While Alicia waited for dee to say something, she glanced at Aaron. He was pretending not to be paying attention, but she could see he was looking at her out of his peripheral vision.
"Hi, Alicia. I'm sorry for calling I know your about to fly out."
She frowned. "How?"
"Giancarlo, And Christian. But that's irrelevant, I just, um, wanted to call you? Quickly? " his voice sounded so small and she hated it. She found herself gripping the arm of the seat tightly.
"To say..?"
"I know you've never been on an airplane before, so I just wanted to make sure.. that you were, ugh, okay."
"Oh." She honestly did not know how to react to that, her and dee have been over for months now, but she still felt that pang of sadness.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have called." He stared up at the ceiling of his room with a hand over his face, feelings stupid.
Alicia could hear the flight attendant begin to talk, signaling they were about to take off. Her eyes widened. "I'm sure I'll be fine, dee. Thank you for checking in. I'll talk to you later, okay?"
"Tell me about the flight," he said weakly. The mariners uniform hanging form the closet felt like an extra weight on his chest. He hated it; the west coast was the very reason why they had broken up in the first place.
"Okay, I've got to go. Bye, dee." Aaron was staring out the window, listening intently. She hated that dee hadn't called when she could answer in private.
"See you." As soon as he was sure that she had ended the call, he threw his phone half-heartedly at the wall.
-
"Are you okay?"
Alicia exhaled sharply. "I think so." She put on a smile and continued, "just dee."
"What was he calling about?" Aaron asked, trying his best to sound as subtle as possible.
"He's calling since it's my first time flying."
His jaw dropped. "It's your first time flying?" When she nodded, he said, "are you scared?"
"A little." In reality, she was terrified.
He was about to say something but out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Didi and Miguel, staring at him. When they saw he was finally paying attention to them, Didi mouthed, "Make your move!" Aaron shops his head, glaring at them. Miguel modded, grinning, causing Didi to join in.
Alicia turned around to see Miguel and Didi smiling and putting their thumbs up. She sighed, turning back.
"Um.." Aaron started.
The plane started to shake as the plane took off. A look of pure terror crossed Alicia's face. Afraid that he would somehow mess everything up by speaking, he wordlessly stuck his hand out. She stared at his hand for a moment before she grabbed it, holding tightly.
-
"Welcome to Washington."
When the players started to stand up, Alicia disconnected their hands. It was the first time Aaron had ever made physical contact with her and he could feel his heart beating incredibly fast.
She couldn't stop smiling. "I have to go with Miguel," Alicia told him, "to get our bags."
"Okay," he replied, a dopey grin on his face. She waved slightly and stumbled down the aisle.
Didi came over to him, frowning. "Jesus, man, stop smiling. Y'all cute and all but your kinda creeping me out."
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