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"She asked me to drop her passport off at the airport for her”
"The airport?" I jump to my feet. "Where is she going?"
"She didn't say. She just said she'd be gone for a little while, and she didn’t know how long. She gave me some business instructions. And then she just said she was going somewhere where things last made sense and where she felt safe. And then she hung up. She hasn't answered any of my calls or texts since."
"How long ago?"
"I left her about fifteen minutes ago. I didn’t call sooner; it just felt like I might be betraying her. But she is doing very badly and I don’t think she should be alone."
A good friend. "That's okay. Thank you for telling me." I’m about to hang up when Ananya starts talking about Kiara.
"Kylian, she is feeling very lost right now. I have never seen her like this and I've seen her in some incredibly difficult situations in the last year. She needs someone."
"I'm trying to be that person, Ananya.”
I talk to her for a few more minutes, trying to reassure her that I will find her, and when I do, she’ll be the first to know. After, I lie back down on the couch. If she has her passport, she could be absolutely anywhere.
"What did she say?"
I recall the phone conversation. “She said she’s going where she felt safe.”
"Any idea where that is?"
"We’ve only been together for a few weeks. I thought... I thought I knew everything about her though."
"But do you know this?” Damien challenges me.
I go over every conversation I have had with her in my head. Every single one. From before and from now.
"Fuck." I know where she is.
"What?"
"Did you fly commercial here?"
"No, we took one of the company jets."
"Get your stuff, guys," I say, running up the stairs to my bedroom. "We're going to London."
Nobody sleeps on the flight to London.
Lunch is served and all I can stomach is an apple that sits, browning, on my table after I take a single bite out of it.
My-Linh comes and sits by me for a while, not forcing me to talk, just sitting there, staring out the window.
"You wouldn’t have liked me five years ago," I say, finally.
"No? Why is that?"
"I was really selfish. Cocky. Unfeeling." It’s not that hard to admit to because I think I’ve changed. How far I have to go is a different issue.
"Maybe. Maybe not. You're certainly not that way now."
"I don't know. But I don't really feel like I have any right to be cocky. Everything I'm touching lately, turns to shit."
"Like what?" She moves in her seat so that she’s facing me. Wanting me to know that I have her full attention.
"Like the Heracles chip deal. Like this thing with Kiara. Like my friendship with Nathan. And even with their father. He died thinking that I had betrayed him by going behind his back to be with her.” A single tear falls down my cheek. "He's the one who taught me how to tie a tie, you know. We had a dance at Eton, and everyone was too busy to teach me. One day Dennis overhead Nathan and I talking about how we should just get some of those elastic ties. The next day, he called us into his office, had a bunch of ties lying out and he taught us how to tie all different types of knots at for different occasions. Had us practice them for hours, just to make sure we never ever forget."
