"Why the Day-Glo purple?" Dave asked, nodding to Anna's cast on her right wrist. They were waiting in mid-morning traffic on the I5, the Space Needle just to the west and Seatac further to the south.
She laughed a little then winced, touching her cut lip softly with her other hand. "The nurses kept coming in to gawk at me," she explained. "I think they expected me to choose black because what beaten woman wants a bright purple cast?" She forced another giggle, but it was short-lived.
He smiled only because he knew she wanted him to and reached over to hold her hand. They hadn't directly discussed what had happened with William and he sensed she wasn't going to bring it up, so he would just have to patient. As promised, he spent the night before in his office with the door locked, booking Anna a first class ticket back to DC and angrily destroying his hearing with the loudest metal he could blast through his headphones.
"I hope I'm not causing you any trouble," she said quietly.
"Not at all," he muttered, distracted by the semi-truck trying to merge in front of them.
"You're not wearing your ring."
He felt his heart pick up speed. "Things have been... weird for a while now."
"Oh," she whispered. "I'm so sorry. I would have thought you'd be halfway through those eight kids by now."
He laughed a little and turned his car onto the SeaTac exit. "No, turns out that's only a promise I made to you, Anna."
*
"Thanks for dropping me off," Anna said, watching him pull her bag from the trunk of his car.
He only smiled and ignored her outstretched hand, throwing her bag over his shoulder and walking past the sliding glass doors. He knew SeaTac airport better than his own home, having flown in and out of it what felt like hundreds of times in the past five or six years. Heading straight toward the gate that was on Anna's ticket, he waited for her at the bottom of the escalator with a smug grin.
"You don't have to walk me all the way there," she insisted.
"I know. I want to, though."
They breezed through the metal detectors and made it to her gate with a few minutes to spare. Anna sat gingerly down in a black vinyl chair and winced when she leaned back. Dave set her bag at her feet, trying to pretend like he hadn't noticed. He still hadn't decided what he was going to do about Will, but he was happy he had Anna as a distraction to keep him from going ballistic in the meantime.
"So what's waiting for you at home?" he asked awkwardly.
She forced a grin and folded her arms across her chest. "Mom and Dad found me a place and I have a couple jobs lined up. It'll be nice to be home for the holidays for once."
"You're not going back to the record shop?" he teased. Just thinking about that place put him in a better mood.
"I'm sure Dad will make me work the weekends," she giggled.
They called for her flight to begin boarding and she sighed heavily while picking up her bag. He stood between her and the gate, a hopeful smile on his face when he noticed the small crowd gathering behind her.
"Thanks again, David," she said softly. "For being here for me... it means a lot."
He wanted to kiss her, tell her that he would be there for her no matter what, but he had already been recognized and people were staring. "Have a safe flight, okay? Call me when you get back home... maybe swing by my mom's and tell her I'm behaving myself."
She laughed as best she could and tucked her hair behind her ear. "I'd never lie to your mother like that, kitten."
They called for last boarding and she reached out to squeeze his arm before walking around him to the gate. She disappeared down the ramp and he nearly lost his breath at how badly it hurt to watch her go.
*
Anna stared down at the first class seat, silently scolding herself for letting David book her ticket. Of course he'd put her in first class, she should have known. The flight attendant helped her stow her bag and she settled into the window seat, untangling the wire of her headphones from the metal headband so she could listen to her CD player. She felt the air change in the cabin when the doors closed and sealed, but the plane remained stationary at the gate long enough that Anna was beginning to wonder if something was wrong. Peering out the oval window back at the wings, she felt the cabin air pressure shift again, then seconds later David dropped into the empty aisle seat next to her.
"Sorry," he said between catching his breath. "I was feeling really homesick all of a sudden."
YOU ARE READING
Another Five Years
Fanfiction"Is your boyfriend in a band?" "Oh, I don't date guys in bands." "Is that a hard and fast rule?" David and Anna are young, ambitious and in love. Life inevitably pulls them apart, but when they cross paths again they find that nothing between them h...
