a sneer looking down at her. She flipped her hair over her shoulder as she walked away.

"She did not like that." I laughed out to Ireland after the flight attendant is down a few rows taking other orders.

"I have never talked to someone on the plane as much as I have with you," she blurted out. She seemed to have less of a filter when she was tired.

"I know I am charming," I said, turning it into a joke as I wink at her. I only have seven hours left on this plane with her.

"So now... It is your turn," she said, putting her tray down, preparing for the food to come. 

"My turn for what?" I asked, clearly confused about what she was talking about. 

"For your story, who was the lady to destroy your faith in women? You had an outburst. I still remember it even with my two-hour power nap."  

Objecting would have been the easiest thing to do, but this woman had just barely missed having a hysterical breakdown telling me her romantic life story to me. The one I had pressed for, the less I could do is obliged her. 

"Fine. Just because of the pitiful one, I had to hear from you. Where to start...." I am deciding on which story to tell. "It is nothing like your story. Yours was filled with splendid moments; mine does not."

"With your demeanor... No way...." She is the only one to laugh at her own joke. "Please continue."

"I was young and stupid. That will be the theme for this story of mine. Mine does not have a love interest in this story of mine. It is nothing like the one you had. I was rooting for you two, for you and Shawn. I was hoping that you were selfish; and dumb and that there was hope for you to mend things back to what they used to be. I'm sorry that is not the case." I can tell I have taken her off guard by the turn in my candor. Just like Vinessa, I understood that once you broke that trust, there was no going back. Despite everything we want to believe, there is never any going back.

"I was young," I started again to get us away from the serious tone I lead us to.

"Yes, you said that...." 

"I suppose you could say I was naïve. This is the story of Jewel. I was freshly out of college. Had some big plans after all that studying and hard work. Jewel and I met through an internship we were both doing. Well I was doing. Jewel was not picked for it, but she kept coming around. This should have caused me to raise questions. I racked it up to her being a young hard-driven woman. I saw her as the female equivalent of me. She was good looking" I watch a blush come across Ireland's face. "She was smart," I pause to think, "wickedly smart. I didn't know this at that time, though. We worked side by side: running to get the coffee for the higher-ups, setting up conference rooms for meetings, the natural stuff for interns. No one else minded that she was helping even though she would never get credit for this internship; it had to do with the good looks. How you described Hilary – that is how I would have described Jewel. She used what she had to work with. Not slutty or anything, but she used it."