Filed To Story: The Lingering Kiss of Farewell Novel
he handed his keys over to Wil, who wished him luck.
He yelled at him,
“You’ll bloody need it.”
as he headed into the airport himself. To catch his flight so he could beat her to Italy and prepare in advance of her arrival, though it was all set and he knew it. He had double??hecked that himself today before going to pick her up from their house.
His flight landed long before hers did, and he took the time to shower and shave, do his hair and get dressed, looked right at himself.
“You’ve got this, she’ll understand I want a real marriage with her, family and children.
“He told his reflection, but all the way here all he could recall were her tears and those muttered words, ‘why I fell in love with you? I should have known better’
He headed to the gate. Her plane was landing. He’d never left the departure zone, was still there. If he left he’d not be able to get back in, and he wanted her to know the minute she got off that plane that he was waiting for her. He heard it get announced that it was on time, and would be landing in 10 minutes. He packed himself up and headed out there, where there was a man standing with a large bunch of flowers.”
Thank you for bringing them in,”
he told him.
“I hope your proposal goes well,”
he smiled.
“Me too,”
Calvin nodded, and that was exactly what this was him proposing to Rin, the woman he loved and wanted to spend the rest of his life with. Ten minutes was like an hour as he stood and waited. His eyes were drawn by a loud screaming noise that penetrated the windows of the airport, and he saw a plane, hit the tarmac. Its front wheel had folded, and it was sliding along the ground in a rain of sparks, as it touched down, coming in too fast, and then it just tipped to its side and rolled over. The wing snapped and there were suddenly flames roaring to life before his eyes.
His heart hammered inside his chest as his eyes moved to see what plane it was, and the flowers fell from his hand as he realised it was Rin’s plan, and then there was black smoke filling the air and an explosion lit up the sky.
“No”
came from him as he raced down the airport as it slid out of sight of him. that plane heartbroken, He chased after it, and stared in horror as he realised what he’d done. He’d put her and she’d died alone feeling unloved and unwanted. He couldn’t get out there from nere, but he could see the whole thing was upside down and engulfed in flames. There were no people coming from it that he could see. Emergency vehicles were racing out there from everywhere.
He felt himself sink down onto his knees as he watched on as the emergency crews worked desperately to contain the blaze, and then he saw people out there moving, and he shot to his feet; there were survivors. She had to have survived. He couldn’t lose her like this. He was gone from the horrific scene to find out where all those people that had survived were being taken.
He had to go through customs and the process was killing him. He yelled at them all about his wife being on that plane that had just crashed, in his need for them to let him pass and get the information about where those survivors were, or were being taken to check the names on the manifest list, did she make it off? He was as frantic as everyone else here, that had been waiting for that plane to land.
It was hours later and still there was no news of her. Not many had survived, only 20% and he couldn’t find her anywhere. It was the next day when he explained the last time he saw her was going through security in Texas, and that was checked and he was told she had checked in at the gate onto the plane in Texas, but they had no survivors with her name here in Italy.
He just stood there as did so many others, disbelieving, shook his head no, and didn’t want to believe it wouldn’t believe it. How could she just be dead? He left to search the hospitals himself. Maybe someone had missed her. They had to have, she was here somewhere, she had to be.
Rin
Rin had spent the next morning out shopping, bought herself a new phone, got a new number, was saying goodbye to her old life and starting a new one. She sat and ate breakfast in a caf? and got coffee to go when she was ready to leave; on the last leg of her journey, she would be at her new home by the end of the day.
Was she new steadfastly not thinking about Calvin, by listening to the radio and singing along with the songs that she knew. This was a new start for her, solely an author now, and a wealthy one at that, though that was due to her divorce settlement. She was going to set up her new writing office. She had plans in her mind for a separate office space to be built right by that creek that ran through her property was going to have a nice little bridge built across it and then a studio office with an all??lass front so she could look at the creek and the woods around her while she wrote, drawing inspiration from it.
She was going to put in a small deck for her to sit out on and have coffee, a nice chair and a footstool. It was going to be really nice, and she was going to be happy.
She would get over that man, people fell in love all the time, got crushed by it and picked themselves up and moved on. Could let it go in time, so it was just a memory they had. Some could even forget about it altogether. She wasn’t such a weakling that she couldn’t move on. Yes, it still hurt right now, but that was she knew to be expected. It was even her own bloody fault for loving a man she only had a contract marriage with.
