Under Normal Circumstances

We'll Meet Again part 3

What a charmer he was. They'd hung on every word, asking questions, even laughing. I was able to learn a few new things too. They all went on and on and I listened and watched them, occasionally answering a question or telling part of a story. Slivko made it possible for me to talk with my family about the island and the trip without them shutting down. I'm glad they were so tired though, or else they may have caught on to the way he would look at me so adorably or the fact that they'd only seen one of each of our hands all night.

He hadn't let go of me for a second. He'd held my hand, rubbed the back of it with his thumb, used both hands to play with my fingers and tickle my palm. I had to bite back smiles and giggles and shivers.

"So, Maybelle," Grace said after a moment of comfortable silence had fallen on us. "If you want to, you can come stay with Billy and I again. Only if you want to, you can take some time to think about it."
She had an apologetic tone to her voice as if she thought I really might not want to.

"Please come Auntie May!" Billy begged. "I miss you!"

My heart broke at his pouting face.
"Well how could I say no to that?" I responded.

"Yay!" Billy cheered.

Slivko looked over at me like 'there, you see? It wasn't that bad.' Oh dear, did we really have our own telepathy already?

"Speaking of home," dad piped up, his gaze directed at Slivko. "I thought you were on your way to yours. Do you need a place to stay?"

"Ah, thank you sir," Slivko blushed and seemed a little embarrassed. "I missed my first flight and they reassigned me to a red eye at midnight."

As he told this little fib he was fiddling with my ring finger.

"Oh it's already 10:40," mom pointed out almost nervous. "And you need almost half an hour just to get to the airport. Honey, should they leave now do you think?" She asked Dad.

"Well, it looks like he can skip luggage," dad said, rubbing the stubble that was already forming on his face, the scratchy sound clearly audible. "They probably have a few minutes still."

He started to talk cars with Slivko, again, I didn't really mind, however, because I really had his attention as I wound my finger round his wrist between my hair tie and his skin. When dad asked him his opinion on motorcycles his voice almost cracked and he had to clear his throat.

After a while Pearl came by to check on us and let us know her shift would be ending in five minutes.

"You have the short shift tonight?" I asked her, looking behind me at the clock.

Panic rose as I realized it still read 10:40.

"Oh that clock is broken," Pearl informed me of the fatefully obvious. "It's just about 11:30."

"Oh dear," mom gasped while Grace just looked wide eyed at us.

"Well better get a move on," Dad told me and Slivko. "We'll get Jared home before Elizabeth has a heart attack, and you be safe and come straight home after you drop him off, do you hear?"

Oh yes! What I heard was "Time alone with Slivko."

"Yes, I will," I promised quickly, nearly ejecting myself from my seat. I had to get us out of there before he realized what he'd said.

With Slivko hot on my heels we booked it out of the diner. The chill night air hit my skin as we opened the diner door and gave me a burst of energy.

"Keys," I smiled widely at Slivko as we quick stepped through the parking lot.

He pulled them out of his pocket and tossed them to me over the roof of the car. We both wore smiles threatening to get out of control and let out a sigh of relief as we closed the doors behind us and stared at each other for a second.