“Roe,” Ezra called, snapping my attention back to him. “Hang up the phone and go get your man.”
I huffed out a laugh, realizing that I couldn’t find my phone because I’d been talking on it, and said, “Talk to you later. And Ezra? Thanks.”
“Anytime, mate.”
I ran to the lift and punched the button, my heart racing as I waited for the doors to open. I had my ride share app open and a car ordered before I hit the ground floor, and it was there a few minutes later. I slid into the front seat of the Tesla and groaned when I saw the dark red lines on most of the streets around us on the navigation screen.
I skipped the niceties and went straight to the only question I needed an answer to. “How long to the airport?”
“Sorry, man, there’s been an accident. We’re going to have to take the long way and it’s a fifty-minute trip.”
Shit, that wasn’t enough of a buffer. “I’ll give you an extra fifty dollars if you get me there in thirty.”
“Let’s see what we can do,” the driver, an older man with a keen eye and a bad combover, said with a smirk.
We took the circuitous route, heading around the outskirts of the city.
The minutes ticked by, the clock on the screen of the Tesla ticking higher with every intersection we sped through.
Signs whipped by us—the botanic gardens, Victoria Park, and King William Road—the same street the hotel was on. “Have you just done a giant loop?” I asked, frantically looking over my shoulder for a view of the city.
“We have, but the roads in the central business district are gridlocked. So I went around it. We either sit in there for forty minutes, then do the ten-minute trip to the airport, or we go around. It’s longer but quicker.”
Fuck. My. Life. I just wanted to get to the airport. Alec’s phone was off. I’d tried calling and messaging him, but I didn’t even have confirmation that my text had been delivered.
He turned onto the ANZAC Highway. I held on as he dodged between cars like he was on a racetrack. In and out, from one lane to the next, he flew down the road.
My heart was in my throat the whole ride. With every kilometre we travelled, I willed there to be a delay in takeoff, a problem with one of their passports, bad weather...
Anything to keep him here.
I should have told them. I should have confessed what I’d been feeling days ago. I never should have left Cara’s room that morning. Regret slammed into me, and I rubbed my chest, hissing at the sharp stab of pain.
Alec and Cara were my second chance. They were the light I hadn’t wanted to admit was missing from my life. They were who I’d been waiting for.
And I’d nearly ruined my chances.
I needed my head read. How could I have been so stupid?
“We’re about ten minutes away,” my driver warned.
“Okay, great. Good.” I exhaled and wiped my sweaty palms down my jeans. “Fuck,” I mumbled and balled my fists.
“We’ll get you there.” He met my gaze in the rearview mirror and flicked on his indicator, darting between two trucks and flooring it up the inside to get in front of a slower car. “So why the rush trip?”
“I fucked up,” I admitted, bluntly. “I met someone, and I nearly let them go without telling them—” I paused. No, I didn’t want to do this. If I was going to claim Alec, I wanted everything. “Him. I nearly lethimleave without telling him that I want more.”
“So you’re doing the grand ‘I love you’ at the airport. That’s so romantic.” As far as coming out was concerned, it was definitely a gentle one. “You’d better have a speech prepared. Something that shows him he’s the only one for you.”
I huffed out a laugh. “I’m just winging it.” Then I smiled and added, “Actually, I’m going with honesty.”
We turned right, and the sign for the airport was like a weight being lifted off my shoulders. I finally took a proper breath when he followed the sign for the private terminal, and my heart settled into a less than frantic rhythm when he stopped the car.
We’d managed the trip in forty minutes.
He waved me off when I dropped the fifty into the cup holder, but I insisted, “Forty minutes is close enough. Thank you.”
“Good luck,” he yelled as I stumbled out of the barely stopped vehicle and slammed the door.
