Chapter Thirty-Nine
Allie
Nobody has ever looked at me like Milo is now. It makes me feel like everything. It makes me feel like nobody else exists in the world except me. His slow, wide smile, those gorgeous, sleepy brown eyes . . .
‘I can’t believe you’re here.’ He stands between the seats, moves into the aisle.
He’s dressed in clothes I’ve never seen him in.
A grey jumper. Khaki combats. It makes me smile.
He’s ready for the Arctic, I’m ready for an awards ceremony.
He takes my face into his hands and cradles it.
‘Hey,’ he says mouth inches from mine. ‘What are you doing here?’
I can feel them – eyes on us. So very many eyes on us. Phones poised. And I don’t care. I just don’t care. We’re both steeped in it. Huge, disbelieving smiles and delirious laughter.
‘Hey,’ I whisper.
‘This dress . . .’
‘For your ceremony,’ I say, and his face floods with heat.
‘But I got to the hotel and you weren’t there.
And Jameson – he told me where you’d gone.
So. Here I am. And I almost missed this flight.
But I think they slowed things down for me.
Felt sorry for me, or . . . I don’t know? The flight attendant.’
‘Heidi?’
I nod. ‘She helped me. Can you believe she recognised me? Remembered us.’
‘I know,’ he laughs.
‘She moved heaven and earth somehow. Like, you were meant to be taking off now.’
Slowly, Milo smiles at me. That pink, beautiful mouth that rendered me practically speechless on one of our first video calls. ‘The world loves a romance, right?’
‘I suppose,’ I say. ‘Told them I had to get on.’
‘And what did you say?’ he asks. ‘Kittiwakes in trouble. Goose on the line . . .’
‘No,’ I tell him. ‘The man I’m falling in love with is on this plane.’
He smiles slowly and deliciously. ‘Say that again,’ he says, and now I can feel all eyes on us. Even the man next to Milo has dragged his eyes away from the little screen in front of him.
‘I said,’ I laugh to myself, dizzy with it all. ‘The man I’m falling in love with is on this plane.’
‘What’s his name?’
‘You’ve probably not heard of him,’ I grin.
‘Ouch.’ He laughs, nose to mine. ‘I’m going to need to hear you say his name, though, Captain Lake.’
‘Milo,’ I say, and we both laugh, faces so close. ‘Milo Ford.’
He strokes a thumb along my cheek, a smooth, gentle gesture that makes my eyes flutter closed. ‘I’m falling in love with you, Allie Lake,’ he says. ‘The woman I’m in love with is on this plane.’
Then, slowly, he leans in, and presses his soft lips on mine. He kisses me tenderly, savouring me, and from one of the nearby televisions, I hear his name. The winner. Best Male Lead. Milo Ford.
And as seatbelt lights bleep on, as a round of applause bursts from a distant speaker somewhere in the plane, I realise I don’t care if the world is watching. I’m in love with Milo Ford and I want the universe to know – every planet, every moon.
We settle in our seats, strap ourselves in, and the plane begins moving, rolling along to take off, and with my head on Milo’s shoulder, he holds me, and I listen to the quiet, far away words from a TV, of someone who believed in us, telling the whole world that Milo Ford can’t be there tonight, because he’s off chasing ‘love’ across oceans and he hopes to find her.
Action. The most beautiful action.
And in a silent moment, with nobody else around to hear, into Milo’s ear, I say, ‘I love you.’