CHAPTERTWENTY-SIX
Archer
We weren’t leavingthe resort today. I’d decided that around three this morning, when Lauren was sleeping soundly beside me while I stared up at the rotating ceiling fan above the bed.
I’d drifted off to sleep eventually, having come up with a plan that would keep us from going our separate ways.
Lauren and I were just too damn good together. I wasn’t walking away from that. When everyone else from the show left the resort, I was going to check us into the resort under my name and stay until we decided how to move forward.
I’d date long distance if that was what she wanted. We had to find a way to be together. It was more important to me than anything else.
I rolled over in bed, eager to ask her to stay here with me, but her side of the bed was empty. Sitting up, I looked at the bathroom door to see if she was in there. It was wide open.
“Lo?”
I moved the covers aside and got out of bed. She wasn’t here, and the folded note sitting on the desk with my name on it made my stomach sink. I picked it up and read the message she’d left me.
Dear Archer,
I’m sorry I left,but I decided to take an earlier flight home because I just can’t say goodbye to you. There are too many memories of the last time we said goodbye. When I look back at our time on the island, I don’t want painful memories, only good ones.
Saying thank you isn’t nearly enough. You took care of me in so many ways you didn’t have to, because that’s who you are. You believed in me and helped me believe in myself. Being on the show was life changing for me. I came here thinking it was for the money, but I got more out of it than money could ever buy.
I’m grateful for this experience, and for you. We have our friendship back. I’ll always be rooting for you, in hockey and in life. You deserve nothing but the best.
Lauren
I read it again,too stunned to believe it after the first time. She’d stolen out of here after I’d fallen asleep. So much for my plan to spend a couple of blissful weeks here together.
“Fuck.”
I dropped the note on the desk and sat down on the end of the bed, putting my head in my hands. What now?
I stood up, feeling determined. She wasn’t getting away this time. She was probably at the airport now. I’d go there and persuade her to come back here with me. Well, I’d try, anyway. From the tone of her note, I wasn’t sure if she’d want to.
Last night may have been her way of saying goodbye to me. If I chased her down and begged her to be with me again, I’d risk making a fool of myself.
If I didn’t try, though, there wasn’t even a chance and I couldn’t live with that.
I left her room and went across the hallway to my own, shoving my essentials into a backpack and calling for a ride with the Uber app on my phone. There was still hope.
Luckily, there was a driver just two minutes away. I ran down to the lobby, found his car and jumped in.
“Hey man, there’s a massive tip coming your way if you get me to the airport as fast as possible,” I said.
The driver looked at me in his rearview mirror, sizing me up. Hopefully I didn’t strike him as a criminal trying to outrun the cops.
“My girl’s at the airport,” I said. “I have to get there before she leaves.”
With a nod, he pressed down on the gas, his car’s tires squealing as we turned out of the resort parking lot. I exhaled hard, adrenaline pumping through me as I tried to figure out what I’d say when I found Lauren.
There were a thousand things I wanted to say, but every one of them scared the hell out of me. I’d always considered myself a strong person who didn’t back down from any challenge, but I’d been a coward when it came to the one thing that mattered most in life—love.
I’d wanted Lauren to come with me to Minneapolis, but I’d been too afraid to make the leap of getting engaged. I should have considered how much of a leap I was asking her to make by leaving her family and chosen college behind. In my mind, knowing we’d be together and have plenty of money was enough.
I could see now how it wasn’t enough for her. And then when I’d had a chance to make things right, by proposing to her, I’d chickened out yet again.
“Five minutes,” the Uber driver said, swerving onto a side street.
Another driver laid on their horn and flipped him off, but he ignored them. Holy shit, this guy was either going to get me there in record time or he was going to get us both killed.
Fortunately, we survived. He pulled into the airport and looked at me in the rearview mirror.
“Which airline?”
“I don’t know. Just let me out anywhere and I’ll figure it out.”
He pulled up to the terminal of the small airport and I got out, waving at him and then typing into my phone to tip him as I ran inside. I figured a hundred bucks made it worth his while.
Once I was inside, I ran up to the first airline desk I saw that didn’t have a line.
“Checking in, sir?” the woman behind the desk asked.
I looked at the clock on the wall. It was 9:05 a.m. If only I knew what time Lauren had gotten here.
“No, I…I have a question. If I’d come here three hours ago and asked you how I could get to Sioux City, Iowa the fastest, what flights would you have sold me?”
She gave me a puzzled look. “Sir, we don’t fly to Sioux City.”
“I know, but it doesn’t have to be nonstop. It doesn’t even have to be this airline. Can you just get on your computer and tell me what flights you think someone would have booked?”
I remembered the cash in my wallet and got it out, taking out five twenties and passing them to her. “Please.”
“Sir, I can’t take that.”
“It’s a tip for exceptional service. You’d take it if it was two bucks, so why not a little more?”
She hesitated, then clicked at the keys on her keyboard. “I’ll see what I can find.”
“Thank you.”
It felt like an eternity passed as I waited for her to read through the flights on her screen.
“A flight left for Atlanta at 6:05 a.m.,” she said. “It would be easy to get a flight to Iowa from there today. And if not that one, let’s see…there’s a 9:45 a.m. to Chicago.”
“Which gate?” I asked, sliding her the money.
She passed back the money and told me the gate number. “You don’t have to give me that. I was just doing my job.”
I pushed the money back toward her and took off, yelling my thanks over my shoulder.
“Wait! You can’t go to the gates without a ticket.”
Shit. I went back and got my wallet out again, passing her a credit card.
“Sir, I can’t book you a flight on that airline.”
“I don’t care where you book me a flight to. Just give me anything that will get me through security and close to that gate.” I looked at the clock on the wall. “As fast as possible, please.”
Her fingers flew over the keyboard as she tried to find me a flight. “I don’t have much, and what I do have costs $930.”
“Perfect, book it.”
“Okay, I’ll need your driver’s license.”
I closed my eyes, trying to hold it together. My whole future was on the line here, and I didn’t have the patience to watch it slip away. What choice did I have, though?
After she had entered all my information, the ticketing agent slid back my license, credit card, and a paper boarding pass.
“Good luck,” she said.
“Thanks.”
I ran to the security line, deflating when I saw how many people were in it. My grandpa had always said where there was a will, there was a way, and I most definitely had the will to get to that gate. Pulling out my wallet, I approached the last person in line.
“I’ll give you twenty bucks to let me cut in front of you,” I said.
“Sure.” He took the cash and I moved on to the next person.
My strategy worked until I reached an elderly woman, who just glared at me when I made my offer.
“A hundred,” she said.