Chapter 38
Kairo~
My palms were sweaty, and if I wanted to be completely honest with myself, I felt like I was about to throw up everywhere. One month later, and it was finally happening.
Finally.
When my father had told me that Triana had entered the drawing, hope had hit me like a two-by-four, almost dropping me to my knees.
However, reality had quickly set in once I realized that she hadn’t mentioned it to me at all.
If it hadn’t been for my father breaking all kinds of confidentiality agreements, I never would have known that she had submitted an application until the winners had been announced.
Lying to my brothers had also been another ordeal that I hoped never to go through again.
When me and my father had told them that I had entered the lottery, they’d been floored.
They never would have guessed that I’d ever want to live anywhere else, and once upon a time, they’d be right about that.
Triana had changed everything, and I owed Winston for selling his support of me to my brothers.
Besides my parents, he was the only person who knew why I was doing what I was doing, so when my brothers had started their grumblings about me losing my mind, Winston had stepped in to count off all the positive reasons of why I’d want to move to Blooming Heights.
Of course, once all the lies had been out of the way, Winston had taken me aside to tell me how much he was going to miss me, and he had even threatened to cross his way into Blooming Heights to kick my ass if I didn’t make sure to keep in touch.
Truth be told, now that the opportunity had become a reality, I never imagined how hard it’d be to tell my family goodbye.
We’d always been close, and it was a different sense of mentality when you knew that you were no longer going to be able to drive down the street to go visit them.
However, that just proved Triana’s claims of being trapped.
No matter how large the region was, we were still trapped to exist in a limited world, and it really did suck if you wanted something more for yourself.
At any rate, with all the goodbyes said and all the promises made, I had just landed in Blooming Heights, and having known nothing else in my life, watching the kaleidoscope of people bustling around the airport freely was a bit of a shock.
Sure, the internet and news were always showing what life was like outside the RNA, but to see it in person still felt incredibly strange.
Nevertheless, the awkward transition period wasn’t enough to make me regret the decision to come here.
If it meant being with Triana, I could get through anything.
Of course, not being from the same region, I had no idea when she’d gotten here or where she was, but that wasn’t going to stop me from doing whatever I needed to do in order to find her.
I also wasn’t alone. In addition to me ‘winning’ the lottery, Christopher Harmen had been chosen as the second winner, and he’d been chosen because he was seventy-three, and my father believed that it’d be a good-feel story to allow this man to return to a time when everyone had been given a choice about what to accept and what not to accept.
Plus, when the new movement had been introduced, his children had chosen to live in Blooming Heights, and all the man had wanted to do was hug his grandchildren before he died.
At least, that’s what he’d written in the essay portion of the application.
“My son said that he’d be waiting for me when I got here,” he said as we made our way down the hallway and out of our arrival gate. “I hope he brought the family.”
“If not, then that will give you guys time to catch up before being surrounded by all that family activity that can be exhausting if you’re not prepared,” I said, hoping that his son was here. The idea of this man being disappointed was a sad one.
“True,” he chuckled. “So true.”
When we finally made it to the baggage claim, I could tell that he was feeling nervous, and that help to distract me from my own nervousness.
However, as we stood around the luggage carousel, a younger version of him walked right up to us, and I couldn’t help but smile when Christopher’s son wrapped his father up in a big hug, happy to finally be reunited after all these years.
In this moment, I saw the lottery as something much more than I had originally viewed it as.
Turning my way, tears in the older man’s eyes, he said, “Good luck, Mr. Booker. I hope it’s everything that you hope it’ll be.”
“Good luck, Mr. Harmen,” I echoed. “I’m sure you’re going to be very happy here.”
“I already am,” he grinned before his son grabbed his father’s luggage, then went on their way.
Once they were gone, I went back to looking for my bags, and once I got both of them, I started making my way to the front of the airport to grab a taxi or send for a We-Ride.
