Delayed (7 page)

“I’ve been good. What about you? How have you been?”
 

“I’ve been better,” her voice cracked when she finished. Her eyes wandered off to the counter behind him. “Line’s moving.”
 

Nick turned around. “Oh. Sorry.”
 

The woman at the counter called, “Next please.”
 

He hesitated and turned back around to face Olivia. “What are you ordering?”
 

“I still haven’t decided. Your head was kind of in the way.”
 

“You should try the mango smoothie,” he suggested.
 

“I hate mango,” she said. “I’ll scan the menu. You order first.”
 

The woman at the counter was giving him a bored look. Nick didn’t know how to indirectly tell Olivia he wanted to buy her breakfast.
 

“I’ll wait. You should order whatever you want, my treat.” He didn’t want her to think this was his way of hitting on her, because it wasn’t. Honestly he didn’t really know what it was, but an excuse suddenly came to mind. He remembered the date. “Think of it as a late birthday present.”
 

Olivia stopped scanning the menu. “You have a good memory. Fine. I’ll accept your gift.” She took one last look at her options. “I’ll have the banana nut smoothie.”
 

Nick nodded. He kept repeating her order in his mind as he approached the counter. He repeated it to the cashier and added in his own mango smoothie. The woman gave him a receipt, and within a minute their drinks were out.
 

Olivia sat at a two-person table, right in a corner of the breakfast bar. He walked over, wondering if this would be the last time he would see her.
 

She waved him over to the table. He set the smoothie down in front of her and took a seat.
 

“Thanks. You didn’t have to,” Olivia said.
 

He shrugged. “I owe you like two years worth of birthday presents.”
 

She tilted her head toward the drink and took a sip. “Well then I owe you two years worth of presents too.” She paused to take another sip. “When is your birthday?”
 

Nick forgot his own birthday. He began to scan his thoughts for an answer, but the way that Olivia was giving him all of her attention was unnerving.
 

“May 3,” he finally managed.
 

She nodded. “We’re one month apart.”
 

And so they were. He sat there trying to make sure he had given her the right answer.
 

Olivia took another sip of her drink. Silence began to plague their table. Nick sipped his own drink, savoring the mango flavor.
 

“Why don’t you like mango?” he asked. It wasn’t the first question he had for her, and there were a lot of those. But it slipped out.
 

She pushed her drink farther onto the table. “I used to. But I can’t stand the taste anymore.”
 

“Oh.”
 

She was smiling again. Her fingers pressed against the straw, bending the plastic into odd angles.
 

“So. How’s your family?” she asked.
 

The question was innocent and yet so personal. Had she been anyone else, Nick would have never felt compelled to answer. No one he knew from school or any of his friends had been to his mom’s ceremony. He felt like there was no need to keep his family life private with Olivia. She’d seen him on one of the most difficult days of his life.
 

“They’re better. Mimi asks about you from time to time. She still doesn’t believe that we weren’t dating.” The casualness of their conversation had fooled him into saying too much.
 

Olivia’s expression remained serious and then she cracked. A soft smile appeared on her face. “I never thought about it that way. I guess the whole hand holding thing and you giving me a ride from the airport might have made her think that. I hope your real girlfriend doesn’t get jealous.”
 

Nick shook his head. “I don’t have a girlfriend.”
 

He waited for the look of pity to cross her face. It was the usual reaction from his peers and adults alike. He didn’t have a girlfriend, and he hadn’t had one yet. Some of his friends at school had tried to set him up on dates, but he had other interests, at least up until now.
 

Olivia looked surprised, but only temporarily. “I would have expected you too. Especially after your growth spurt.”
 

Nick tilted his head, not sure of whether it was a joke or not, until she finally cracked another smile. He wanted to veer the topic away from his nonexistent dating life.
 

“What about you? Do you have a boyfriend back in Shepton?” He didn’t know why he was pretending to know she didn’t live in Florida.
 

She crossed her arms over the table. “I don’t live in Shepton. And as for my boyfriend, well we broke up yesterday.”
 

That was news. Maybe not the most positive kind, but to Nick it gave him a renewed sense of hope. This third meeting with Olivia, it might not be random after all.
 

“I’m sorry,” he said, meaning every word.
 

“Don’t be. I broke up with him. We’d been together for too long.”
 

“Why’d you break up with him?” Nick knew he was asking questions he had no right to ask. But the fact she kept on answering them, made him want to dig further.
 

“When I was around him, I didn’t laugh anymore.”
 

“You broke up with him because he couldn’t make you laugh?” Even Nick could hear the judgment in his tone.
 

Olivia seemed amused by the reaction. She gently shook her head. “It got too dramatic. Everything spiked into some sort of fight. So I broke it off. Relationships shouldn’t have to be dramatic.”
 

Nick took a sip of his smoothie. The mango flavor reminded him of the garden his Abuela had taken him to in Mexico. He hadn’t been back in almost five years.
 

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are now boarding flight 437, on route to Shepton, Florida.”
 

The announcement broke the short conversation. This was his flight. Surprisingly, Olivia stood up before he did.
 

“I should go board,” she said. “It was nice to catch up, a little strange, but nice.” She held up the cup. “Thanks for the birthday present.”
 

He didn’t want her to think he was following her, so he broke the news quickly. “I’m on the same flight as you.”
 

She turned back around; her brown hair fell back over her shoulder, as if she were in a commercial.
 

“Really?” she asked, suddenly approaching him.
 

Nick nodded. He dug into his pocket for his boarding pass. Then he held it out to her as evidence.
 

