Chapter 71
71
Holly had only been planning on taking hand luggage, but then Moritz had asked her to bring samples of sweets so that they could do taste comparisons to ones he could get Stateside. So instead, she was lugging a massive suitcase towards the check-in desk. None of which were open, despite the sizeable queue that had already formed.
This trip wasn’t only about sweet tasting, though they were hoping to narrow down suppliers. They were also looking at interior design, uniform and general product branding, so they were ready with a hard launch across country. It was a far cry from just hoping to get through the day and selling enough sugar mice to be approved for a mortgage, the way Holly had done when she started her business, but the fact that Moritz was paying for all expenses, along with a consultancy fee, was a sure sign of how much he valued her knowledge.
She was also hopefully going to fit in a meet-up with Catherine, one of Evan’s sisters, while she was there too, as long as she could get the day off work.
Talking of dates, she couldn’t help but wonder if Giles and Sienna had settled on one yet. It had been less than a week since he had unequivocally put to rest any idea of him and Holly in a relationship. Since then, she’d heard nothing from, or about, him. Jamie, Caroline and Ben had obviously decided amongst themselves that Giles’s name was not to be raised in front of her, and the only person who had mentioned him at all was Hope asking when he was next coming around. Holly had brushed off the comment, saying he was busy with work, then helped Holly set up a cat-training rink for Rhubarb to keep her occupied. Thankfully, it worked, although any chance of Rhubarb appearing on the silver screen in the near future felt unlikely.
As Holly stood in the queue, she fired off another quick message to Jamie. Thanking her for the lift, and also for looking after Rhubarb. Again. Then she made a video for Ben to show Hope when she got home from school, given that Holly would be in the air by then and unable to speak to her until the morning.
Holly groaned. The queue didn’t appear to be moving at all. She had hoped to do a bit of duty-free browsing on the other side of departures, but it was looking less and less likely.
Finally, two air stewardess appeared. Although rather than heading behind the counter and taking people’s luggage, as Holly had expected, the pair moved into the centre of the queue, where the woman cleared her throat several times, trying to get everyone’s attention.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, this is an announcement for those who are booked on the Miami flight.’
Holly’s ears pricked as her stomach churned. She really didn’t want the flight to be cancelled. It would mean another day of rejigging the sweet-shop rotas, not to mention getting in late for Moritz. It would be a hassle she didn’t want to deal with, yet she knew there was no positive reason for an air hostess to be addressing them in this manner.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, we want to inform you that this flight has been overbooked.’
‘Overbooked?’ a man in front of Holly said. ‘What’s that meant to mean? Surely you know how many seats are on the plane?’
Similar rumbles rattled throughout the queue.
Before Evan, Holly had never realised that airlines frequently overbooked their flights, on the assumption that a couple of people wouldn’t come, and they would make a few extra quid. She also knew that if you volunteered to get bumped onto the next flight, they would normally give you a nice chunk of money for it, and had it been another time in her life, she would’ve probably jumped at that option. But right now, it just wasn’t feasible. She wanted to get on that plane, to see Moritz and to feel like she was doing something productive. So, when the air stewardess asked if any passengers would mind moving to the next day’s flight, Holly stayed silent. As, it appeared, did everybody else.
‘Unfortunately, if we do not get some volunteers, some people will have no choice but to be reassigned to a later flight,’ she said. ‘If you do change your mind, please let myself or another member of staff know.’
From the volume of grumbling, Holly didn’t think the air stewardess was going to get her wish as she and her partner slipped behind the counter and finally began taking people’s baggage.
A flutter of nerves filled Holly’s stomach. There was another reason she didn’t want to change flights, though it was hard to admit, even to herself. This was going to be the longest flight she had ever done on her own, and now that she was here, she couldn’t help but worry. The last thing she needed was to be bumped from this flight and have to start the worry all over again. But she wouldn’t have to change, would she? After all, she was just over halfway back in the queue, and they weren’t going to bump half the people, were they?
With the check-in desks now open, the queue crawled forward, inch by inch. Finally, she reached the front.
‘Going to Miami?’ the woman said as Holly placed her passport on the desk.
‘Yes,’ Holly replied. ‘Yes, I?—’
‘No, no, she’s not.’
The voice was enough to cause her heart to jolt. She was wrong, wasn’t she? She was hearing things. As her throat tightened, Holly’s eyes filled with tears. She didn’t want to look around and see she was wrong. But she couldn’t just stand there. And so, with her hand trembling, Holly shifted her gaze.
‘You were seriously just going to leave?’ he said.