32. Epilogue

The airport is so busy I can hardly hear myself think: which is probably a good thing, because my thoughts this morning would probably sound a lot like the contents of my teenage diary if I were to hear them out loud.

Alex kissing me in front of everyone in the bar. Me singing on stage. People coming up to me once we went back inside and asking me for another song. The orange faced compere crowning me Queen of the Karaoke by presenting me with a paper crown with ‘WINNER’ written on the front. Rita and Gerald getting drunk and snogging in a corner when they thought no one was looking.

On second thoughts, I’m going to try very hard to keep that last thought at bay…

Not that there’s anyone I can share it with right at this second anyway, mind you. Chloe’s flight doesn’t leave until later this evening, so she’s still at the hotel, and Alex has been buried in his phone all morning; looking up for just long enough to check in his suitcase and clear security. Now we’re sitting side-by-side at our gate. Rita’s still in duty free, where she’s being closely shadowed by Gerald, who she’s pretending not to notice. Alice and Julian are grabbing a quick breakfast in Burger King, and Alex and I are… sitting in silence, with him still glued to his phone.

Oh.

He’s probably speaking to his various family members again; preparing them for the fact that he’s coming home without Rebecca. I’m sure that’s it. It won’t be that he’s already changed his mind about us. That’s just me being paranoid. I mean, we sat up for hours last night, talking about how we were going to come and visit each other in our respective hometowns once we get back; how we’d be able to call and Facetime in the meantime, and how it wouldn’t be that hard to see each other, in spite of the 106 miles that separate us.

He wouldn’t have said all of that if he didn’t mean it; so if he’s busy on his phone right now, I definitely shouldn’t take it as a sign that he’s changed his mind.

Should I?

“Is, er, everything okay?” I venture, when he finally glances up from the phone.

“Oh. Yeah,” he says, turning the phone away from me in a way that makes me think he’s trying to hide the screen from me. “Sorry, I… er, I just need to do something. Back in a minute.”

Then he jumps up and rushes off down the terminal, leaving me sitting there on my own, surrounded by bags and wondering what just happened.

Why did he feel he had to hide his phone from me?

What’s he doing that’s so important it can’t wait?

And how do I ask him without sounding way, way more needy than our fledgling relationship could possibly justify?

I sit there mulling all of this over, but a minute passes, and Alex doesn’t return. Two minutes pass, then three. At the five-minute mark, Rita and Gerald appear, both weighed down with duty-free bags, and a few minutes after that, Julian and Alice join us, just as the flight starts to board.

“We’ll wait with you, love,” says Rita, seeing the look on my face as our fellow passengers all flock to the gate, hoping to get on first. “I’m sure he won’t be far away.”

“We’ll all wait,” agrees Alice. “We’re still the Crone Crew after all; at least until we reach England.”

I smile weakly at them all, but by the time the final boarding call is announced and Alex still hasn’t reappeared, even Gerald is starting to look worried.

“He’ll be here,” says Rita brightly. “Of course he will.”

“He bloody better be here,” says Gerald. “Or he’ll have me to deal with.”

“And me,” adds Julian.

“The swine,” declares Alice, looking like she might try to fight Alex if he does turn up. “The absolute swine.”

“Come on, love,” says Rita, patting me gently on the arm. “We’re going to have to go. The plane won’t wait.”

“You go,” I tell her, trying not to cry. “I’ll just give it another couple of minutes. Just to be sure.”

She looks at me doubtfully, but goes shuffling off with the others towards the passport control desk, leaving me standing there alone, frantically scanning the departure lounge for any sign of Alex.

I can’t believe he’d just leave. Even if he had changed his mind about us, he’d hardly go to the trouble of changing his flight too, just to avoid me, would he? Surely not even I could have the misfortune to get dumped at the airport, by a man I’ve been seeing for less than 24 hours?

Could I?

No.

I shake my head determinedly. Alex isn’t like that. He’s not a liar, like Jamie. He’s on his way. I know it. All I have to do is wait here and trust that he’s going to come back.

“Miss? We’re about to close the gate,” says a member of the airline staff, approaching me with a sympathetic look on her face. “I’m going to have to ask you to board now, if you want to catch the flight.”

“I just need one more minute,” I tell her, looking over her shoulder to where Rita and co. are all standing waiting for me just inside the air bridge. “Just one more minute.”

“I wish I could,” the woman starts to say, but before she can continue, we’re interrupted by the sound of running feet, and Alex suddenly comes barreling out of the crowd, a huge smile on his face.

“Summer! Summer, I got them!” he yells, coming rushing up to me and thrusting the phone in my face. “I did it! I got them!”

“You got what? What are you talking about, Alex? And where have you been?” I hiss, not knowing whether to be relieved that he’s here, or annoyed that he let me think for even a second that he wouldn’t be.

“Sorry,” he says, his eyes twinkling with excitement. “The Wi-Fi was so slow here it was practically unusable. I had to go all the way to the other end of the terminal to get online, but I got through just as I was about to give up. Look!”

He holds up the phone again, but I’m so aware of the multiple sets of curious eyes that are trained on us both right now that even when I peer at the screen, I can’t quite figure out what I’m looking at. Surely it’s not..? I mean, it can’t be?

“Two tickets to see Taylor Swift,” says Alex triumphantly. “Decent seats, too. You have no idea how hard it was to get these.” I feel my mouth drop open as I stare at him.

“Are… are you serious?” I stutter, my voice sounding weirdly high. “You got me Taylor Swift tickets?”

“I got us Taylor Swift tickets,” he says, grinning proudly. “I only know one of her songs, but I figured you could teach me the rest of them before we go.”

“I… I don’t know what to say.”

I look from Alex to the phone in his hand, and the back again, before throwing my arms around his neck and kissing him right on the lips.

“Is that what you’ve been doing all morning?” I ask, wondering how I could ever have thought he’d just abandon me at the airport. “Really?”

He nods.

“They only went on sale this morning,” he says. “Chloe told me about it. She said you’d always wanted to see her live, but that you’d never been able to get tickets.”

“They’re like gold dust,” I start to explain, before abruptly abandoning my explanation, because…

“Am I really going to see Taylor Swift?” I ask, amazed. “For real?”

“For real,” Alex confirms. “Which, if I’m not mistaken, means you’ll have completed your list of resolutions.”

The woman from the airline clears her throat ostentatiously.

“Sorry,” she says. “But we’re about to close the doors. If you want to get on this flight, you’re going to have to hurry.”

Alex smiles at me and reaches for my hand, before changing his mind, and scooping me up in his arms instead, just like he did on the way out here.

“Come on, Cool Girl,” he says. “Let’s go home.”