Delayed (9 page)

And as if reading his mind she spoke. “About the kiss…”
 

He stood up straighter. “Yeah?”
 

She finally looked at him. “I was out of line. And the flight attendant was standing right there, so I wanted to keep the whole fake relationship show going. It didn’t mean anything.”
 

The last part of her statement sounded more like a question. What was he supposed to say? Could he disagree and say that it had. It meant something. Even if it had been a kiss with a practical stranger.
 

“Yeah. No, I know. It was just a kiss.”
My first kiss
he wanted to add but didn’t.
 

“Oh. I see my suitcase,” Olivia said. She ran toward the belt. He followed her automatically, like a lost little puppy.
 

He helped her pull her suitcase out, even though she held on to one side of it. His suitcase appeared right behind hers. She helped him drag it onto the floor. They worked with the grace of a two-person team.
 

When all had settled, she stared at him once again. “Thank you. For everything, I mean. The birthday gift, the movie date, and for spilling your coffee on me.”
 

“I didn’t mean to,” Nick said in his own defense.
 

Olivia gave him an entertained smile. “I know. But either way, you made the flight bearable, so thank you.” She paused and turned to look behind her. “I should get going. My mom’s probably waiting for me.”
 

“Oh. Yeah. I, I should go too,” he said.
 

She took a step back, but then took two steps toward him. Without warning, catching him off guard yet again, she wrapped her arms around his torso. Grant it, not as tightly as she had done on the plane, but the embrace felt even more intimate than the kiss had. She released him before he had a chance to return the hug.
 

“It was good seeing you Nick,” Olivia said one last time. “Have a fun trip. Tell Mimi I said hi.”
 

And with that, before he could say something remotely similar, she was gone. Nick stood alone now, his thoughts not quite settled on what to do next. He remained that way for a while, staring idly into the distance, hoping that for whatever reason, she might have turned back.
 

He was jarred out of his daze when the conveyor belt stopped moving, and he realized everyone from the flight was gone.
 

Nick wondered. Would it be strange if he tried to find her? Maybe she has a phone number or an email. Something within him propelled him forward. And he tried to follow the path that Olivia might have taken. Two sets of escalators later he stood in the crowded pick up area. His eyes scanned the crowd, over and over again, hoping, but knowing. She was gone. He’d waited too long, again. The universe had provided him with a perfect opportunity and he hadn’t sought it.
 

Nick wanted to run, like in the movies, where the romantic lead would yell out the girl’s name, despairing over his lost love. Then the crowd would part, and she would be right at the end of the mass of people. And she would run to him, and his arms would be wide open.
 

Except that real life wasn’t like the movies. Olivia wasn’t his lost love and the two of them were probably never going to see each other again. He just wanted to talk to her. Just one more time, and give her back the silly keychain.
 

His phone rang. Nick was shaken out of his odd daydream once again.
 

“Hello?”
 

“Nick. We’re outside the airport. Did you land yet?” his grandma Joan asked. Her voice sounded distant. She had a habit of holding her cell phone away from her face, after having read an article that said cell phones gave off radiation that could lead to brain cancer.
 

“Yeah. I’m walking outside. Where are you guys?”
 

He passed through the automatic doors, taking one last look around, hoping he would see Olivia.
 

The summer breeze filtered in through the pores on his skin. He didn’t think it was possible to feel warmer than he already did.
 

“We’re right in front of you Nicolas,” his grandmother said. The line went dead.
 

His grandparents’ white minivan was parked in a corner of the pickup lane. His Grandpa Felix got out and opened the door for Grandma Joan. The two of them ran over, leaving Mimi to open her own door.
 

Nick watched as his sister climbed out of the back seat. She’d come by a week earlier, right after her summer break had started. She had graduated elementary school and gotten out before him.
 

She ran over to him first, wrapping her arms around his neck, and climbing him like a tree monkey. He toppled back a few steps, catching her so she didn’t fall.
 

“God Mimi. What’d you eat?”
 

She jumped down and gave him a push. “I didn’t eat anything. You’re just too skinny.”
 

Their grandparents approached them. “How was the flight?” Grandpa Felix asked. He patted Nick on the back, in a very non-emotional sort of way.
 

At the question, Nick felt himself tensing. He couldn’t tell them the truth, but his cheeks were already flushing. He had never been good at lying, least of all to his family.

“There was a lot of turbulence,” he finally managed.
 

His grandma reached out and gave him a light hug, it was nothing like the suffocating embraces his Abuela gave, but it was just as loving.
 

“I told you those tickets were too cheap,” she said turning to her husband. “We’re upgrading your return flight.”
 

They all helped him load his suitcase into the trunk, and Mimi shoved him into the backseat. Their grandparents went back to the argument of the flight’s quality.
 

“I saw her,” Mimi whispered.
 

“Who?” Nick asked.
 

“Your girlfriend. Olive.”
 

“Olivia. Her name’s Olivia,” he corrected, falling right into his sister’s trap.
 

“So she is your girlfriend.”
 

“No. She isn’t,” he said, more defensive than before.
 

“She was on your flight, wasn’t she? That’s why you blushed.”
 

“I didn’t blush. It’s the hot weather.”
 

Mimi leaned in, her dark eyes reflected his face. She blinked once. “You’re not good at lying Nick. Besides what’s wrong with liking her? Olive’s pretty.”
 

“Olivia.”
 

“So you admit she’s pretty,” Mimi asked, baiting him yet again.

“That’s not what I said,” Nick said. He could feel his frustration growing. Sometimes he missed the old quiet Mimi, but then he remembered how far she’d come.
 

