Do We Let Go?

3| A New Beginning

This one's for you, @purplefairylightx <3.

For the support you've shown me ever since this book got published. Thank you so much.

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Sometimes, your heart needs more time to accept what your mind already has.

I was dejected for the whole journey. Sitting alone, I had no one to talk to, and weirdly enough, everything seemed to remind me of Travis and it hadn't been even a day that we were apart. I shuddered to think what would become of me after a few days.

The seven-hour flight was torturous because flying through different time zones is another kind of exhausting.

When the passengers were still boarding and I saw a flight take off far away, I wondered if Travis was in it. I felt so silly because his flight was to leave half an hour after mine.

Then, when my flight took off, I remembered how air journeys always scared him.

He had a fear of heights and I would always hold his hand, distract him the whole time so he's less uncomfortable.

Now even if I wanted to take a nap, I couldn't have known he must be scared. I was constantly thinking about how he had to have that journey alone. Without me to hold his hand in support or crack corny jokes to keep him from peeping at the window and nearly faint.

My only relief was that his flight was only an hour-long so he wouldn't have to suffer much. Anyway, the exhaustion helped, so I somehow fell asleep after five hours and then shortly woke up to fasten my seat belt because we were about to land.

After going through the customs, I finally walked out of the terminal at seven in the morning. So then I must've boarded my flight at midnight for American time.

I could see Andrea waiting for me somewhat far away, looking around. I smiled to myself, feeling more cheerful until her eyes set on me and I grinned at her from ear to ear, happiness threatening to burst me.

"Zara!", she exclaimed with glee, and I ran towards her, laughing and hugging her tightly.

Tears of happiness leaked out of my eyes as she started to shake my body here and there whilst hugging me. A thing of hers she only does for people she truly loved. I always felt honored and grateful that I was one of the few who got this special kind of hug.

"I missed you so much!"

"Aw, honey, I missed you too!"

After five minutes or so, we finally let go of each other and walked out of the airport. Andrea was dressed in a blue dress, looking all professional with her hair in a bun and heels clad feet. "You going to work after this?", I asked her.

I opened the door of her car, getting inside the old and second-hand thing that she bought all by herself. It was quite amusing, actually. She used to drive a BMW convertible during college days.

I couldn't be more proud of the way she'd become totally independent and stopped relying on her parents' money. She nodded. "Yeah. Some important things to do today. I figured you will just sleep to get rid of the jet-lag, so why to waste my time?"

"Sure. You're right. I just want food first. Did you cook any lunch?"

She chuckled. "It's not even time for breakfast!"

I rolled my eyes. "It's time for any kind of meal for me. Because of this time difference, the last time I had any meal was...um, more than twelve hours ago. So I'm famished."