Over The Ocean

Chapter Two

”Hey.”

No.

”Hey, wake up.”

No. Go away.

“Rosie. You’re okay.”

I open my eyes and meet Dereks. He looks curious but worried.

”Hi.” I said sheepishly. I'm embarressed.

”What was it you were dreaming about? You were shaking and mumbling, even if I couldn’t understand it.”

“Oh...” how could I explain that I had dreamt of all the bad things in my last relationship. All the fights and the pain of being left alone in the midst of all the chaos.

I'm still broken, although it has been getting a better every day. Maybe it would be healed by the time I'm forty and that was only if I allow myself to feel the pain of the loss.

Katarina, the therapist my mum forced me to go to, said that if I didn't allow myself to feel the pain, one day it would be too much, so every now and then when I'm alone I allow myself to open that little box, but usually “just a peek” is too much.

One might think that after three years you should get over something like that, but I'm sure sadness is something that stays with everyone, it just becomes easier to breathe and do everyday things. Just one of the many wonderful things that make you human.

”It was just a dream.” I try to deflect.

“Uhu, so are you talking to me now?” he is nice enough not to bother me about my dream.

”Yes.” I feel the need to be distracted and Derek King would be a good thing to focus on. ”I’m sorry about earlier.”

I notice the smile that lurk in the corner of Dereks mouth. He lean in closer, the inner me pull on her high heels and nod "Yes! Yes! Kiss! Kiss!" she scream

Instead of kissing me Derek tucks in a strand of my hair behind my ear. The inner Rosie groans high dramatically.

I smile. "Better?"

”I don’t know, honestly, I think a once or twice over in a bed or something like that suits you better.”

I swallow hard and just stare at him.

”You’re very straight forward.”

”Yeah, well, you’ll never know how long you’ll live.” he says in a flippant manner.

It irks me that he speak so flippantly about something that matter so much to me. As much as I want to laugh about it, just to release then the tension I'm not going to let him think he can get in my pants that easily. No matter what Josie say.

I turn around to look outside the window, after a minute or so I hear him shuffle a bit and I turn to confirm that he is still there but he has shut his eyes. I look down at my wrist watch, 11.42. That means that it's almost nighttime at home. It's when nighttime at home started to come around that I find that I'm missing home the most. I want to call, just to hear their voices, but one I'm on a plane and two it will make it harder to fall asleep.

After about ten minutes I feel the urgent need to go to the loo. I stand up and look down at Derek, the nicest thing would be to let him sleep if that were the case. So I put my hand on the chair in front of us as support and took a step over with one of my legs. Just as I'm free to go he opens his eyes.

”You’re leaving me?”

”Yes.. I need to pee.”

Well.. that was obviously too much information the inner me scold.

I go to the small toilett and sink and lock the door behind me. I open my bag and pull out a few wet wipes for the face. I am new to the feeling but I don't really know what to do with this. I just met the man, I have an inkling feeling that I could actually love the person he is- funny, smart and friendly. But in a restricted space ten thousand feet above the ground?

"Get ahold of yourself Rosanna." Iwhisper at myself in the mirror. The young woman in the mirror with hazel eyes, the long copper brown hair braided over her right shoulder. Eyes the watch me back, she felt different. She had a faint blush her lips look just a tad bit plumper. What changed her?

I started thinking of Casper, if he'd fallen asleep by now. I unlocked my phone and studied the picture of him, the dark curls that always met me and the biggest of smiles.

So much had happened... I felt the tears push their way forward and had to push them back.

I sat down to do my buisness and then went out to my seat again, where Derek was there, checking his phone.

”Who watches Nikki while you are here?” I asked as I edged over him to get to my seat. He showed no signs of moving anymore than his hand for blance. "Perv." I grimaced.

His grin was wide and genuine. He turned his body towards me.

“Nikki is with my mom.” He snorted and smiled “She’s just so freaking friendly that she would actually be the worst watchdog in the world, but I know that if I really needed her, she would be there to protect me.”

“How did you..” I stopped to think of how to formulate the sentence I wanted, without it sounding stupid ”How did she come to live with you?”

”Oh, That’s a funny story. It was actually my mother who bought her for my sisters. One day when I came home from work, at a music store, my mom called and said that she needed to go to the doctor with Tasha and wondered if I could come watch Nessa it would really help her. So off I went and there I met the cutest puppy I’ve ever seen, and I swear, she fell just as much in love with me, when my mom finally came home and I went home Nikki wouldn’t stop yelping and moping, so I had to come and get her again. Now she at least can stay there for a few days.”

