Teaser for "Billion Dollar Industry"

The alarm goes off once again, but the one who set it ignores it and continues to slumber. Shocker. Some days, I just want it to keep going until he’s in his last stage of sleep and can hear how annoying it is. I just don’t have enough patience to do that, the constant beeping sound is antagonizing. “Luke,” I groan. “Wake up.” I reach over to whack him in the arm, but I miss. I lazily open my eyes. He isn’t even in bed.

“I'm awake, Honey.” I hear his voice from the doorway of our bedroom. He’s almost fully dressed, his hair still has a bed-head look to it though.

“Then why didn’t you turn off the alarm or make sure it didn’t go off since you were up before it?” I’m annoyed because it’s 7:47 a.m. on a Friday.

“Because I had to make sure you woke up on time.”

“On time for what?” The agitation is clearly on my face.

“Our parents. I’m picking them all up from the airport and you need to be fully dressed by the time we all get back.”

“I need to be?”

“Emma, you know what I’m saying. Don’t be a brat.”

“Don’t be a brat? Luke, tread the waters lightly.”

“I’m sorry. I'm not trying to be mean, but you are trying to pick a fight. They’re all going to be here in a few, whether you like it or not.”

I dismiss his entire statement. “Why are my parents even flying in? They can drive, they’re two hours away at best with traffic.”

“Because we paid for their tickets, we wanted them to fly in, so we could pick them up. It's less work for them to do.”

“Okay.”

I turn back over in the bed so my back is to him, within a few seconds I can feel his hand caressing my arm.

“Don’t be like that, try to be happy today. They love you,” he leans further down to kiss my cheek.

“I know my parents love me, it’s the idea of your Mother that is unsettling to me.”

“She adores you and so does my Dad. Just as your parents adore me.”

“My parents actually do love you Luke and I know your Dad likes me, but your mother? C’mon,” I look up at him.

“What? How could you think she doesn’t?” He looks extremely confused.

“Really? At last year’s cookout on the fourth of July, I wore all white and she spilled red kool-aid all over me…the entire pitcher.”

“Accidents happen. Besides we both know white wasn’t the best thing to wear to a cookout.”

“You wore white, too! But if that’s the case then what about when I changed, huh? I changed into a Royal Blue, loose bottom dress.”

“And?”

“Do you not remember what happened next?”

“I’m sure you’re going to tell me, even though I’ve tried to forget.”

“She spilled ranch on me, the entire squeeze bottle. Ranch in a squeeze bottle doesn’t come out, unless squeezed upon. Please, explain that.”

“Did you use ‘squeeze’ enough in that story? Look, I have no explanation besides that we’re not in space so items like food and humans don’t float. With that being said, everything falls down to Earth--which can cause accidents and sometimes beautiful connections. All that explains why I fell in love with you,” he winks at me and then tries to leave our room.

“Luke, that was the corniest shit I’ve ever heard. We’re not done here,” I say as I sit up in the bed and throw the covers off, now revealing that I'm only wearing one of his old baseball t-shirts. He smirks while he looks me up and down.

“You’re right, we’re definitely not.”

“You are unbelievable," I say with a hint of laughter in my voice.

Knock. Knock.

"Who could that be at this time?"

Luke looks at me calmly and puts his index finger to his mouth, gesturing for me to be quiet. I cover my mouth, afraid. There's a stillness in the room I've never felt before.

I look closely as his mouth slowly forms the word: Run.