“I don’t know. The line is pretty long, and we don’t have that much time,” he tells me.
“Just give me a few minutes.” I repeat.
I grab Aleah’s hand and walk a few steps away from Jonathan to get some privacy. I grab her face in my hands and kiss her with everything I have. I don’t care that we’re in a crowded airport and there may be children around. All I can think about is the fact that I won’t see her for a full three months. I don’t even know how often we’ll be able to talk to each other. This gives me a bad feeling about this trip and I already know I will miss her crazy. So I pull her body closer and kiss her like it’s the last time. She matches me stride by stride.
When I finally pull my lips away from hers, it’s with a heavy heart. I place a small kiss on her nose and kiss her eyelids one by one, while still holding her face in my hands, and that’s when I hear a familiar voice to my right. I snap my head around in shock.
“So, it was just a onetime thing and you were just trying to get the kink out of your system, huh?” my mom asks in an accusatory tone. “Explain to me then what that scorching hot kiss was all about? And why is it that you don’t even bother to come say goodbye to your mother, but she’s here at the airport with you?”
“Mom, Andrea, what are you doing here?”
“We came here to surprise you and say goodbye,” my sister, Andrea says with hurt in her eyes.
God! What mess have I created now?
I look back to Aleah to see her eyes filled with uncertainty and fear. I noticed she has reached over and grabbed my hand unconsciously. I hate to let her hand go, but that’s the only way I see out of this mess right now. I try to search her eyes with mine and convey to them what I can’t with my lips. “Give me a few minutes, okay?” She hesitantly nods her head and I release her hand to walk to my mom and sister. I grab Andrea’s hand and walk a few steps away. My mom follows closely.
As soon as we stop walking, Mom starts firing questions at me. “What the hell is going on, Aiden? Are you dating this wench now? How could you go out with your grandpa’s wife?”
I run my hand through my hair and try to take a deep breath to calm myself before I say something I will regret later.
“You have a girlfriend and you didn’t tell me?” Andrea jumps in, her voice laden with hurt. “You’re dating Grandpa’s widow and you didn’t even bother to tell me?” she asks again.
I pinch the bridge of my nose. God! I hate this. I’ve been telling Andrea we are best friends since she was a little kid to get her to tell me everything in her life, so I can protect her from anything bad that might be going. And that wasn’t a lie. I do feel like she’s my best friends. Before Aleah, she was the only other person in the world, I spoke to a few times a week. I have always told her everything important in my life. I knew I should have told her about Aleah too. But Andrea has a hard time keeping secrets, especially when she gets excited about something, and I was worried she would tell Mom. Now that she’s looking at me with those hurt eyes, I realize the mistake I made. But it’s too late and there is too little time for me to explain things to her right now. The only thing I can think of at the moment to salvage this situation is a lie.
“It’s not serious, Andrea. I’m just having fun. She’s not my girlfriend.”
I hear a sharp intake of breath behind me and swirl around. Aleah is standing right behind me with her mouth hanging open in shock and her hand covering it. The pressure and the stress of the moment get to me, and I snap, at the wrong person.
“I thought I asked you to stay back, while I talk to my family,” I say in a raised voice.
Tears pool in her eyes. Her lips start to tremble, but she fights hard to control her emotions and stay calm. In the process, she reminds once more of why I’m so in love with her. Any other girl would slap my face and storm out of the airport after hearing me belittle our relationship in front of my family, but not her. She stands there biting her lips to keep them from trembling and takes a deep breath before calmly responding.
“They just announced that they’re boarding your flight. Jonathan got in line and asked me to come get you.” Her voice may sound calm, but I don’t miss the hurt tone.
I curse myself for losing my cool and snapping at her, and I curse the universe for bringing this mess upon me right when I‘m about to leave the country for three months.
I squeeze my eyes shut and take a deep ragged breath. There’s nothing I can do or say to either one of them right now that would fix the situation. I have to leave the two most important women in my life hurt and angry and there is not a darn thing I can do about it. I hear the announcement on the intercom and realize I’m out of time. I quickly give my mom a hug, before grabbing Andrea in a tight hug. “I have to go now, but I’ll call you when I get there and explain everything to you. Okay?” I whisper to her. She nods her head with teary eyes. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to comfort her.
I turn to Aleah next. I hate that Mom and Andrea are watching and I can’t show Aleah exactly how I feel right now. I wrap my arms around her, kissing the side of her head, before whispering in her ear. “I’m so sorry I snapped at you and so sorry for what you heard. I promise I’ll fix this. I’ll call you from the other side. I love you.”
I force myself to let her go as quickly as the words are out of my mouth, before I lose control and start devouring her mouth. I rush to the end of the security line and don’t turn around, because I know I can’t handle the look that all three of them must be directing at me right now. After a few minutes of standing in line, I finally find the courage to turn around. I see my mom and Andrea still standing there, but I see no sign of Aleah.
