8. Harrison
EIGHT
Harrison
Applause rattled through the cabin the instant the wheels hit the tarmac in Munich. Annoyance simmered in my chest. Maybe it was the lack of sleep, but something about clapping for a landing—especially on such a smooth flight, with close to zero turbulence—irritated the hell out of me.
The commotion caused Lila to lift her cheek from the window where she’d been passed out and blink her eyes open. Almost as soon as she snapped to attention, she smiled and clapped along with everyone else.
“Stop that,” I said, my face unintentionally contorted into one of disgust.
She narrowed her eyes before dropping her hands to her lap. “Can you just let me be excited? It’s not like it’s affecting you.”
“It’s obnoxious and it’s in my vicinity,” I grumbled.
Not my best line, but I was irritable. Well, more irritable than usual. While I should have had no issue sleeping, given this lavish setup, I couldn’t get a certain perky redhead off my mind. Her presence was like a magnetic field. I could sense her, and for whatever reason, that kept me wide awake.
And surprise, surprise—I didn’t do well on lack of sleep.
“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed,” she muttered under her breath before stretching her arms above her head and letting out a big yawn.
“Try no sleep,” I said. “I can’t wait to get to the hotel and crash.”
She looked appalled at the thought.
“You can’t go straight to bed. You have to stay up at least a few hours so you’re not completely jet-lagged.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“I’m telling you, you’ll regret it. You better take a power nap on the next flight.”
Only one more short flight to Santorini and I’d be able to put some much-needed distance between Lila and me. I felt guilty about giving her the brunt of my bad personality, but it couldn’t be helped. Soon, Oliver’s smiling face would be between us, and I could just sit back in silence. Which was my preferred strategy when it came to socializing.
The plane pulled into the gate and the fasten-seatbelt sign flickered off. I moved into the aisle and opened the overhead compartment before pulling Lila’s suitcase out and setting it on the ground, followed by my own bag.
“Such a gentleman,” she said.
I knew there was sarcasm layered into that comment. How could there not be? No one in their right mind would refer to me as a gentleman; making sure Lila never had to carry her suitcase wouldn’t suddenly grant me the title.
She was likely just as eager to be done with me as her only travel companion as I was. In fact, she was probably a lot more excited. The thought made me feel guilty and a little frustrated. I didn’t want to ruin this trip for her by always being in a shitty mood.
Why couldn’t I just be excited, for once in my life?
The feeling simmered deep in my gut, but I couldn’t bring myself to let it boil to the surface. Excitement had always felt like a weakness to me. Maybe it had been getting bullied by those little assholes in school. Or maybe it was just the way I was always meant to be.
Growing up, we couldn’t even afford to drive to the closest theme park in Ohio, let alone fly somewhere. I hadn’t even been on an airplane until I turned nineteen and Oliver and I had moved out to Colorado.
My ability to suffocate any emotion that even resembled enthusiasm frustrated Oliver quite a bit. But he let me be me. He must’ve understood, at least on some level, why I was the way that I was. He had seen me get relentlessly bullied when we were too young to do anything about it, watched as any little spirit I’d had slowly iced over. He’d stood by me through everything. Sometimes I felt guilty for not having any real friends aside from him, like I was asking too much. Sure, I was friendly with the other artists at my shop, but we didn’t connect outside of tattooing. Letting people in, it seemed, had become impossible for me.
“Do you think there’s Wi-Fi here?” Lila held up her phone as we exited the plane.
“You didn’t spring for the international plan?” We emerged out of the loading bridge. The gate at the Munich airport was packed with people, and every seat was taken.
“I’m too cheap,” she said.
“Isn’t it only, like, ten dollars?” I asked, even though I hadn’t bothered to do it either. If anything, I was looking forward to being less available for the next few days.
She continued to click through the settings on her phone. I grabbed her arm and pulled her closer to me to keep her from walking straight into a pole.
“Can you watch where you’re going?”
“Shit, sorry.” She finally looked up. “I was trying to get ahold of Charlie.”
“Charlie is still going to be there after we get to the next gate.”
“You’re right.” She offered me an apologetic smile and slipped her phone back into her belt bag. “I just want to let her know we made it to Munich.”
