33
Keith
* * *
“Are you okay?” Henry asks as I step off the elevator, heading for my hotel suite. It’s somewhere near five in the morning, I think. After talking to Beth, I turned off my phone and sat on a bench and watched the impending sunrise begin to lighten the sky. Just thinking. Just figuring everything out for myself. I couldn’t return until I was in the right headspace. Until I could fix everything I did and said and be ready to fully, truly commit to Maia.
Now all I can think about is getting to her.
“Huh?” I ask, wondering why Henry is sitting outside my door in nothing but a pair of shorts.
“Are. You. Okay?” he repeats sharply, enunciating each word as he rises off the floor.
Am I? “Yeah. I think I am.” Or at least I will be. Once I get my girl back in my arms and tell her everything.
His fist lands in my face. Right between my cheekbone and my left eye. I stagger back, smacking into the opposite wall behind me. Blinding white-hot pain shoots through my entire face to the point where I swear my eye is about to burst.
“What the fuck?” I bellow, covering my face with my hand and already feeling how hot and tender the skin is beneath my touch.
“I warned you, motherfucker,” he barks, standing over me since now since my knees are bent and my body is sagging against the wall, his eyes cold and menacing. “I warned you if you broke her heart, I’d break your face. And now you know I meant it.”
Break her heart? No. Did I do that? “Where is she?” I push out, forcing myself back up to my feet and ignoring the throbbing of my eye and cheek.
“Gone. You, stupid piece of shit. Gone. She cried on my shoulder and told me what you said to her. She didn’t deserve that, Keith. None of that.”
“I know. I… I didn’t know what I was saying!” I yell, and not even defensively. Because he’s right and I was wrong. I freaked and I said shit and I ran. I just assumed she’d know. That she’d see how panicked I was and… understand.
She understands so much about me without my even having to say anything. Always has.
But it seems I overestimated that in the worst possible way.
Jesus. Poor Maia. What did I do to her?
“Well, you did it this time,” Henry says as if answering my unspoken thoughts. “Did you know her father was murdered by the guy she’s been paying off?”
The fuck? “What? When?”
He throws his hands up, looking like he wants to hit me again. “Must have happened after you ran out on her. She’s on her way back to Virginia to meet with the FBI and guess who’s not with her holding her goddamn hand and supporting her?”
Me. I’m not with her because I wasn’t here. Because she had to deal with my breakdown, with me yelling horrible things I didn’t mean at her, and then she got a call like that.
I deserved that punch and then a whole lot more.
“You should have cleared your head from Amy before you even touched Maia. Isn’t that what we told you to do? Isn’t that what you said you were going to do?”
I nod, staring down at the carpet of the hallway because he’s right. I should have done exactly that. I told the guys I would. I tried to resist her and failed miserably because I just couldn’t stay away from her. I loved Maia hard, but also not the way I should have. I didn’t give myself over to her the way she did with me.
Something I intend to remedy.
I look up and meet Henry’s furious green eyes. “I love her, man. I love Maia more than I love anyone or anything. I fucked up, but I’m going to fix it.”
“Then you better get your ass on a plane and I mean right now.”
Get my ass on a plane. I can do that. Easy shit right there.
I reach out and hug my friend, my brother. “Thanks, Henry. For loving her. For loving me. For punching some sense into me. That was your one freebie, asshole. Don’t try it again.” I slap him on the back and then I spin right around and head for the elevator. “Grab my shit and bring it home for me, would ya?” I call out as I step back onto the elevator. “I won’t be home again until Maia is with me,” I murmur to myself as the doors close.
I hop in the first cab I come across and speed off into the growing dawn.
If you’ve never been to the airport in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, let me tell you, it’s fucking huge. And when the taxi driver asks me which airline, I have no clue. I don’t know who flies up to that part of the country. I’d take the jet, but it’s already set and scheduled to take everyone back to California today and no way I can ask them to reroute that for me.
I tell the cab driver to drop me at American Airlines, since that’s the first one I see, and then I practically sprint inside, rushing up to the counter. There’s a decent line in the economy area but first class is empty so that’s where I go.
But as I approach, I catch the woman eyeing me like she’s a hot beat from calling security. It’s only now I realize the mess I must be. I woke up after the nightmare of my life, threw on some random clothes and rushed out into the middle of the night. Add to that, I very likely have a nice new shiner curtsey of Henry.
“May I help you?” she asks like that’s the absolute last thing she wants to do.
“Yes, I need a one-way ticket to…” Shit. What’s the damn name of her town? “Brookside, Virginia.”
She purses her lips and types a bunch of crap into her computer and then spews out the most convoluted travel itinerary imaginable.
“You’re telling me it will take me three planes to get there?”
“Yes, sir. I am. The best way to get there is to fly into Charlotte then catch a connection to Roanoke regional airport and then we can get you into one of the smaller, local airports or you can rent a car in Roanoke and drive.”
“And that won’t get me into Brookside until twelve hours from now?” I ask, beyond incredulous.
“That’s correct. Would you like me to book these flights for you?” She smiles that customer service smile that doesn’t reach her eyes. No, those are filled with a silent plea for me to say no thanks, I’ve changed my mind.
“What about a private plane? Can I rent a private plane?”
* * *
She stares at me dismissively, tilting her head and everything. Likely because I look like a bum who got dragged out of bed and proceeded to get the shit kicked out of him.
* * *
I pull out my wallet and drop my black Amex on the counter. “How about now? Can we see about that private plane now?”
She glances down at the card. At the name printed on the card. And then back up at me, recognition now brightening her features.
“We don’t do private planes here through American Airlines, Mr. Dawson, but um…” She starts blushing like… well, like Maia after I say something dirty to her. “Let me just make a couple of phone calls for you. I’d be happy to assist you with whatever your travel needs are.”
“Thank you so much…” I lean forward, checking out her name tag. “Carla. I truly appreciate any help you can give me.”