Fuck. She must have felt more hurt than I thought. I reach into my pocket for my phone to try to call her, but as soon as I start dialing her number, I’m at the front of the line. The TSA agent asks me to show my ID and boarding pass and I have to put my phone away. Once I pass the check point, I have to go through the screening machines. The screening takes forever. There are a couple of families in front of me with strollers and car seats and by the time all of their stuff are on the belt, I’m ready to start pulling my hair out.
As soon as I pass the security screening, I pull my phone out, but then I hear my name being called from a distant. I lift my head up to see Jonathan waving frantically at me from a distance. He signals me to follow him and tells me to run. I look at my watch and notice that the plane is scheduled to leave in fifteen minutes, and our gate seems to be the very last one in this terminal. I follow Jonathan’s lead and start sprinting through the airport. The longer we run, the further this gate seems to get. By the time, I finally see the sign for it, I’m out of breath. I reach the gate area, right before the gate agent is about to close the door. “Wait. Wait,” I yell from the distance. She looks up to see me, annoyance written all over her face.
She steps back and scans my boarding pass quickly. I walk into the plane and find my seat next to Jonathan, who has a big scowl on his face. Great! This guy is mad at me too. This is such a fantastic start to this trip. I don’t bother to apologize or say anything to him. As soon as I’m seated, I pull my phone out to call Aleah. I ignore the announcement saying that all electronic equipment needs to be turned off and dial her number. I wait to hear the ring, but my phone doesn’t connect. It keeps showing that it’s dialing, but the call doesn’t go through. I look at the antenna bar on my screen and notice that there are no bars. I hold up my phone up high to get a better reception and as a result get the attention of one of the flight attendants. “Sir, you need to turn your phone off right now.” I try to hide my irritation and stay calm.
“I have to make this phone call. It’s an emergency. It’ll be very quick. Can I please just make one quick call?” I almost beg her.
“No, sir. The cabin door is closed and your phone needs to be turned off right now.”
I curse my luck under my breath. Could this day get any more horrible? I turn my phone off and throw it in the seat
pocket in front of me in frustration, and brace myself for eleven hours of torture.
The flight to Frankfort feels like one of the longest and most torturous flights I have ever taken, and that’s not just because I’m flying coach for the first time in my life. The image of Aleah with her teary eyes as I barked at her keeps playing over and over in my mind and each time I think about how I left her, I curse myself once more.
She was right. Time would never heal this issue with my family. I should have been a man and dealt with it straight on. I should have told my family about us, and then told them to get the hell out of my business and leave us alone. I should have at least told Andrea. God. I hate myself right now.
By the time we get to Frankfort, I‘m so pissed off at myself and so strung out that I rush out of the airplane as soon as I can. I take a few steps out into the hallway and take a calming breath. I thank God that I thought about getting an international plan and making sure my phone will work in all the places I’ll be traveling to before leaving. I reach for my phone in my pocket, happy that I can finally call Aleah and talk to her. But when my hands don’t feel the outline of my phone, panic overtakes me. I start searching my pockets frantically, but I already know the phone is not here. I was so distressed when I left the plane that I forgot to grab my phone from the seat pocket. I tell Jonathan I have to go find my phone and rush back to our gate, without waiting for his response.
I try to walk past the gate agent towards the plane, before I’m promptly stopped. “Where are you going, sir?” she asks me in anger.
“I forgot my phone in the plane. Can I go back to get it? It’ll be just a second.”
Her strong reaction takes me by surprise. “Absolutely not, sir. You can’t go back to the plane after you’ve left.”
“But I left my phone in there and I absolutely need it.”
“I’m sorry, sir. You can’t go back there.”
I try to curb my rising anger and stay calm. “How can I get my phone then? Can you please get it for me?”
“No, I can’t leave this area.”
“Then what I am supposed to do?” I ask in frustration.
“You’ll have to wait for the cleaning crew to get here. If they find it, they’ll turn it over to lost and found. You can claim it from lost and found in about an hour.”
I take a quick look at my watch. “My next flight leaves in an hour. I can’t wait that long.”
“I’m sorry sir. That’s our standard procedure for items left behind.”
“Are you kidding me?” I ask in a raised voice, no longer able to contain my anger. She just stares at me with a blank face and that pisses me off even more. I spend the next ten minutes arguing with her to no avail. It is only after she threatens to call security that I leave begrudgingly.
I find Jonathan standing a few feet away from the gate, and watching me with a look of disappointment in his eyes. I’m pretty sure he’s already decided that I’m a spoiled rich brat who’s going to make his life a living hell for the next few months. I don’t blame him for thinking that way, but I don’t really care what he thinks about me either. The only thing that matters to me right now is to get in touch with Aleah. I can’t imagine what she must be thinking, with the way we left things at the airport. Especially since I told her I would call her from the other side of the security check and I never did. It’s been over twelve hours since I left her and with the passing of every hour, I can feel our relationship slipping away more.
I tell Jonathan to go to our next gate and I’ll catch up with him, before I start frantically looking for a payphone. It takes me about ten minutes to find a damn payphone in this huge airport. By the time I find one, I’m boiling in anger and frustration. I pick up the phone and try to figure out how to dial a number, but all the instructions are in German. I try to play with it for a few minutes, but once I realize I’m not getting anywhere, I slam the phone back into the receiver. I am so pissed off and frustrated at this point that my jaw starts ticking and my hands start sweating. I look at the time and realize I only have about twenty minutes to get to my gate.
