Just Play Along

Eighty-Nine & Ninety

PART EIGHTY NINE

*Aston’s POV*

“Please tell me you’ve packed,” Jess said to me, coming in the front door of the house after work. It was the night before we were leaving for Costa Rica and I could already sense just from seeing her face that she was going to be a bit stressed out about the trip.

“Just because you packed a week ago doesn’t mean I had to.”

“AST!” she shouted, “We’re leaving right away in the morning! You’ve got to do it tonight!”

“I will… I will!”

“Go do it now,” she said, grabbing my arm and dragging me towards the stairs.

“Hello to you too. How was work?” I said, grinning over at her.

“GO!”

I smirked one last time and then made my way to the stairs, taking them two at a time as I ran up to our room. Packing for Costa Rica was easy. It was going to be hot and sunny, which meant I just needed a few pairs of swim trunks, some vest tops, and my ray bans.

“Let’s see what you’ve got then,” Jess said, coming into our room to change from her work dress. She wandered over to my bag, ready to inspect it like a mother would a child.

“Worry about your own bag,” I scolded, throwing a hoody on top of my things and zipping it up.

“But…”

“Holidays are meant to be relaxing,” I told her, “Let’s not get stressed out.”

“I can’t help it,” Jess said, “I want it to be perfect.”

“I know you do,” I smiled, giving her a quick kiss, “And it will be.”

We had a quiet early night, making sure we had everything together for our time away. Jess kept fretting about work, sending off random emails on her phone. I was well excited that her phone wasn’t going to work in Costa Rica, and I was planning on making sure her laptop didn’t make it out of the house.

Awake at a reasonable hour the next morning, we made a simple breakfast, Jess going over our travel documents.

“Oh, before I forget,” she said, passing me a sheet of paper.

“What’s this?”

“Our itinerary.”

I stared down at the sheet of paper, our holiday planned out minute-by-minute in front of my eyes. It was color-coded and everything.

“What?” Jess asked me, “What’s that face.”

“Well,” I started, “We don’t really need this.”

“But…”

“In fact,” I added, ripping the page right down the middle and letting it fall to the kitchen floor.

“AST!”

“We’re going on holiday! Just play along! Do what you feel like doing in the moment.”

“But, we’ve got tours booked.”

“Fab,” I said, “We’ll figure out if we want to go once we get there.”

“But…”

“You might see this villa and decide you are not going to leave the deck all week because the view is that perfect. Or you could hate it and want to do these tours. Just go with the flow babe.”

“I might have an aneurism if I do that,” Jess muttered.

“Just go with the flow,” I repeated, “Now come on, car should be here soon.”