[shawn]
We sat on the plane, already almost to the Hampton's. There was about an hour left before we landed and Jasmine sat by the window, her head resting against my shoulder as she quietly slept. I lean down and kiss her head, slightly smelling the rose scented shampoo she used earlier.
"Pst." I turn and see her father on the other side of the aisle. Her mother is sleeping on his shoulder. "You too?"
A puff of air comes out my nose as I smile, nodding. "Your shoulder hurt, too?"
He nods. "Jasmine's got the heaviest."
I look at Jasmine and then her dad. "Really?"
"You probably can't tell. You got the muscles." He jokes.
"I still find her heavy when she sleeps." I comment. "Sometimes she falls asleep on the couch and I have to carry her up to her bed."
"She ever wake up while you're doing that?"
"No," I shake my head.
"She used to. After cheering at a game, she would head straight for the couch. And when I carried her up the stairs, she would startle and think she were being kidnapped." He says as he laughs.
"That's never happened to me, Mr. Callaghan." I say.
"Please, call me Ian." He tells me.
"Thank you."
For a moment, Ian and I are quiet. We just sit there, the women we love sleeping on our shoulders.
"How did you two meet?" He asks me. "The real way."
"A party," I say. "She was standing in the doorway of a room the whole time, just drinking any juice or pop she could find. Her friends were out partying, and I was talking to some friends in the kitchen. And when I turned to pour myself another drink, I saw her."
The memory of her in the doorway pops inside my head.
I lick and my lips and turn to him. "She was in her own little bubble. And she was wearing an orange shirt, jeans, and her black shoes. And I remember she got so mad that a couple knocked into her and caused her to spill her drink. So she walked into the kitchen and I just...
"Do you ever see someone and the world stops? Everything is blurry but you see that one person? And you realize you just have to talk to them. It was like that. Watching her just do the simplest thing, pouring a drink, drew me towards her."
I think back to her at the party and how I told Paige and needed her number. How she was so shy and didn't talk to anyone she didn't know.
"Do you love her?" Ian asks me. I turn to him and give him my most honest answer.
"I don't think I've ever loved anyone as much as I love your daughter, Mr. Callaghan." I reply.
"You remind me of myself a lot." He sighs. "When I met Diana, oh, my heart skipped so many beats I thought I was going to die."
"Where did you meet, anyways? I don't think Jasmine's ever told me that story."
"We were at a graduation party. My friend's parents threw is a party. Diana went there with some of her friends. Now, I was headed to law school, so I figured, I should start acting like an adult. So the whole night, I'm with some friends, and we're drinking the grown up stuff, scotch, brandy, all that. Now I've always been known in our group as the funny one. I'm telling a joke and out of the corner of my eye, I see something white.
