Escaping to Ireland

Vinessa

"Deal," Liam said as I was already loading scrabble on my tablet, preparing to play. Sleeping would have been nice since I had hardly gotten any in the last week. But any time I shut my eyes, there were Shawn's blue eyes staring at me. Playing scrabble with an Irish man in a suit was a better trade than having to see those eyes.

"Why do you travel dressed up?" I asked him, thinking about his clothes.

"Why do you ask?"

I shrugged my shoulders, "It just seems like you get extra attention over it. The Rolex" I rolled my eyes at this. "The shoes... Seems like you like the attention."

He smirked at this. "If I get extra attention, I do not notice it. You want nothing to do with me." He said matter of factly, almost disappointed. "I didn't have you swooning all over me when I stepped on. I seem to remember a very upset redhead when you saw me."

My hands flew up to my hair, "First of all, it is not red; it's auburn. And second of all, I'm sorry I don't swoon over annoying Irish men."

"Annoying?" his smile touched both of his eyes. "This is a first for me."

"I highly doubt it... Just concentrate on the game."

To the middle of the game, I am killing him by forty points quickly, but I receive low point tiles toward the end, and Liam ends up beating me by five lousy points.

"Now I am impressed," I said to him, standing and grabbing my bag so we can swap seats. No matter what, a deal is a deal, and it is a good life lesson. I had broken a pact with some of the girls in my grade in secondary school: "no dating guys" was the pact. The next day after having my first boyfriend, my house was egged. From there on out, I followed my pacts, deals, agreements, whatever they may be.

Liam stands up as he towers over me by a whole foot. His height was intimidating. Instead of stepping out into the isle, Liam squeezes by me to take the window seat. He plops down as if it is the throne for the royal family.

"So roomy over here" his eyes go up wicked like rubbing in the win. 

"I thought for sure I was going to beat you. I mean, you did go to the Burrow school district."

"They taught me well," he said, flaunting his perfect teeth and hiding a secret of some sort. Was he a kid genius growing up over in Ireland? "So, where were we?"

"Oh... Right..." I was looking to stall. "You know Jed could have gone pro for hockey and turned it down; it was a real shame."

"Uh-huh. Remember this being the story about Shawn," Liam said, squaring his shoulders, so they are facing me.

"Fine." I puffed out. "He took me stupid ice skating. It was magical, and we were only friends... It may sound foolish, but I felt like I had known him my whole life. I don't know if you have ever felt that before, but it is amazing how well connected you can be to someone in a matter of a few hours. Our friendship turned casual, and it was so easy to talk to him. I told him almost everything there was to know about me in the next few months. However, the whole time in the back of my head, I thought, was he going to date me at some point?  Was I going to be able to feel those arms of his around me and to be able to walk in a room and be like, "yes ladies, he is mine" Don't get me wrong - I loved being his friend; it was great. We went biking, canoeing, and we went on many adventurous excursions, crossing each one off of our bucket list. I know people on the outside looking in thought that we looked like a couple, and to be honest, it felt like I was dating him; we just didn't label it. But it was more than just that he became my best friend – he was the one I called after work to tell about the horror stories of what we had to put together for a client. He was also the one I called when I felt too dorky to go to a chick flick by myself and the cartoon movies. Because I am a sucker for any cartoon movies where animals talk. We were best friends. We would have had bracelets that said BFF if he was a girl. But I still kept wondering if I was in the friend zone or if this would turn into more. And it did, of course. Otherwise, I wouldn't be sitting on this plane talking to a complete Irish stranger about this."