“I’m calling the bed closest to the door,” Nate says immediately. He flops onto the mattress to make his point.
“Want the ability to make an easy escape?” I ask.
“Something like that.”
I walk over to the free bed, ready to make true on my promise of going through my suitcase. I have a bad feeling I can’t shake that I forgot something important.
When I finally get it open, I wince. I’mterribleat last-second decisions, and what I’ve packed shows that.
I go through what I have. The dress shirts I’ve brought are a light material, and if I pair them with the tank tops I shoved in,then that should work. I’ve brought way too much underwear, a classic for me, and done a decent job of getting all the toiletries I should need.
But as I get to the bottom of my suitcase, I realize that I’ve forgotten one major thing I’ll need.
In my rush, I grabbed a single pair of khaki slacks. And nothing else.
I’m currently wearing a pair of leggings I use for running. Neither of those go with anything else I brought.
Fuck.
“You’re panicking about something over there. Wanna tell me what it is?” Nate sounds relaxed.
I slowly turn to him. “So, I forgot shorts.”
“Ah.”
“This is why Iplan.”
“Sorry I burst your bubble, berry. But we can fix this.”
“If you suggest cutting my very nice slacks, I’ll?—”
“Let’s just go buy shorts.” He says it as if it’s obvious. I stare at him, waiting for the “I told you so” or for him to laugh at me. But that’s something I would expect from Rob. Not Nate.
“I’ll go. You just got here and that was a long flight.”
It’s an out I don’t want him to take, but I owe it to him to at least offer space after using him as a pillow.
“A long flight?” He scoffs. “It was just a few hours. Come on. We’ll both go.”
I have to hide the feeling of relief that floods me. Good. He doesn’t want to avoid me.Things aren’t totally messed up.
We wind up being able to take an Uber to a nearby store. Nate and I bicker on the ride there about who should be covering the cost of getting around town, but we settle on taking turns.
By the time we walk into the store, I’ve forgotten all about the plane.
Both men’s and women’s clothes line the walls. I’m tempted toshop for work clothes because they have a sale on more dress shirts and slacks, but Nate shakes his head and leads me to shorts.
And that’s when I realize why I didn’t pack any. I only have two pairs that I’ve not put on my body in years. I can’t wear them to work, and I opt for leggings on the weekends. My legs haven’t seen the light of day in far too long.
It’s going to be hot in the Caribbean. I know that, and I need comfortable clothes, but I hate the idea of this.
Nate watches me carefully, and I know he’s about to pick up on how little I want to do this.
“Do you wanna look at the men’s clothes while I find something?”
“I will later. But now we’re focusing on you.”
“Yeah, but it’s clothes shopping. I’ll have to try on a ton of stuff, and I doubt you care about that.”
