The Heartbreak Factor - Part Four

Chapter Fifty-Six.

Neatly folding the dresses that I had chosen as potential outfits for the performance, I placed it on the top of my suitcase before attempting to close it without catching any of the dresses’ material in the zipper. Once I managed to successfully close the suitcase, I lifted it up off the bed and placed it beside the door into the hallway. Now was time for a nice relaxing bath before catching an early night in preparation for our 8am flight to New York in the morning. The thought of having to wake up at half three in the morning was making my stomach churn. 

As I walked into the bathroom, feeling a little bit of the stress dropping off my shoulders at the thought of a hot bubble bath with some easy listening music playing in the background, I soon realised my make-up bag was still sprawled all over the bathroom counter. Groaning to myself, I grabbed all the contents and shoved them into the make-up bag, hiding the thing I was wanting to hide the most at the bottom. Zipping it up as fast as I could, I rushed back into the bedroom to see George picking up my suitcase. 

“What are you doing with that?” I growled. 

“Sorry, I thought I’d help and put it in the car for you so you didn’t have to do it in the morning.”

“I haven’t finished yet.”

“Sammy, why are you snapping?” George asked. “I’m only trying to help. I thought with you zipping it up and putting it by the door that that meant it was finished with but obviously the conventional meaning for us isn't the same as yours.”

“Can you give it back to me?” I asked. 

Baffled, George handed the suitcase back to me and I flung it onto the bed, unzipping it in a rage. 

“Why are you being like this, Sammy?” George questioned suspiciously. “You didn’t have to say yes if you didn’t think you’d be okay to do it. I thought you said it would be an honour, not a burden.”  

“I’m fine. I just wish people would stop questioning my motives,” I snapped.  

“See, there we go again. Stop snapping at me. I’m here to help,” he defended. “Can you please just cut this shit and tell me if you’re okay and mean it?” 

“I’m okay,” I said, trying to put on a calm front as I shoved my make-up bag into the bottom of my suitcase. “It’s just nerves.”

“Okay. But you know you’ll do fine so there’s no need to take it out on everybody else,” George smiled, rubbing my shoulder in a sympathetic manner. 

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” he replied.

But it wasn’t. It wasn’t okay. It was far from okay. 

*

Pulling the suitcase through the terminal at Heathrow airport, I searched frantically through all the other travellers for mum, Michael and Jack who should have been here by now. I hadn’t heard from mum in the past half hour since I got a text from her saying they were just parking the car in the airport parking but I just presumed that that was because they were trying to get all the luggage out of the car or they were making their way into the airport. I grabbed my phone from my bag and flicked through the notifications but there was nothing from mum and there was nothing from Michael. 

“If they’re not here in the next ten minutes, we’ll have to go without them,” I said to George, who was trying to keep a grouchy Katy amused with playing her favourite TV shows on his iPad. 

“Would you chill out?” George asked. “They’ll be here. We’ve got plenty of time. Everything will be okay, okay?” 

“Okay,” I reluctantly nodded. 

I glanced back at my suitcase that was following behind me but I quickly shook it off. 

“Sammy!” a voice called from behind me. 

Looking back around, I saw Michael waving at me, followed by mum and Jack. Jack seemed to be growing bigger and bigger every time I saw him. It wouldn’t be too long before he overtook the Eiffel Tower in height since he was getting that tall - slight exaggeration maybe but a few years and he would definitely be towering over me. 

“There you are,” I smiled, giving all three of them a hug in turn. 

“Sammy!” Jack beamed. 

“Alright, trouble. Hope you’re up to babysitting on the flight,” I teased as Jack held onto me tightly. 

“Yeah!” he grinned. 

“Good. Katy could do with some entertainment from her big cousin,” I smiled. 

“Are you okay?” mum asked, looking at me with a serious look on her face. “You look a little pale and a bit flushed.”

“I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?”

I nodded. “Yeah. Probably just nerves,” I lied.

“Okay,” mum smiled. “So have you three checked in yet? Michael checked us in online.” 

I groaned as I realised I was supposed to check us in online last night but completely forgot. It was the last thing on my mind. “I completely forgot,” I confessed. 

George gave me a look. “Are you sure you’re okay, Sammy?” he asked. “You look like you’re gonna throw up.”

“I’m fine,” I snapped. “I just wish people would stop asking if I’m okay. I’m okay, okay? Can we just drop it?”

“Fine,” George said, retreating from his stand, looking at me in confusion. 

Even Michael and mum were looking at me in confusion. All three of them weren’t convinced though. I couldn’t be dealing with it though so I made my way towards the checking in desk, followed by my suitcase and then my husband and daughter. 

The last thing I wanted to be doing right now was fighting my way through the incompetent holidaymakers from other airlines who had their suitcases dotted all over the place, making my walk to the Virgin Atlantic check in desk an absolute impossibility. I really didn’t want to be doing this. I guess it was my own stupid fault though for not remembering to check us in the night before. I had nobody else to blame but myself - but I was blaming everyone and anyone regardless.