Our next flight boarded in an hour, and while I forced myself to remain calm, I wouldn’t be able to truly relax until we physically sat down at the next gate.
“I’m sure they already have a driver ready to come pick us up,” I said. “It’s not like she needs a play by play.”
“I still want to update her.” An information desk sat in the center of the terminal. Lila pointed to it. “Let’s ask about the Wi-Fi there.”
“Lila,” I snapped. Her eyes widened and she halted in her tracks. I sucked in some air to steady my voice. “We need to get to our next gate.”
She eyed me up and down. “You’re stressed.” She looked pleased with herself for arriving at that conclusion.
“I’m not stressed. But I didn’t fly halfway across the world only to miss my connecting flight.” I knew I sounded exasperated, but I didn’t care.
“Okay, okay. Fine.” She chuckled before looking up at the signs that lined the ceiling, all pointing travelers in the correct direction. “That way,” she said definitively, pointing down one of the long, wide halls.
Without waiting for me, Lila set off with surprising speed, lugging her suitcase behind her. Maybe it was her small stature, but she easily dodged people walking in the opposite direction. I quickened my pace to keep up with her, not wanting to risk losing her in the crowd. When I finally caught up, I grabbed her forearm lightly as she made another rapid turn.
She halted and looked back at me. I dropped her arm.
“Sorry. I didn’t want to lose you.”
A hint of a smile tugged at her lips before she continued leading us to the gate, this time at a moderately slower pace. Even though she tried to stop on two separate occasions to get a snack and a magazine, I only allowed her to deviate from our mission once the gate was in sight. By the time we got settled in seats, we only had fifteen minutes until boarding.
“Okay, screw it. I’m just going to pay for the international plan. It’s only a few days.” Lila clicked around on her phone. “I’m going to text Charlie.”
“Fine, whatever,” I said, picking up the book that I had stolen from her on the plane, and thumbing to the chapter I was on.
“You’re not actually reading that, are you?” She lowered her phone and stared at me, eyes wide with disbelief.
I hadn’t meant to read it, but I had felt self-conscious about drawing with Lila right next to me, and movies usually failed to capture my interest. So, I’d read her book. Two friends forced to fake date because of some bizarre stipulation in a will. Then, they arrive at a hotel and—of course—there’s only one bed. It was cheesy, and a total cliché. And yet I hadn’t been able to stop myself from turning each page, desperate to know how two people with such seemingly different personalities were going to make it work.
“So what if I am?”
She leaned back in the worn leather seat and set her phone on her stomach. “I never thought I’d see Harrison Porter reading a romance novel.” The carbonation of her soda made an audible fizzing sound as she twisted open the plastic bottle and took a sip.
My full name danced easily off her lips. “You know my last name?”
“Obviously. We’ve known each other for a year.” She arched an eyebrow. “Do you not know mine?”
My mind sifted through every scrap of information I’d picked up about Lila since we’d met, but honestly, it wasn’t much. Maybe that was why I had kept reading this book. I wanted to understand what she saw in it, get a glimpse into her mind.
She might wear her emotions on her sleeves, but that only made her more of an enigma to me. How could she be so comfortable being herself?
“I don’t,” I admitted after a second. “I’m sorry.” The apology came easily this time, and I hoped she could see it in my eyes. Asking people questions wasn’t one of my strong suits. But now, as I caught a glimpse of the disappointment flash across her face before she masked it, I felt a twinge of regret.
“It’s Cornell.”
“Got it,” I said.
Lila Cornell. I knew without a doubt it was committed to my memory now.
She threw me a half-smile before resuming scrolling on her phone. Nearby, people began crowding around the gate agent, passports in hand, even though boarding hadn’t started yet. As impatient as I was, I never understood that. Being first in line didn’t get you there faster.
I patted my back pocket to ensure my passport was still securely in its place before pulling out my phone from the pocket of my hoodie. Lila’s phone chimed with incoming messages, and I briefly considered powering mine on. But we’d be boarding any minute. The only people who might have called me while we were in flight were Oliver or my parents, and both could wait until we were in Greece.
Instead, I watched Lila as her eyes danced across the screen. Her pink cheeks grew noticeably paler as she brought her other hand to her phone and started typing furiously.