Now, after the names had been drawn, we’d been given one month to get all our affairs in order before having to leave for Blooming Heights, which hadn’t been very long when you considered all that’d needed to be done.
Nonetheless, I had sold off or donated what I had no longer wanted or needed, then had packed up the rest. I had also put my house on the market, leaving the sale to the care of my father, positive that he’d take care of everything.
Luckily for me, I’d had enough saved to be able to secure a hotel room until I found something more permanent, and because I’d been a lottery winner, all of my financial accounts and assets had been transferred to a Blooming Heights financial institute easily and without any of the usual required paperwork.
So, all that was left was to get my house sold, buy one here, then find a job.
Of course, with my educational background and work experience, I didn’t imagine that it’d be too hard to find a decent job, but I also had the lottery working for me in that aspect of my life.
To ensure the citizenship lottery endeavor was a successful one, once our names had been drawn, we’d been given a list of potential job opportunities to help us with our new lives, but I hadn’t immediately applied for any of them.
I was here to follow Triana, not the other way around, so I’d chosen to wait until I knew where she was living and working before I made any permanent decisions about my life.
Granted, I couldn’t live in a hotel room forever, but once I knew where she was going to be, I could find an apartment to rent while looking for a house.
I was also very aware of how stalkerish my actions were, but I didn’t care.
I was okay with being labeled a stalker as long as Triana didn’t ditch me for someone who was probably more worthy of her.
That being said, I knew that I had my work cut out for me, but I hadn’t made it this far to give up on us because of a few rejections that I deserved.
Honestly, at this point, I could only hope that she didn’t take a restraining order out on me, sending me back to Sterling Acres.
All-in-all, the application had been thorough enough to cover all the bases, but I could also see a lot of the questions and requirements deterring quite a few people.
So, the leaders of the RNA had done a great job of coming off like the good guys again, even though the system was still designed to keep things as they were.
When I finally exited the airport, it was to walk out into a sea of people, yellow cabs, and We-Ride drivers, waiting for their passengers, and I wondered how long it’d take before I got used to seeing the blend of skin tones and facial features.
I wondered how long before I could look out my living room window and no longer feel in awe of the sight.
Ready to finally get settled, I began walking towards the nearest cab before my feet stopped dead in my tracks, my heart threatening to jump from my chest and just land at the feet of the beautiful brunette that was standing off to the side, just staring at me like she wasn’t sure if she was allowed to approach me, and I never imagined that my heart could break more than it’d already had.
Ignoring everything and everyone else around me, I made my way to where Triana was standing, and I could feel everything that I felt for this woman get lodged in my throat.
There was so much that I wanted to say to her, but the words were lost in the swirl of hope and dread that I was feeling.
Triana could be here to tell me that she was giving me a second chance, or else she could be here to tell me that she wanted nothing to do with me.
Right now, my odds were fifty/fifty, but deep down, I knew they were more like seventy/thirty, and not in my favor.
When I was finally standing in front of her, I said the only thing that I could think of. “Hey, baby.”
Luckily, she didn’t tell me not to call her that like she’d had before. “How was your flight?”
“Not bad,” I answered, my heart still pounding wildly in my chest.
“I was told that I have to meet with Caleb Majors in the morning,” she said conversationally.
I just nodded. “We’re all scheduled to meet him in the morning.” I took a step closer to her. “When did your flight get here?”
“Too early to be considered humane,” she joked. “Not sure why all of our flights were scattered.”
“I think so that we didn’t get bombarded by the press,” I guessed, though I couldn’t be sure. The flights had been scheduled by the administrating government, so their reasons were their own.
“Where are you staying?” she finally asked.
“I got a room at The Lemming,” I answered, praying that she was asking for a personal reason.
Then, looking up at me, those dark eyes of hers nearly my undoing, she said, “I’ve just been hanging around all day, seeing the sights. I haven’t decided where I’m staying yet.”
Thank you, Jesus.
“You’re staying with me, Triana,” I said. “That’s always been the plan, baby.”