Wash

Back at the airport again, I was dressed in dark-washed jeans and a white, lacy top. My hair was pulled back and held by a sparkly white clip made of seashells, a souvenir from our first stop. Jake was handsomely dressed in a snug black shirt that perf

ectly accentuated every muscle of his chest, tucked into blue jeans and finished off with brown shoes. Muscles bulged in his arms when he picked up my suitcase.

“I got it, Jake,” I said, reaching for my bag, “but thank you.”

He smiled and shrugged. “Just trying to help.”

After checking our luggage, we were told we had a three-hour delay before our flight to Arizona, so I curled up in the airport chair and started tapping away on my laptop, trying to catch up on work.

Jake came over and held a Pepsi out to me. “Still your favorite, I presume.”

I nodded. “I’m surprised you remember. Thank you.”

“I remember more than you know,” he said, sitting down next to me.

I gave him a fake smile and went back to my laptop.

“I see you’re taking your work with us.”

“I’ve got a business to run.”

“Yeah. Are those reports?”

I looked up from my computer. “You’re bored. You’ve always wanted to talk whenever you get bored.”

He inched closer and whispered in my ear, “Remember what we used to do to make time fly?”

I gazed up into his eyes. “You mean when we used to tangle up the sheets?” I said without even flinching and not caring who could hear us; I had no problem embarrassing him in public after the way he’d humiliated me in front of all of the most important people in my life.

“No. It was more than sex. We made beautiful love, and then I’d hold you all night and—”

I stood. “I’m gonna go sit somewhere else,” I said, then hurried to a different seat without even looking back.

As I expected he would, Jake followed me. “You forgot your Pepsi…and I’m sorry if I offended you in any way, shape, or form.” He shifted his stance. “We’re not strangers though, Ashly. We were best friends, and I loved you more than I’ve ever loved anyone.”

My lips pressed into a flat line. “Hmm. And you show it by being a no-show at our wedding? Interesting.”

The intense pain in his face was evident. “I know. I was such an idiot, and that dumb decision cost me the best thing that ever happened to me. What hurt the most was losing my best friend.”

When they called for our flight to board, I felt relieved. I hurried onto the plane, settled down in my seat, and began to flip through a magazine someone had left behind.

“We get to ride donkeys down into the Grand Canyon,” Jake said, “just like the Brady Bunch on that one episode.”

I chuckled softly.

“What’s so funny?”

“It’s ironic that my mother has us riding down on jackasses?” I said. “I’m sure it’s some kind of symbolism from the grave.”

“And what would that be?”

“Think really hard about what a jackass is. It can be a Rocky Mountain canary, burro, donkey, he-ass, jack, male ass, neddy, or, my personal favorite…a Jake,” I muttered under my breath.

“What? Did you just call me a jackass?”

The flight attendant’s voice cut into our conversation. “I have your drink, miss.”

I pointed to an empty seat at the front of the first-class section. “Is there any way I can move up there?” I asked. “I could use a little more privacy.”