Whispered Promises of Love

Anywhere

Addy groaned when she felt her watch buzz on her wrist. An alert of an hour passed, meaning that it was now three in the morning. She turned over yet again and tried to force herself to sleep. It worked as well as it had the last three hours. The previous day's events pushed themselves into her mind. Every little thing. The ache in her chest got deeper every hour. Everything hurts worse at night.

She had just started to drift when a ding coming from her nightstand made her aware that she still wasn't asleep. She resisted it, knowing that no notification would be helpful in her current endeavor. Another ding, this one unmistakably a text message, broke her resolve. Only so many reasons someone would text at this hour, none of them good. She wouldn't be getting to sleep now, but this was probably important. Keeping as much of her body under the duvet as possible, she swiped her phone from the nightstand, shivering as the cold air of the hotel room met her arm. Harsh blue light lit her face, another ding of a text. She hesitated, thumb moving back and forth between her email and messages, a red dot on each. It landed on messages, she figured the texts were the contexts to whatever was in the email and should be read first. All thoughts of sleep left her mind for good as she read and reread the two short messages like a mantra.

_

A tired robotic sounding voice announced a slew of numbers, gates and information over the airport intercom. The last of which was the terrible news that Sage' flight was delayed and would be leaving three hours later than scheduled. Sage gritted her teeth, rubbing the bridge of her nose with her free hand, the other firmly gripped around her suitcase handle. She sank down into the uncomfortable chair and sent out a few messages to the people in Nashville who expected her hours before she'd be there. She briefly worried about the response from a few of them, but all seasoned travelers themselves, even the coldest of the executives, simply offered their condolences, telling her to be safe and get there when she could.

Well, she thought, three hours to burn, off to the nearest coffee shop. A quick internet search resulted in the necessity for a long walk. She very much resented the fact that of all the restaurants within the airport there was only one lousy Starbucks. It was cloudy and chilly outside, just after a morning rainstorm she must have missed from within the airport. A few friendly strangers passed her and one had a fluffy white dog she stopped to pet and overall she enjoyed the twenty minute walk well enough.

The coffee shop was just as delightful as it looked on Google. Cozy, mom and pop, hole-in-the-wall kind of place. After acquiring a warm drink and breakfast bagel, she sat at a corner table with her laptop, content to do nothing of importance for a while. About half an hour had passed, the bagel gone and the drink halfway there, when something caught her attention and her relatively average day took a sharp turn. A laugh. A laugh she'd know anywhere. She spotted the source of the sound at the register, the barista must have said something funny. Sage knew it would be better to just stay in the corner where she wouldn't be seen. She told herself to let it go. She told herself nothing good would come of what she was about to do. But she also thought, as her feet hit the floor and the chair skidded loudly behind her, what are the odds? It had to mean something...right? She had meant to speak first but Addy beat her to it.

"Sage! What on earth are you doing here?" Addy said as she turned from the barista and almost ran into Sage. Addy looked excited. Genuinely happy to see her. Maybe the water under the bridge dried up over the past few years, she thought.

"I could ask you the same!" She said. She hoped her voice and face held the same simple enthusiasm.

"Well I asked you first." Addy said with that same old teasing smile. "Let's catch up, where are you sitting?"

Sage nodded her head towards the little table and they settled in. Addy had her drink and breakfast burrito and Sage was down to the last few sips of her drink, it made it a little awkward. Oh who was she kidding? It was extremely awkward but the food and lack thereof was the least of it. Addy didn't seem to feel awkward, if she did she hid it well. It was almost just like old times. Almost.