AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We’ve upgraded. No more hiding and sitting on the floor.”
“No, we get actual chairs now,” she chimed in, opening her chair and hesitating. “Let’s open the hangar doors and sit in the dark so we can see the stars? I love being outside and just don’t get to do this often enough.”
He nodded, moving to operate the hangar doors, and they both stood quietly as the massive doors unfolded, moving upwards on the track into the ceiling.
“Do you still fly?”
“Yeah, when I can,” she admitted. “Sometimes the classes here go late – or I get out of the office and I’m just too tired.”
“Hunching over all those filthy mouths,” he teased, smiling at her as they sat down, and he extended the box towards her. “Pizza?”
“Please, because I was still seriously hungry and couldn’t believe they actually interrupted us,” she grinned, taking a slice and indulging in a bite as she slouched down in her seat. “Yeah, sometimes they are filthy. Lots of gingivitis sometimes… ugh. I’m big on flossing and hygiene.”
“I wondered,” he chuckled, looking at her sideways. “Did my gums pass the test?”
“You, Toby, are an avid flosser – and I could tell.”
“But did I pass?” he asked again, pointedly.
“Yeah, you did…” she admitted softly, meeting his eyes.
“About time I did something right in your book,” he replied, his voice quiet as he looked away, up at the sky.
Samantha stared at his profile, realizing that it would be all too easy to slip into a different role, moving from friend to girlfriend, because she was finding herself wondering what a relationship with him would be like.
Tonight had been wonderful, despite the interruption by her family, and she had never felt such peace in her soul as she did now, just sitting with him here, doing something as simple as gazing at the stars…
“You did nothing wrong,” she whispered, still watching his profile… only to see him turn slowly to her. “It was always me, Toby. I get scared.”
“Of me?”
“Of me…” she breathed openly. “I’m afraid to get hurt – and I think you are the one person in the world that could do it.”
“Oh Samantha,” he said, his voice aching as he turned to her. “You are the one person in the world I would give up everything for…”
“How? Why?” she asked fearfully, her eyes searching his. “We don’t even know what any of this is and you’ll be gone in a few weeks… and I’ll be here.”
“Alone,” he finished.
“Yes.”
“So, because you’ve got things all mapped out in your mind, how things will go, what will happen, and what the end result will be… we don’t even try to see exactly what this is?” he asked softly. “That doesn’t seem right.”
“And what would you do?”
“I would give it my all, try as hard as I could, and pour everything into each moment knowing it was worth it in the end… not quitting before things ever started because you are scared.”
“Of all the… I’m not…” she sputtered in frustration, hopping to her feet and dropping her half-eaten slice of pizza in the box that lay open on the ground between them.
“Show me then,” he goaded, getting to his feet, and matching her stance. “Show me that spirited girl hiding in there isn’t a quitter… that she’s still willing to steal her aunt’s Hershey bar because it makes her happy and to heck with the consequences.”
“You don’t understand…”
“Yeah, I do,” he replied, taunting her. “Little Toby Saxon isn’t good enough in your father’s eyes – and we don’t dare disappoint daddy-dearest, do we?”
“Stop it!”
“Why? Cause it’s true? Daddy might get mad – so you give up before even giving this a shot? What are you going to do when your uncle gives him the update? What are you going to say to him when I take you home?”
