This chapter turned out differently than how I planned it out in my head… but doesn't it always? Watch for the flashbacks and enjoy!

THREE MONTHS LATER

Cindy's POV

"I can't believe you actually brought those on board."

"Says the girl that once showed up hungover to Intro to Psyche. On a Tuesday!" I turned away from her, a smile playing on my lips.

Sonia managed to discreetly hide the travel sized bottles of alcohol just as our attendant made her way over to inform us to fasten our seatbelts.

Right across the aisle from us, our two other friends, Tess and Meg, looked on and giggled at how hastily Sonia tried to hide the bottles into her purse.

As much as I love Sonia, she can be a little much at times. I don't understand how much she could possibly expect to drink on a three-hour plane ride.

After a rigorous first semester and what felt like months of planning, we were finally leaving for one of the most anticipated events of the college experience: spring break.

Meg, who lives with Tess right across the hall from Sonia and I, convinced her parents to let the four of us use their airline miles. It's something we're all really thankful for since, especially this time of year, a week-long trip to Miami won't be cheap. But based on the excitement buzzing around us, that was really the least of our concerns.

Since spring break is a relatively short amount of time compare to the holiday or summer break, I don't usually worry too much about what I'll end up doing. Last year, Sonia and I stayed on campus and did a lot of the cheesy, tourist stuff that we hadn't gotten a chance to do yet. But this year was going to be totally different. If anything, this vacation will go fully as expected.

About an hour into the flight, I took out my sleep eye mask from my carry on and put it on, thinking it would be a good idea to get some sleep since I was up late last night packing. Instead, my thoughts kept me up.

While we had been planning this trip for weeks and was really excited about going on vacation with my friends, I found it difficult to do so carelessly. There were a couple of small, easily repaired problems I was going through at school. However, my most worrisome one was my relationship with Jimmy.

I wouldn't exactly say that he was all too thrilled about me going to Miami for spring break with my single college friends and fake I.D tagging along. But as he knows, there really wasn't anything he could do about it. He wasn't as outspoken about his opinions on the matter as I had anticipated he would be and based on how we've been doing these past three months, it was probably for the best.

Ever since Switzerland, saying it's been tense between us would be an understatement.

"And if I have to, I will."

Although it actually may have only been a few seconds, the time it took him respond felt endless.

"Cindy, don't say that", the words were that of an order, but his tone didn't express that. I swallowed the lump in my throat before I spoke again.

"Do you even care? I mean," I took another breath. "do you realize that I had to sacrifice things to be able to do this? I-I wanted to come here. With you. Because I love you."

"I love you too Cindy," he stepped closer to me.

"Well, you- you have a really weird way of showing it, Jimmy." There was now a small strength in my voice that I didn't want to lose. "You can't just make big gestures like this and expect me to go into it blindly and without questioning anything. You know I'm smarter than that."

"I know."

"So then why- why weren't you just honest with me? You should know by now that I'm going to get angrier if you keep things from me instead of just telling me in the first place."

I eventually managed to fall asleep and it was the announcement that we would be landing in about fifteen minutes that woke me up. The stream of light coming in through the window reenergized me about the days to come.

Once we were off the plane and making our way through the airport to pick up our baggage, we noticed that the weather in Miami is a nice and very welcome change from the bitter cold of New York. It might be called 'spring break' but up north, Mother Nature didn't seem to get the memo.

After taking my phone off airplane mode, I thought about texting Jimmy to tell him I had arrived in Florida safely. I hadn't said I would and he didn't ask me to but since the last time I spoke to him was when we were waiting for the cab to take us to JFK, I do want to be considerate.

The idea was quickly pushed out of my head though when we all started taking photos and videos of our arrival and destination. It was silly and exciting and I knew we looked so much like the tourists that we were.

Once we got to our hotel room, it became a unanimous decision for us to go to the beach first. The view we had from our balcony made it an easy choice for all of us.

We got dressed, each one of us taking a few minutes in the bathroom. I changed into my simple forest green two-piece and denim shorts. While that only took a couple of minutes, I spent longer than I should have paying attention to my phone and any sound that might come from it.

