Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 93307 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93307 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
“Yepperooski,” I practically cheer before dropping my head into my hands and mouthing myself the riot act.
His footsteps retreat, and I turn back to look at the wanton woman in the mirror.
To the Katy Dayton I know so well, she’s practically unrecognizable.
Right at this moment, I just can’t decide if that’s a good or a bad thing.
Saturday, March 26th
Mack
Today is departure day from Destin. Big Mack and Katy Cat’s spring break vacation has officially come to an end.
I’d usually get up and head to the beach to get in some final ocean time since my flight’s not until one o’clock, but after seeing how yesterday went, I rearranged my morning entirely. I stayed in my room until nine, hoping to give Katy a little time to reach some sort of equilibrium, and then came out ready to reengage her on all the reasons she decided to initiate sex with me in the first place.
But it takes no more than a quick look around upon leaving my room to figure out that Katy has already left the condo.
Her bedroom is empty, her suitcase is gone, and it appears she spent a good part of her morning making sure all the last-day cleaning tasks that are listed on the condo’s agreement were completed.
I don’t know how she managed it all with crutches, but the kitchen is pristine, the living room has been vacuumed, and even the trash has been taken out.
I had planned on doing all that myself after we talked while she read on the beach or relaxed on the couch or whatever else she wanted, but just like yesterday, it seems avoiding me is Katy’s number one to-do list item.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why. Less than thirty-six hours ago, we had hot, perfect, mind-blowing sex that I know we both enjoyed.
But I have to imagine going from hating someone with the passion of a thousand suns to banging them with your coworker’s wrestling glory days looking on is a lot for a control-freak-minded person to handle.
The lack of a condom probably isn’t helping the situation either, but I know from getting the Vicodin she was taking out of her purse for her that she’s also on birth control.
Obviously, I wasn’t thinking about that in the moment of the sex, but I definitely thought about it afterward when I realized how careless I’d been with protection. It’s certainly not my MO.
Still, I understand it’s a hugely personal thing, regardless.
I check the kitchen one last time for a note explaining that she’s left to have another breakfast with her mysterious Destin friend named Shelly Shore—the ridiculous and most likely untrue excuse she gave me yesterday to avoid me—but when I don’t find anything but the welcome booklet and a lone bag of coffee in the fridge, I resolve myself to the fact that she’s gone.
Poof. Just Houdinied herself right out of our shared vacation and back to reality.
I consider taking one last paddle and grabbing lunch with Fred again before I leave, like I did yesterday in Katy’s absence, but something about the view from this empty condo doesn’t make the beach seem appealing anymore.
Time to head to the airport and take a one-way flight back to real life.
It only takes me twenty minutes to get to the airport rental car drop-off, and another ten minutes to sign some paperwork, pay my final bill, and head to the entrance doors of Destin’s airport.
The place is sardine-sized, compared to airports like JFK, but I guess there’s a beauty in that. It’s easy to find the TSA Security checkpoint, and I can even spot my gate on the other side of it through the protective glass.
Once I check my paddleboard with my airline, I roll my carry-on suitcase toward the small line that’s formed within the TSA stanchions, but I only make it halfway toward the line because I spot the early-morning Houdini herself.
Katy sits on a bench near an airline check-in area with her head in her hands and her elbows resting on the top of her rolling suitcase. Her crutches lean against the empty spot beside her.
She’s distraught, and it doesn’t even occur to me to evade her like she’s been dodging me.
“Katy?” I ask when my approach alone isn’t enough to get her attention.
Slowly, she lifts her head from her hands and meets my eyes. “Uh…hi.”
“What’s going on?”
“My flight got canceled.” She blows out a frustrated breath. “And right now, the next flight they can get me on is Monday morning. Though, they told me I could stay on standby for the next forty-eight hours, but I’d just have to make sure I’m at the airport.”
Oh shit.
“Why did your flight get canceled?”
She shrugs. “Staffing shortage or something.”
“And you’re just going to sit here? For God knows how many hours and hope they get you on an earlier flight?”