Your Lying Eyes

Your Lying Eyes Chapter 30

t was very late when Howard came in.  Anna lay in bed wide awake in the darkened room, her eyes wide, listening to him as he undressed and then got into bed, staying on the very edge of it, making sure that they didn't come into contact with each other.  Soon she could hear his breathing, even and regular, telling her that he had fallen asleep.  She started to cry again, this time until she fell asleep too.

The next morning she woke with a fuzzy headache and feeling sick.  Howard was still asleep at the side of her, not having moved during the night.

She got out of bed carefully, trying not to disturb him.  Going to the bathroom, she showered and dressed, dashing downstairs as she realised the time.  She was in the middle of eating when he appeared in the kitchen, bleary eyed and scowling at her.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" he asked her as he poured himself a drink.

"You were in late and I thought that you'd prefer to sleep a bit longer. I'd have come to wake you before I went if you hadn't got up," she told him quietly.  She watched him as he drank his drink, putting his cup into the sink after he had finished it.

"So, don't suppose you've changed your mind about coming with me?" he asked her quietly, not looking at her properly.

"I'd love to come with you, you know that.  But I just can't How, please understand that.  These exams are important to me.  I've been working hard all these months so I could sit them and pass well."

"Apparently," he muttered quietly.  "That's a pity really."  He let out a big sigh.  "So if you've decided then, I suppose this is goodbye until Sunday afternoon."

"Yes.  I'm sorry How," she told him, coming to hug him.  He moved away from her, picking up his car keys from the rack.

"Right so I'll see you Sunday afternoon," he told her coldly, going towards the door.  "Got to go and see Gary about something," he said as he left the room, leaving her unable to finish eating.  Once again tears were pouring down her face as she heard the door slam behind him.

She was useless at uni that morning, her mind else where all the time.  Over and over in her mind the scenes from last night and this morning were repeated, like on a continual loop from a video.  By dinnertime, she had missed taking notes on most to the morning's lectures, her pages half empty with parts of sentences and half copied diagrams.

She was glad to escape from the lectures and made her way to a quiet corner of the café at dinnertime.  A couple of times, she tried to ring him to talk but all she got was voicemail.  She sent a couple of texts to him and received no reply.  By the time, the break mid afternoon came around she decided that she would go as soon as lectures finished, pack a case,  and meet him at the airport.  She had to go home first for her passport.

As soon as the lectures finished, she dashed to the car park and drove home as fast as she could.  Calling out to Chloe, she told her of her plan to go to Dublin with Howard.  She ran upstairs and packed an overnight bag with the bare minimum that she needed.  Grabbing her passport she came back downstairs and out to the car.  Looking at her watch, she gasped when she saw the time.  She just had half an hour to get there.

She got to the airport with ten minutes to spare and dashed to the book in desk, hoping that her ticket would still be available.

"I'm sorry Mrs Donald, but that ticket was released for sale.  The flight is fully booked now.  All flights until Sunday are full too.  There have been problems at Liverpool airport and passengers have transferred their flights here.  I'm sorry."

Anna walked miserably to the window overlooking the runway.  Howard's plane was boarding and she could see the passengers making their way over the tarmac to the plane.  As she watched, he came into view, looking back over his shoulder to the airport building.  She raised her hand to wave to him, but he didn't see her.  The passengers got on and soon it was taxiing down the runway and taking off on it's way to Dublin.  She turned around and left the terminal, getting into her car and going home.