Infliction

8

I find Tess frying eggs in the kitchen. I take out the kettle and she gives me a weird look before adding bacon to the eggs. She starts humming to a song out of tune and although it slightly irritated me, I started humming too.

I set the table and she dishes most of the bacon in a plate and slides it over to me. I give her a weird look I see that most of the fatty bacon is on my plate.

"I don't want to gain weight," she says, smiling mischievously.

"And neither do I. Did you see my sexy build?"

"No, I haven't actually. Are you hiding it under that layer of fat?" she asks innocently as she points at me with a streak of bacon.

"That really hits home," I fake pain as I put a hand over my chest.

"You wanna divide equally?" she asks, gesturing to the food.

"You bet I do." We divide the bacon and engage in a conversation, or say debate, because she kept stating her opinion on everything. After that we clean up and she goes to her mom's room. I go to Tess' and take our bags to the car.

"Please take care of yourselves," Julia says from behind me, making me jump and hit my forehead against the boot.

"Don't worry about it," I reassure her with a smile as I rub the bump. I reach into my pocket and pull out the box with a necklace I bought her on my way here. I hand it to her and she looks in it before shaking her head and returning it to me.

"Please accept it-"

"It must have cost you a fortune."

"It was no trouble at all." It had her name engraved on it and small little diamonds along the chain.

As I clip it around her neck, I couldn't help compare her to my mom back home. Somehow, within just a few hours, Julia filled the void my mom couldn't over the past years. And for that I'd be grateful to her. Tess cleared her throat politely and gave her mom a hug.

When they pull apart, she admirs her mom's necklace with pure affection, and I couldn't help wonder how she'd like the one I had made for her. I'd also have to find the perfect time to give it to her.

"Take care," Tess says to her mom as I held the door open for her.

"In case of emergency," I say as I handed Julia my card with my private number, home address and home number before we left.

We drive off in a comfortable silence as Tess stars out the window. The window was down so her hair was flying in different directions but she just sat there with her chin rested on her hand, not seeming to care one bit. I glanced briefly in her direction and couldn't help wonder how I got lucky to meet her.

"Please stop staring," she says monotonously with a smile on her face.

"That proves to be an impossible task," I retort as I pull up in the airport's parking lot. I send a quick text to my friend to let him know who I'd be leaving the keys with.

We sling our backpacks over our shoulders and drag the suitcases behind us into the airport. I look at the time board and see that out flight is already here. We join the queue and get on the plane.

"Hello," Tess whispers to the flight attendant who turns swiftly and looks between Tess and I before smiling. "Can I swap seats with-"

"No, you can't. We'll take off in a bit," she says rudely and I watch as Tess' eyebrows shoot up.

"But-"

"Excuse me, but I have to do my job of attending to other passengers," she doesn't even give Tess a chance to speak as she walks away.

"I don't want the window seat," Tess whispers to me, her eyes begging me to do something about it.

"We can't stand up now," I whisper back and tightly hold her hand.

"I'm gonna puke if I sit here," she warns me and I immediately unbuckle my seat and pat my lap to let her sit on top of me. She doesn't hesitate and as she sits on me, I move to the side and keep my head down as I stand up and crouch, sit in her seat and buckling up. She leans in and whispers 'thank you' in my ear, making me turn to her and smile.

~~~

"What would you-" the same flight attendant comes to Tess' side to take her order, but pauses when she sees Tess in the spot I was in and vice versa. "I thought I told you-"

"And I didn't listen," Tess says with sass, rolling her eyes. "Oh, and since you're doing your job, I'll have the Greek salad with no cheese but lots of tomatoes and cucumber," she says to the attendant who just exhales exasperatedly and turns to me.

"And what would you like, handsome?" she says and I raise an eyebrow. She is being rude to Tess but kind to me?

"My partner ," she says slowly as she takes my hand and intertwines it with hers, "will have the Mediterranean salad, but go soft on the olive oil," she orders with a chirpy tone. The attendant is about to walk away when Tess calls her back. I can see the attendant is becoming irritated, most specially because she keeps staring at our hands.

"Do you perhaps have almonds?"

"No."

"Walnuts?"

"No."

"Pecan?"

"No."

"Cashew? Pistachio?"

"No!" She raises her voice, unintentionally drawing the attention of the other passengers.

"But you're after his nuts?" she keeps her voice calm as she stares the flight attendant down.

"This just got real," I whisper to myself as I look elsewhere.

~~~

The plane lands after 21 hours and we collect out luggage. I hold her hand in mine as we walk out and the sight of a black car drives roughly across the street. What catches my attention is that it's speeding directly towards Tess and I, and Tess isn't even paying attention to the road.