Now that we were standing together, we recombined slightly. Allison started talking to Emily about work stuff, and Mike asked Cassie about her plans when she got home. I noticed the beautiful blonde stayed attached to my side. I think the rest of the group was very aware of it, too.
“It’ll be nice to get back home,” Cassie said, “I’m going to need a vacation from this vacation.”
“I hear you,” Mike said, “Though I’m going to miss this, too.”
“You all should come visit us in New York,” Cassie said. She squeezed my arm as she said ‘you all.’ “We’re not that far of a drive up the Turnpike.”
“I’d like that,” Mike said, missing Cassie’s cues completely.
It was probably for the best. I wasn’t sure where Mike was at with his former crush girl. He seemed to be awfully interested in Emily after the night before. But I couldn’t imagine he was ‘done’ with Cassie, even after everything they’d already done. She was the girl, he’d told me. Was he truly already ready to move on so completely?
The line leapt forward about halfway down the room and we shuffled forward along with it. But Jack hung back. There were two women standing behind us and he was chatting them up, hard. The women were cute — a blonde and a redhead, both chunky and smiley. Both looked to be in their mid-thirties. Jack was so engrossed with them, they were so charmed by him, he didn’t notice we’d moved.
But Emily noticed. At first, I didn’t recognize the look on her face, but I quickly realized: it was jealousy. I’d seen it a few times on this trip, just for a second or two and only when she thought I wasn’t looking. But she’d made that face when I’d gotten Allison off with my tongue. And when I’d made Cassie squirt the night before.
And Emily was looking that way now, watching Jack flirt with those two women. Only this time it was overt — she didn’t care who saw. I could practically see the steam coming out of her ears.
“Jack honey, keep up,” Emily said, forcing out a giggle. She hurried over to him, grabbed his arm, and yanked him back to our group. “We can’t hold up the line.”
Emily kept Jack’s arm firmly locked in her own. She reached up and smoothed his silver hair, giving him a kiss on the cheek. It was the kind of animal behavior David Attenborough could spend a whole series studying.
Cassie, leaning against the stone wall next to me, let out a long, cool exhale. “On to the next,” she said, barely a whisper.
I turned to look at her and she shrugged. This was all expected, apparently. Part of the plot. But while Jack was clearly good with it and Cassie was resigned, I wasn’t sure how Emily was going to take this. Of course, we’d already planned to step away. But that was after the trip, not during.
“Emily will get over it,” Cassie said, quietly, “They always do.”
After riding Pirates, we walked over to Splash Mountain, but it was down — a cruel reality on an already overhot day. The line for Big Thunder Mountain, however, was manageable.
“I’m not doing that one,” Emily said as we queued up.
“I’ll wait with you,” Mike said. He grabbed her hand and pulled her to the far side of the path. They leaned against some large, brown rocks and immediately started kissing.
I don’t know why it bothered me so much to see Emily and Mike. I’d witnessed way more than what they were doing. And, rationally, I knew that Emily was mostly performing to get Jack’s attention, rather than to upset me. But it did trouble me. I couldn’t help staring back at my wife and Mike a few times while we made our way up the hillside to the ride.
“They’ll be fine,” Allison told me, after I’d glanced over for a third time. We were about to go into the main building, and I wouldn’t be able to track them from there. “Mike’s harmless.”
I looked at the athletic blonde woman and nodded, solemnly. I knew she was right. But knowing and feeling are two different things, you know. And the gut always overrules.
“I envy her, you know,” Cassie said, seeing where my attention was.
“You want to make out with Mike, too?” I asked. I couldn’t keep the bitterness off my tongue.
“No,” Cassie said, giving me a slap on the shoulder, “I mean her life. That whole thing about only being with one guy. She met her soulmate and moved forward. I wish things had been that easy for me.”
“It’s not always easy,” I said, motioning back towards where my wife was kissing her best friend’s husband.
“Despite all that, she’s still going back home tomorrow to the love of her life,” Cassie said, “Someone who cares about her so much, he can’t stop staring her way.”
“I think Emily would say she envies you,” I said.
Cassie made a sour face, like she couldn’t believe what a bad choice that was. “I guess we always want what we can’t have.”
Despite my worries, when we got back from the wildest ride in the wilderness, Emily and Mike were not naked and humping on the rocks. Though Emily was flushed, and Mike was smiling a bit too contentedly for my taste. The two of them straightened themselves as they saw us, and we all started walking back through the park.
We again followed the curve of the path around the river, till we got to the Revolutionary War section of the park. We turned in to the Haunted Mansion and did that. I think Cassie realized she’d been monopolizing my attention and she made sure that Allison and I were paired in the doom buggy. Cassie sat with Mike, putting Emily with Jack. Again, I was in awe of how clever the blonde woman could be.