Mafia Queen

Chapter Twenty Five

Luca (Dream)

"You've got to be fucking kidding me." I snarled at the girl behind the ticket counter. We had already been delayed for three hours, and now she was telling me that the flight was canceled? I knew it wasn't her fault, but I was one breath away from losing it on this girl.

"Luca, it's fine." Charlotte insisted, putting her hand on the small of my back as a silent signal that I needed to calm down. When she first picked up this annoying habit years ago, it did calm me down. Now, I knew exactly what she was trying to do, and it had lost its effect.

"Not now, baby." I grimaced, keeping my eyes locked on the young, floundering ticket agent. She was completely out of her element here, probably picking this up as a summer job while she was home from college.

Charlotte rolled her eyes and went back to where we were seated in the concourse. I knew she thought I was overreacting, but there was no way we were spending another moment in this airport. We were finally taking a well overdue honeymoon, and I'd be damned if a little rainstorm in the Atlantic stopped us.

"Is there another place we can fly to that flies to London? Maybe Miami? Or DC?" I raked my fingers through my hair.

"I'm sorry, sir. All of our flights are grounded due to the storm. The earliest flight I can get you on is Monday afternoon at three." Monday was two days from now. She gave me a sympathetic smile, as sympathetic as she could be when I'm standing in front of her, complaining about my European vacation been delayed while she stuck in this airport dealing with disgruntled passengers like me.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself, and glanced at her name tag. "Look, Hannah, my wife and I are going on a belated honeymoon. It's been kind of a rough few months for us, and she's really looking forward to it. If we don't fly out until Monday, we'll miss our cruise in Tuscany. You gotta help me out here. I can make it worth your while." I slid a few hundreds across the counter at her.

There was that fake smile again as she slid them back to me. "Mr. Catalano, I wish I could help you, I really do." She didn't. "But we don't have a single flight leaving the airport tonight."

"Private?" I gave it one last ditch effort before losing my mind. By this point, all the eyes in the concourse were focused on me, but I didn't care.

"No flights, sir." Her lips pressed into a right line.

"This is absurd." The level of my voice rose. I'd finally lost my cool. "You've already kept us waiting here for hours and now we're trapped here for god knows how much longer. Do you have any idea how much money I spent on these tickets? My wife and I need to be on that plane and someone better start doing their fucking job and make sure that happens. This is why I never fly commercial, completely unprofessional. Is there a manager around I can speak to?"

"Luca, that's enough." Charlotte sighed, stepping in between me and the ticket agent forcefully. "Thank you so much for your help, ma'am. We'll take the 3 o'clock flight Monday."

"No problem." The woman smiled and began tapping away at her keyboard.

"What are you—" I started.

Charlotte cut me off with a sharp glare. "Not another word."

"Okay," the ticket lady said. "I've got you guys all set for the flight at 3 o'clock on Monday. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

Charlotte smiled sweetly. "No, I think we're all set. Thank you so much."

She started to walk away, and I followed, irritated that she stepped in like that. I felt like a toddler being scolded by my mother. "I was getting somewhere, you know."