Karl squeezed her hand. “Then tell him, honey. You’re the bravest, ballsiest chick I’ve ever met. Nothing intimidates you or scares you off. So as soon as we get back to New York, you march into Ben’s office, lock the door, and tell him everything you just told me. Life’s too short, kiddo, so stop wasting it, okay?”
Karl’s words remained with her for the rest of the evening as she finished packing and got ready for bed. She took out her laptop to check her email one more time, and once again read over the two unsent messages in her draft folder. She wound up deleting one of them, and making yet another minor revision to the other, but held off on sending it.
Her sleep was restless, a rarity for her since she usually slept like a log. But the conversation she’d had with Karl had set the wheels in motion in her brain, and try as she might she couldn’t stop them from spinning out of control.
It was nearly an hour before her alarm was due to go off when she gave up on the thought of sleeping, figuring that with the twenty four plus hours of flying ahead of her that she could sleep on one or all of the four flights. She took a leisurely shower, dressed, and booted up her laptop again, answering several emails and checking a variety of websites.
And then, just before she had to leave to meet the others, she hit Send.
***
“For fuck’s sake, Georgina, you do not have to vomit again. It’s all in your head, understand? We have less than five minutes to make this connecting flight, and I swear if you make us miss it I’ll lock you in that damned toilet for two days.”
But for once George was not letting Lauren boss him around, groaning loudly as he clutched his unsettled belly. “I can’t help it,” he gasped. “Go on without me if you have to, but I’ve got to – oh, damn!”
Before Lauren could hold him back, George dashed into the men’s room, pressing a hand to his mouth as he disappeared from sight.
“Damn him and his delicate digestive system!” cursed Lauren, kicking the nearest wall in frustration. “And damn Nadine for booking us connecting flights barely thirty minutes apart. I mean, even if it wasn’t still monsoon season the odds of a flight delay in this part of the world are pretty high. You guys do realize that if we miss this flight to Delhi it’s going to have a ripple effect and screw up the next two flights as well.”
Karl patted her on the back. “Calm down, kiddo. George can’t help it if he’s got motion sickness. And it was a pretty turbulent flight, you must admit. I’m a little queasy myself.”
Lauren glared at him. “You’re not helping, Karl. It’s bad enough we’ve got to take four flights, but Chennai International would not be my first – or even my hundred and first – choice of airports to hang around in for a few hours waiting for a new connection.”
Chris nodded. “I’m with Lauren. Maybe we should just run for the gate and let George find his own way home. Why should we have to be miserable just because he’s got a weak gut?”
“And don’t you think that maybe, just maybe, someone who already knew he suffered from motion sickness shouldn’t have taken this job?” muttered Lauren darkly. “Considering that eighty percent of this job involves travel.”
George emerged from the men’s room a few seconds later, looking as though he was about to collapse. He was pale, sweating, and shaking, and Lauren grabbed his arm impatiently, plucking his laptop bag from his other hand and tossing it to Karl.
“Come on, Georgina,” she told him irritably. “We’ve now got about ninety seconds before our flight to Delhi takes off, so you’d better be prepared to run for your life. Otherwise, your head’s going to be the next thing that gets flushed down that toilet.”
***
New York
It was just past six a.m. when Ben emerged from the shower, a towel wrapped around his waist while he used a second to dry his hair. His bedroom was dimly lit as he began to pull clothes from his closet and dresser, not worrying about waking Elle at such an early hour since she was fast asleep across the hall.
Since her parents had returned to England more than three weeks ago, he had yet to return to Elle’s bed. He’d been spending a lot of extra time at the office, arriving in very early and staying until well past quitting time. He had admittedly been avoiding her, not ready just yet to have “the talk”, but he hoped his increasing absences were also helping in his quest to let her down easy.
There was no possible way, he reasoned as he pulled on a pair of jeans, that Elle could not realize their relationship had some serious problems. Aside from the fact that they hadn’t slept together in months, he had become increasingly withdrawn and uncommunicative. But Elle continued to act as if nothing was wrong, smiling and conversing normally, and not addressing the oversized elephant in the room. That she was in a state of denial was glaringly obvious, and Ben resolved not to keep her in limbo any longer. He was going to talk to her this weekend, he promised himself, even if it was a certainty that there would be a huge scene.
He would stay in a hotel for a week or two until he could find a short-term rental. Elle would be upset, deeply emotional, but it was the right thing to do for both of them. He just hoped that eventually she would come to accept that fact, though he feared it would be a hard truth for her to acknowledge.
His cell phone buzzed just as he finished buttoning his shirt. Ben frowned, for no one ever called him this early, even a crew member who was more than halfway around the world. And as he glanced at the caller ID, he noticed it was a local number.
“Hello?” he said, his heart beginning to beat a little faster in trepidation. After all, who’d be calling him this early with good news?”
“Ben. God, oh God. It’s Nadine. And, oh Jesus, I just had the news on. I was getting ready to go out for a run and I always listen to CNN at this time of the morning.” Nadine was babbling, pretty close to being hysterical. “And, God, the plane – there’s been a crash, Ben. A flight out of Chennai headed for Delhi. And, Jesus, I’m almost positive it’s the flight that George and the others were supposed to be taking.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Ben, Robert McKinnon is on the line for you.”
Ben closed his eyes, rubbing the bridge of his nose where a dull headache had begun several hours ago, and had gradually spread to what felt like his entire body. He’d been expecting this call from Lauren’s family, had in fact picked up the phone three different times to call them first, but had been interrupted on each attempt.
“Put him through, Kym. Thanks.”
He had already spoken to both of George’s parents – two times each – both demanding answers and having hysterics each time; to Tamsyn, who’d nearly broken his heart when she had asked tearfully “Does this mean my baby is never going to know its father?”; and to Chris’s father, who’d been backpacking somewhere in Colorado and had either had a terrible connection or been half-stoned.
This call from Lauren’s father, therefore, was both expected and at least a couple of hours overdo.
“Robert.” Ben greeted him somberly. “I imagine you’ve heard the same news reports we have. How are you and your wife holding up?”
The older man’s voice sounded hoarse, as though he’d been crying. “Not terribly well, Ben, as you might expect. Natalie is – not doing well at all. Julia and Nathan just arrived a few minutes ago, and they’re doing their best to comfort her. But I need to know everything you do at this point. Is there any chance that my little girl is still alive?”
Ben had anticipated this question, had answered it several times already this morning, and wished again that he had more reliable information to share.
“There’s a chance, yes,” he replied gravely. “Lauren and the others were on a flight from Port Blair to Chennai, and their departure was delayed by nearly half an hour. The flight also encountered some serious turbulence en route, which delayed its arrival by a few more minutes. If the flight from Port Blair had left on time, then they would have had barely thirty minutes to make the next flight from Chennai to Delhi – the flight that crashed on takeoff. Based on what we know, they would have had less than five minutes to make the connection, given that the two gates were in different terminals.”