Patience

Eighteen

I leaned against the doorway in the kitchen, listening anxiously to Axl on the phone.

"Hey, Lucy, I just got word on tour dates!" Axl said after hanging up the phone.

"When do we start?" I asked.

"Next week. We start in Hollywood then we're off to London," Axl said.

"Oh my god! I can't wait! I've never been out of the country before," I told him.

"We'll be in London for a little over a week because we have three shows. So, plenty of time for sightseeing," Axl said.

"Wait a minute," I began, "That means I'm going to have to quit my job, doesn't it?"

Axl nodded. "Probably. We'll be gone for several months. You won't need your job, anyway. We're making it big time, baby!"

I sighed. "Okay. I should probably go do that as soon as I can, then," I said.

"Are you going now?" Axl asked.

"Yeah, why not?" I shrugged, "Probably should get it out of the way."

"Here," Axl said, tossing me his car keys, "take my car."

I kissed Axl on the cheek on my way out the door. Then, I hopped in his car and took it to work. At work, I ran into Amy, which surprised me because neither of us were scheduled to work that day.

"Hey," I greeted Amy.

"What are you doing here? It's your day off, isn't it?" She asked.

"I was about to ask you the same thing, but yeah, but the band is going on tour for months and I need to quit my job," I said, "So why are you here?"

"Well," Amy smiled, "Steven asked me out, so the two of us are now a thing and I'm going on tour, too."

"So, you're here to quit your job, too?" I asked, growing excited.

"Yes, I am," Amy said to me.

After the two of us finished dealing with an angry manager for who knows how long, we said our goodbyes to our other coworkers, and hung up our aprons. Then, I was out the door and back to the apartment.

That evening, when I got home, Axl was outside smoking, this time on the balcony of the new apartment, so I decided to join him.

"Your car keys are on the counter," I told him, walking onto the balcony.

"Good. I was afraid you'd lose them," He laughed. I rolled my eyes while taking a cigarette and lighting it.

"Look at how pretty the sunset is over the ocean," I said.

"Yeah. It's almost as pretty as you," Axl told me and I giggled and shook my head.

"But really," Axl said, "You are beautiful, you know."

"Yeah, but so are you," I told him.

"Hey, do you want to go down to the beach?" Axl asked me.

I put out my cigarette. "Yeah, that sounds fun," I smiled, and we both walked out of the apartment, and down to the beach.

The sun was setting, and it was almost dark. The tide was slowly getting higher. Axl and I walked along the shore, hand in hand. We walked in the wet sand, just where the ocean would touch our feet, wash away, and then touch our feet again.

"Hey, look!" I said, letting go of his hand and running toward a seashell. I held it up. "Look how big this one is! Isn't it pretty?"

Axl laughed. "Now I need to find one, too," He said. He took off in the opposite direction of me.

I held on to the conch shell I found as I watched Axl. He rolled up his pant legs and shirt sleeves and went into the water. He reached down into the water, pulling out a perfect scallop shell.

"For you," He said, holding out the shell to me. I walked over to him and took it.

"And for you," I smiled, holding out the shell I found for him.

Axl set his shell down away from the tide, and I set mine beside his. Then, Axl grabbed my hand and began running toward the water.

"Axl, what the hell are you doing, I don't want to get wet!" I yelled and he just laughed.

"Come on, lovely Lucy, it's fun!" He said. We were ankle deep in the water. However, our sides were wet from the waves brushing past us.

"Axl, I'm soaking wet," I told him, looking down at myself.

"That's exactly what I like to hear," He said, winking at me.

The sun had finally gone down, and it was dark. The only lights we had were the moon and the stars above us.

"Come on, let's go out some more," Axl said and we pushed through the waves and walked into waist deep water.

A wave came past, making me lose my balance, and Axl chuckled and caught me. I looked up at him and smiled. Then, he leaned in to kiss me. We stood there, holding onto each other like we weren't in the middle of the ocean, and didn't need to worry about riptides, or the big wave about to hit us.

We were swept up by the large wave, breaking up our kiss. We were both carried to shore. We had sand in places we didn't want it, but that's okay, because we were in this together.

Axl helped me up and we kissed one more time. Then, we picked up our seashells, and made our way back to the apartment.

At the apartment, the two of us cleaned ourselves up and then we got ready for bed. Instead of going to my room, I went to Axl's room, which surprised him.

I got in bed with him and snuggled up to him. He put his arm around me.

"What's this, lovely Lucy?" He asked me.

"Am I allowed to sleep in here?" I asked him.

"Of course you can, doll," He said, placing a kiss on my forehead.