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approximately five minutes. Thank you.
They’d been about to board their flight when she’d realized her laptop was missing. “The coffee shop!” she cried. “I must
have left it there.” They’d stopped at the first place they encountered after clearing TSA. They checked emails over coffee,
killing an hour before heading to their gate. “I’m going back for it,” she said. “I don’t have a choice. My entire life is
on that laptop—the manuscript, edits, everything!”
Vicky pointed out, rightly, that everything would be backed up to the cloud and easily retrievable. Jules wouldn’t hear of
it. “I can’t leave it behind! I’d never sleep tonight.”
“If someone turns it into lost and found, the airport will ship it to you,” Ayesha said.
“That’s a big IF,” Jules said.
“Not really,” Vicky said. “I left a tablet at LaGuardia and—”
“I’ll be just a sec!” Jules said, interrupting.
“That’s so far away! You’ll never make it back in time,” Ayesha said.
Jules had to try. She grabbed her carry-on case by the handle and made a run for it, ditching Ayesha and Vicky and with them any real chance of ever catching that flight.
The coffee shop had a ’50s diner vibe. The staff wore white aprons over red-and-white-striped uniforms. Their waitress greeted her with a wide grin.
“Oh, hey there! Figured you’d be back!” She pointed out the manager who’d locked the computer away for safekeeping.
He asked for a minute and returned in fifteen.
Laptop finally secured, Jules raced through Gates 7A, 7B, 7C, nearly tripping over her feet at 7D, then straight through 7E
and 7F . . . Gate closed.
Fuck!
“Too late,” the gate agent said flatly. “Let’s find you a seat on another flight. Give me a minute. The system is slow.”
The waiting area was empty. Earlier, the space had been crammed with all the usual suspects—chatty families, drowsy solo travelers,
disoriented seniors, and disaffected teens. Jules, Vicky, and Ayesha, with a row of seats to themselves, had prepared for
a crash landing into the world they’d left behind. Ayesha called her husband and made plans for dinner. Vicky searched flights
on her iPad, scheduling her next trip. She and Matty would link up soon enough, but her immediate plan was to visit her grandmother
in Arizona. Jules sat between them with no one to call, no plans to make, and nothing to do except replay the last seventy-two
hours in her mind. She was cold, cranky, and couldn’t stop thinking of Leo. She hadn’t met his eyes when they last said goodbye
in the lobby among group hugs, group photos, and promises to keep in touch. She simply couldn’t. Every emotion he evoked in
her was expressed in its purest, most intense, form, which was terrifying. That was something she’d have to examine. And she
was exhausted. How Vicky and Ayesha kept going was a mystery. They’d stayed up past 3 a.m., huddled in Ayesha’s room, to catch
Aurora on her own terms. It didn’t work. No one knocked, and Jules lost the final opportunity to slip out to the garden. At
dawn, as they sped away from The Aurora, Jules fought back tears. She’d screwed up, turned left when all signs had pointed
right. There was nothing to do but go home, draw a bath, and cry about it. Oh, right, her apartment was uninhabitable! She
was homeless for the week.
Jules had snuggled into her hoodie and dozed off, hands clenched, jaw tight.
Vicky gently shook her awake when it was time to board.
She got up and gathered her things as dread churned in her stomach.
By the time she’d realized her computer was missing, it would be a lie to say her mind wasn’t made up.
Now her phone buzzed in her pocket with calls and texts from Ayesha and Vicky. She sent them a quick, upbeat message to calm
them down.
Jules: Found it!
Vicky: Great! But you missed your flight!!!!!
Jules: I’ll catch the next one.
Ayesha: Text us your flight details.
Jules: Yes, Mom.
Catching the next flight was a mathematical impossibility.
“We don’t have anything until morning,” the attendant said, “and that’s on standby status.”
“Don’t love that,” Jules said.
“Spring break,” the attendant said by way of explanation. “We’re booked solid through Tuesday. The best-case scenario is Wednesday
at noon.”
“How’s Monday looking?”
“A week from today? Wide-open.”
“Lock it in.”
Jules briskly made her way to the car rental kiosk.
She accepted the first vehicle offered, found it on the lot, and tossed her luggage into the trunk.
She synced her phone and mapped out the route, but she would have found her way back to The Aurora, even if blindfolded.
A couple hours later, she stopped in Key Largo to use a burger joint’s restrooms and grab a bite to eat.
Then it was one key after another and a blur of motels, bait shops, and seafood shacks.
Flying to New York made no sense, she reasoned, halfway over the Overseas Highway.
Her only choices were to stay at Vicky’s or book a room or an Airbnb.
Why bother checking out of one hotel only to check into another?
Both Ayesha and Vicky had plans to reconnect with their families.
In a way, wasn’t that what she was doing?
She couldn’t leave Ruby behind. What if she were in trouble and it was Jules’s mission to save her?
She’d do it, even if it meant sitting in the garden night after night.
When Ruby appeared, she would shut up and listen.
If Ruby said nothing, she’d lean into the silence.
Jules peddled in words, but there was more than one way to communicate.
If it turned out that Ruby had nothing to say, she’d sit with her until she felt her love.