The shuttle dropped us off right at the revolving front door. We stepped out with a few other middle-of-the-night-passengers and entered the super-cooled interior. I let out a shiver that racked my entire body and blinked at the unending counters of airlines and their ticket counters.
I spun around dramatically and waved my hand like Vanna White. “Do you have an airline preference?”
The corner of his mouth kicked up into a half-smile. “Let’s check the boards and get the closest flight, yeah?”
“Just as long as it’s first class.” His smile disappeared and his expressive eyebrows shot to his forehead. “Just kidding,” I smiled.
“Sure you are.”
We wandered over to the board. Since this was a touch of déjà vu for me, I pointed at what I’d taken before. The airline happened to be flying out again in a couple of hours, and I knew it could, eventually, after many layovers and flight changes, get us to Tortola.
“That’s the one,” I told him, pointing at the board. “We’ll be there by six pm tonight.”
Ryder let out a long sigh. “Let’s go buy some tickets then.”
“It’s a good thing I have a job waiting for me. Two tickets are seriously going to deplete my savings. Turns out running away to paradise is not cheap.”
“I got it,” he mumbled.
“You got what?”
“The tickets. I can pay for them.”
“You can what?”
“Pay for them, Red. I have the money.”
“Ryder, I cannot ask you to pay for anything. I’m the reason we’re running away. You keep your money and save it for when we get there.”
“We’re not arguing about money,” he stated firmly. “I’m taking care of it. End of story.”
“Weren’t you supposed to go to college on that money? This feels wrong.”
He shook his head and his wild hair flipped over his forehead. “Itis. I can’t have a future if Nix catches up to us and kills me, now can I?”
“Well, when you put it like that…”
He grinned down at me, “Just say, thank you.”
“Thank you.”
He slid his arm around my shoulder and walked me to the Delta counter. A bleary-eyed middle aged man stood slumped against the counter, but managed to greet us with a smile.
We pulled out our passports and IDs and handed them over while Ryder doled out our flight instructions. The clerk’s back straightened immediately and his tired eyes shot awake when he realized we were buying last minute tickets out of the country.
“Are you going for business or pleasure?” he asked in a conversational tone.
I didn’t like the gleam in his eye, so I flipped my hair over my shoulder and turned on some charm. “Pleasure,” I murmured. “We’ve decided to see the world before school starts in the fall and we have to get down to business.”
“Well, you’ve picked an ideal spot to start,” he said. Some of the suspicion drained from his expression, replaced with awe for me, or rather, my curse. “You’re headed for paradise.”
I smiled at him, flashing him rows of white teeth and perfect lips. “That’s what we’re hoping for. We need paradise. Right, Honey?”
Ryder rolled his eyes at my drama, but mumbled a semi-enthusiastic, “Right.”
The clerk frowned at the computer and tapped so quickly his fingers seemed to blur over the keyboard. He looked up nervously at us and then back at the screen before his frown deepened and his fingers moved faster.
“I’m sorry,” he told us. “It will just be a minute longer.”
