Just Play Along

Eighty-Nine & Ninety

“Fine,” Jess sighed, throwing her papers into her bag. I was sure she had twelve more copies of her itinerary, and I was determined to rip all of them in half.

As Jess ran around the house making sure she had everything, I snuck over to her carry on bag, checking to see if her work laptop was in there. Sure enough it was, and as discreetly as I could I slipped it out, hiding it in a kitchen cabinet. Hopefully she wouldn’t notice until after we’d left the house and were well on our way to the airport.

“Car’s here!” I shouted through, grabbing Jess’ carry on bag and throwing it over my shoulder so she couldn’t look in it. I threw my backpack on and grabbed my suitcase, waiting by the front door.

“Got everything?” Jess asked, scanning through her purse.

“Yup, including your carry on, let’s go.”

Jess grabbed her suitcase and together we took the lift down the stairs and loaded our things up into the car. In a moment of inspiration I threw Jess’ carry on in the boot so she couldn’t see it.

At the airport we checked in and then headed for security.

“Make sure to take out laptops,” the security guard reminded us.

I grabbed out my MacBook and put it in a bin, cringing as I heard Jess behind me digging through her bag.

“Oh my god. Aston. Oh god.”

“What?” I asked turning to her.

“My work laptop is gone. Someone stole it.”

“I thought I told you not to bring it? This is a holiday. No work.”

“Well I packed it and it’s gone!” she said, clearly having a bit of a freak out.

“Relax,” I told her, throwing my bag on the conveyer belt, “I put it in the cabinet next to the fridge.”

“You what?!” she asked, just as I was beckoned to pass through the security line.

She followed after me with a massive scowl on her face. “What did you do?”

“I said I put your laptop in the cabinet by the fridge.”

“But…”

“You aren’t allowed to bring any work!” I told her, “And you totally tried to!”

“I can not believe you!!” she said shocked. She punched my arm, but I hardly felt it.

“Believe it baby,” I laughed, “Now relax, Jeremy has got things under control.”

We wandered up to the executive lounge to wait for our flight, Jess still in a strop about her laptop.

“I think I’m going to have to come up with a punishment for you, every time you mention work.”

“I won’t,” Jess said.

“Well maybe, just to be sure…”

“Whatever you’re thinking of a punishment I’m not doing it,” Jess said.

“You never make things easy,” I laughed.

We sat in the lounge for a good hour before our gate was called. We were flying first to Miami and then connecting down to Costa Rica, so with our long travel day in mind we opted to book more comfortable seats in business class.

Since we were flying against the time change it was hard for either of us to sleep on the way over the Atlantic. I put on my movie player, trying to get into a film as Jess read through a guidebook.