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“Morning.” Julia smiled back. “Is she here?”
Keegan’s eyes dimmed underneath the bulk-buy fluorescent bulbs. She looked at the schedule before her, holding her tongue as if she wasn’t sure what to say next.
“Keegan–”
“She’s not coming in today,” she confessed quietly. She didn’t meet Julia’s eyes, the disappointed desperation widening with every second.
“What do you mean? I thought today was her last day?” Julia got both questions out in one unsteady breath.
“It is.” She shook her head in frustration. “It was,” she sighed. Julia just looked at her, her eyebrows pulled towards her forehead. “She finished everything she had to contractually.” She paused, the silence becoming unbearable. The finality of that statement sunk in like wet concrete.
“She’s not coming back?” Julia’s voice wavered. Even though every spoken word shook, the way her breath exhaled made it sound like a statement she knew was true.
“I think she’s heading home,” Keegan said solemnly. “She rescheduled her flight for this morning.”
Julia froze, her voice stolen from her throat. She felt hot–the steam rising in her chest first and then slowly, excruciatingly, flushing her face. She waited too long. She didn’t take the time to look at herself and figure out what made her happy, what she actually deserved. Happiness. Love.
And now it was too late.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
She didn’t consider the meetings she had scheduled throughout the day, didn’t even think about the repercussions. She rushed to her office and grabbed her bag and phone. She folded her coat haphazardly in her arms and began to rush back out.
She stopped in the doorway as her eyes locked on the green scarf Erin left in her office months ago. She took it from the hook and stuffed it in her bag, hurriedly rushing back towards the office.
“Cancel my meetings,” she exasperatedly shouted towards Keegan. “Actually, cancel everything for today.”
“What?” Keegan asked, rising to her feet with a confused expression written across her face. Julia had one hand on the door, ready to make her great escape.
“Cancel it all,” she repeated. “I’m taking a personal day.”
Keegan’s face broke into a smile and then Julia was gone. She didn’t know how fast she drove–the trees and farms disappearing like streams of neon green in her rearview mirror–she just knew she had one hour and thirty-two more minutes until she reached the airport.
When she got there, she practically threw a fifty-dollar bill at the parking lot attendant in order for him to open the gate. The lot was full, he said. It could be for hours, he said. She didn’t care if she had to park on top of another car.
She drove around twice before she found a spot on the fourth floor near the unused elevators and needles lining the dirt covered concrete. She ran from her car, forgetting to even lock it, as she rushed towards the airport terminals.
How do people in those ridiculous romantic movies do it? There’s no getting through security. There’s no loving escape to the boarding lines to confess the feelings you pushed aside for too long. There are only lines of overly tired people with luggage and boarding passes waiting for security–men and women with weapons who get paid too little for inconsequential problems.
Julia pleaded with the woman behind the desk, but there was little information to give to a desperate person–let’s face it, who might even be a little crazy–who only knew someone named Erin Calanis would be boarding a plane to Virginia. Apparently, that’s private information anyways.
She walked away from the desk and retreated to the only corner by the door–cold air rushing inside between late arrivals rushing towards never ending lines. She didn’t know what flight Erin would be on. She didn’t know if it had left already, if it was boarding, if it didn’t leave for another eight hours. Even if she did, she’d never be let through the gate.
She picked up her phone and called Erin. It rang. One, two. The buzzing in her ears went on forever. Three, four. On and on. Five, six. Please, pick up. Seven, eight.
“Hi, you’ve reached Erin Calanis with the McSellen Corporation. Please leave a message at the tone, and I’ll be sure to get back to you as soon as possible.”
Julia hung up the phone. She scrolled through her contact, her thumb hovering over her last resort. She leaned against the cold glass window behind her. The dampness of the icy weather on the other side of it clung to her jacket.
She pressed the dial again. It rang. One, two. The sound twisting her innards into sausage shaped packaging. Three, four. She pressed her sweaty palms to her face, her vision breaking into the northern lights behind her eyes.
“Good morning,” a voice chimed from the other side. “This is Darlene with the McSellen Corporation. How may I direct your call?”
“Thank you!” Julia exclaimed, her voice attracting strange looks from passersby. “Thank you!”
“Ma’am,” she cleared her throat, obviously impatient, “how may I direct your call?”
“Oh! I’m sorry,” Julia interrupted before the end of her question. “Ms. Calanis, Erin Calanis, she’s one of your lead evaluators. She’s been evaluating my school, Kleinton High School. I know this is a strange request, but do you know when her flight back to Virginia is? Do you know where she’s going, when her flight leaves?” It came out in one exasperated breath before Julia could even think about the words spitting from her mouth.
