the Wedding Date

Chapter One

She was sitting on the floor cross-legged with tears coming down her face, in the middle of a packing frenzy. Her maid of honor's dress is hanging on the back of the door.

Daenerys buries her head in her lap, when the doorbell rings. She quickly gets up as if she was just in a deja vue, looking around the room in disbelief. "How did this happen? Why am I sitting on the floor?" she mumbles to herself.

The doorbell rings again. "Hold on, please," she states while quickly going to a mirror and giving herself a glance. She wipes her face and inhales, trying to regain some calm and composure.  The messenger that she had requested for earlier, is at the door. The messenger  looks up as the door swings open and almost hits him.

Daenerys is a changed woman.  Nothing like the woman that was on the floor sobbing in a disarray moments before. "I'm so sorry. I wasn't quite ready for you." She keeps the door open with her foot as she slides a plane ticket into an envelope, seals it, and hands it to him.

"Miss, you said this was a rush.  I can't rush anything anywhere if you don't give it to me," he says.

She looks down at the envelope, she's still is holding onto it. "It's a plane ticket."

"So it is," the messenger says.

"For a date .. I mean for my date. To my sister's wedding. It's in London ... and .. he's never met my family,"

She clings onto the envelope as if her life depends on it, while the messenger is trying to grab it from her.

"You need to let it go,"

"Ok .. ok ..  you're going to have to help me."

The messenger gently tugs the envelope out of her hands.  She then smiles at him and says, "thank you."

Once the door is closed, she glances at the clock suddenly realizing - she's against time and the car service will be there soon. She goes into her closet which is neatly organized and perfectly labeled; pulls out drawer that has three dividers, looks at the one marked 'TRAVEL' and grabs the pre-packed toiletry kit. She then grabs her passport, luggage, and heads out.

Arriving at the airport, she makes her way inside and glances at the long line towards the x-ray machines at security. She maneuvers through long line of crowds flashing her 'Airport Employee Badge' making her way to the customer service hub of Virgin Atlantic Airlines. She quickly logs into one of the computers to check any last emails. One of her colleagues, Irri, approaches her as she's typing on the computer.

"I'm off duty. I do not exist. Don't even look at me, I'm not here," Daenerys states without even looking up at her.

Irri smirks and answers, "You are here Dany, because you are talking to me .. just a quick help please."

Dany remains silent to which Irri took that as a positive note and begins firing away.

"I've got a tour group from Tahiti. They are trapped in customs, a dead schnauzer in Cargo parked at T9, and a lost grandfather staggering around customs in International asking for his mommy and his bottle.  And on line two, I have a woman who was stuck with her in-laws for a week because we couldn't get her out of Chicago. The in-laws are not speaking to her anymore and she's upset.

"Irri, as much as I would like to help you. I'm sorry, I can't. My sister is getting married this weekend, I haven't seen my family in two years, and my flight is going to depart in about ten minutes."

Irri gives her a pouted look. Dany exhales completely defeated, "Fine, I'll handle the woman on line two."

While on the phone, Thorne, one of the quality control managers, makes his way over and overhears bits of Dany's conversation on the phone.