“Are you okay?” I asked, sitting up. She looked like she might pass out right there on the dirty airport carpet.
“No,” she whispered. “What? There’s no way.”
The phone fell out of her shaky hands and slid between the cracks in the seats. “Shit!” she hissed, scrambling to see where it fell.
“What’s going on?” I demanded, sliding my arm between us and retrieving her phone. “You’re freaking me out.” She snatched her phone back before standing and pacing back and forth in front of me.
“This can’t be happening.”
I stood and gripped her shoulders, gently but firmly, forcing her to meet my gaze. “Lila. What the hell is going on? What happened?” She was starting to freak me out. I had never seen her lose her cool like this.
She froze for a moment, her breath catching, before turning the phone in my direction. All I saw was a blur of messages, but I wasn’t close enough to actually read them.
“They’re in Fiji.” Her voice came out like a shocked whisper.
“What?”
“Fiji,” she repeated.
I gave up trying to get a complete sentence out of Lila and leaned in so that I could scan the conversation she had pulled up. She had texted Charlie back in Denver, right before we’d gone through security, about being excited for Santorini.
Charlie’s response came in later. Just a lot of exclamation points and question marks, starting with, “What are you talking about!” followed by, “Call me as soon as you get this,” then, “You’re joking right?” And finally: “We’re in Fiji. YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE FLYING TO FIJI!”
“What the fu?—”
But my words were cut off by the sound of Lila’s ringtone. Charlie’s name appeared across Lila’s phone. She quickly pressed answer, and her best friend’s face filled the screen. Charlie’s eyes were bloodshot and it was clear she’d been crying.
“You’re joking right? You’re not in Europe! You’ve got to be joking.”
“Um, nope.” Lila caught my eye and frowned. “We’re definitely in the Munich airport right now, waiting at our gate for a flight to Greece.”
I raked my hands through my hair. Shit . I knew this stupid surprise trip was a horrible idea.
“No, no, no. I can’t believe this.”
“It’s alright.” Lila glanced at me but tried to keep any anxiety out of her voice for Charlie’s sake. “What do you think happened?” she asked.
“The travel agent must have gotten it mixed up,” Charlie said, choking on a small sob as she rambled on about where it could have gone wrong.
Lila’s pale face and panicked expression had vanished. Talking to Charlie had flipped a switch. Now, she looked calm, focused, ready to problem-solve. I knew Lila must have it together—she owned a business, after all—but watching her transform like that in real time was almost uncanny. You would have thought Lila was in on the plan all along, considering how coolly she listened to Charlie’s explanation, nodding along slowly.
While they talked, I got out my own phone and accepted any international charges. Almost immediately after getting service, Oliver’s name flashed across my screen. I debated pressing the red button. He knew how much I hated video calls. But I answered and held the phone up.
Oliver flashed his ever-present smile at me. He already had a tan from being in Fiji for two seconds.
“Europe? Are you serious?” His head fell back with laughter. I could see Charlie in the background of his video and glanced back at Lila’s screen.
This wasn’t the reunion I’d pictured.
“—I switched the locations at the last minute,” Charlie said. “I knew you always wanted to go to Greece, so that’s why I picked it originally, but then I thought that was a selfish thing to do, to bring you on your dream trip for my bachelorette party. So I rebooked it to Fiji instead. The boutique hotel we booked through had a sister location here. I figured we could go to Greece on our own another time. To celebrate a business milestone, or something. God—I’m so stupid. The travel agent must have forgotten to rebook you and Harrison, since your reservations were made separately and for a day later. I should have called her to double-check.”
Lila glanced at me with an expression that ever so subtly said, Oh shit .
“Let me say hi,” Oliver said through my phone.
“Is now really the time?” I glared at him.
“Come on,” he begged.
I held up the call so that he could wave at Lila. She gave him a weak smile in return.
“It’s alright,” she said, once Charlie came up for air.
“No, it’s not,” Charlie cried. “Fiji is a thirty-hour flight from Munich. I already looked it up. And they don’t have anything available until tomorrow night. If you tried to make it here, you’d only get here for the last day.”
