Page 16 of Hot n Bothered

“ B elle? Come on. Time to wake up.” Ben shook her gently.

Isobelle just grunted and snuggled tighter to him. His chest moved when he chuckled.

“Come on, we’re at the airport. I can’t carry you, two suitcases and your carry-on bag.”

“You can’t carry me anyway.” She mumbled sitting up rubbing her eyes as she yawned and stretched. “I can’t believe how awake you are at this ungodly hour.”

“Yeah, I wonder why.” He muttered as he paid the taxi.

“I would’ve got that.”

“Your boyfriend is a gentleman. Get used to it.”

“There seems to be an awful lot of things I need to get used to.” She grumbled as she got out.

“And yet you do because I’m the best boyfriend in the world.” He quipped pressing a kiss to her cheek, before helping the driver get their cases out of the boot.

He took her hand as they walked into the terminal. She had to smile when they both took a deep breath to steel themselves against what was to come.

“You’ve got this.” She said, giving his hand a squeeze. “I’m right here with you.”

He smiled down at her. “That should be my line. Can’t believe you stole it from me.”

“Your girlfriend is a thief. Get used to it.”

He burst out laughing. “I’ll say she is. She stole my favourite hoodie and damn if she doesn’t look better in it than I ever did.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “So corny.”

“Your boyfriend is corny. Get used to it. So where are we meeting them?”

She looked around and couldn’t stop the tensing of her body when she saw her family. Oh good Lord T and A were really doing the whole white boobtube and tight white jeans look?

“There.” She nodded to them.

Ben did his adorable snort laugh. “Fuck Belle. How can I look at them with a straight face after you told me their nicknames?” He said softly in her ear.

She chuckled as he tried to control his laughter.

“Ah, there you are finally.” Her mother said looking pointedly at her watch. “We’ve been here for quite some time, and we’ve had to come further than you.”

Isobelle stiffened, had she gotten the time so wrong? Not even thirty seconds in and she was already messing up. Ben looked at his watch.

“Huh, did I get it wrong? I’m sure you texted we’d meet at twenty past.” He gave a polite smile. “Let me just check when we should’ve been here.”

Isobelle checked her watch to see it was only quarter past, so they were early. She hadn’t thought this would start so soon.

“No need. You’re here now. We haven’t missed the check in times.” Her father said in that tone that had her on edge, waiting for the next disapproval aimed at her. “I assume this is the boyfriend ?” He looked pointedly at Isobelle.

“Oh. Oh yes… um… sorry…” She hated how his stern looks flustered her even more than the tone. “This is… um… Ben. Ben Wallace.”

“Pleased to meet you Mr and Mrs Anderson.” Ben held out his hand to them.

“I must say you are not what we were expecting for our Isobelle.” Her mother said shaking his hand. “I didn’t think that someone like you would be interested in… well, someone like her, shall we say? Have you met my daughters Tanya and Anya?”

Isobelle wanted the ground to open up and swallow her. Or maybe a faulty bolt on a light fitting suddenly snapping and it falling directly onto her head. Anything to stop having to watch T and A simpering and doing a hair flick each.

Ben just wrapped his arm around her waist pulling her closer to him. “Oh I assure you Mrs Anderson I’m very interested in Belle. I have been for a long time now.”

“No accounting for taste.” T whispered, not as quietly as she thought, to A and they both started giggling.

Isobelle could feel her face flush.

“Hmm. Still trying the red?” Her mother tugged on her hair. “I don’t know why, it always makes you look so washed out. But you always do what you want my darling.”

“Did you manage to get your seats organised?” Her father suddenly asked Ben.

Huh? Seats? What was he talking about?

“Oh yes, thank you.”

“I’m surprised, after all this flight is normally fully booked. I assume you’ll have to sit apart?”

“No. There were two seats next to each other in business class left, so it all worked out.” He grinned down at Isobelle, who was staring up at him in shock as T and A spluttered angrily. “I have to have room to stretch these long legs out. Shall we go check in?”