“That’s a really lovely story.” I say, I laughed a little when I thought about it. Buying a puppy for the two kids that live at home and the kid that don't live at home gets to have the dog.

Just then a flight attendent stopped by us and asked if we would like a sandwich or some snacks. I went for the snacks because the sandwich looked sad and horrible. My stomach disagreed with me and rumbled, loudly.

When she had walked a few row away Derek leaned over and whispered ”We’ll buy some real food when we land.”

”Yeah, well it’s not her fault.” I admonished and looked over at her with compassion.

”I know.” Derek sighed ”I’ve always liked flying.”

”Me too! When I was three I flew for the first time. We flew to Greece. Then at twelve I visited Turkey, then another part of Greece and on a later trip we were off to Hurghada and Cairo. But this is the first time in eight years I’ve been on a plane.“

“Why so long?” He was curious, I had to give him that.

“Well, there haven’t been the money and time… Mostly time.”

“What have you been doing then?”

“There’s no end to your curiosity is there?” I ask and smile. He sake his head no but holds me in place with his eyes. He waits for an answer and I sigh. ”Well, I’ve been working in a shoe store and some extra hours at a place that’s kind of like a compressed mall. They’ve got everything and nothing because sometimes it’s sold out before they get the new in.”

He listened while I talked and asked questions about it, when I stopped he asked something new. It continued that way until the fasten your seat belt sign turned red and they announced that we were about to land in Dallas in a couple of minutes.

Once we got off the plane there were no time for small talk, my suitcase was the first one out and then we hade fifteen minutes untill the plane to LA was suppposed to take off, so we had to run to check-in and turned in my suitcase again. Then we ran to the check-in for us and got on the plane. Derek asked a few people to trade so we could sit by each other, this flight was full unlike the one before.

Once we got seated, the plane took off and it was my turn to ask him about him. Music, school, work, friends, hobbies.

”The two crazy and weird idiots I hang with most are Adam and Hank. They’re the same age as you and me. We spend our days surfing, playing music, working and running with Nikki and their girlfriends, Grace and Sophie. Grace is like twenty four and Sophie is like twentyish. If you get to meet Adam and Hank then don’t mind what they say about me, they love to exaggerate and brag. Deep down they’re friendly.”

“How old is Nikki?” I asked at the same time that I tried to save all the information about him. I actually really like the guy. He is genuine, funny and smart. I find myself thinking of how lucky I am that I found him, or did he find me?

He was so different from everyone back home, they tiptoed around all things involving Arvid. Everyone except my mom. She said what I needed to hear weather I knew it or liked it. I loved her deeply for it.

All the friend Arvid and I had pulled away when he died, not because they didn't want to be my friends. Just because they didn't know what would make it better. So they gave me space. But they gave me to much so when we tried to catch up later it just felt wierd, so we stopped hanging out.

It became quite lonley.

”She’s three years old.” He smiles.

“How about your family, what are they like?”

Derek got his phone off airplane mode and shows a photo off himself and two younger girls. One of them had long auburn hair and the other a dark blonde color that where just beneath her shoulders. Both girls had freckles.

”My two younger sisters. This-” he point at the one with auburn hair ”is Natasha, she’s fithteen and this-” he pointed to the other girl ”is Vanessa, she’s thirtheen.”

He pulled up another photo. It was a really beautiful woman one a fallen three, with the ocean in the background and the sun low on the sky. Derek looked like her so I was guessing she was his mom.

”My mom, Cassandra.” he confirmed with a smile. ”She met my father when she walked out of a coffee shop, they bumped into each other and instant love, at least that’s what they told me. They talked and walked. My dad had two kids in early teens, my older siblings, but my mom wanted more, and my dad always had problems saying no to her. Lucky for him that my mom’s not crazy in a material-have-to-have kind of way, they had a large apartment in New York for several years, my dad flew around when he worked elsewhere and then back when he was off.”

I stretch my hand up because I had another question. ”What does your dad work with?”

”This and that, he’s a founder s***h CEO s***h journalist. Guy King.”

”No pressure, right.” I say with compassion.

”Anyway, I was about to tell you about my mom’s habit of changing hobby every two weeks. Last week it was gardening, this week I think its pet grooming. So that’s another reason why I want get Nikki out of there as fast as possible, she probably thinking of how many of my shoes she's ready to trash right now.”

