Until You

Chapter 2 ~ My Darling

Chapter 2

"That last ride was my undoing! Can you believe I threw up?" Ava asked incredulously and they were all laughing at the memory. She wanted to do that last ride at Disneyland Paris before leaving for Switzerland. The rest of them were apprehensive to go. You knew what they said. If there was no queue, the ride was most probably the scariest. Of course, that was what they were there for. But they had just eaten and were supposed to go pick up their luggage for the train station.  

"One last ride," she pleaded so off they went. Then all hell broke loose. They had to wait for her to finish retching in the toilet and they almost missed their train to Zurich. At that time, they were all stressed out and were torn between nursing their friend back to health and missing their train. But now that they were going back to their respective homes after two weeks of travelling around Europe, they could all laugh about it.

"Her walk was just like that!" Audrey exclaimed pointing outside of the coffee shop. There was a toddler walking outside the door with the mother trailing behind. His walk was comparable to that of a drunk. "Like Ava's walk after the ride," quipped Grace and they all giggled at the thought.

"Well, it's time to go," Scarlett said while looking at her watch. They all finished the last of their coffee and stood up to leave. As they passed the door, Elizabeth had a weird feeling that they were being watched. She looked around and found nothing suspicious so she just brushed it off.

After two weeks of nonstop travelling with only four to five hours of sleep each night, they were dead meat. They slumped on their chosen seats inside their boarding gate and continued talking in hushed tones. But they were already winding down. She suspected they would all be sleeping the moment they boarded.

She glanced at her friends who were looking tired but happy. They have been friends since they were teenagers. She first met Scarlett, Grace, and Audrey on their first day in college. Ava was a transferee in their second year. Their relationship was solid. Three years after graduating from college, Scarlett married Oscar and they couldn't be any happier. Now, they have some needed muscle to carry their luggage when they travel as a group.

Suddenly she felt she was being watched again. She looked around the boarding area but everyone was either sleeping or on their phones. Nobody was watching her. She was getting paranoid and tired. She leaned her head back in her seat and closed her eyes.

Unlike her friends who would have the weekend to rest and recuperate, she would only be dropping her bags home and hopefully get forty winks before packing again for a weekend trip to New York City. She will be going to NYC for her quarterly meet-up with Mr. Henry Williams. He was her professor at the university. He was impressed by her intelligence and dedication to her studies. And to ensure that she would finish college, he offered to pay for her tuition and other school fees as a loan. It would save her from the ridiculous student loan interest so she had agreed. Their agreement was for her to pay him back once she started working. But when she began paying him, he returned the payment to her and asked only that she come to see him at least once every quarter. Prior to her moving to another state, she came every weekend for dinner.

She loved the old man. He was turning 60 and she hadn't seen any family member every time she came to visit him at his house even during her university days. She hadn't pried but Henry had confided to her one day that he lost his daughter and wife in a drowning incident. He was just in his 30s at that time but he chose to not remarry. His only family left were his younger brother and his family. She never met any of them. She saw how painful it was for him to share so she made sure to stir their conversation away from anything that had something to do with family.