Flight by Siena Colmer

he was kissing her. She knew she deserved Jeff's anger. She never should have let things go so far before stopping. He had every reason to be angry at her. She didn't mean to bring him to such a state of frustration, yet how could she make love with him when her mind was on someone else? She hadn't realized those few seconds of seeing Ryle outside had affected her so much.
    “I can’t.”
    “ Then we'll have some more wine and wait until later.”
    “ I’m sorry, Jeff. I should go home.” She got to her feet and smoothed her dress. Her eyes were sad as she looked up at him with regret.
    Jeff didn't answer for several minutes, his fists tightly clenched as he fought for self-control. “I guess I should drive you.” he finally said.
    He was understandably silent on the drive to her apartment. She didn't attempt to make any conversation; it would be trite to trivialize the hurt she must have caused him. She silently stared down at the bouquet she held as he drove. She had forgotten about the bouquet until he bitterly reminded her. It seemed ironic that the bouquet was partly responsible for her ending the evening early. 
    “ I know it doesn't help, but I'm really sorry about tonight, Jeff.” Charlie said to him softly as his car came to a stop in front of her apartment.
    “ So am I.” He said coolly.
    She sighed. “Goodnight, Jeff.”
    “ Bye Charlie.” he muttered.
    Charlie got out of the car. As soon as she had her door opened, she heard Jeff's car screeched away at great speed. 
    She barely slept that night. Sad she had hurt Jeff, but most of all disturbed by how Ryle could affect her even when he wasn’t there. When she finally closed her eyes, it was Ryle’s face she saw. His eyes she saw. She finally fell asleep at dawn due to sheer exhaustion.
    It was almost noon when she got up. Her parents went out to visit friends, and she made her own lunch. After lunch, she went to visit Mandy and Megan at the floral shop.
    Charlie managed to avoid the subject of Jeff for most of the afternoon as the shop was busy and when it was calm, Megan interrupted them by running around exploring and getting into general mischief.
    “ So, tell me before I burst, how was your romantic evening with Jeff last night? And why aren't you with him today?”  Mandy asked as soon as they had put Megan to bed for an afternoon nap in the shop’s back room. “He was so romantic; yesterday he came into the shop and bought out all the fresh cut flowers and had me make this gorgeous bouquet to surprise you.  God, I wish Rob would do something excitingly romantic for me . ”
    “ I'm not with him today because I didn't spend the night with him.” Charlie said truthfully.
    “ What? Why not?” her friend gasped, surprised.
    Sighing, Charlie told her friend what happened. She told her everything except that little incident with Ryle outside of Jeff's place.
    “ But why did you change your mind?” Mandy frowned.
    Charlie didn’t know how to explain that she couldn’t stop thinking about Ryle when Jeff was making love to her. How could she explain it when she couldn’t understand it herself? “I was not as ready as I thought.”
    “ Oh,” Mandy nodded in understanding. “I know what you mean. I felt the same way with Rob at first. I mean, I wanted to sleep with him, but the timing just wasn't right. I wanted the first time with him to be special, something deeper than just a sexual act.”
    “ Yes, I remember.” Charlie murmured. She didn't admit to her friend that it might be always the wrong time with Jeff. She couldn't understand why she wanted Ryle when she didn’t even like him. He was too arrogant and she knew he’ll inevitably break her heart if she got involved with him.
    After Mandy closed the shop, they went over to Joe’s for dinner.
    “ Where’s Rob today?”
    “ He went to a hockey game with his friends. He’s not going to be back until late.” Mandy said.
    Joe ’s on a Sunday night was not busy. It was