Mine was the first luggage that came off the carousel and as I waited for everyone else's to show up, I took the opportunity and updated Jimmy. Sonia's questioning glance made me think on the spot and blurt out that I was texting my mom instead and it occurred to me that I should do that as well. By the time I had sent both of them a message, all four of us had our luggage in hand.

That was about an hour and a half ago though, and while my mom was quick to text me back, the same couldn't be said about Jimmy. Since I didn't want to constantly check my phone while I was with my friends, I figured waiting privately for a few minutes would be better.

I didn't realize how much time had passed of me locked up in the bathroom until three loud knocks on the door startled me and made me look up.

"Cindy!" Tess's voice called out. "Hurry up or we'll leave without you…." She trailed off.

Deciding not to focus on Jimmy anymore, at least for the time being, I gathered my clothes and phone into my arms and made my way out.

I opened the door hastily and spoke out loud.

"You guys don't really think you're leaving without me, do you?"

"I'm sorry," he spoke in a soft and familiar tone, "I know you're tired of hearing it but I don't know what else I can say."

"The truth would be nice for a change." I meant for it to be direct and straightforward but I realized how harsh it sounded based on the wince he gave when I said it.

"I deserve that."

I did nothing other than cross my arms, letting the action speak for me.

"I-I did want this to be about us." He began. "I missed you like crazy and I wanted to see you again. I knew I would at home over the break anyway but it wasn't enough for me. When I found out about the eclipse and where it was going to be and all, I reached out to my NASA colleagues about arranging it so I could cover it. It wasn't really set in stone until a little before I told you about it so I didn't want to say anything beforehand…. I knew it was last minute and that that alone would upset you but I didn't mean for it to. So I just," he sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, probably not knowing what else to say. "I really fucked up, didn't I?"

"Yes." There was something in the way I said it, and I knew he could hear it too, that implied I would be more forgiving than it seemed I would be a few minutes ago.

"Enjoy ladies," our waiter smiled as our plates were delivered to our table. We all chimed in our 'thank you's' before he walked away, Meg's eyes lingering a little too much as he did so.

"God, Meg, could you be any more obvious?" Sonia called out, speaking for all of us.

"What do you mean?" She spoke after tearing her eyes away.

"You know what I mean," Sonia ended with a wink.

"It's not a crime to look," Meg directed at all of us. "If it were, you'd all be serving out life sentences for your behavior at the beach." We laughed, knowing it was true. "All of you except for Cindy."

In a completely unexpected move, all my friends turned to look at me and despite my true innocence, the way I was targeted made me feel guilty.

It should be common sense that I wasn't going to be as…unreserved as my friends were going to be while we were here. Our day at the beach, overflowing with attractive male peers, many of which were also likely here on break, had already and very easily proved that.

Out of respect for Jimmy, knowing how he felt about it, I didn't even bring the swim suit I wore our first day in Cancun. That still didn't stop gazes being thrown on our way, however, and I couldn't help noticing that some were, unfortunately, directed right at me.

Even though there are many things I could indulge in while I was here, I knew that, because of my relationship with Jimmy, that was not going to be possible. I thought it would be an internal struggle, especially because it wasn't something I brought up with any of the girls beforehand. But based on how they did in fact take note of my lack of interaction to our new surroundings, I guess it wasn't as private as I hoped.

"Cindy is taken and she would never. She's far too in love with Jimmy to do anything like that," I head Sonya speak up for me.

"He probably wasn't too happy when you told him you were coming here, huh?" Tess asked a question I'm sure all of them were thinking.

"I wouldn't say so, no," I replied with a shrug. "But it's not like he could stop me or anything. His break is next week and he's at school now, so it's not like we would have seen each other anyway. Besides, nothing's going to happen."

"But if you weren't going out with Jimmy," Meg began, and the three of us turned to face her, "do you think something would?"

It is kind of an obvious answer. One that I shouldn't have to say.

