I just want Blake, now, and forever.
Forever?
For a moment that thought, so new and shiny, makes me freeze.
What's more, it doesn't terrify me.
I stand, my mind churning.
I'm thinking I want this to work. I'm thinking I need to try.
I'm thinking I need to call Human Resources.
Mostly, I'm thinking that I need to get my ass to the airport, and fast.
I'M GASPING AND OUT of breath when I finally reach the gate. The moment I'd arrived at the airport, I'd bought a coach ticket on the only United flight to New York that was scheduled to take off around noon. Now, I'm clutching the boarding pass tight in my hand. Everyone is staring at me, but I don't care. There's only one face I care about, and I don't see it. Dammit, I don't see him anywhere.
I turn a circle, surveying the crowd, but he's not there, and a well of panic swells inside me. He hadn't told me the airline; I'm only assuming it was United because that's what we flew when we got waylaid in Chicago. But what if he's on American? Or any of a zillion other airlines. For that matter, what if he's on a private jet? Or he's flying out of Burbank and he's not even in this airport?
I reach into my purse for my cellphone. I already texted twice from the taxi and got no response. Maybe he still hasn't charged his phone. Maybe he's ignoring me. I don't know, but I have to try.
I'm about to type out another groveling, plea for forgiveness, when I see him stepping out of a coffee shop across the corridor.
He hesitates, then looks right at me and starts walking toward me, as if I were emitting a homing beacon that only he can hear.
I see hope flash across his face before it's replaced by a neutral expression colored only by a hint of curiosity.
"Come to see me off?"
I shake my head, and for a moment, I can't seem to make my voice work. Instead, I thrust my boarding pass into his hand. He looks at it, and when he looks up, the hope has returned, along with a kind of boisterous joy that makes me feel light inside.
"What changed your mind?"
"I was scared," I admit. "Of change. Of taking a risk. Of everything." I draw a breath. "But then I remembered that it was you. And I know in my heart that you've got my back. I think I've know that from the first moment I grabbed your hand on that plane, and you held on." I smile, tears pooling in my eyes as I lift a shoulder in a shrug. "You take my fear away, Blake. You always have."
His smile is wide, boyish, and deliciously sexy. I smile too, then burst into laughter when he pulls me close, finally silencing me with a Hollywood-happy-ending kiss. Deep and melting, where the guy bends the girl back so far they are both defying gravity, both trusting the other not to fall.
We break apart, gasping and grinning, and he pulls me upright as all around us travelers start to applaud. My cheeks heat, but I grin, then take a little bow as Blake laughs beside me.
"What about your job?"
"I took a week's vacation."
I think I see disappointment flash in his eyes, but all he says is, "You'll stay with me."
"At least until I can find my own place," I say, then break into a broad smile. "I'm moving to New York, Blake."
"Oh, baby," he says, pulling me into his arms and holding me tight.
"And I'm going without a plan, totally out of control, and it feels great."
I don't mention that I have a couple of cushions--my job, for one, because the odds are good I can transfer to the New York office. And, of course, Blake himself is the biggest cushion of all.
I can see forever with him, I'm sure of it. But I'm not going to say that out loud. Not yet. For once in my life, I'm going to go with the current, without planning five steps ahead.
I'm going to trust what I feel, and I'm going to believe that what Blake and I have is real and forever.
Even so, for at least a little while, I'm staying in my own place. Once I find a place, anyway. Because Blake and I did everything backward. I want the dating, the nights spent at each other's apartments, the mornings meeting at a mutually convenient cafe.