Page 97 of It Couldn't Be You
“Wow.” I stood up happily. “Thank you, Doreen! I’m Emma, by the way.”
“I’m happy to help such a cute couple sit together,” Doreen said.
“Oh, thank you,” I said again, stumbling over my words.Do I correct her?
“How long have you two been together?” she asked.
“Since we were kids,” Gabriel answered before I had a chance to think. “I had a crush on her when I was thirteen years old.”
Doreen clutched her heart while I scooted into the aisle. “That is just a Hallmark movie, right there.”
“I’ve always thought so.” Gabriel sighed sweetly. I looped my arm into his. “Thanks again, Doreen. Have a nice flight.”
My seatmate had his headphones on and was on his iPad. He hadn’t looked our way once, and I don’t think he’d even realized there’d been a switcheroo.
Off Gabe and I walked arm in arm to our own row for two. We settled in while people around us found their seats, and the flight attendants walked back and forth, getting everything in place before take-off.
“Hey, Gabe?” My tone was questioning.
“Yeah?”
“I know LA isn’t where you want to be anymore, but do you ever miss it? I had forgotten I wanted to ask you that when we were driving earlier.” I messed with my seat buckle.
“I do miss it, yeah. Not like I miss Sweet River when I’m away, but I miss some of my friends. A lot of people are kind of moving along in their lives, getting married or having kids, getting new jobs, going to grad schools across the country…life just kind of rolling along. I miss the people and how it was when we were all starting out together. I miss the beach, though I didn’t get out to it as much as you’d think. I miss the weather, for sure. I miss the food. There was a ramen place I find myself hungry for almost every day. I miss that first job I had. It was a really cool season of my life.”
“But it was over?”
“I could feel it was ending. It felt like reading the end of a book, the stack of pages getting thinner in your hands, and you know you’re running out of story. It’s wrapping up even if you aren’t there yet.” He leaned back against the seat.
“That sounds kind of sad,” I said softly.
“Not if it was a really good book.” His eyes flashed.
“Book or movie?” I asked suddenly.
“Book,” he said. “You know that.”
“I did.” I pushed my shoulder into his. His hand was on the edge of his thigh, his knuckles against the side of my leg.
My dad always griped about how they “crammed people into planes like a bunch of sardines,” but I was giddy to sit close like this to Gabriel for hours.
After about half an hour of chitchat, I slid my wireless headphones on, and Gabe did the same. I opened my phone and toggled between the Music app and the Netflix app when Gabe grabbed my phone right out of my hands.
“Hey,” I said, reaching across him to try and get it back. He held his long arms up over our heads and tapped on the screen until my ears filled with the sounds of “Adore You” by Harry Styles.
“I remember you and Katie mooning over this song for months, blaring it every time I came home to visit. Truly annoying the whole house,” Gabriel said, turning the volume down a little.
“Here I thought you were trying to say you adore me,” I huffed playfully.
“Well, that, too, of course.” He skipped back in the song a little.“It’s true,” he said, dramatically.
Then I stole his phone and put on “Alone Together” by Fall Out Boy. He broke into a wide grin. I remembered how we would play this song at full volume in his truck with the windows down.
He leaned in close, so I could hear him clearly, and I could feel his breath on my ear as he whispered, “You’re telling me, you want to be alone together?”
I shook my head at him, ignoring his question and the goosebumps all over my arms. I reached for my phone, but he, still scrolling through my music, said, “Wait, wait,” while Harry Styles cooed into my headphones.
After a little more tapping, the song stopped playing, and he floated my phone before my eyes with a note open that asked,Truth or Dare?
