Page 16 of Spiralling Skywards: Fading
“Language, Jarrah.”
“Sorry,” he called out while his arms were still wrapped around me.
“Thanks, Sarah. I knew you were just kidding.”
“Shit yeah,” Everly shouted.
“Shit yeah. Shit yeah,” Eden joined her.
***
I was just walking back to my car at Heathrow airport after kissing and cuddling Liam’s family goodbye when I felt my phone vibrate in the back pocket of my jeans. My heart dropped to my belly and then from my belly to my toes when I saw Liam’s name on the screen.
He had been gone for eleven whole days, and although I had spoken to him every day, he hadn’t really had a lot to say.
“Yo,” I answered with my usual greeting, purely because I knew it made him smile. He had told me once I was too much of a white girl to use such a term. I flipped him my middle finger and now used it to answer every one of his calls.
“Yo, pretty girl. How you doing?”
I had to stop walking and breathe in deeply through my nose. The pain of missing him was visceral and caused an ache in my chest and my head to swim at the sound of his voice.
“Bad. Shitty in fact. I’ve just kissed your family goodbye and now I’m heading home to an empty house and that big ol’ empty bed of ours.”
“Sarah . . .” He sounded almost as if he were in pain as he whispered my name.
Loneliness hit me like a punch to the gut, and I once again started walking back towards my car. I was crying and just wanted to climb inside its confines and shut out the rest of the world. I kept my head down and moved as quickly as I could through my tears.
“We have to attend a meeting tomorrow with our lawyers, the helicopter company, and our insurers. The insurance companies representing the families of our staff will also be there.” He paused for a long moment, giving me just enough time to sit myself behind the wheel of my Peugeot, close the door, and wait for the “but” that I knew was coming.
“This whole thing could go on for days, weeks even.”
I covered my mouth with my hand, stifling my sobs and remained silent. Even if I could talk, I didn’t really know what to say.
“You still there, bub?”
“Yeah, I’m here.”
My voice sounded thick, betraying my attempt to hide the fact that I was crying.
“Please don’t cry. I know this is hard, but please don’t cry. It fucking kills me”.”
“I can’t help it. I miss you. I want you to come home.”
“I wanna come home.”
“Then come home.”
“I can’t. I’m the head of Oceanic operations, there’s no one more senior than me. I need to be here.”
“What about Luke?” I felt a twinge of guilt at offering up my brother as a sacrifice, but fuck it. I wanted my husband back.
“Luke’s head of UK and Europe. You know that, Sarah.”
“What I know is that we were married eleven days ago, and I’ve not seen you since.”
“Get on a plane and come over here.”
“I can’t, Liam. I have to go back to work in the morning, my holiday is over.”
