Meet Me In The Hallway

Planes, trains and Automobiles

Harry was not going to meet us at the airport. I knew that, was acutely aware of it. It would be beyond stupid for him to come. He would get mobbed. It could cause a scene, and there was no real reason for him to be there.

I hoped though.

I was dead on my feet when I got off that plane. The intervening weeks had seen us on the phone and texting frequently, but I had avoided facetime effectively,Though I'd yawned my way through that last face time with Harry, I had not been able to sleep well that night or the ones that followed. My head had been invaded. Instead of sound sleep, my full imagination put him on a dusty 19040's airstrip in a trench coat and hat. He was made for the 40's.  that jaw line should be comitted to cellulose, it was surely imbedded in my brain. I cast myself as his Lauren Bacall, beautifully crying as we said our goodbyes. The scene my dreams conjured was gorgeous, but I hoped it was not prescient. I did not want my relationship, friendship, my whatever, with Harry, to be rife with goodbyes. How little did I know then.

I was tired, and I wanted a bed. But I wanted a bed with Harry in it. That was unlikely to happen, it was 2 in the afternoon and I was fairly certain that there would be something he was supposed to be doing.

It was a long slog to the hotel, with my brother and the boy's complaining enough to get me to do their bidding. They had this habit, or maybe it was my habit they had picked up on, of running from their whining and doing the onerous task they were complaining about. I knew as soon as I got to the hotel, I would be the one standing at the desk, getting keys and hotel room numbers while they all slumped over the couches in the lobby moaning.

I was trying to overcome my own jet lag and not lay my head down on the stand the very perky blonde hostess was standing behind.

"You guys are with the rest of your party. The whole floor is reserved for you," she smiled at me and my brain was so cloudy that I asked a question I would normally not ask, for a variety of reasons.

"Which room is Harry in?" Slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it, and I could see the headlines now. I was internally berating myself and bit my lip hard. If only I had done that before I opened my big mouth. The desk girl, Holly, smiled at me conspiratorially and leaned over the desk.

"He's actually right across the hall from one of your rooms," she extended a key card towards me with a brow arched high. "This one."

"Thanks," I'm sure my voice shook, either from nerves or embarrassment. The two emotions were duking it out in my head and I was now hoping I could stay awake long enough to outlast my brother and knock on Harry's door. He was always just across the hallway. That was too far.

I walked back across the crisp white lobby, everything was pristine and mostly colorless, a collection of ecru and beige and bleached fabrics and woods with the odd moment of color. Bursts of bright cantaloupe and deep pinks. It felt like my life over the last two months. Long days, that should have been exciting, but dragged like my feet on the way to whatever activity we were engaged in, punctuated by odd moments of life and interest. Those moments always coincided with a chime on my phone with a pseudonym for its sender.

"Cmon boys," I walked over and picked up my backpack and thanked the lord above that larger suitcases always found their way upstairs for us and I didn't have to lug them. I'm sure the lazy asses I shepherded would goad me into that job too. I watched them all pull themselves up and gave a moments amusement to the different ways they moved. Some popped up oddly, first by shoulder of knee, like marionettes being controlled by someone else's fingers, others lurched, walking dead extras trying to make it to the object of their hunger, in this case, a soft bed and rest. Only myself and my brother seemed to be half or more awake. He moved past me swiftly and his sprightly stride made me think sneaking off to see harry was unlikely to happen soon. Why was he so excited?