“Don’t think I didn’t notice the dates you put on your schedule,” Rob said ten minutes into our stroll of the neighborhood.
“I know, Baby, and it kills me, too. I tried to get the day off, but it was denied. Was even denied a reserve swap. Such are the perils of being a captain with low seniority during Spring Break season.”
“But it’s our first anniversary.”
“Seriously, Honey. I tried my best, but I lost this time. Thanks to colleges all over the country, spring break season is almost every bit as busy as November and December.”
“But still.”
I stopped walking, and Tater sat next to me on the sidewalk.
“Hey. Come on, Rob. Are we okay?” I asked with a pout, sensing some sort of resentment from him I’d never felt before.
“Don’t look at me that way,” he said.
I was quite concerned, and I looked away from him. That was, until I felt his right hand softly stroke my butt right there on the sidewalk in full view of who knows how many houses’ front windows.
“You’re gonna owe me,” he whispered as he gently squeezed the right side of my bottom.
“Dammit, Robin! You made me think you were angry with me!”
His face showed immediate regret.
“Oh, Brandi! I’m sorry! I was only playing with you.”
“Please, not like that, okay?” I earnestly said.
“Never again,” he said. “I love you, but I do regret we can’t spend our first anniversary together.”
“Well, what you don’t know is that we can ‘big-O’ the fuck out of each other that day,” I air-quoted his earlier word.
His gaze shifted and he stared at me after my vulgar utterance.
“Brandi?”
I removed my phone from my back pocket and opened the company’s CRS app. I selected an item on the main menu and swiped right to left before I turned the screen toward Rob.
He removed it from my hands and tilted himself so the phone would be in his own shadow.
“What the— you got me a buddy pass to Havana?” he said, his excitement was hardly sheltered.
“You saw my schedule. I bump back to Lambert in the middle of day two before heading to Tampa for the night. That’s your first pass. Then we go to Cuba on March 14 and overnight there because of their weird regulations, then head back to Tampa the next afternoon. Then we pop back here for your final leg, then I finish my day with an out and back to Kansas City. I’ve been cleared passes for you for all four legs, if you want them and can get a visa expedited.”