Oliver whistled. “Sounds like you two are stuck there.”
Charlie whipped her head around and called to Oliver, off screen. “Are you helping right now?” she demanded.
Oliver held a hand up and yelled an apology before walking a little further away from the upset bride-to-be.
“Say hi to Nathan,” he said before pointing the camera at his brother. Nathan sat slouched, his head resting heavily in one hand. Without asking, I could tell he’d been trying to talk Charlie off a ledge; likely for hours at this point.
“Hey,” I said. “Having fun?”
“Loads.” The tiniest trace of a smile formed on his lips. “You?”
“The time of my life.”
“Get a room, you two. I swear, you’d talk for hours if I let you,” Oliver said, laughing and turning the phone away from Nathan. “Be honest, H. Did you plan all this just to get some alone time with Lila?”
Lila jerked around in her seat just as I scowled and said, “Of course not.”
She snorted. “Right. Spending time with me is the absolute last thing Harrison would ever volunteer to do.”
I winced. But before I could say that I didn’t mean it like that, Lila had already turned her attention back to her call with Charlie.
Oliver chuckled and I wished I could reach through the screen and smack his shoulder. “Why do you always have to say the wrong thing around her?” he asked, this time more quietly.
“That’s it. I’m hanging up,” I hissed. He stuck out his tongue right before I pressed the End Call button.
“I just feel so awful about all this,” Charlie continued to apologize. “You could just enjoy Greece. You should still have your hotel and whole itinerary booked since the travel agent didn’t change you over to this trip. I’m so sorry.” She sniffed. “Or I could just get you booked back to Denver if you’d rather do that.”
“That would be great,” I said at the same time Lila said, “Absolutely not.”
She glared at me and held her chin high. “One sec, Char,” she said before muting the call and holding the phone camera away from us.
“I haven’t had a vacation in years. I am not about to get on a plane back to Denver when I’m in freaking Europe right now.”
“But—” I started.
“No. I’ve never been to Europe. Have you? How could we just turn around when we’re already here? I worked my ass off these past few weeks to take this trip. I’m not letting that all go to waste.”
Even as she made one solid point after another, I still couldn’t picture us continuing on.
“Look,” I said, “I only came on this trip in the first place because Oliver begged me to, and I didn’t want things to be weird with Nathan. Now that we’re on our own, what’s the point?”
Her lips parted slightly before a maniacal laugh bubbled to the surface. “What’s the point? What’s the point? You can’t be serious.”
She regarded me with such contempt that I couldn’t bring myself to admit that I was, in fact, serious.
“Can’t you ever just enjoy anything, Harrison?” she prodded.
She couldn’t have known it, but that hit me right in the chest. Enjoyment felt too much like vulnerability to me. Much like excitement, or humor, or anything really.
Which is maybe why I’d glommed onto Oliver for all these years. Of course, my loyalty to him ran deep, but it was more than that. Having a best friend who loved life so much was almost enough to make my own less miserable. I had the luxury of standing in the background, pretending I was above it all, because Oliver was always a step ahead and dragging me along. I still got to experience everything, albeit at half-mast.
But without that crutch I couldn’t even stand straight.
Rubbing my forehead with my left hand, I let out a deep sigh.
“I’m tired, Lila. I just want to go home.”
“Fine,” she said easily. Too easily. “Then ask Charlie to book you on the next flight back.”
“Can’t you ask her to book us both on a flight home?”
All the water in the Mediterranean Sea couldn’t extinguish the fire in Lila’s eyes.
“I’m getting on that flight to Santorini.”
My eyebrows shot up as I looked from her to the gate. One worker sifted through papers while the other prepared the microphone to announce the start of the boarding process.
Frustration surged through me as I looked back at my accidental travel companion.
“I’m not letting you go by yourself,” I said.
“Well, you can’t stop me.” She stood and straightened her sweatshirt. “I am going on this trip, Harrison.”
I tipped my head back and groaned. There was no way I was getting on that plane, knowing no one from our group would be waiting for us when we landed. But there was also no way I was letting Lila out of my sight.
“I’m not just going to leave you in a foreign country by yourself.”
She arched a brow and tilted her head toward the waiting plane. “Then you really only have one option.”