Page 7 of Made Up for Love
A wave of dread washed over her. What had she done with the case? She remembered having it when she checked out, but in her rush to make sure she wasn’t late, it was probably still sitting in the hotel reception. “I must have left it at the hotel. Can we go back?”
Stewart switched on the windscreen wipers as flakes began to fall again. “It’s not going to be an easy journey back there though.”
As the car slowly lurched forward, she realised that the conditions were much worse than they had been that morning. They were crawling at a snail’s pace. She glanced at her watch. She’d already missed her scheduled flight and hoped that she’d be able to book another one.
As if reading her thoughts, Stewart spoke. “I don’t like your chances of getting another flight back to London this evening. Everything’s been cancelled because of the poor visibility.”
For a moment, Lydia didn’t want to believe him. She pulled out her phone and found the details for Edinburgh airport. Her heart sank as she saw the raft of cancelled notifications across every flight that was due to leave the airport that evening.
Panic began to set in. “What am I going to do?”
“I guess you’ll just have to stay at the hotel for another night. You still have your suitcase to pick up, don’t you?”
At least that was one saving grace. If the hotel had availability, she would have somewhere comfortable to stay and wouldn’t have to slum it by sleeping on the floor of the airport.
They had been so caught up in chatting that Lydia didn’t notice they were so close to the car in front until their bumpers almost touched.
“Stewart! Look out!”
Both cars ground to a halt, but the vehicle behind still bumped them, throwing Lydia forward. Despite the fact they were travelling so slowly, and the impact was minimal, the jolt still scared her. Stewart reached out and grabbed her hand.
“Are you okay, love?”
“Totally fine.” Lydia managed a smile, whether to reassure him or herself, she wasn’t sure.
Stewart got out, letting a blast of arctic air into the car, and Lydia shivered. She watched as he spoke to the other drivers, and then examined the damage on all of the cars. There didn’t appear to be much antagonism or finger pointing between them and Lydia assume they would all simply blame the poor weather.
A couple of minutes later, he returned, shutting the door firmly behind him.
“No lasting damage, a couple of paint scratches, that’s it. We were lucky.”
Lydia breathed a sigh of relief. All she wanted now was to get back to the hotel and get some rest. It had been a long day.
Stewart managed to get them back to the Hotel Colessio without any further incident. Lydia felt as if she’d been holding her breath for the remainder of the journey, expecting the vehicle to slide, and every tiny motion had her grabbing the edge of her seat or the armrest for security. He pulled up as close to the steps as possible.
“Thank you.” Lydia leaned over and kissed his cheek. “I’m glad we made it.”
He gave a small smile. “I’ve got to get home yet, love. You give me a call when you next need me.” He pressed a business card into her hand.
As quickly as she could, Lydia got out and retrieved her suitcase from the backseat. She waved at Stewart as she entered the hotel. The reception was busy, and Lydia tried to wait patiently until it was her turn. What if they didn’t have any rooms? When she got to the front, it was the same receptionist she had encountered when she first arrived.
“Hi, I think I left my suitcase here when I checked out this morning? It’s a hard, blue wheelie one.” Lydia paused. “And, um, do you have any rooms for tonight? My flight’s been cancelled.”
“You’re not the only one.” The receptionist turned to her screen. “Obviously the snow has meant we’re more booked up now and all the rooms have gone.”
“Oh.” Lydia’s heart sank. The cold, lonely airport beckoned.
“Hold on, we do have a suite available, but that would be more expensive than the room you had last night.”
“How much more expensive?”
The receptionist named the price and Lydia swallowed hard. She wasn’t wrong; it definitely was more expensive. What choice did she have? If Sadie came through with her promise of more work, then she’d be able to pay off her credit card in no time. And it was the woman’s fault that she missed her flight in the first place.
“That’s fine.” Lydia heard herself say, as her credit card screamed in protest. At least here she’d be around other people and she’d be warm and fed. As she fumbled in her bag for her purse, she saw out of the corner of her eye, that the guy from breakfast had just walked in.
She handed over her card and waited for the receptionist to pass the card machine over to her. After she typed in her PIN, there was a short delay and a noise emanated from the machine.
“I’m sorry, did you put the wrong PIN in?” The receptionist frowned.
