Page 12 of Excitable Boy
Chapter Four
Once Tony and Mike were standing in a security checkpoint line even longer than the previous one, Tony texted his friend that his flight was once again delayed and could they meet him tomorrow?
Then he made the call he dreaded.
Shayla sounded bright when she answered the phone. “Are you about to board, Sir?”
“Not exactly, pet. Scratch the order I gave you about the butt-plug.”
“Why?”
She sounded near tears when he finished the update, and he couldn’t blame her, because he was close to crying himself. “The bad news is, all flights are on hold, for now. The good news is we probably won’t miss our flight because all flights are on hold, for now.”
“Did you break a mirror or something?” she asked. “Walk under a ladder? Piss off an old hag?”
Tony sighed. “No, but Mike jinxed us.” Tony glared at him.
“Sorry,” Mike said.
Tony got off the phone with her and settled in to slowly shuffle their way through the checkpoint. It was over an hour later before they finally made it back to the boarding gate, where there was hardly anyone yet.
They checked in—again—with the gate agent.
“Pleasetell me we haven’t missed our flight?” Tony asked.
She looked grim. “No, because it’s still sitting on the tarmac. We’re waiting on a new flight crew to become available. The crew slated to work this flight are all out with food poisoning. They ate at the same buffet last night. It’s going to be at least two to three hours.”
Mike held up his hands. “Can’t blame this one on me, Tony. I didn’t say a word.”
Motherfucker.
* * * *
Shayla stared at Tony’s text message and burst into tears.
Motherfucker.
Couldn’t they catch a goddamnedbreak?
So much for car shopping today.
At this rate, she’d be lucky if they got home before dark.
It would be funny under nearly any other circumstances, a comedy of errors.
It became exponentially less funny with every passing hour, however, and especially considering how long they’d been separated to start with.
Mike’s wife Jenny called her. “You know, I can go get Mike,” she offered. “So you two can be alone. You’ve got to be climbing the walls.”
“No,” Shayla said. “It’s okay. I don’t mind picking Mike up, too.” She sighed. “I appreciate it, and obviously I’m not going to tell you that you can’t go get your husband from the airport if you want to, but you drove Tony to the airport. I don’t mind bringing Mike home.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah.” Shayla flopped over on the couch, where she’d been sitting and working when she’d received the news of their latest disappointment. “They’ll get home eventually.”
“At this rate it wouldn’t shock me if they rented a car and started driving,” Jenny said.
“God, I hope not. That’d be like two freaking days.”
