“You know that with all the stops it takes a while, right? We looked it up.” She bites the inside of her cheek—her signal that she doesn’t want to tell me something. “It’s, like, twenty-four hours.”
“What?” I yell and turn toward Rowan, sitting in the row behind and over from me. “It’s twenty-four hours to get home?”
“We’re gonna take this until morning, then get to an airport to fly the rest of the way,” he says, all casual as if he was planning it all along.
Eloise is giggling.
“What are you laughing at, Lulu?” I ask, sinking back into my seat. “God, I miss you.”
The girl beside me—who looks as though she’s maybe eighteen at most—glances at me, the phone, and back at me. Then she puts in her AirPods and turns to look out the window.
“I miss you too, but you’re on your way home to me.”
“That I am.” It’s a good feeling knowing I’m getting closer to her with every mile. “Tell me what the doctor said.”
“We can talk when you get home. I’m tired and you’re tired.”
I can’t help but think she might be keeping something from me. “Okay, but?—”
“Conor, you’re probably exhausted. Try to get some sleep so you’re ready when you get into bed with me.” She gives me a small smile.
“All right. I will. Text me when you’re home and all locked up. I won’t bother you while we make our way there unless something happens. That way, you can be all rested for when I spoon you.”
The teenage girl glares at me with a look of disgust.
“It’s my wife,” I say to her.
Her facial expression doesn’t change.
“Who are you talking to?” Eloise asks.
“My seatmate.” I turn the phone toward the girl, whose eyebrows scrunch. “I don’t think she likes me very much.”
Eloise waves to the girl before she turns toward the window. “I don’t think your Conor Nielson charm is going to work on her.”
“I only need it to work on you.” I grin at her.
The girl scoots away from me as if there’s any room to do so.
“It won me over, remember? And just think—you can cross taking a bus ride off your list now.” She laughs.
“Except it was supposed to be with you. Remember I was going to… you know what in the backseat…”
The girl next to me gags. I guess she’s not listening to anything on her AirPods.
“Okay, this one doesn’t count then,” Eloise says. “Now, go sleep. I love you.”
“Love you so much,” I say.
“I know. See you in the morning sometime.”
We say goodbye, and I take out my AirPods for the time being, resting my head back and shutting my eyes. It’s hard to calm my body when I feel so antsy to get back to her.
“Oh, this is good,” Tweetie mumbles.
I glance over to see him eating out of a plastic food container. The woman in the seat beside him, probably in her fifties, smiles like a mom feeding her child as he digs into the favorite meal she’s made for him.
I put in my AirPods and turn on my favorite chill playlist, hoping that if I fall asleep, it will feel that much faster until I’m with Eloise again.