He didn’t wait for an answer, just walked to the line for business class. She could hear T and A huffing and whining about why couldn’t they go business class and demanding they get upgraded as they waited in the longer queue.

“What did you do?” She asked. “Why are we over here?”

He flashed her his grin. “I asked Darren for your dad’s number after that shitty message. I contacted him saying that since I was so tall I needed extra leg room, so if he didn’t mind I’d sort out our flights and reimburse him for the tickets he already paid for.”

“When did you do all this?”

“At the picnic. I told you I was busy while you were writing.”

“But business class? Ben, you didn’t have to.”

“I did. Your boyfriend likes to spoil you. Get used to it.” He dropped a kiss to her lips before turning to the check-in officer with a smile.

“That is so sweet.” She smiled at them, then her eyes widened when she looked at Ben properly and at the name on the paperwork.

“Oh my. Welcome Mr Wallace, it’s a pleasure. We’re all big fans of you here.”

“Would you like a picture?” Isobelle offered.

She smiled so prettily. “I would, my girlfriend would be so jealous, but I’m not allowed.”

“Could I ask a favour? Um… Sandra?” Ben said reading her name tag. “Are there any seats left in business class, if anyone wants to upgrade?”

Was he really going to try and upgrade her family?

It was a selfish thing, but she hoped he wasn’t.

She was actually looking forward to not being anywhere near them for the flight.

Plus the added pettiness of knowing they were in the cheap seats while she enjoyed luxury was something she was also going to enjoy.

“There are two available, do you have anyone in mind?”

“Umm… Yes. That old couple there. Don’t tell them I did this though.” He handed over his card.

“You really are ridiculously sweet aren’t you?” Isobelle said.

“Actually, this is more petty than sweet.” He admitted. “I don’t want T and A getting upgraded and ruining our flight.”

His grin was so wicked she had to laugh, then she had an idea.

“You can’t ask for pictures right? But what if Ben asked for one and posted it saying just how helpful you’ve been. Would that work?”

Sandra’s eyes lit up. “Well I certainly wouldn’t want to refuse a passenger’s request. Oh hang on one moment please.

” She picked up the phone next to her. “Dave? Hi, that old couple next in line? They’ve been upgraded…

Uh huh… Wants to remain anonymous… Yes, yes it is…

Yes. I have to go, we’ll talk later. Bye. ”

Isobelle took out her phone and snapped a couple of pictures before sending them to Ben.

“Thank you so much Sandra.” He said with a warm smile, taking their boarding passes from her. His other hand interlaced with Isobelle’s.

“I suppose we should wait for them.” She sighed looking back at the long queue still in front of her family.

“We’ll wait after security. I need to keep moving right now. Get me to the point where I can’t back out.”

She looked up at him and he looked so tense. She leaned up and pressed a kiss to his cheek. He looked at her startled.

“Thank you for doing this. Not just keeping them in the cheap seats.”

He nodded tightly taking another deep breath. His shoulders were so tense, but his hold on her hand was always gentle.

“I have another favour to ask.” She said as they started walking.

“You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to but Darren is right.

I do need to start typing up the books I’ve completed, or nearly completed.

But the problem is I can never focus on doing that.

My brain always wants to create new stories instead so I always get distracted and it will help with editing and if I want to reread my stories then I can load them up on my phone or my Surface and why aren’t you stopping me babbling?

Please will you stop me when I get like that. ”

He grinned. “Never. It’s adorable. So what happened to no one being able to understand your scribble or system?” He placed her bag in a bucket, pulling her surface out and putting it in another. “Are you just saying this as a way to keep my mind off my fear?”

She shrugged. “If I say yes, does that mean you won’t?”

He waited for her to get through the metal detector before answering. “That’s really sweet of you. Thank you.” He pressed a soft kiss to her lips before snagging their items. “And of course I will. This way I’ll get to read your amazing stuff before anyone else.”

Why had he kissed her just then? They weren’t with her family. If she wasn’t careful she might start believing this was real.