“What about your dads’ older kids?”

“Michael and Nicholas, yeah, they’ve both got kids and the whole enchilada. Michael got married early but it ended pretty fast and then he got married again and they’ve been married a long time now and three kids, Charlie, Jackson and Mary-Jane. Nicholas actually got married last year and he got Jordan and Gabriella, before the wedding and there’s one the way, that’s due soon.”

All of the sudden I notice that we were really close, I need some space, his lips are way to close right now.

“When we land-“ I said pulling back trying to gauge his reaction. “Do you have a car at the airport by the way?”´

“Yeah…” he said hesitantly. He was probably wondering where I was going with this.

”Well, could you drop me off by my friend? Just while you’ll go and get Nikki.”

His eyes grew wide and round, then pensive, and finally settled in resignation. ”All right. What’s her address?”

I gave him the adress and he grins.

”What?” I ask in confusion.

He shakes his head and stiffle a laugh then says ”I know the place.”

Okay so no problem? That's good, I guess?

”What’s you favorite movie?” he asks out of nowhere

”Öhm.” Oh no, that's not an answer! Come on!

”I don’t have just one. Sorority wars, pretty much every movie with singing in it, except west side story, fell asleep barley ten minutes in, Underworld series. What more… Jaws movies, there’s probably a lot more, though I love animated and cartooned movies.” I answer still bothered about my ”Öhm”.

“I like Bond.”

”Bond. James Bond!” I answer with a voice full of drama

”Shaken, not stirred.” he continue.

”Which is your favorite movie of them?” I ask.

“It’s probably which my favorite actors are than which movie is ‘the better one’. Connery, Moore and Brosnan.”

”Yeah.” I say and smile. Personally I loved the Brosnan movies best.

Then we sat in silence for the rest of the flight. It was nice that we could sit and relax in each other's company without it being weird.

”Hey, sleeping beauty.”

I opened my eyes and notice that my head is resting on Dereks shoulder.

”I’m sorry, must have fallen asleep.” I say sleepily and lift my head. I can't remember when I fell asleep but it was nice and then it felt like a truck hit my stomach. I was so very hungry. On the verge of being hangry.

”Rosie, we’re supposed to go off the plane now.” I notice people standing up and pulling out their handbags and collecting their things.

”Did I sleep through the landing?” I ask in total disbelief.

“The flight attendants came to wake us up about fifteen minutes ago, but it was just me who woke, and you looked like you were sleeping really well so I fastened your seatbelt when the belt sign went on.” He say.

”Thank you” I say, still shocked that I slept through a landing.

We get up and grab our stuff, when we get off the plane we went to get Dereks guitar and my suitcase.

”We’ll have to get my car, it’s in the car park, it’s a bit of a walk if you don’t mind.”

“You’ll carry me, right.” I say and wink.

“Right.” He laughs.

The car park is crazy big and it took us like twelve minutes to get to the car. When Derek stops in front of an black Audi Q5 my mouth falls open.

”That’s your car!?”

”Yeah.” He answer and smile sheepishly.

”Lucky guy." I mumble under my breath.

He lift his guitar into the back seat and my suitcase, close the door and stand in front of me. He put his hand to my cheek and look at me wonderingly with his blue-grey eyes.”What are you thinking?”

”I’m thinking about chocolate. I have this mean sugar craving when I’ve slept in the middle of the day-” I say and feel my crankiness coming through. Stupid blood sugar levels.

“Oh, okay.” He say and take my hand. Then he leads me toward the passenger door and open, wait until I sit down and close the door. Twenty seconds later he is behind the wheel and backing out of the parking lot.

”Here we go.” he says as we get onto the freeway that take us towards our destination. He knows exactly where he is going and it doesn't worry me at all that I didn't know how good a driver he was. His presence both calmed me and excited me, so I decited to relax and just enjoy it. How could I not, he is really handsome.

But all good things come to an end and all too soon the car stop, he jumps out and take my suitcase out of the trunk, then he comes around to helped me get out and follow me to the door, there I'm just about to call her apartment number when I remember.

”You might want to get out of here first. She’s got this crazy idea… well you’ll be better off if you go first. Come pick me up in about two hours okay?”

“Absolutely.” He say and leans in to kiss my cheek ”Don’t disappere.” he whisper in my ear.

I feel myself falter, but it's not until he's back in his car that I whisper to myself ”I don’t have a choice.”