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‘Megan...’ This time Jaye’s voice was a little louder. A little more insistent. Ignoring him wasn’t going to make him disappear so she turned to face him.
‘I’m next up...’
‘No, you’re not.’ He turned to the woman behind the desk, giving her the full force of his smile. Murmuring an apology, he stretched over and lifted her bag off the conveyor belt. Then he took Megan’s arm, guiding her away.
‘No... Jaye!’ She tried to pull away from him but his fingers tightened. This wasn’t Jaye. She was being kidnapped by a lookalike. ‘Look, I’ve lost my place now. I’m going to have to queue all over again.’
‘Yes, you are.’ Jaye’s immaculate self-possession had slipped, and there was something boyish about him.
‘Let me go, Jaye.’ There was no way that a man like him could ignore that.
He let her go, but only so that he could grab the ticket and her passport from her hand. Then he turned, pushing through the people hurrying past them, making for a quiet corner.
‘Jaye. Don’t you dare do this. Give me my passport back...’ Megan didn’t have much choice but to follow him. If he’d just walked off with her luggage, she would have thought seriously about getting on the plane without it, but without her passport and ticket she was stuck.
‘In a minute.’ He came to a halt, putting her bag down at his feet.
‘No, now. Or I’ll call Security.’
‘Go on, then. My Sinhalese is better than yours.’
‘This is an airport. I dare say they’ll understand “This man’s bothering me”.’ The idea of being labelled as the kind of man who bothered a woman had to be about the worst thing possible in Jaye’s book.
‘And then they’ll probably arrest me. Or you could give me five minutes of your time.’
‘It doesn’t take five minutes to say goodbye.’ Megan spread her hands in an expression of frustration. ‘There. Goodbye. That’s it. Now give me my passport or I will call Security.’
‘You want to see me in jail?’
‘Right now it might be the best place for you. What’s got into you, Jaye?’
‘Nothing. Something’s been driven out of me.’
He did look different. As if a burden had been lifted from him. Maybe he was relieved that she was going and he’d come to twist the knife in the wound by telling her so.
But, whatever else he was, Jaye wasn’t cruel. He wasn’t making any sense either, but if he just wanted five minutes, she could do that, if it meant that she could get her things back and go without the need for him to be incarcerated.
‘All right. Five minutes.’ She glanced at her watch in a clear signal that she was timing it. ‘Then you give me my passport back.’
He nodded, taking a deep breath as if preparing for something. ‘Megan, I can’t let you go without telling you...’
Megan closed her eyes. This was going to be worse than she’d thought. But it was five minutes and then she’d be through to the passenger lounge and out of his reach.
She felt his touch on her arm, suddenly tender. Her eyes snapped open. ‘You can’t let me go without telling me what?’
‘That I love you. And asking you to give me another chance.’
‘We’ve used up all our chances, Jaye. They didn’t work out...’
‘Because I couldn’t trust enough. I didn’t believe that you could possibly love me for myself, and so I threw it all away. But I want it back. No more discretion, no more lies. I’m in love with you and I want everyone to know it.’
She stared at him. His eyes were soft, his face more handsome than any man she’d ever seen, and bright with the promise of someone who was starting afresh.
‘I... You have my passport.’
His gaze never left hers as he pressed her ticket and passport into her hand, sliding her bag towards her with his foot. ‘Here. Take it and walk away.’
She couldn’t. ‘Are you saying...that you wouldn’t try to stop me?’
