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Chapter Three
Teagan
I smoothed down the front of the god-awful pink apron and checked my watch. The amount of time until the end of my shift hadn’t really changed from when I’d looked thirty seconds earlier. I’d never imagined a pink apron when I used to think about being in my mid-twenties, but I was finally getting my life back on the track I’d planned on. I was back in school, about to take the trip of my dreams, and hoping to ditch the apron permanently very soon.
“Don’t let Julianna catch you checking your watch like that.” Martin leaned on the handle of the push broom he was carrying, smiling like he was preparing to tell me a joke. I loved Martin, one of the members of the custodial staff. He’d been in the airport even longer than Julianna and was like a fixture. He had great stories about all the unbelievable things he’d seen over the years.
“Hey.” I glanced around and then handed him one of his favorite dark chocolate truffles coated in coconut. He was the only person I gave freebies to besides Silas, but I’d learned his favorite from Julianna, who, despite being a demon with a sweet tooth, couldn’t resist Martin’s charms any more than anyone else. “When are you going to let me write a story about you?”
He laughed, nodding in thanks for the candy. “So much to write. How’d a budding author like you end up working here?”
I shrugged. “I needed a job and Julianna was hiring.” I’d been lucky to find a job at all—it had been a tough time to search, and I’d loved the idea of being so close to international travel, even if it was just watching other people take off. The job got a hundred times better two years later when Silas took the customer service job with the airline. Getting to know people like Martin made the gig a little sweeter, though.
He adjusted his belt. “Aren’t you flying off to France to write stories? Why would you need mine?”
I cocked my head to the side and leaned toward him. “Don’t act like you haven’t gotten up to some stuff in this airport.”
His big, booming laugh made me instinctively try to catch Silas’s eye. He said he always knew where Martin was because of that laugh, but a crowd of people swarmed his and James’s counter. “You know I have, but you’re too young to hear any of those stories. Julie would have my behind if I corrupted her young employees.” He motioned toward the gates near us, where people were dancing. “You see the hullabaloo down there? Looks like they’re having a dance party or something.” He glanced toward the gates. “I’m gonna go check it out. You want me to toss that?” He motioned to the other side of the shop where a slip of paper was on the floor.
“Nah. I’ll get it. We were rearranging some things, might have fallen out of a box.”
“I’ll report back if the hullabaloo is anything interesting.” He shook his hips as he walked out and called over his shoulder. “Just might cut a rug myself.”
I waved and wiped my hands again before walking to pick up the paper. I was hungry for something exciting, anything to break up the monotony of my days. I wasn’t in any classes until my trip, so I went to work and sold candy, which wasn’t a bad job, but I was so tired of standing still. The thing about working in an airport was you were constantly seeing new people, but it still often felt like seeing the same people day in and day out. People who were going somewhere else and seeing somewhere new. I couldn’t wait to be one of them. When we weren’t too busy, I loved to learn where people were going and imagine going there, too.
I had a to-do list a mile long to get ready for my trip, including cleaning out the fridge and scrubbing the bathroom of my apartment, and I ticked off the items in my head as I picked up the sheet of paper. It was a printout from an email, though the address wasn’t visible, and I gave it a quick glance, ready to throw it in the trash and check my watch again.
Before I tossed it, the headers caught my eye. “Pros.” Then “Cons.”
PROS
She’s my best friend.
Seeing her is the best thing about working here.
I could listen to her stories for hours.
I’m in love with her. I think I always have been.
CONS
If I lost her, I don’t know what I’d do.
I’d have to see her in the terminal all the time if it didn’t work out.
She doesn’t know I’m in love with her and it might be too late to tell her.
Silas was leaning against the counter when I looked up, the light catching the metal on his name tag, and the dark blue of the lanyard around his neck stood out against his shirt. “You’re not studying your itinerary again, are you? I know you have it memorized.” He made fun of me for being so excited about my trip, but there was never real bite in it. He knew how much I wanted to travel, and now that I had a second chance, I was obsessed with being prepared to make the most of it. He was always reticent to tell me about his own travels, worried I’d be jealous he was able to go and I wasn’t. “Or have you moved on to sketching out the next three trips?”
“Very funny,” I said, setting the list on the counter. “What are you doing here?”
“Shift is over. Want to get dinner?” He scratched the side of his neck the way he did when he wanted something to do with his hands. Silas had nice hands, with neat nails and long tapered fingers.
“Won’t Erin mind? We’ve had dinner together a few times this week already and her birthday is soon, right?” I liked Erin; I just didn’t think she was particularly interesting enough for Silas. But I couldn’t say that to him.
“It’s today.” He shrugged one well-developed shoulder and skirted my question. “But she’s out of town and you’re leaving in a week. Pizza? What’s that?” He pointed to the list on the counter and I had a moment of panic wondering if I should hide it or play it off. Another wild hare tickled the back of my consciousness. What if Silas wrote this?
“I found it on the floor,” I said, holding it away from him. “It’s a pros and cons list.”
