Where You Are

Halifax

Birgitta

I'd had to try very careful to watch my speed the entire drive to Halifax. I was a jittery, anxious ball of nerves, like a newborn going through cocaine withdrawal. I kept looking at the flight tracker app even though I was driving to see where Jesse was. I really didn't want to get there after he'd already landed.

According to the app, he was still forty minutes away and I was just taking the exit for the airport from the highway. I breathed a sigh of relief, I'd made it. It was hard to predict how much road construction would be happening and how long they would be stopping people for. It was still early spring, so there weren't too many tourists out yet, but that always made the drive longer, too.

Jesse and I texted every day and video chatted at least twice per week since the night we met in Toronto. Exactly one week after I'd returned home from London, Jesse had told me he'd managed to get a few rotations on the London-Halifax route and asked what my work schedule was for the next few weeks. I wasn't entirely sure if it was crazy or not, but we'd found a cluster of days off together only two weeks from the day he'd enquired.

I parked my little car and got out, my legs shaking. I took a moment to lean up against my car and take a few deep breaths.

I really liked Jesse. Like, really liked him. I couldn't remember ever feeling like this about a man after only a few weeks. But with him, it had practically been instant.

Part of me wondered if the initial attraction had only been because the first time I saw him was in the middle of the night after travelling all the way across the Atlantic. I found I always had a hard time with coming home after a good trip. How much of it had been just my emotions running away with me? I couldn't deny that a secret fantasy of mine was to end up with someone foreign and live in a different country. Plus, the United Kingdom had always had a special place in my heart. But I didn't want to use that as a reason to make Jesse into someone he wasn't.

I'd hardly slept last night because I was so nervous to see him again. That was probably only making matters worse.

After the tingling left my fingers and I managed to get my breathing under control, I took another deep breath and walked towards the terminal.

I'd agonized over what I should wear for days. I'd never picked up anyone apart from my sister at the airport. I didn't want to look like a mess like the last time I'd seen him, but I didn't want to make it look like I'd put in a lot of extra effort either, scared to look too desperate. I shopped mostly at second-hand stores, so I didn't have much nice clothing to being with.

In the end, I decided on tight jeans, ankle-high leather boots with just a little bit of a heel and a plain t-shirt with one of my favourite jackets on top. Something I would normally wear under different circumstances.

I pulled out my phone as I walked and checked the flight tracker again. I wasn't exactly sure how accurate it was and sometimes I ended up tracking the wrong flights. But it seemed like seconds after every time the app said he'd landed, he contacted me somehow, letting me know that he was on the ground again.

According to the app, he was now only ten minutes away. I looked up at the sky in the direction it said the plane was in and thought I could see it, small and silver headed in this direction.

Immediately, my heart started to race again. I took a few more deep breaths and then carried on towards the terminal.

I wasn't sure what his habits were when it came to disembarking. I was usually one of the last few people off the plane, and he'd looked to be just hanging out until everyone else was off when we flew into Toronto.