My L490 - Part 1

Chapter 10 - The Arrival

As the announcement came that we were about to land I started feeling nervous, I had hardly slept, my eyes felt heavy, I had just taken my seat and fastened my seat belt. I had just come back from rinsing my face, trying to stay awake, I knew who was waiting at the arrivals for me and I started smiling to myself, I really wanted to see those eyes, but did they want to see me? We hadn't seen each other since the night I walked away.

I felt the jolt as the plane touched the ground and slowly the plane navigated the runway, pulling up to the arrivals gate, I looked out the window and there it was, LAX, my heart started racing, and my mind was running through scenarios, but nothing could prepare me for what was waiting for me as I would walk through the doors, that I knew for sure. You know what I mean, running through in your mind what you would say, what he would say, what you would then reply. Every scenario different to the last, changing your 'script' making sure things were perfect, but no matter how many times you practise it, you never know what's going to happen and it never happens how your mind played it out.

As we disembarked the air stewardess greeted with a warm smile, I felt the sun on my face as I stepped off the plane and I was excited, here I was, the City Of Angels, finally! As we walked through the doors to claim our luggage, I switched on my mobile, I had 12 messages, wow, I would have to look at them later, as much as I wanted to read them all now, I knew most would be from my sister, Olivia, or Liv as I call her, she knows I would have landed and would want to know what's happening, how the flight was, was I nervous, the usual questions.

I remember the conversation we had via text message about my job offer and meeting the boys, I had never laughed so much, she was intrigued by Jay, she couldn't get enough answers about him, every time I would tell her something, she would follow up with another question, she wanted every detail from the way he's hands looked to the way he's eyes sparkled, I would just giggle at her because I thought it was the sweetest thing. I tried to describe as much about him to her as I could, even the way held his pen, to the way he drank his tea. We spent months talking about moving to LA, the excitement and the nerves, what we would do, where we would go, who we would meet, and now, here I am! All that's left is for her to get herself here. That is the next plan! We need to get her to LA, one way or another.

As I stood at the luggage claim and looked out for my two suitcases I grabbed my phone and scrolled through the names, 11 messages from Liv, as I figured, but the other message was a voice message notification. I dialled the number and pressed 1 to retrieve the message, and as I stood in the airport arrivals, watching my suitcase pass me on the turnstile, my body froze, tingled and then the familiar fire burned, his voice on my phone "Hey, James and I will see you at the arrivals in an hour". Beep! I wanted to replay it, over and over again, but my suitcase was on it's way around again, I quickly pressed 5 to save the message and hung up, I pulled my first suitcase off and placed it on my luggage trolley, as I turned back, my second suitcase came around, I pulled it off as well and managed to lug it onto the trolley, now to find my way out of here.

As I walked through customs, which was not as scary as I thought it would be, the doors to the arrivals area opened and as the people in front of me dispersed to their families and friends waiting on the other side, I saw him, straight ahead of me, I actually wanted to run up and jump into his arms, you know the scene in most movies when the girl does that, but I didn't, he was wearing a black tee with the numbers 1970 written on it, there was a guy next to him I guessed was James, my stomach knotted as I got closer to him and I felt the fire start, as I got to them James held out his hand and introduced himself "Hey Charley, nice to meet you I am James, I work at The Den". I smiled and shook his hand "Nice to meet you James" I looked over at the caramel eyes and saw a twinkle in them that wasn't there the night I gave his sunglasses back, "Hey" and with that he turned and started making his way towards the door.

I looked over to James and he smiled, "Just ignore him, everyone does when he's in his mood, normally it's because he hasn't had enough coffee, haha" and with that he took my trolley and pushed it towards the door and we made our way to the parking lot. As we got to the car, I saw it was a black jeep, the windows were blacked out as well, and he stood leaning against the pillar smoking his electronic cigarette, and I immediately had a flashback to the night after the show, the night Em gave me the goodie bag. He had his sunglasses on so I couldn't see his eyes, maybe it's better that way. James lugged my suitcases into the trunk and opened the back door for me, and then got into the passenger seat himself, he turned and whispered to me "I don't drive his car, ever!"

A few seconds later he got in, started the car and switched on the iPod, I recognised the song immediately, Dark Horse by Katy Perry, as he pulled off, he turned it up, no talking then, I thought, as I said, a man of many words. As we drove through LA towards my new home, I mouthed the lyrics, "... make me your Aphrodite, make me your one and only..." I looked directly into the rearview mirror at that second, big mistake, he glanced up at the same time, I think he had been watching me the whole time. Our eyes met for a split second, and my heart raced, and I felt a fire burn deep inside me, I felt the flutter in my stomach, I was sure they could hear my heartbeat over the volume of the music. I saw a smirk, the smirk, I looked away quickly and I knew that he knew the affect he had on me and for some strange reason, I think he enjoyed it. 

I looked down at my hands and they were trembling. How on earth was I meant to get through this? How do I work with someone my body refuses to stop trembling for? Someone who has my heart racing a million times a second?