She’d once thought it would be easy to be married to him. He was never going to be around, so there would be no attachment, but the intimacy between them, the raw need at times not only she had, but he displayed to have her as well, in their marital bed. That had sucked her in real good and feelings had sprouted little by little until it was too late. She’d not even realised she was in love with him until one day he’d not come home when he normally would, and she’d gotten angry with him for not calling and telling her why,
It had come as a complete shock even to herself to realise she was jealous and th husband. love with her
She’d also had to keep it to herself, best that he didn’t find out, considering why they were married, and that there was a divorce to come in the future. She’d tried to convince herself she was wrong. But couldn’t; he was always nice to her and that did not help. The way he made love to her, or his desperate need to have her all hard and eager, hadn’t helped her. She’d taken it as he had feelings for her too.
Because how could a man be like that all the time if he wasn’t interested in the woman, he seemed to crave her when they were alone in that bed. Or away on business. More than once, he’d shoved her up against a wall and taken her greedily when away on business, couldn’t hardly wait a minute to have her, it would seem. She recalled chuckling a few times at his annoyance she was wearing underwear under her skirt or dress. The words
“For God’s sake, why are you wearing panties,”
had come from him a few times, making her actually laugh at his clear frustration.
She sighed now as she drove along, and tried to shake off those happy moments with him, and push them aside. They were all she had now, just??emories and nothing more. He’d admitted he was going to get remarried and had another woman right to her. That woman was going to get to have him now, and a part of her wondered if he would crave his new wife like he had her at times.
“Stop it,”
she chastised herself and turned the radio volume up to distract herself from her own thoughts. You’re divorced, let him go you stupid woman.”
She muttered to herself and focused on the road and on to her new future.
She was driving through the state of Virginia was only half a day from her new home, when there was an announcement on the radio that an airplane had crash??anded in Italy and there were hundreds of deaths. The whole world was watching it.
Her eyes moved to the radio instinctively, completely shocked. Planes were the safest way to travel. It was not often that one crashed these days. Those poor people and their families, she sighed a little sadly. Then, as they stated, the airline and its flight number. Where it had taken off from, she frowned.
“No, it couldn’t be.”
She shook her head as it sounded very familiar to her, that couldn’t be the flight she was supposed to be on, could it?
She turned her eyes back to the road and bit her lip. Surely it wasn’t, but it was itching her brain. She’d looked at the connecting flights on that travel itinerary, and it was where one of the layovers were she was certain of it, and this would be the day it would land as well. She glanced at her handbag and, without much thought, reached for it and pulled it into her lap to go through it and find her travel documents, glanced away from the road when she couldn’t find them there. She’d thrown them all away back in Huston. She didn’t need them. That was her old life, but she was dead certain it was the flight she should have been on.
Her heart was hammering inside her chest as she tossed her handbag back on the passenger seat. If she’d gotten on that flight she’d likely have just died. She bit her lip as she realised Calvin would be watching the news. He would see and hear this. Think she was in fact dead. Would he send someone to see if she’d survived? Go himself? Since he’d been the one to send her away. He might not love her, but he would surely feel responsible.
She’d already changed her phone, gotten rid of the old one, and gotten a new number. Just this morning before heading off on the last leg of her journey to her new life. She had only kept those that she would need: her publishing house number, her proofreader and editor’s numbers, and the realtor for the house sale. That was all that was in her new phone. been disconnected,
Cal couldn’t even call her to see if she was alright. If he did, he’d be told the line because she’d gotten rid of it. She grabbed her phone to call him and tell him she was alright, only to have none of his numbers in there, not his work, or mobile, not the house at Cliffside, not his apartment, nothing, not even Wil’s number was in there, only numbers related to Marilyn Riddley’s life. She’d steadfastly refused to put them in there, so she could completely cut ties with him and their old life. They were divorced. She’d exited her old life, and left it all behind.
She was now racking her brain for his mobile phone number. She couldn’t in all good consciousness leave him like that, thinking she was dead. But she couldn’t recall his mobile number. She rarely dialled it, it had been saved into her phone under Cal.
She racked her brain furiously for any number. The one thing mobile phones did was allow people to save names and numbers, so no one really recalled phone numbers anymore because they didn’t need to. Most people only recalled a few. It was said only three phone numbers were retained by most people.
It wasn’t like when she was a kid, and you used the old house phone and had to punch in the number each and every time. That though stopped her, as she realised, she did know a number, his apartment number She would often call it from the house, if she wanted to talk to him. She looked down at her phone in her lap and punched it in.
Moved her eyes back to the road as it rang, then glared at the phone in her lap.