That Blue Gibson: Etc.

Hawaii pt. 1

** For jaclynjoseph,

Girl, I don't even know how to tell you how much I appreciate all your support for my writing. I look forward to your reaction and words every time I hit 'publish'. I could get REAL gushy here, but I just want you to know how much you mean to me. Thanks for literally everything.**

"Stop it, you're making me nervous."

"What, now I can't even look out the window?"

Liz looked up from the script and the line she'd been forced to re-read at least eight times to grip her hand around Dave's bouncing knee, "Just... please sit still."

His muscles went taut beneath her fingers as he sat back in his seat in a huff. 

"Would you rather sit here?" she offered her window seat as nicely as possible, though she was just about to the end of her rope with him. 

They'd left the house late because Owen and Ophelia needed sixteen more hugs, then Liz discovered she'd forgotten to pack her phone charger, then Dave realized he'd forgotten to plug in the Tesla. At that point, his mother was so sick of watching the chaos that she offered to drive them instead, thus saving them time by avoiding the nightmare parking situation at LAX. But by the time they got all the kids into the van and made it to the airport - the same airport that was teeming with autograph hunters and photographers that held them up for another fifteen minutes - both Dave and Liz were feeling a little frayed. Mostly with each other.

"You're mad at me," he muttered, keeping his eyes fixed on the map displayed on the screen mounted into the headrest in front of him.

"I'm not mad at you, David."

"Then why are you ignoring me?"

"Because I'm trying to read."

He was quiet for a beat and Liz sensed he was making sure no one in the first-class seats around them was eavesdropping, "I thought we agreed that we wouldn't work on this trip."

She bit her tongue and swallowed the irritated sigh that was threatening to spew forth. She was aware of Dave watching her as she carefully folded the page corner of the script and reached forward to push it into her carry on, "You're right. I'm sorry."

"I'm so happy you're excited to be on vacation with me, Elizabeth," he said snidely. 

Unable to keep her frustration with him restrained any further, she dropped her voice to a harsh whisper, "Excuse me, but you know damn well that shit like this pops up in my line of work. I'm-"

"Yeah, like your co-star."

He said it under his breath as he turned away, but Liz caught it and leaned forward to call him out, "I'm sorry, what was that?"

"I said," he matched her whisper and looked around them once again, "Your coworker seems to be popping up in more ways than one lately so-"

"Oh my god, you're such a child sometimes! So he lives by us, big deal!" Liz hissed, "He's a nice guy!"

"He's a nice guy," Dave mocked her complete with a head wag but refused to look her in the eye.

So she stared at him long enough to ensure he was starting to feel just a little badly about his attitude, then added, "Nice, David. Real mature."

"Oh, now you want mature? Cause-"

"Last call for drinks before we land!"

All of Liz's irritation whooshed out in a relieved breath and she smiled up at the eager flight attendant parking her drink cart beside Dave, "How much rum does this plane have, exactly?"