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“Can I—”
“What’s the very next flight to New York?”
“New York City?”
Despite the urgency and adrenaline pumping through me, I fought my hardest to remain calm as losing my shit on this unsuspecting man was not going to help me. “Yes. New York City. Departing from here.”
“Looks like it boards in 30 minutes, sir,” the man said, checking his computer screen. “I’m afraid there won’t be time to get your luggage on board if you have any checked.”
“I don’t,” I said. “I just need a ticket. Now.”
“Certainly. The customer service desk for that flight is another airline, just down the way if you look—”
I tore my wallet from my pants and laid every piece of currency I had in it on the counter. “I know you can get me on that flight. All of that is yours—minus the ticket cost—if you can do it in the next sixty seconds.”
Once my ticket was secured, I dashed past cheap gift shops and chain restaurants until I got through security with mere minutes to spare. I’d never run so fast in my life. Even with my lungs burning, stumbling past the stopping points of moving sidewalks, and shoving my way around rolling suitcases and crowds of friends and family, I kept going because everything hinged on me getting to Heather on time.
Mercifully, she was the last in a dwindling line trailing toward the gate, boarding for the flight. Seeing her standing apart from the crowd was something of a minor miracle, and it felt meant to be. It felt so right that I found her and got to her before she left.
“Heather, wait!” I all but screamed, making her and hundreds of other passengers turn toward me. I didn’t care. There might have been a moment in my life when I did, but it definitely wasn’t this one. I only cared that she saw me, that she’d paused, that I had her attention, and a chance to fix things.
“Josie is gone,” I told her, taking her by the arm as several concerned employees and security team members approached us. “The photo she took was against my will, an ambush—something designed to hurt you. And I am so sorry. I am so sorry it happened—that I let it happen.”
Heather’s beautiful eyes were red and puffy, and tears leaked continually out of them like she couldn’t control their flow. I ached for her and wanted to take her in my arms and make everything better.
I just wasn’t sure if she wanted me to anymore or if I was even allowed to be here, in the realm of things Heather needed.
“How can anyone be sorry for an ambush?” she asked dully. “What happened is what happened. There’s no being sorry for that now. It’s just something we have to deal with.”
“We?” I repeated. “Because I need you here with me, Heather. I want to regain your trust, and I want to prove to you that nothing happened except what Josie wanted you to think happened.”
Heather refused to look at me. “You know what? For the first few days after I caught my fiancé and best friend together, I tried to explain it away with every single scenario I could think of. They were wrestling, joking around, practicing for a threesome with me, trying to help each other, or even had an accident. Each explanation was even more ridiculous than the last, but it didn’t matter because the truth was the worst reason of all. It was also the simplest—the one that would’ve saved me days of torture if I’d just accepted it sooner.”
“This isn’t something you can or should accept,” I said. “I had all this manpower to protect my daughter from Josie, but I didn’t do enough to protect you. I should’ve taken your phone, changed your number, known she was capable of something like this, anticipated it, and saved you from reliving the thing that hurt you the most.”
“She said I was the other woman,” Heather said. “That I would never be a part of your family.”
“That’s not true.”
“But, she was right.” How did one woman hold that many tears within her? Heather’s grief was a deluge, slicking her cheeks. “You and Josie shared something four years ago, and from that, Collins was born. There will always be a connection between the three of you, and I will always be the other woman. The one on the outside.”
“You’re wrong,” I said. “Because Josie was wrong. You are a better mother to Collins than she could ever hope to be. Despite your misgivings and your reluctance to mother my child, your care and concern set you a million miles apart from Josie, and I will never be the same because of that. You showed me what was possible, Heather—what Collins and I could have if we truly were deserving of a real family.”
Heather shook her head slowly. “There’s no place for me in your world. I didn’t want to believe it because I was in love with you and because I wanted so badly to belong, but I fooled myself for too long.”
“Look at me,” I begged her, holding her face in my hands. “Look at me, Heather, please. I’m in this with you. I love you, no matter what, okay? No matter what you decide to do. If you need to go back to New York, go. I’m not going to hold you back if it’s what you think you need to do. Just know that I’ll always be here, that the fire will always be burning. And when you’re ready, if you ever believe you are ready, I’ll be here. Because that’s how much I love you. Live a million lifetimes between now and then, but I’ll always be waiting for you. We deserve the time to love each other uninterruptedly.”
“Sir, ma’am. Is everything all right here?” A worker had finally stepped forward, and I became aware enough of our surroundings to realize we were surrounded by security personnel. In better news, the door to the flight to New York was already closed. As brief of a window as it had been, Heather had missed her opportunity to put an entire country between us.
Now, I could only hope.
“We’re fine,” Heather said, speaking up before I could find the right words. “It was just a misunderstanding. We’re sorry to have been any trouble, or if we were a spectacle.”
“Is it one of those magical romantic comedy moments?” a security guard asked. “Did you get the girl in the end?”
“To be determined,” I bit off curtly.
“How did you even get all the way to the gate?” Heather asked as the tears flowing down her cheeks changed their consistency somehow. What had been utter pain was now cleansing, renewal, relief, and comfort.
