9. Chapter Nine
Chapter Nine
Carter
R olling my luggage behind me, I squeeze past a group heading toward the escalator. The airport is busy this Friday afternoon.
My phone buzzes. I pull it out of my pocket to see my grandmother calling. I got her a cell phone a few months ago, but she kept forgetting how to use it. I wanted to make sure she was able to call me anytime, so I installed an old rotary phone in her room. Now, when she calls me, it funnels through the main line of the facility. This seems to be working better.
“Hi, Grandma. How are you doing?” I answer on the first ring.
“I’m okay. A little weak today.”
“Are you resting?” I take out my AirPods and place one in each ear.
She sighs. “I am. But I wasn’t able to make it down to the dining room for breakfast this morning.”
“I’m sorry. I know you like to eat with your friends. Can I get you anything?” I take a step to the side.
“Not right now. Maybe you could bring in some Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups when you come on Sunday?” she asks. Those were her and my grandfather’s favorite after-dinner treats.
“You got it. How’s your TV? Can you watch all your favorite shows, or do you need a different streaming device?”
I got her a subscription to every streaming service and even created a picture directory for her with the logo and which show she can watch on each platform. She uses it once in a while, but since her brain is deteriorating little by little each day, she hasn’t seemed interested.
“Well, I’m trying to watch Andy Griffith. It’s usually on at 7 pm, but it hasn’t been on for a while.”
“I don’t think they’ve made the new season yet, Grandma. You might have to wait until the new episodes come out,” I say.
It’s difficult to witness, but I tell myself that the best thing I can do is to make sure she knows she’s not alone, get her whatever she needs whenever she needs it, and let her live in whatever reality she’s in at any given time. Including not correcting her when she references the wrong decade.
“Okay, thank you, Carter. When will I see you again?” Her voice is distant.
“I’ll see you in two days,” I tell her. “I love you.”
“Love you too, dear. Take care,” she says, then hangs up.
The doctor mentioned that board games help with brain function and feeling more secure despite the vastness of her mind’s confusion.
I take a deep breath and begin walking toward the escalator. I’m looking forward to being home for the next few days before flying back out on Monday.
I wonder what Lina’s schedule is like for the next few days and if she’d be up for going on another run together. I can’t get her out of my head, especially after having her so close to being wrapped in my arms at the park. She likes to play coy with her flirtatious and cheeky remarks when we’re together, but we both know there’s an intense attraction there.
“Are you going home, Captain Hernandez?” Annabelle, a familiar face from our airline, warmly smiles from only a few stairs behind me.
“I am. What about you?” I ask casually, walking off the escalator and toward the double doors to the sky train.
“Just getting home as well. Any plans for this weekend?” she asks in a sweet, high-pitched voice.
Annabelle is a flight attendant who I had a flirty exchange with a couple of months ago in Ontario. We were out for drinks on that trip with a few others from our flight crew. Annabelle is nice to look at. She has long blonde hair, large, bright eyes, and a bubbly personality.
Later that night, she invited me to her room. I almost went but couldn’t get Lina’s face out of my mind. What would she have thought about me hooking up with someone we’d both worked with? It shouldn’t have mattered what Lina thought back then, but it did to me. Why anyone else when Lina exists? I turned Annabelle down, and ever since then, she’s tried to pick up where we left off.
“I have a few.” I’m vague with my answer, trying not to give her an opening to ask me to hang out.
“Is it possible that any of them could include me?” she asks bashfully.
I wish I were more into her, but I’m not.
“I would love to, but I have things to do.” I let her down softly .
“I’m starting to think you’re not into me, Carter,” she replies, focusing on the tile at her feet.
I cock my head to the side, then rest a comforting hand on her arm. “It’s not you.”
“Someone else then?” She pulls her lip between her bottom teeth.
From the corner of my eye, I see Lina ascending the escalator only a few feet away from us. Annabelle has her back turned in that direction, but I’m facing Lina fully. She captures my gaze. Her eyes widen as I catch a steep rise in her chest before they drop to my hand, gently clutching Annabelle’s arm. Oh fuck.
I release my hand immediately. Annabelle senses my distraction and whips her head around to see Lina standing about ten feet away from us, staring in our direction.
Her shoulders straighten. “Oh, I see.”
I drag my eyes away from Lina’s and back to Annabelle, but I’m speechless. What do I say? What can I say? I owe neither of these women an explanation, but I feel like I do because Lina looks bothered.
I blink a couple of times. “Lina’s my partner for the charity run.”
“Of course she is,” Annabelle says sarcastically, flashing me a weak smile.
Her comment barely sounds like background noise. I need to speak with Lina. She should know there is nothing between Annabelle and me.
“It was nice talking to you.” I smile, then pat her shoulder. “Have a good weekend.”
“It all makes sense now.” She brings a palm to the side of my face. “She’s a lucky girl to be partnered with you. But women like Lina get everything they want, don’t they?”
