Page 38 of Lost Love Found

Your turn. Tell me all your thoughts.

You’re so weird. I love it.

My only thought: the picture of us smiling at one another when we talked out of the restaurant might be my favorite photo ever.

Yeah. We cute.

THURSDAY

TORNEROSE

“Tearin’ Up My Heart” because ‘90s *NSYNC. Nuff said.

“Tryin’ too much but baby we can win” because it makes absolutely no sense

Your love for the ‘90s knows no bounds.

You have no idea.

“Wonderwall“ - “And backbeat, the word is on the street that the fire in your heart is out”

Are we flying out together tomorrow?

Yes! I’m sitting with you whether or not you like it. Because I miss your face.

FRIDAY

See you soon!

I’m thankful for the chartered flight, so we all get to fly together. When I get to the plane that evening, Owen and Lainey are already inside. I hear her laughter as I walk in, and when she sees me, her whole face lights up. A rush of warmth travels from my toes to the tips of my fingers, all the way up my torso, just from looking at her. There’s no way this is normal, is there? No time to answer that. Elaina’s giving me one of her incredible hugs.

“Hi! It’s nice to see your face. You must be exhausted after this week. You doing OK?” Of course, she has to check on me. I bet she’s going to repeat some form of this with Maeve and Raf, too, checking in on how they’re doing. Her hand smooths over my beard and our eyes meet. “Hi”

“Hey, beauty. I’m good. Better now. Thank you.” I smile and she disentangles herself from me much too quickly, reaching for something next to her. I don’t even have time to ask her how she’s doing and I think she does this intentionally.

“Raffy, I brought you some more of the soup I made. Is your throat any better?” She hands him a glass jar as he walks in and reaches up to give him a kiss on the cheek, pausing to get a good look at his face. I didn’t even know Raf was sick.

“Almost all better, thanks to you, baby girl.” He pulls her in for a side hug and takes the jar. “Liquid gold, right here.” He points to it smiling. Elaina is already on the move again as Maeve walks in behind us.

“Hi, Maevey! Charlie is coming to tomorrow’s spa day. And I even requested your favorite masseuse.” She leans in to give her friend a kiss on the cheek. She takes Maeve’s hand and squeezes it to her chest as if comforting her. This kind of genuine affection isn’t something I’m used to getting from anyone, but it’s hard to imagine being without it now. Being without her.

“Lainey Banainey, everyone is here and sufficiently taken care of now. Please sit down and relax.” Owen’s baritone voice booms across the plane, but his tone is gentle. The last few weeks have really changed his relationship with his sister. I don’t think I’ve heard him use a nickname for her until today.

Elaina smiles warmly at her brother and then turns to me with a gleam in her eye and takes my hand, our fingers intertwining as we make our way towards the back of the plane. We settle into two seats that are side-by-side, the way she wanted. I can’t stop thinking about what this fake relationship and proximity to Elaina over the coming weeks are going to do to me if she insists on remaining just friends.

I run my fingers gently through her hair as she dozes off on my shoulder, feeling a sudden pain in my chest at the thought of my life without her in it.

Raf walks over and sits across from me, resting his bowl of soup on the table. “Hey. man. You alright?”

I hear the change in his voice now. It’s hoarse. I can’t believe I didn’t realize he was sick. “Yeah. How are you doing? I didn’t realize you weren’t feeling well. Sorry, dude. That was shitty of me.”

“You’ve been preoccupied.” He shrugs and glances at Elaina, who is still fast asleep. “Have you told her yet?”

I look down at my lap and huff out a breath. Of course, Raf can read my mind. “No. No, I haven’t. We’re just friends, remember? Nothing to tell, right?”

Raf slurps his soup and shakes his head. “You two have never been just friends, Adam. You both need to get that shit straight and stop dancing around what’s right in front of you.” He lifts his eyebrows at me and keeps slurping his soup. “Mmm. I swear it’s worth getting sick just for Elaina’s soup. I’ll deny this if you ever repeat it, but it’s better than my mom’s.” We both chuckle and Elaina stirs on my shoulder. “I’m here when you need me.” Raf gets up and pats me on my free shoulder before walking back to his seat.

Elaina has been the one insistent on us being just friends, but I have yet to tell her how I feel. Maybe that needs to change soon. She needs to know I’m not interested in just pretending, but what if that makes things awkward between us and we can’t recover? Fuck it. I can’t think about this right now. Better close my eyes and hope sleep comes.

---