She turned all her sadness into a strange bout of early teen sass geared mostly at him. He didn’t mind it though; it was the better of two options.
 

“Yes. She’s pretty. Yes she was on my flight. We’re not dating. We talked because she remembered me. And she sends her regards.”
 

“That was easy,” Mimi said. “You could of just started with that.”
 

Nick pressed a hand against the window. “No more questions for the rest of the ride.”
 

“Tell her I say hi too. Next time you see her,” his sister said.
 

“I won’t see her again,” Nick said. That much he was sure about.
 

“You will,” Mimi said, with a strange amount of certainty. “You still have to give her back her keychain.”
 

10

December 25, 2006

They hadn’t had time to find wrapping paper, and so for that Christmas, Olivia and her mom made a more practical choice: newspaper. There was already an abundance of it. Her mom worked as an editor for the local newspaper, and got stacks of it on a weekly basis.
 

“Can I guess what it is?” her mom asked, holding a square box that Olivia had carefully adorned with the comic section. She’d tried making a theme of it, matching each present with some familiar image on the outside, but she’d grown wary of it. The only present that matched the wrapping, were the oven mitts that her mom had already unwrapped.
 

“Okay. Guess,” she said. Her mom was a terrible guesser.
 

Her mom shook the box, twice, and a third time for dramatic effect. “Is sounds like jewelry. Did you spend money on some fancy necklace? You know I always end up losing…”
 

Olivia smiled. “Try again. Or just open it already.”
 

Her mom chose the first option. “Um. Hm. Is it a gift card?”
 

“Yes. It’s a gift card.” Olivia paused. “Just open it.”
 

“Okay. Fine. I give up.”
 

It took a second for her mom to rip through the newspaper. The box opened to reveal the gift that she had been planning for the better part of the year. Olivia had worked two part time jobs during the summer, and another during the first half of the school year. She’d saved all of it, and a few thousand more from her savings, for this one present.

Her mom dropped the box, letting its contents hit the floor. “You didn’t.”
 

Olivia picked the box up again, placing the papers into her mom’s hands.
 

“Liv. How did you afford this?” she asked, holding a hand to her mouth. There were tears already forming in her eyes.
 

“That doesn’t matter,” Olivia said. “But you like it right? There’s still a bit of paperwork left to do, but everything else is sorted out. It should be enough for your first issue.”
 

Her mom was crying now. “How? How did you manage this?” She got up from her spot next to the tree and wrapped her arms around her daughter. The tears lasted for a while, but not as much as they once had. Happy tears were shorter than sad ones.
 

“The printing center is open year round. And the offices are available on a month-by-month basis. You just have to contact the landlord and let him know when you need them. You have three months of rent covered.” Olivia pointed to another spot on the document. “Also I didn’t know what you wanted to name it, or what kind of magazine you wanted to write, so that’s all still up to you.”
 

This was it; her mom’s life long dream, of owning her own magazine was finally in her hands.
 

“I can’t accept this,” her mom said. She still had eyes glued to the pages on pages of documents. “Liv. This is the best present you could have possibly given me,” she said.
 

“You can’t return it,” Olivia warned.
 

“I won’t. I mean, you know this is still a risk, there’s not guarantee it will be successful…”
 

“We all deserve one chance, mom,” she said. “I don’t care if you fail at this, which I know you won’t. But I just want you to try. You were looking for a job in Glensford anyways; this might be what you need.”
 

Her mom began to cry again. Olivia knew what the tears meant. They represented the pain their dad had put her through, the past three years of hopelessness, and barely making ends meet. She’d watch her mom give up everything, her home, friends, and family, so she could fly halfway across the country for one of the few places willing to hire an editor that hadn’t worked in the better part of a decade.
 

The two of them spent an hour going over the small details of the paperwork. Her mom decided she would fly out to Glensford the following summer, and spend three months coming up with an issue for her magazine. She said she needed the first half of the year to brainstorm. She would also have to find freelance writers, designers, and maybe a few willing college students to help put the issue together.
 

“It won’t be easy. I’m going to have to use all my vacation time, and spend the summer traveling between Shepton and Glensford,”

Olivia hadn’t thought about that. She’d assumed her mom would just quit her job and move back to Glensford. They’d be able to spend the entire year together, instead of only vacation times.
 

“You’ll be able to do it, mom. I know you will,” Olivia said. She gave her mom a reassuring nudge and the two of them went back to opening the rest of the presents.
 

“None of what I bought you, will even come close to what you got me,” her mom warned, handing her one last box. “But I think you’ll like this.”
 

Olivia smiled. She’d already liked all her presents: a new camera, two phone cases, gift cards, and a giant stack of magazine subscriptions. “Can I guess?” she teased.
 

“Just open it,” her mom said.
 

She obeyed and tore through the newspaper. It wasn’t a box but a thick envelope. She tore through that as well.
 

Olivia wondered what it could be. She pulled out a brochure and a few sheets of paper.
London International Theater Program,
the words were familiar. She’d mentioned the program once, only once. That had been back in middle school too, when she’d taken acting more seriously.
 

“I guess we’ll both be taking chances this summer,” her mom said. Olivia wanted to cry. The cost of the flight to London was more than she knew her mom could afford. Three months in Europe had other costs, ones she didn’t even want to think about.
 

“It looks like we’ve both been saving,” she managed. She didn’t let herself cry though, not in front of her mom. Instead she reached over and the two of them hugged again. “Thanks mom. I love it.”
 

Her mom smiled, wrinkles lightly creased her cheeks. “You’re going to make an amazing actress one day. This is just the start.”