“I don’t understand,” I reply, moving my face away.
Annabelle shakes her head, glances over her shoulder, and glares at Lina. “Never mind.”
Alright, this conversation is beyond my comprehension. There might be something more here. I take it as my cue to walk away.
“Yeah, okay. See you around,” I say as the sky train pulls up.
Lina enters from a different set of doors. I dodge my way through the crowd of passengers, aiming to follow her. She wheels her luggage to the side of the train and grabs the pole to brace herself. I slide in right behind her, clutching the pole above her hand. Towering over her, I can smell the sweetness of her shampoo. As the train starts moving, she’s briefly jerked into my chest.
“You are seeing someone.” Her words are tight as she keeps her face forward.
My body lights up from her inquiry— or jealousy? The tone of her voice isn’t casual. It’s more accusatory.
“What do you mean?” I ask playfully.
“Annabelle,” she sneers. “You should know, I have worked with her for a while, and she tries to get with all the single pilots, as well as the married ones, if she has the chance.”
“What does that have to do with me?” I retort, wanting Lina to explain more, even though I know what she is hinting at. When we ran into each other in the crew lounge last week, she asked me if I was seeing anyone. It was none of her business, but I loved that she was curious enough to ask .
“If you’re seeing her—she’ll be bothered that we’re partners,” she assumes before I have the chance to correct her.
“Who said I was seeing her?”
Lina’s jaw clenches. “It looked like the two of you were pretty close from where I was standing.”
“I told you I’m not dating anyone.” I lower my lips to the top of her ear, letting my breath barely dust her skin. “Did that bother you?”
“Absolutely not.” I watch her throat bob with a rough swallow, living for the way I get her worked up. “Why would I care if you’re seeing someone?”
“I see you,” I whisper.
She looks back, raising her chin. “What does that mean?”
My lips tingle at the thought of touching hers. They’re light pink and shine like fresh lip gloss. “I see you. ”
Lina sucks in a sharp breath. “When do you see me?”
“All the time.”
Her breathing picks up. “Where?”
“Everywhere.”
The automatic doors slide open, and the passengers spill out of the congested sky train. Lina makes a beeline for the employee parking lot, but I’m quickly on her heels.
“Lina,” I call out, moving into a slow jog.
Without looking back, she keeps walking, maybe even quickly picking up her pace. She is not getting away. “Lina!”
Finally, she stopped and slowly turned toward me with her hand on the extended handle of her suitcase.
I walk fast-paced now, and it will be easier to catch up to her.
“Hi.” I smile casually, like I didn’t just chase after her .
She squeezes her eyelids shut and smiles. “Hello, Carter. Did you need something else?”
I shrug. I don’t know what to say, but I want to stay with her as long as possible. “No.”
She blushes and glances around, trying to look unfazed by my presence. “But you just chased after me?”
“Can I walk with you to your car?” I ask, taking whatever time I can get with her.
She giggles, biting back a smile. “Sure.”
We walk side by side in the parking lot for only a couple of minutes before I speak. “When can we see each other again?”
“We’re seeing each other right now.” Flipping her hair around, she turns to me. “We work out of the same airport and for the same airline.”
I notice we’re right next to her pink jeep. I extend my arm, resting it on the side of the car. “You know what I mean.”
She rubs her lips together. “You’re asking if we can go on a run again?”
“Yes.” I lean in, pausing only a few inches from her face.
She doesn’t back away and instead dips her head closer. She’s challenging me. “I was quite tired from the last time. And who said that I actually wanted to train for this event anyway? Maybe I’d rather just clock in the hours into the app and call it a day.”
“You can’t tell me I didn’t give you some good cardio that night in Denver.”
Lina’s cheeks flush. “And I can tell by the way your nipples hardened into points when I got close to you on the sky train that it’s not that you don’t want to spend time with me.”
“How could you have seen them do that if I had a sweater on?”
“I didn’t.” A smile curls the top of my lip. “But thanks for confirming my suspicion,” I say. She walked right into that one. I was expecting her to fire off a sarcastic comment, but I wasn’t expecting her to admit being turned on.
Lina crosses her arms at her chest. “Not funny.”
I tuck a piece of loose hair behind her ear, twirling it in my fingers a couple of times before releasing it.
“Alright.” Lina’s eyes bounce between mine. “When were you thinking?”
She gave in to me. I run my tongue along my bottom lip. “How about tomorrow morning?”
“Okay.”
“Prickly Pear Park at 8 am?”
Lina’s chest rises and falls with a heavy breath. “Alright.”
I push my hand off the side of the car and grab the handle of my luggage. “I’ll see you then.” I turn on my heels and walk away.
I don’t look back. Lina feels the tension just like I do, and nothing makes me happier. When I’m around her, nothing else exists. I’m drawn to her energy like a magnet—the type that I learned about in school as a kid. The opposite forces are drawn together when placed within close proximity.
That is the definition of Lina and me since the first day we met.