Like No Other

SAME DAY

Trey wasn't even looking at her face. "My mind is in the perfect place."

She huffed and shimmied just a little when she turned away. She heard Trey doing a warning 'keep playin'' and she snickered a little.

Just as was customary the driver waited until they made eye contact and came close enough before he stuck out his hand and introduced himself. His name was Mr. Harper and his pretty cocoa tan told Emma he'd spent time in the hot Nevada sun for most of his life. She remembered the western hemisphere's sun and how blazing and almost unforgiving it was. But beautiful, Emma reflected for a moment while she inspected the land beyond the windows past the car lanes. Nothing to see so far. Not at all like Arizona...

Mr. Harper was a nice enough man, medium build but shorter than Trey. He volunteered to push the cart and Trey eagerly accepted. Emma suspected his stomach still hurt but he didn't bring it up and she didn't want to ask because he hadn't.

She made her up mind she would ask when they were in the car right after she put her shades on. It was the middle of the afternoon and the sun was high in the sky at a little before eleven that Thursday. Emma followed Harper to the curb and nodded while he explained that he'd just be a moment getting his car. She pulled out her cell and made to call Melanie but Trey stepped up next to her and watched her search for the number.

He put his hand over her phones screen until she looked at him. His face was alight with all the sun coming from the sky and his brown skin looked vibrant and alive. His eyelashes, dark as they were, were bathed in the afternoon light and them along with his hair looked raven black. His bottom lip was so pink it was almost pale.

"Don't bother. If he's here," he nodded towards Harper crossing the street to the parking deck. "She knows we're coming."

She thought about it and had to agree so Emma put her phone away. "How do you feel about this so far?" Emma put a hand over her brows and inspected the car port, people going and leaving the terminal in haste because no one else was important all around them.

"I feel like I wanna know how she knew what time we were supposed to be at the airport," Trey mumbled but Emma picked up. She looked at him and Trey only looked back with a cool, undisturbed nonchalance written all over his face. There was a crease in one of his eyebrows, a slight upturn that made her believe that his stomach was still bothering him. A grimace almost. "Be sharp baby," he advised just as the question really started to sink it. It didn't make sense at all. Her eyebrows creased and she licked her lips to ponder how Melanie might have known aloud.

And suddenly the trip took a turn for more than just one more notch on the belt that they were creating together. This particular perspective client was, Emma began to see for the very first time, outwitting them at their very own game. And very suddenly while she stared at Trey the realization began to read so directly on her face that Trey could do nothing more to confirm her newfound assumptions than nod just barely. They were, in a matter of seconds, at a busy airport, stripped of their rights as the aggressors on this trip.

And Trey's warning to 'be sharp' held so much underlining weight it brought questions of what could only be described as battle tactics to her head.

As soon as he was finished speaking a black stretch limousine pulled up in front of the two of them and their small cart of bags. She turned her nose up a little at the driver now, thinking against her will that he was suddenly on another team. The thought didn't make any since but she didn't dwell on it long. Emma touched her hair and realized as she glanced around that it didn't matter how plain or ordinary you looked when you got into a limousine, people watched you do it. Harper opened the door and Trey grabbed Emma's hand and led her to slide inside before he did. She was careful to hold her dress a little in her other hand for fear of tripping over it even in her wedges. The door closed and the driver went for the bags. Inside the leather was soft and cool. Lights trailed along the ceiling and a small disco ball hung up towards the window to the drivers and passengers. Lights shined from somewhere underneath the seats by their heels. The tinted windows provided an entertaining few moments while people walked in front of the car trying to squint while they talked on the phone to gauge who just made it to Vegas... or who left.