A Flight's Desire

Chapter 15: One More Day

Robin and Ben were silent the entire way to the airport while they endeavoured to look around the city of Amsterdam, perhaps for the last time in their lives if they never got another fortunate moment to visit the beautiful city again. They promised themselves that they would but the first visit comes only once, right? Once they reached the airport, he removed the trench coat and handed it to her. When she was going to argue, he said, "It's only fair."

One thing about Ben that Robin learnt that night was that he loved kids, because a teenage boy approached him very respectfully and requested for a photograph with him, which Robin took without any questions. Before they reached the waiting lounge, he came across a photo of himself on a banner and took a selfie there. "Need something to put on Instagram. Perks of being a celebrity," he said, sarcastically.

The banner was about a commercial that Ben had done to promote a newly launched perfume by one of the best brands to exist. "That is a good photoshoot," she said, trying to make small talk. They could talk to each other for an hour straight once they settled on a topic but it took some time to find the next topic. Until then, they tried to make small talk.

"I had fun. I remember how much of a fuss my stylist Rosalie made with my hair."

"Well, I don't blame her." Robin laughed. "Is it very hard?" She asked him as they continued walking. "The constant stares and everything?"

"I think you get used to it at one point. It isn't very bad but yeah," he sighed. "Sometimes staying away from it is for the best. I wanted to thank you, Robin. Because today has been the best day of my life. I haven't had to worry about things and this hasn't happened in a really long time and-"

"We are friends." She bumped his left arm with her right. "No 'sorry' and no 'thank you'. But I want to thank you as well. I don't think I would have had this much fun alone."

"Anytime, partner." He put his fist forward and she bumped it.

They boarded their flight without any trouble and Robin grew restless to win the bet. Ben could see how confident she was but it had been sunny the entire day. "There is still one more day." He pointed out when a sense of sadness filled both of their hearts.

"Do you choose London?" She asked him, strapping her seatbelt together.

"Definitely!"

"Oh wait!" She slapped her forehead softly as a realisation crept upon her. "I will be meeting my friend in London!" She said as she remembered Paige's confirmation about informing Mila Anne about the detour at Amsterdam.

"Oh." His voice became low quickly and Robin had heard it though he tried to hide it.

"Would you like to meet her? She is a huge fan like myself and she would be on Cloud 9 if she met you." It was only a suggestion and she was half-accepting him to reject it, but his reply surprised her.

"Would she be okay with it? I mean, are you okay with it?" Right at that moment with perfect timing, the windows in the plane started to haze out as water started to pour down from the heavens. Ben turned to look at her wide-eyed. "How-"

"I won!" She squealed silently without disturbing the other travellers.

"But, how?"

She shook her head. "Top secret." She put a finger to her lips. "You need to audition for Caleb now," said Robin, folding her arms across her chest. "And yes, I will be more of a friend than a fan for sure and yes, I'm sure she will be okay with it. I hope she doesn't faint or try to kill me."

The plane was going to rest at the Heathrow airport for one day, being a connecting flight. The passengers who got off at London were not as surprised about the rain as the other passengers were, who complained about the sudden rain. No one could trust the weather in London. "We need to find someplace to stay then." The passengers had talked amongst themselves.

Ben and Robin checked their bags out and started walking towards the exit. "So who is your friend?" Ben asked her.

"Her name is Mila Anne. She's my oldest and closest friend. We met each other on Wattpad about fifteen years ago."

"Fifteen? Woah!"

"Yeah," she smirked. "And this is the first time we are going to be meeting each other in person. We decided to put aside our fears of something unfortunate happening when I told her about going home for a while."

"Are you though? Scared?"

"Not with my lad in distress with me."

Ben broke out laughing. "And how long do you think it is going to rain, Miss Hale?"

"Um....." She searched for her gut feeling. "It's going to stop soon."

Ben opened his luggage and pulled out a thick coat that he usually used to disguise himself during times of need. "See? I'm not always unprepared." The coat was inside the bag that he didn't take as hand baggage because nobody was expecting the detour.

The two of them called for a taxi. They thanked the driver for having had the heater turned on once they got inside. Ben waited for Robin to give him the address and wasn't surprised when he found it at McDonald's. "It is our favourite restaurant. We used to have video calls with our meals so that it felt like we were together. I know, it sounds silly, but we love it," she said. "Pun unintended."

Before Ben could ask his next question, his phone buzzed with notifications. "One sec," he said as he opened his phone to reply to the frenzy messages from Karen.

"I'll inform my family as well." Robin pulled her phone out as well.

Ben wanted to ask Karen for advice because she was the one who helped him deal with the pros and cons of fame. She had supported ever since his first audition and always boosted his support when he didn't get a part.

"OMG BEN LIKES SOMEONE!" She texted.

"We have become good friends in a short time."

"Who is she?"

He almost typed the name but he knew that she would make it a bigger story than it really was, so he wrote a very vague detail about his journey.

"I'll tell you everything later."

Karen started to type something that took a long time and he knew to expect a long paragraph about how he should be himself and not pretend to be someone that he wasn't. She was going to encourage him to pursue what he wanted, but he closed his phone when the cab slowed down when they reached their destination.

He looked at her staring out of the window. She was biting her inner lip and her hands were fiddling with the loose threads of her coat. "Hey," she looked at him. "Shall we?"

She smiled at his attempt to divert her attention from her worries. "We shall."