Treading (Jordan Knight/NKOTB Fanfic)

Seven

-SERAPHINA-

"What are you doing here, Travis?" I finally found my voice after a full minute of silence and trying to swallow the lump that had lodged into my throat during Jordan's cover of Have You Ever Loved A Woman.

I blinked slowly half-hoping that I was hallucinating, but every time I opened and closed my eyes he was still standing there gazing at me through his emerald orbs.

Travis lightly nudged me away from the crowd so that we could hear each other better whilst he ran a hand over his low buzz cut, "Keith met Greg and I at the airport and we decided to stop by here for a couple drinks to catch up before they dropped me at the hotel and headed back to the Bay. Greg's staying with Keith for a little while."

I glanced over Travis' shoulder to spot his two cousins, Keith and Greg, sitting at the bar. Keith lived almost four hours south of Laketown in an area just outside of San Francisco, but he'd visited with Travis and his parents so often over the years that we'd gotten to know each other fairly well. I also recognized Greg from his occasional summer stays with the Brooks Family.

They both waved in my direction and I nodded my head in a short, but friendly gesture. My head was too busy spinning to really focus on greeting anyone—it took enough just to keep my raging emotions in tact.

"I thought you told me you had extended your stay in Seattle for another week. What happened to that plan?" I questioned.

"Well," Travis hooked his thumbs in his pockets. "My mom called and told me she and my dad needed some help with paperwork and stuff and she needed me home. I couldn't stay another week with her needing me."

"But you could when I needed you?" I didn't bother to hide the hurt expression that I could feel surfacing to my face. "I guess it was stupid of me to assume that as your fiancée, and almost wife, my needs aren't at least as important as your mother's are. I guess next time I want you home, I should ask her to call you instead." The lump in my throat bobbed.

Travis' groan was audible as the applause for Jordan settled and background music began to play again at a volume that was low enough for me to hear him, "See? This is exactly why I didn't call and tell you that I was coming home tonight. I knew I'd only get this from you."

"And what exactly are you getting, Travis?" I asked.

"Attitude," he tutted.

"How am I giving you an attitude? You left to an entirely different state without telling me anything or offering for me to come with you. How did you think that was going to make me feel?"

An agitated look crossed his face, "I've told you a thousand times over that I did tell you I was going to Seattle. I made it quite clear in your dad's office."

"Maybe that's what you think, but it wasn't clear to me, Travis. If it was, I wouldn't have been frantically calling and worrying about where you were. It would've been plain and I would've seen you off."

"Well, I don't know what you want me to say to that, Seraphina. I mean, I have no control over what is and isn't clear to you when I say something. That's on you, not me."

I shook my head, "That still doesn't change the fact that you never asked me if I wanted to go on the trip with you."

"Well, I figured I knew the answer to that—you don't want to go to Seattle."

"Not ideally, no," I shook my head.

"So what would've been the point in me asking if you wanted to go?"

I gazed at Travis in disbelief that he couldn't seem to understand at all where I was coming from. Was he really that oblivious or was he just not trying to understand?