Page 76 of Book Boyfriend
I take off running, trying to pull my ticket up on my phone at the same time. I get to the gate and the gentleman shakes his head. “I’m sorry, ma’am. Once those doors are closed, I can’t open ’em.”
“But, there’s a man on that flight I really need to talk to. Please?” I beg.
“I’m sorry. No can do. If you step over to the desk, we can help get you on a different flight to Cleveland.”
“I needed to be on that flight,” I say in a whimper. I walk over to glass and stare at the plane as it backs away.
I lean my head against the window. “I should have just called him,” I say to no one.
“What would you have said?”
I spin around so quickly, I almost lose my balance. Fisher is standing before my eyes, bag in hand.
I jump into him and throw my arms around his neck, sobbing.
He pats my back lightly, but it’s different than ever before. He isn’t holding me. He’s trying to be nice. Have I lost him forever?
“You’re still here. Why? I thought I saw you get on the plane.”
“The bigger question is why are you here, Macy?”
He called me Macy. That’s not good.
“I got the shells.”
“Oh.” He resituates his backpack on his arm and glances out the window.
“You kept them.”
“Yes. But now they’re yours.”
I stare at his beautiful face. He looks tired. His face is stubbled as if he hasn’t shaved in a while. He makes very brief eye contact with me and then looks away, sighing. “Do you have something you want to say? I need to catch another flight.”
“Don’t go,” I blurt out the words the second he talks about leaving.
“Why would I stay? There’s nothing keeping me here.”
“I’m here.”
“You’re not mine.”
His words and the matter-of-fact way he says them feel like a blade slicing through my chest. “I’m so sorry, Fisher. Can you ever forgive me?”
His eyebrows furrow and he studies my face.
“I’ve been absolutely miserable. I cry constantly and I miss you. I know you tried to explain things to me and I didn’t listen. But I was angry and scared. I’ve been lied to before. I know you’re different. I know you weren’t trying to hurt me, but at the time, it felt all too familiar.”
His face is stone. I’m not getting through to him at all.
“From the start, I never believed a guy like you would ever even look at a girl like me. Then slowly, you made me feel like I was enough. You made me feel like we belonged together. Then you . . . and when I . . .” I choke back the words. I can’t get them out.
He gazes at the ceiling and takes a deep breath.
I sniff away the tears and notice a group of people watching us, including Pedro on his cart. “Pedro, please. Go help some other pour soul! And to the rest of you gapers there’s nothing to see here. Move it along. Mind your own fucking business,” I shout.
I rub my nose with the back of my hand and briefly glance up at Fisher’s face. He’s smiling. “You have such a way with people.”
I cock my head to the side as a tear rolls down my cheek. “The only person I want to have my way with is you.”
