Brandon noticed it too, and Marj told him her suspicions.
“Please stop looking at her,” Marj said.
“I’m not drooling. I just think the resemblance is uncanny. It’s like the Wicked Queen is trying to rub salt in the wound.”
“I get that. But staring at her… Listen, you need to stop, Mr. My Secretary Is Dangerously Hot and Sexually Harassing Me,” she said. “Because it’s making me feel a tiny bit uncomfortable. Especially after what we just did. You should only be thinking about your loving wife.”
Brandon tore his eyes away from the stewardess. “That’s too long to be a reasonable nickname, and she didn’t exactly harass me.”
“We’re going to pretend that you didn’t exactly just defend her,” Marj said a little waspishly. It peeved her to think how close she’d come to losing him.
“I’m not defending her, although if I were, at least, I never kissed her, like you kissed that guy at the club.”
What the hell? Why would he lash out like that?
“I was upset and confused about us, and I said I was sorry. It’s not like I saw him day after day at work and never told you,” she hissed in a low voice.
“This is not the place to discuss our private business.”
“Let me guess, we could have fought in seclusion if we’d taken your private jet,” she burst out.
“I’m trying to get passed the fact that you kissed somebody else, but it’s pretty damn hard.”
“I told you I was sorry. And I am Brandon. I feel awful about it.”
“And I feel bad about the secretary escapade.”
“It just hurts because there are feelings involved.”
“This is why we should’ve actually dated before getting married. But we got married first, and now, we’re trying to get to know each other. And maybe we both suck at it. We’re both are crazy about each other, and the spark, the chemistry, well, it’s definitely there. But is that enough to work?”
She looked away. Was he giving up? Marj plugged the earbuds into her phone and tuned him out. It hurt too much to think that he might not want to be in this for the long haul. Maybe they should just call it quits after he gets his full inheritance.
They didn’t talk for a few minutes.
He kissed her hand and gave her that look she couldn’t resist.
“We just got played,” he said. “I’m sure she was a plant from the Wicked Queen herself. How can we work on this relationship with her always trying to sabotage it? She knew it would remind us of what had happened. She wanted to stir up trouble. And we played right into her hands.”
“Brandon,” she said. “I’m so sorry.”
“Me too. I can’t enjoy the rest of my flight if you’re mad at me. We just had the best time. We’re card-carrying members of The Mile High Club at 30,000 feet.” She giggled, and he continued with a huge smile. “Having sex in the air is the stuff of legends.”
“I can’t deny that.”
“Marj, you’re my angel, my life, and my entire world. You’re my everything.”
She gazed up at him and smiled.
“You’re the one that I want, the one that I need,” he said with heartfelt emotion. “Even if I wanted, I can’t stop thinking about you.” He touched her face. “I refuse to let people we hardly know come in between us. The guy you kissed at the club and my old secretary can eat shit. They’re history. I think we should only concentrate on us…and on our future.”
She kissed his lips. “Oh, baby. You’re right.”
He grinned as she smiled.
By the time they touched down in Mexico, she couldn’t wait to get off the plane. She realized she was just stressed and tired and had unresolved feelings about the whole secretary situation. They walked to baggage claim and he checked his emails while they waited for their luggage. Brandon wrestled her huge wheelie suitcase off the turnstile and dragged it over to where she stood.
Brandon lifted his own suitcase off the carousel and turned toward the taxi lane. They smiled and held hands like newlyweds. They rode in a cab to the resort. The palm trees, the cobalt desert sky were unlike anything she’d ever seen. So lush and desolate at the same time, so beautiful. She took his hand and looked over at him. He kissed her cheek.
The entrance to the resort was majestic, flanked with tall torches burning with bright gas flames. The lavish tropical flowers spilled over the edges of copper urns lining their path. They were whisked to a suite, the air cool and scented with frangipani, a refreshing change from the stifling, smelly plane and the stale taxi air. It was like another world, much nicer than the one they’d left. Much, much nicer than the one Marj grew up in, where she rode the lawnmower to the liquor store with her dad, and she had a couple of family members in prison for a long hitch. That trip to Vegas had been a game changer for Marj in more ways than one.