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"No, it's fine," I muttered as I hurried away down the hall. If they were going to the airport, and they'd only left an hour or so ago, I might still have a chance. But I had to hurry.
As I rushed toward the airport, I felt a spike of anger. I didn't know where Deira was going, but how dare she just run off like that? I knew we'd had a fight, but wasn't it childish to run away? Shouldn't she at least have the guts to tell me she was leaving? I took a deep breath and told myself that I could deal with all of that later. The important thing now was to find Deira and make sure she knew how I felt before she left.
About ten minutes away from the airport, Scott called me. I routed the call through the hands-free system and answered it.
"Scott, I can't really talk now unless it's important," I said.
"Well, you tell me. I investigated Mr. White, like you said," Scott replied. I gripped the steering wheel tightly and sat up straighter. I had almost forgotten about Mr. White.
"Go on," I said.
"It was a mess, Cassius. It turns out two people had already registered minor complaints about him, but they couldn't be proven, and were years apart, so no one had noticed the pattern. But because of that, plus your tip, I started a full-blown investigation. As soon as I started looking into it, multiple women came forward with stories of sexual harassment."
I felt slightly nauseated. So not only had Deira been telling the truth, but she hadn't been the only one? I suddenly remembered asking her if maybe she had "misunderstood" what Mr. White said to her. That had been when she got really angry with me. I thought I was being reasonable, but she had every right to be mad.
"I got human resources involved, and the women were found to be credible. Their stories were corroborated by fellow coworkers. There was also a woman a few years ago who appears to have been fired after she stood up to Mr. White. I can't believe we missed all of this. Whoever gave you that tip, they really did us a favor bringing this to our attention."
"Fire him," I said, feeling rage building deep in my gut. It was bad enough that this man had behaved like this in my company. But the fact that he'd done it to Deira? He was lucky I was on my way to catch her at the airport and Scott was dealing with this. I'm not sure I could have trusted myself to remain professional while dealing with him.
"It's already done," Scott said. "As soon as the investigation concluded, I terminated him."
I felt a grim sense of satisfaction hearing this. It was too little, too late, but at least there was some justice for what he'd done to Deira and those other women. I thanked Scott for taking care of it and hung up. I realized all my anger had dissipated. After all, what right did I have to be mad at Deira for leaving town without telling me, when I'd given her every reason to think I couldn't be trusted?
And now that the anger was gone, there was another emotion. I realized I was afraid. If she could leave town without telling me, what else might she do? How would I find them if Deira didn't want to be found? It suddenly hit me that what was going to keep us together was not my ability to find and control them, but our relationship. I needed to prove to Deira that she could trust me, and the first step was to find her and apologize. I stepped on the gas.
Once I got to the airport, I had no idea where to go, so I started at one end of the departures hall and checked every counter and every security line. I was starting to think I had missed my chance when I caught a glimpse of blonde hair in a security line about 50 feet away from me. I sprinted over, and as I got closer, I recognized Dani, Deira, and Makayla.
"Deira!" I shouted, but the departures hall was busy and there was a lot of noise, so she didn't hear me. The line moved forward and the three of them moved up. They were next to go through security, and I had to catch them before they did. I stopped, doubled over from the effort of running, and then straightened up and took a deep breath.
"Deira!!" I shouted again, putting all my effort into projecting my voice. The shout rang out through the hall, causing everyone nearby to turn to look at me. Thankfully, over in the security line, Deira turned and looked at me. I saw her eyes go wide with shock, and she said something to Dani and Makayla before slipping under the security rope and walking toward me.
TWENTY-SEVEN
DEIRA
Leave it to Cassius to make a dramatic entrance, I reflected as I stared at him from afar. Whether it was barging into my steam room or crashing into my car or running through the airport yelling my name, he never did anything subtly. I looked at him, standing there breathing heavily. Had he run through the airport looking for me?
I glanced back at Dani, and she raised an eyebrow. She didn't have to say anything more for me to understand the question she was asking. That raised eyebrow said, well, what are you going to do? It might as well have said, well, Deira, what do you want? I hadn't expected to have to answer that question at the airport, right before we went through security, but apparently, that's what was happening. Now I had two choices.
I could turn my back on Cassius, take Makayla's hand, and walk through the security gate toward a totally new life, or I could go over to Cassius and ask him why he was here. I could give him one last chance to be part of my life. It felt like I was standing and staring at a fork in the road. Which to choose? If I was honest with myself, though, I already knew the answer. I knew it as soon as I heard Cassius call my name. Because when I heard his voice, my heart leapt. His voice calling my name made me want to turn and run to him. Even with everything that had happened between us. So how could I not go to him? I sighed.
"Can you stand here with Makayla for a minute?" I asked Dani. She rolled her eyes.
"You know I will," she said. "Go get your man."
"Dani!" I admonished, even as I knew she was right. But I straightened my shoulders and composed myself before I walked over to him. I was going to give him a chance, but he was going to have to prove that he deserved it.
"Deira," he said once I got close to him. He was still breathing hard. "I thought I was going to be too late."
"Too late for what?" I asked.
"Too late to apologize," he replied. I blinked in surprise. To apologize? Before I could even ask what he was apologizing for, he stepped up to me and took my hands.
"Deira, I'm so sorry. About everything. I'm sorry about losing Makayla. I'm sorry about how Mr. White treated you, and that I didn't believe you when you told me." He paused as if thinking about something, and then continued, "That's over, by the way. Scott investigated him and discovered he's been doing things like this for years. We fired him."
"You what?" I gasped. I really hadn't been expecting that.
"I fired him, and I promise, I'm never going to doubt you again. Deira, this past week... My mom got hurt. I thought she wasn't going to wake up," he said. His voice cracked, and I instinctively drew closer to him.
