The Fling

54

I knew I needed to quit fidgeting, but I couldn't help it. We'd been in the air for three hours, and despite the comfy first class accommodations, I couldn't relax. Shawn, however, was sound asleep next to me. He'd warned me that he trained himself to sleep on flights during his tour days and couldn't turn the response off at this point, so I knew this would happen. It was good that he wasn't aware of how stressed I was, since that would raise his anxiety. Why hadn't I taken a gummy before we left like he suggested?

My worries were three-fold. I wasn't a fan of air travel and the thought of our plane crashing terrified me. It wasn't because I was afraid of death; it was more about leaving my children motherless. They were already struggling, so losing me would destroy them. My other concern was that something could happen to them while I was in Toronto and unable to get back to Los Angeles quickly. Even if one of them came down with a cold or COVID, I wanted to be home to care for them. Obviously Bert could handle that, but probably not in the way I did. He certainly wouldn't make homemade soup for them. The final cause of my stress was seeing Karen and Manny again. I liked both of them, and they'd seemed to accept me, but I was very aware of how they felt about our age difference.

"Can I get you a drink?" the flight attendant asked me.

I didn't indulge in hard liquor often, but I felt I needed something strong. "A double bourbon and Diet Coke, please. Extra lime."

A few minutes later I was sipping my cocktail and focusing on relaxing, which never really seemed to help. My boyfriend stirred next to me and then he opened his eyes. "Whatcha drinking?" he asked drowsily. I told him and he made a face. "Ruining good booze with diet soda is a sin."

The attendant saw he was awake and soon he had a bourbon of his own, no mixer. He also brought us some hummus and veggies to share, as well as two warm chocolate chip cookies, both of which would be mine since Shawn was not messing with gluten again for awhile.

"The pilot said that we're twenty minutes ahead of schedule," I told him. "Do you need to let your parents know so that they can adjust when they leave to get us?"

He shook his head. "I made some last minute changes to our itinerary. A driver is meeting us and we're spending the first night in my condo. We're both going to be tired, and I figured we'd jump into the family stuff tomorrow after a good night's sleep. My mum and dad are coming to the city to do the Christmas Market with us, and then we'll head to Pickering for the next two nights. We'll spend the final night back at my place. Aaliyah and Jordan will be home from their trip to New York, so we'll do dinner with them after touring Toronto."

Hearing about our plans made me feel good. I liked that we'd have some time alone, and I couldn't wait for him to show me the city he called home. "We should get take-out tonight."

His face fell. "I made reservations at one of my favorite spots."

"Even better. I'll need a little time to shower since traveling makes me feel grungy."

Shawn leaned closer, his lips grazing my earlobe, "We can take one together."

I shivered with anticipation, and magically my anxiety dropped another notch.

The rest of the flight was easier, and before I knew it, we were in a large black SUV being chauffeured to his condo. The driver dropped us off in front and offered to carry our bags up to the eleventh floor, but we insisted we could handle it.
After some small talk with the security guard, we got in the elevator.

"Mum made sure everything is clean and she stocked the fridge," he explained as we took a right down the corridor.

"So spoiled!" I teased.