So far, I don't regret coming to Miami for spring break at all. However, I'm sure that if I were single, I wouldn't hesitate to flirt it up like my friends were doing at the beach. After all, that, along with whatever would follow, is a part of the college lifestyle that I haven't participated in.

But that's not really something I should be thinking about, let alone have to explain it.

"Well, I am. So let's just drop it."

"I don't want you to think that I don't care about you or your feelings," he spoke as he approached me. "I love you more than anything. You know that." He cupped my face with his hand and I couldn't help but lean into it.

"I…. appreciate that. And this. And everything that you've ever done for me," I answered. "But I just want you to understand that I have a right to get angry-."

"You do," he assured me. "And if the roles were reversed, I would be too. Believe me." I nodded and walked around him.

"Well… now what?" I hoped he realized that I never actually said I forgive him.

With a smile, he turned to me.

"I was just asked to keep track of temperature changes and any chance of long term effects. Audience reaction, things like that. But I got everything I needed." He held up his left wrist and I knew he meant that he recorded everything on his watch.

Internally, I felt a twinge of anger. If his assignment really was that simple and brief, it was even more of a reason why he should have told me about it. But I decided not to dwell on that any longer.

"So," he continued, "for the rest of this vacation, I'm all yours. If you'll have me."

And because I somehow, someway, despite everything, still found him so irresistible, I closed the gap between us and kissed him.

We all knew we'd feel the effects of it in the morning. But in the meantime, there were no regrets.

As we all stumbled back to our room, Tess and Meg each holding a large bag of our combined McDonalds drive-thru order, our giddiness seemed loud enough to wake up anyone in the neighboring rooms. A part of me was surprised that no one popped their head out to see what the noise was about.

Falling a little behind, I ran to catch up to find Sonia struggling to open the door with our room key and the other two surrounding her.

"Hurry UP, Sonia. I'm so hungry!"

"You already ate almost all your fries in the cab, Tess!"

"Shh!" Meg and I spoke at the same time, not wanting to cause even more of a commotion.

"Ugh, finally!" As the door beeped and Sonia pushed it open, they all almost tripped over each other as they entered our room.

I followed behind them and decided that my Big Mac could wait. While the three of them crowded around the greasy brown bags, I sneakily made my way over to over to our balcony as I pulled my phone out of my clutch purse. Closing the sliding door behind me, I pressed the phone icon when I found the number I was looking for.

Much to my dismay, it took a few rings before my call was answered.

"Hello?" I could tell by the way his voice sounded that I woke him up.

"Hey," I spoke a lot livelier than Jimmy did.

"Hey," I could tell he knew that it was me. "Cin, it's two-thirty in the morning. Is everything alright?"

"Yeah," I shrugged, even though he wouldn't be able to see it. "I just… I miss you."

I practically felt him smile through the phone.

"I miss you too." A moment passed in which neither of us spoke and then Jimmy broke the silence. "Are you drunk?"

"A little bit," I giggled, knowing it was far worse than I was letting on.

"Sounds like you had a good night. You are okay, right?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "I'm always okay when I'm with you."

"I'm pretty far away Cindy." he replied with his signature chuckle. "But I'm glad you called."

"I'm sorry," I mumbled, not really listening to what he said just before.

"For what?"

"For…coming here. With my friends. I knew you weren't going to be happy…. But I just really wanted to, y'know?"

"Baby, it's okay. You don't have to apologize for that. You've deserve a vacation." He paused before he spoke again. "Don't worry about me, alright?"

"If you say so." I felt a breeze and shivered a bit. "I have to go. There's food."

"Okay. Thank you for checking in. I appreciate it."

"'Course," I smiled. "I love you."

"I love you too. Good night."

The next chapter is one that I have been planning for a long time and I am SO EXCITED for you all to read it. Here's a tease: we're going to see some old friends again.

Also, if you follow me on Twitter (at D13Tribute) you may already know this but if you don't, I'd like to announce that my one-shot "The Lab" is getting a second chapter! That is coming out very soon so if you haven't read the first part yet (or added it to alert)… what are you waiting for?

I hope you enjoyed this and please review!