She examined the slip and took a step back. “Look at that. Another flight together. You’re boarding before me, though. I have to wait since I’m flying standby.”
 

The two of them began to walk toward the gate together. Nick couldn’t help but want to grab Olivia’s hand again. It swung at her side, empty and unwelcoming. He didn’t know why he had such strange thoughts around a girl he barely knew, but just walking next to her was unnerving.
 

“Why are you flying standby?” he asked when they reached the gate. A line of passengers had already formed.
 

“My flight got delayed. They were doing some repairs on it.”
 

“Again?”
 

Olivia looked at him, her eyebrows raised. “What do you mean again?”
 

“Last time we flew together, your flight got delayed too.”
 

Her eyes stopped and focused on some invisible point in the air. “Oh. Right. I guess it’s weird huh? It’s still just a coincidence.”

She began to dig through her bag. Nick stood by her, knowing he should go take his spot in line, but not wanting to. What if there were no seats available, and this was the last time he would see her? He still wanted to give her back the keychain.
 

“You should go board,” Olivia said, looking up again. She zipped her bag closed. “I’ll try finding you on the plane.”
 

His heart leaped at the words. “Okay,” he managed.
 

He turned before she could see whatever dazed expression was forming on his face.
 

The line moved quickly. Nick ended up sitting in the very last row of seats. His grandmother had bought the tickets on a discount site, and at the very last minute.
 

Once seated, he waited. People took their seats around him. The one next to him remained empty. Hope began to build. Then an elderly man made his way over to him. He seemed to be counting the rows. His eyes widened when he spotted Nick.
 

“Found it,” the old man said proudly, mostly to himself. He shoved his briefcase into the overhead compartment and took a seat, right next to Nick.
 

Nick felt his hope dissipating. He gave the man a nod hello, before turning away to his small view of the runway.
 

The man began to squirm around in his seat. His arm shoved into Nick’s shoulder a few times.
 

“I need a neck pillow,” the old man said. He shot up and walked into the aisle again. Then he disappeared behind the curtains that separated coach from first class.
 

Nick wondered if they old man would try to have a conversation with him. He didn’t mind, but his preference for most plane rides was silence.
 

The plastic of the window cooled Nick’s cheek as he pressed his face against it. He closed his eyes and waited for his seat partner to return. A few minutes went by, and the old man still didn’t come back.
 

“Is this seat taken?” someone asked.
 

Nick opened his eyes. He wanted to reach out and touch the person in front of him, just to make sure it wasn’t a daydream.
 

“How did you get a seat here?”
 

Olivia took a seat and put her bag on the ground. “I traded with someone.”
 

“How’d you convince him to switch with you?” Nick asked.
 

She shrugged, as she leaned down and rummaged through her bag again. She pulled out a blanket and spread it over her lap, passing a portion of it to him.
 

“The airline hostess helped me. That old guy was stubborn.” She spread the blanket over Nick’s lap. He remained frozen as her hand grazed his legs.
 

He remained silent. Olivia put her bag away, right before a hostess approached them.
 

“Are you and your boyfriend comfortable?” the woman asked.
 

Nick’s eyes widened. He stared down at the crocheted blanket in front of him.
 

Olivia coolly nodded. “Yes. Thank you for letting us sit together.”
 

The hostess waved a hand, “It was no problem. Enjoy your flight. We’ll be passing out snacks after take off.”
 

Olivia nodded again, and then the hostess was gone.
 

Nick felt like he could breath again. He turned to her. “You told them we’re dating?”
 

She gave him a devious grin. “I panicked. I didn’t want to sit next to a stranger.”
 

He felt his hands warm under the blanket. “I’m not a stranger?” he asked. He had meant it as a thought, not an actual question.
 

Olivia leaned in toward him. “No. For the remainder of this flight you’re my boyfriend.”
 

8
 

June 4, 2006

Olivia kept her hands hidden underneath the blanket for the entirety of the takeoff. They were shaking. She hated flying. The panic built up inside of her, hours before, and it lingered on afterward. This takeoff had gone smoothly, and for that she was grateful, but her panic had yet to subside.

Finding Nick again, a part of her believed it had to be more than coincidence. The two of them meeting in the first place, it had never felt finished. Then when she had seen him at Michael’s debate, she’d almost approached him.
 

Nick hadn’t seen her; his debate partner, and probable girlfriend had taken up the majority of his attention. Olivia wondered what would have happened if she had gone up to him that day. He went to San Mateo, the school that was just thirty minutes from hers. After that, she’d always kept an eye out for him at football games, still not quite sure what she was supposed to do if she saw him.
 

There was no escaping it this time, though. He’d seen her first, and she’d lost her chance to run away.
 

“What would you like to drink?” the hostess asked. Olivia shook away her thoughts. She hadn’t even heard the woman approach her.
 

“I’ll have water please,” she said. The woman nodded. She reached into her cart of refreshments and pulled out a bottle. Olivia received it, taking a moment to pull out the tray in front of her.
 

“And for you sir?”
 

Nick turned over. He’d been facing the window for the past twenty minutes. She’d assumed he’d fallen asleep.
 

“Coffee please,” he said.
 

His order took a few extra seconds to fulfill. The woman gave them a smile as she made her way back up the aisle.
 

“You drink coffee. How grown up of you,” Olivia said. She looked down at her hands to assure the shaking had stopped. He opened up his tray as well.
 

“I don’t usually. But I’ve barely had any sleep so I need a dose.” He took a long chug of the blackened beverage. The blanket she’d given him remained on his lap.