Chapter 11
chapter eleven
Jude
Today's vocabulary word: resigned
Audrey baked scones.
She offered me one in the early morning cab to the airport, and when I didn't immediately respond,she rattled off a list of the ingredients and presented an overview of the merits of oat flour.
I didn't have a single reason to pass on a homemade scone but I did, and I was enough of a dick about it that she put the container away and stared out the window the rest of the ride.
Yeah, I was taking to this fiancée thing real well.
It didn't get much better at the airport. Our conversation consisted of thanks when I grabbed her bag out of the back of the car and then there's the gate. We kept our rolling luggage positioned between us like a demilitarized zone with snipers on the roof.
I figured it was really fucking early and travel was a hassle and I'd been a dick about the scones. That was all. None of this was a sign that I'd made a terrible mistake in putting her up to this and we'd live to regret everything.
But I needed her to stop being so goddamn polite.
Stop thanking me for handing her a damn bin in the security line and waiting while she filled her water bottle and pointing out some empty seats near the gate.
Stop shifting her body away from mine when she crossed her legs and stop quietly reading her book like we were strangers who happened to be stuck waiting at the same gate.
I just wanted her to fucking stop it all.
I didn't want this cool, smoothed-down—smothered—version of her. I wanted the truth, the unpolished, imperfect honesty of hers that she liked to pretend didn't rumble right under the surface.
She could hack me to pieces with an axe and I'd prefer it. And I knew I couldn't take a whole week with her like this. I didn't trust myself to last the hour.
Since the one thing that always caught the attention of the little demon hiding behind the porcelain doll facade was picking a fight, I leaned forward, my elbows on my thighs. "Hey. Listen," I said, the words razor-sharp. "This isn't going to work if—"
"Announcement in the terminal," a robotic voice called. "Please be aware all flights are grounded until further notice due to air traffic control communication outages along the East Coast."
After a beat of silence, the terminal exploded into chaos. People rushing the gate agents, garbled announcements reiterating that we weren't going anywhere anytime soon, everyone talking at once.
Well, fuck.
Audrey closed her book, a finger holding her place, and turned to me. "It sounds like you're right." She glanced at the passengers swarming around the gate agents and the long lines of people who didn't have the stomach for this shit show and were exiting the terminal. "This isn't going to work."
I held up a hand. Usually, I liked it when she slapped me with my own words but all I felt now was panic. She could be as polite and porcelain as she wanted as long as we were airborne before the end of the day. "Let's give it a couple of hours."
She arched a pale brow. "Your fix-it abilities now include air traffic control systems?"
"Just give it some time. I'm sure this will all blow over and we'll be on our way soon enough. These things happen all the time."
They did not happen all the time and we both knew that.
With a resigned sigh, she said, "Okay. We'll give it a few hours."