Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Flash 39: Riding the Rails



Flash 39

This week’s prompts:  Don’t go breakin’ my heart

These are the alternative prompts: 

Use these three words: Juggling, laundry, bristle

The rhythm of life

 Pardon me, but is this seat taken?



Riding the Rails

“Do you have to go?” Ben whined like a petulant child.  Tom neatly folded his dress slacks into the suitcase on the bed.

“Ben, we’ve been over this. You know that the fire department has its conference this weekend. I’ll be back on Monday. “ He closed the lid and clicked it shut.  “I’ll just be in Philly for three days, honey.”

“That long?” Ben plopped on the bed.He hated it when events in their lives separated them.

“Ben.” Tom sat next to him, his hand restingon Ben’s knee.  He squeezed it.  “How about I make it up to you? We’ll go out on the town when I get back.  How about that restaurant on Rose Street? That bistro, the one with the corner table.”  Tom leaned over and kissed the place where Ben’s neck and shoulder met, the spot that drove Ben crazy.

“Tom…” Ben trembled in excitement.

“With candlelight.”  Kiss  “And then we can have dessert after.”

“Dessert?” Their lips met., Ben rested his cheek on Tom’s shoulder.

“Ben I can’t, I’ll miss my train.”

“Good. I don’t want you to go.”

“Baby.,” Tom kissed his disappointed partner’s forehead and pulled the suitcase off the bed.  “I’ll see you when I get back. Now can you please drive me to the station?”

“Alright.” Ben let out a sigh, grabbed his car keys, and reluctantly drove his lover to the station.

Tom found a seat next to the window; he loved looking at the scenery as it zipped by.   Train travel was the way to go—he preferred it to being on a plane.   The train was relaxing and romantic.  He looked at the empty seat next to him and thought about the one person he wished was filling it right now.   ‘Monday isn’t that far away, you’ll be back in Ben’s arms in no time,  he kept telling himself.   This was the first time that he’d been away from Ben for more than a matter of hours.    He missed him already.

He took out his e-reader and returned to the book he’d started a few days ago, hoping to immerse himself. He barely noticed his fellow travelers as they passed by his row.

“Pardon me, but is this seat taken?” 

“Huh?”  He glanced up at the tall man standing beside him, and then did a quick double take.  “Ben? What the hell are you doing here?”

“Aw, aren’t you glad to see me?”  Ben quickly sat down; he was grinning like a Cheshire cat.

“Of course I am, but why are you on this train?”

“I couldn’t stand going back to that empty house.  So I bought a ticket.”  Ben took Tom’s hand and kissed it.  “Forgive me?”

“Nothing to forgive, how could I be mad at the man I love more than life itself? Truth is I was sitting here missing you terribly and wishing you were in that empty seat.”

“Well, it’s not empty now.  Besides I always wanted to see Chi town and now I’ll be doing that with my man.”

“Yeah.”  Tom turned off his e-reader; he wouldn’t be doing any reading on this trip.  He had other ways to occupy his time now.

“I’ve haven’t ridden on a train in a couple of years. “ Ben leaned forward till his lips were right by Tom’s right ear.   “I’ve heard they have nice size lavatories.”

“Ben!”  He shook his head.  “Actually, except for the handicap ones, they’re not any bigger than the ones on planes.”

“I’m feeling rather handicapped right about now.”

“How do you figure that?”

“If I don’t get some soon, I could come down with a case of blue balls.”

“Well, we wouldn’t want that now would we?”

The trip to Chicago got rather interesting to say the least.

TBC

 My Fellow Flashers:

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