It was sort of weird. Being with Jim usually involved having people around, but now they were all alone, making their way through the usual crowd in LAX. Come to think about it, both of them loved having an active social life. Maybe that was why she hadn’t needed any major adjusting over the last ten days in LA.
…?
Silvia would’ve punched herself best Fight Club style. She had only minutes left with him and she was pondering about their social habits? Really?
She checked in for her flight and they headed to the boarding area in no hurry.
“So you think you can be back by January ten.”
“Yup. I gotta report to work with Jo on the fifteenth, but I want a couple of free days before that.”
They walked a whole minute in silence.
Silvia wondered why all of a sudden they didn’t seem to have anything left to say. Why were they avoiding eye contact? Why did she feel like getting into the boarding
Silvia almost missed her flight, too absorbed staring at the tiny thing on the table before her.What on God’s green earth was that thing doing there, and in her keep?That white-gold band with a little, discreet diamond.An engagement ring.That frigging coward! Throwing it at her from ten feet away!But no matter the delivery method, Jim had given it to her.His mother’s, he’d said.Bring it back, he’d said.She felt lucky her brain was able to register the last boarding call. She looked up, startled, and jumped to her feet. She was about to hurry away when she remembered the ring. Actually, it was more like feeling a leash tugging at her neck, stopping her from walking away from the table.She spun around on her heels and scowled down at the damned thing.“You…” she growled.The moment she had it in her hand again, she realized how small and light it wa
It’d been six months since Silvia had last seen Mika, and one look was enough to tell her all her little sister had been keeping from her.Rob and Juan had planned a Saturday night out after dinner, but Silvia resorted to the such-a-long-flight excuse to stay behind.“Would you lend me a hand with the dishes?” she asked Mika.The others understood and took off, leaving the sisters alone.“I thought Lorena was coming too,” Silvia said as they picked up everything from the table.Mika hesitated, found her sister’s eyes and shrugged. “We broke up.”“Oh. You never mentioned it.”“It happened three days ago. I didn’t wanna write to you about it. It was your last days with Jim, and I knew we were meeting today.”They took everything to the kitchen and Silvia asked Mika to make mate while she did the dishes. The girl knew better than trying to beat
Tobias and Leandro had done their best to clean up the Black Rock before Silvia came back home. And the outcome made her smile, because the house was squeaky-clean and smelling of flowers. They were surprised to see Mika there too, but Silvia’s look kept them from asking any questions.Knowing the siblings needed time alone for their reunion, Leandro left for Beltane, to have dinner with Claudia. At the Black Rock, Mika went to the supermarket, to restock the fridge with something that wasn’t trash food and make dinner for the three of them.The moment she walked out, Tobias asked Silvia what had happened to their sister to make her lower that proud head of hers, admit her fail and come back home. It was just natural he would take mortal offense when he learned why Mika was actually back. But Silvia would have none of it.“I’m telling you the same I told your sister,” she said. “You don’t want me to keep treating you guy
That was just great. The flash flood had reached the Interstate, forcing the incoming buses to turn around, so the service had been cancelled until further notice.She felt a sudden urge to smoke. Considering it was pouring, the bus station staff overlooked those nicotine addicts with a little survival instinct left, and allowed them to smoke at the entrance hall, indoors and safe from the wind and the rain. She gave her luggage a concerned glance: rucksack, duffel bag, guitar. Why the hell had she kept the guitar? Only a few people remained at the bus station, but hard statistics dictated that a single person was enough to snatch all of her things away. She realized that was a third-world thought. Was she not in “The Shiny City Upon The Hill”? Just in case there was another third-worlder around, she asked the man at the nearest ticket booth if he could look after her stuff for a while. “I’m leaving in fifteen minutes, ma’am,” he warned. More than enough. She lit a cigarette as s
That was just great. The rental had broken down in the middle of the storm and of nowhere.He cursed his brother’s idea of renting that ranch to spend their ‘creative break’ away from spotlights and paparazzi. But he cursed louder his own idea of renting a car at Fargo airport, instead of taking a bus and meeting his brother at the bus station near the goddamn ranch.He checked his phone again, in case a stray miracle had given it back any coverage. Damn. It was as dead as it’d been since he’d driven deeper into the countryside and the storm. He looked out the windshield, but it was pouring so hard, he could’ve had frigging Godzilla right in front of the car and he wouldn’t see it.However, he was pretty sure he’d spotted lights up ahead before the damn car broke down, when the wipers still worked. According to his brother’s directions, that should be the bus station ten miles south of the town near the ranch.He had no way to know how far it was, and the wisest thing to do was hunker
She sat down in the gap with her back against the coffee machine, face to the glass doors. That way, she even had room for the guitar on her lap. She could hear the old man humming My Way from the gents’.She wondered what she should play, tuning the strings. Most of the songs she knew were sad love ballads, not exactly the best choice for the occasion. Maybe bringing the guitar wasn’t such a good idea, and she should just burn out what battery her phone had left. That made her think of the music she had in it. She smiled. No Return’s songs were nothing like tender, and she knew enough of them to keep herself entertained for a good while.Lucky her, she had many of the rare acoustic versions, so she wouldn’t need to improvise some lousy adaptation. She’d taken about a year of guitar lessons, but she’d had to drop them long ago, so she wasn’t that good at playing.Her fingers slid over the metallic strings, looking for a chord. There it was, the beginning of Break Free.She didn’t look
Where was he? How long had he slept? His arm was numb under his body and his back ached. He sat up, rubbing his eyes with one hand as the other reached for his phone. Ten-thirty, he’d slept about an hour. A chill ran down his sore back. It was cold there and he was already wearing the only sweater he had. And there was no coverage, of course, forget about internet.He remembered the coffee machine at the hall. Getting up wasn’t easy, but the promise of a hot drink pulled stronger than his weariness.He strolled across the waiting room, fishing in his pockets for change.The family was enjoying a late picnic of snacks and the old man mopped the floor near the closed booths. An hour later and he still hummed the same song. Outside, it poured like frigging end of the world.It was even colder in the empty hall. He shivered up to the coffee machine, so old it didn’t take bills, only coins. So he inserted one into the slot and waited for the buttons to light up.They didn’t, and his coin c
The gentle poke kicked her back from her private idaho of bitterness and despair to reality. She looked up to find a young man frowning down at her from under the peak of his baseball cap, looking halfway between concerned and not quite convinced about what he was doing.She tried to move away from him but the wall behind her cut her way, so she nodded, glancing at the end of the hall.The young man studied her as she stood up slowly, her back still to the wall. His eyes were dark in the shadow of his cap and he set his square, firm jaw, stepping back when she tried to come out of the gap.“I’m fine,” she muttered, annoyed at his attention, wiping her nose on the back of her wrist.She wanted to go to the ladies’, but he was in her way. So she kept her head down and just brushed past him.The soft click when she locked the restroom door made her feel safe from new disruptions. She rested against it for a moment, trying deep shaky breaths. Thank God the old man had left the place squea