Escaping to Ireland

Liam

I walked out after I had finished eating lunch, it was hard most days not to invite her to eat with me, but I knew when she was ready for anything more, she would tell me. Part of me wanted to grab her and proclaim to everyone that walked by that she was with me, but I was behaving.

She was just getting off of her cell phone, and my jealous streak snapped in me. "Just go home, Vinessa. I cannot stand this sad scene of the breakup you have going on with your boyfriend. It is killing me."

And on the word killing, Vinessa burst out into tears. I had only seen her cry one other time. I walked around to her and made her stand up so I could hold her. "Vinessa... What is it?"

She took a minute to take a few deep breaths in. "Susan..." I remember her friend Susan was the roommate who wrote to her saying she should not run away. "She just called" Vinessa was sobbing still that it was too hard to understand the rest of it.  I brought her into my office and shut the door. I had her sit on the couch and waited till the sobs subsided.

"Cole... He's dead." And then she burst into more tears.

Cole was her best friend from her last place of employment. He was the one who was on the elevator when Shawn and Vinessa met. The one who was mad when Vinessa decided to come back home to Ireland and the one who wanted to throw her a party. I sat on the couch another hour, holding her. When the crying stopped, I stood and got her a cup of water. I had a feeling she could be going into shock. Eventually, she told me it was a hit and run, he was just leaving the gym, and no one knows who ran him over.

"I just can't believe it," she said, holding onto a tissue.

Since no one was at Vinessa's desk, I had no clue that my mother had arrived. She knocked and then opened the door. She looked at Vinessa sitting on the couch and me holding her.

"Oh, for heaven's sake," my mother said, standing in front of us. "This is why you shouldn't have been in a relationship with him. This is what my son does, and then all of you act surprised when he ends it on you. When will you all learn?"

"Mother," I snapped at her. Vinessa had shifted away from me. "You need to leave now."

She laughed in front of me, and all I could think about was what Vinessa must be going through. "I will not," she said, staying put.

"We are not dating. Vinessa is my assistant, she has just had tragic news of a close friend passing away. And I need you to leave so I can book a flight for Vinessa to go home to his funeral."

Vinessa looked up "you would do that for me?"

If she was not in despair, I would have laughed and told her how I would do anything for her.

"Yes," I said, brushing a tear from underneath her eye.

"Oh, Liam," she said, and she burst into another round of tears.

I grabbed her again and started to hold her; it did not matter if my mother was standing there watching, and I did not care that my office door was open.

All I cared about was that Vinessa knew she was not alone.

I never wanted her to feel alone.

When I clicked purchased for Vinessa's plane tickets, my stomach flipped, thinking about whether Vinessa stayed in America.

What if this time the only thing to run from was me? And this was her only chance to do it.

Since Wanda's car was still not fixed, I had the brilliant excuse of giving her a ride to the airport. She only had a carry-on packed, and that made my nerves calm down a tad. There was no way I wanted this to be the last time I saw Vinessa. But just in case it was, I did not want to waste any opportunity.

Before she could go through security, I grabbed her.

"What is it?" she asked me, her face looking tired but yet beautiful.

"Just this," I said, bringing her in close and sharing a passionate kiss with her; this time, her hand did not connect with my face when my lips landed on hers.

This time she stood on her tiptoes and embraced me as much as I embraced her.

"Liam..."

I held my hands up. "Just in case you decide to dash out on Ireland again."

And on me.

She shook her head with a small smile as she walked away and got in line.

A few places up, I saw Shawn staring at me, I had no clue he was in the line, but part of me was glad that her cheating ex-boyfriend saw that kiss. But part of me hated the fact that they would be on the same plane ride. Twelve hours gave people a long time to connect with one another. I would know.

Vinessa looked back at me as she kept going through the line, the first smile since she had heard the news about Cole popping up on her face.

"Just so you know, that plane ticket is a round trip, not a one-way," I said to her, letting her know that I wanted her to come back, no matter what.

I was tempted to buy a ticket myself and board the plane with her; I could imagine many worse ways to spend twelve hours.