Re-Arranged

Chapter Fifteen

Out of forty voicemails, twenty-seven were panicked calls from her workplace. Other thirteen were a mix of her parents, Al and Lyn, with Al winning the cap for leaving not just the highest number amongst family and friends, but also the loudest overall.

Kelly had to shoot off messages to everyone that they had safely reached airport, had checked in and were waiting to board. She wondered why they did not just call Darian to check for the status of their flight! Once they were dealt with, she listened one by one to all the workplace messages again before sending in a message to her boss and to Jenna, who had been temporarily overlooking things while she was on leave, that she would be back in the office first thing tomorrow.

She could go over the mails in the flight anyway.

But she did not.

"Are you planning to sleep right away?" asked her husband as he buckled his seatbelt and checked on hers too.

"Well, I was going to check my e-mail, but I don't feel like it anymore. This is a golden opportunity to take a long break from the phone." Kelly grinned and put the device into her jacket pocket.

"Good. Honestly, we haven't had a moment to ourselves in a long, long time. This really might be it for another long, long while!"

"Yep, listen to your man."

Kelly and Darian nearly shrieked at the sudden interruption. It was the woman seated next to Kelly who had spoken and she was not done yet.

"Once the kids come in, you'll never get a moment to yourself. And when you do, it'll just lead to another kid. And then another. And another... until you convince yourself –" – she made a face and changed her voice – "yeah, my kids are my life, they're what define me."

She shook her head and continued the prattle in her crisp, severe voice. "In your heart, you know that's not true. But what can you do? The kids are here already, right? And you love them. They drive you insane, so you wait for them to start college. But the cursed part is that once they do go away, you miss them. You know why? Because you're left alone with a stranger! That's right, your kids become a link between you two and once they leave, the gaps are way too clear to ignore! And honestly, after so many years, who even stays the same, right? It is like discovering a faintly familiar face in a total stranger!"

She turned then to look Kelly in the eyes and said, "So yeah, listen to your man."

"Um... thanks?" Kelly murmured before turning back to Darian with wide eyes. One look at his expression and she knew the same thought was running through his head too.

What on earth just happened?!

Soon as the flight left the ground thousands of kilometres behind, the strange woman asked for a blanket and drifted off to sleep soon as she wrapped it around her, pulling her legs onto the seat and under her.

"She looks positively exhausted," Kelly whispered to Darian as he handed her a blanket and began to unfurl his.

"Yeah. She reminds me of Lyn a little bit."

"Thank goodness you said that! I was wondering if you'd be offended if I said it!"

Darian chuckled. "Anyway, now that we're both comfortably warm, what do you want to talk about?"

Kelly thought for a moment and brightened up. "Oh, movies! It's been ages since we last went to watch one in a theatre!"

"Kel, with your schedule, we can watch movies in theatres only if they allow us to watch it in 15-minute segments spread out over multiple days!"