I frantically look for an information desk to try to figure out how to use the payphone. I locate one within a few minutes and they point me to a gift shop to buy a phone card to use with the payphone. I run back to the payphone and using the phone card, I finally figure out how to dial a number. Once I hear the phone ring, I release a tense breath. Even though I only have a couple of minutes to talk to her, I at least now I can let her know what happened so she doesn’t think I’ve forgotten about her.
But my momentary happiness doesn’t last long, as the phone rings and rings and no one picks up. It doesn’t even go to her voicemail. Frustrated and confused, I hang up and try again, but the same thing happens. What the hell? Why would she not pick? I look at my watch and realize it’s three in the morning in L.A. right now. No wonder she’s not picking up. As I’m about to dial her number for a third time to see if I can leave a voicemail, I hear the announcement that my flight is boarding. I take a quick look around to see where I am and how far away from my gate I may be. And I curse loudly under my breath. According to the numbers, there are about twenty gates between my current location and the gate I need to board from. Resigned to the fate that I can’t reach Aleah right now, I slam the phone back into the receiver and take off running for a flight that is going to take me even further away from the huge piece of my heart I left behind in L.A.
THIRTEEN
AIDEN
I wake up with a headache from hell, disoriented and not knowing where I am. It takes me a minute to figure out my current location, but the shooting pain in my neck and the crammed space I am in quickly reminds me of my fucked up circumstances.
I’m in a plane, thousands of miles away from the only woman in the world I’ve ever given a piece of my heart to, and I’m terrified that the physical space has already put too much of a distance in our relationship. To make matters worse, there is not a single thing I can do about it.
I look at my watch and try to calculate the time difference between New Delhi and L.A. By the time we get to the airport in New Delhi, it will be early afternoon in California. Remembering that she doesn’t have any classes on Tuesday afternoons makes me feel a little bit better, as I imagine calling her as soon as we get to the airport.
Those dreams are quickly quashed once we arrive at the airport. It takes us over an hour to pass through customs and immigration. As soon as we enter the arrivals lounge at the airport, we are greeted by a driver who is too eager to usher us out and into his car. Before he starts walking away, I let him know I need to make a phone call right away and ask him where I can find a payphone.
“Do you have a phone card to use for the payphone?”
I shake my head. “It’s two in the morning right now. There are no payphones in this area of the airport, and even if you find one, you’ll need to have a phone card to use it. All the stores that sell those are closed right now. You can make your phone call when we get to your accommodations.”
I am so frustrated and demoralized by now, that I don’t even bother putting up a fight. I just follow the guy out to his car, while holding my throbbing head in my hands.
He drives for about an hour before pulling into a residential area. I look around and all I see are tiny homes.
“Where is he taking us? Is our hotel in this area?” I ask Jonathan.
“We’re not going to a hotel,” he responds in an annoyed tone. “Didn’t you look at the packet the Foundation sent you? You won’t be staying at any hotels during your travels. You will be staying at rented houses or apartments among the locals. That’s one of the points of this trip, right? For you to see how the locals live.”
I try to hide the curse that I mutter under my breath. I don’t want to go to a stinky apartment right now. I want to go to a hotel with a working phone.
The driver pulls up to a small two story building and parks the car. I follow Jonathan out and the driver lea
ds the way to a small front door. He produces a key from his pocket to open the door and let us in.
Once inside, we take the stairs up to reach to another door that leads to a tiny two bedroom apartment. Jonathan informs me that we’ll be sharing the apartment for the next month and this time I can’t help the expletive that escapes my mouth. Seeing the look on his face, I quickly realize I have to apologize.
“Sorry, man. I’ve just never had a roommate before.”
“I didn’t imagine you did. But, you better get used to it quickly,” he says in a dismissive tone, before walking away.
I ignore his sour mood and turn to the driver. “Is there a phone in here I can use?”
“I just checked the rooms. I’m sorry. It doesn’t look like the flat has a phone. But you can ask the landlord tomorrow morning when he wakes up. He lives on the first floor.”
“I can’t wait till tomorrow. I have to make a phone call right now.”
He shrugs his shoulders. “Sorry, sir.”
“Sorry isn’t going to help me. I need a phone. You said I can call when we get here. Is there anywhere around here I could find a payphone?” I have to control my rising anger to not start yelling at him.
“It’s three in the morning. There is nothing open and I don’t think there are any payphones around you could walk up to.”
I can’t help the frustrating groan that leaves my chest.
Fuck.
This. Is. Ridiculous.
I run my hand through my hair and almost start pulling it out. I can’t believe this is happening. It’s like everything in the universe has conspired against me reaching Aleah. I feel like the moons and the stars are aligning to keep me away from her. I curse the universe and everything in it, before walking to the room that is going to be my bedroom for the next month and collapsing on the bed in frustration.
Redeeming Love (Resilient Hearts #2) Page 11