Don't Forget Me

21

We boarded our final plane that headed down to Buenos Aires. Our seats were in the back of the plane, right next to the bathrooms. Not the perfect location, but the only ones we could get. We were lucky our seats were even together. On our last flight we were separated.

I put our carry ons in the storage above us and crawled into my seat. Steve sat in the seat by the window. He liked it best. I sat down giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. He smiled lightly and rested his hand on mine.

"Last flight." I said hoping to comfort him. Steve didn't have a fear of flying, the man jumped out of planes without a parachute, but he didn't have a good track record with them.

"Finally," he mumbled. He looked out the window and fiddled with his hands. The pilot came on the speaker shortly. I watched the flight attendants go through their safety routine. I clicked on my seatbelt and waited for the plane to take off.

Once we were up in the air I looked out the small window with Steve watching the clouds float by. Steve was being quiet and tense. He was so tense for some reason.

"What's on your mind?" I asked him softly placing a hand on his thigh catching his attention. He looked at me trying to put his words together.

"I don't know." He answered me not looking me in the eye. He rubbed his eyes and closed them trying to get ahold of himself. I lifted the arm rest between us and scooted closer to him. I rested my head on his shoulder wrapped my arm around his.

"Are you worried we won't find him? Or are you worried about something else."

"Both, I can't breath up here." He confessed to me.

"Do you want to switch seats? The isle might give you more air."

"No, no. I just kind of want to jump off this plane right now." He admitted softly laughing off his own anxiety.

"Hey, it's okay to not be okay. We're flying through the air in a tin can." I pointed out

"It's so stuffy in here."

"Yeah, it's got the airplane smell."

"The food is disgusting."

"You don't have to eat it. Try to take your mind off it."

"What if we don't find him?"

"We will," I assured him.

"You're being strangely optimistic about this why?" Steve asked me, I moved my head from his shoulder to get a good look at him. His eyes were trained on mine. He looked tired, and dull even. His hair was sticking out in weird places from his hat.

"I don't know. I mean, we've been separated in so many fatal ways and each time we come back to each other. Does that not say anything to you?" Steve's eyebrows rose in surprise. He smiled and shook his head surprised that I said something like that. It was a strangely optimistic and fate-believing comment for me.

"I think it means the universe wants us to get our shit together." Steve offered making me laugh.

"It'll have to wait a little longer than." I quipped leaning in to lazily kiss him. He hummed against my lips in a hazy reply. I brought my hand to the base of his neck drawing circles on his collarbone as he continued kissing me.

"You know we probably shouldn't give these good people a free show." Steve mumbled lightly kissing my cheek. I laughed and replied giving him a chaste kiss.

"Well at least I got you thinking about something else." Steve made a show of rolling his eyes at me. He didn't even try to hide his smile. He gazed at me in a such loving way that made my heart ache, but the good kind of ache though. I moved my head back to rest on his shoulder.