When he walks through the drop-off gates, he looks back and gives me a wave, a smile on the edge of his lips. A hot flash grabs me by the throat and my stomach fills with sparks. I rub my hands through my hair to quell the sobbing feeling that is bubbling up inside me.
As soon as he’s out of sight, I run to the nearest trashcan and wretch inside.
“What’s going on with you, Jane? Are you pregnant?” Julia asks, standing next to me.
“No. I’m not. I’m on birth control.” Birth control and I’ve never had sex with Dex without a condom. I’m just sick to my stomach that my Happy for Now just got put on hold. Why is Julia still standing next to me? Why isn’t she going through security to get to her plane? She looks down at all her luggage and gives me a pair of puppy dog eyes. “Can you help me bring this all in?”
“Just wave for one of the carts,” I say as I climb back into the car and wipe my mouth. She just watched me vomit and she still asks me to help her? No way in hell—after lugging all her bags down from her apartment while her boyfriend slept in, and then having those same bags shoved in between the last few minutes of me being next to Dex—am I going to help her through airport security with all her crap.
Nope, I’m not having it.
I close the car door and wave at her and her open gaped mouth from inside the car. “You can drive away now. Thank you,” I say to the driver.
I lean back into the seat as my eyes well with tears. At least the hard part is over with. It wasn’t the romantic goodbye I was hoping for, though, we barely spoke to each other. I rub my chest to ease the ache that’s throbbing there.
My phone pings in my pocket.
I fumble like a moron for it, excited to see what Dex wrote.
But it’s not Dex. It’s Gail.
Gail the Tyrant Talbert: Had a brilliant idea for an ongoing piece while you’re away.
Gail the Tyrant Talbert: Surprised you nerds didn’t think of it.
Jane: Sigh. What?
Gail the Tyrant Talbert: I want every detail of your trip and your new long-distance relationship.
Jane: What?!
Gail the Tyrant Talbert: You and Vanstone. I want all the gory details. Social Media posts. Live feed. I want it all.
Gail the Tyrant Talbert: Start with an article about the goodbye. Did you fuck in the car on the way to the airport? Make it dirty. Sex sells.
Gail the Tyrant Talbert: Did the driver watch?
Jane: I don’t want to write any of that.
Gail the Tyrant Talbert: I thought you liked your job atUPCLOSE?
When I get hometo pack my own suitcase, I throw up more.
And I still have the taste of vomit in my mouth when I walk off the plane in London. Alone and writing all about it.
Chapter 3
I’m sitting in my hotel room staring at the blank screen on my computer. Gail has messaged me a dozen times about my first meeting with Simply Sinister and my column, hacking it in a long-distance relationship. Unfortunately, I’m at a loss for words in both articles. The band keeps standing me up on every appointment we schedule, and the only text I received from Dex was a quick,I just landed. I’ll call when I get the chance, when he got to California, and that was over twenty-four hours ago.
So far long-distance is a horrible bitch that needs to get punched in the face and thrown off the top of a building. They say one of the most important aspects of a long-distance relationship is communication. And by they, I mean the bartenders downstairs in the lounge where I proceeded to drink myself stupid after the second time Damian Miles and his band of merry misfits stood me up. The bartenders have become my new best friends, and I truly believe they know what they’re talking about, relationship-wise. Especially in those adorable accents they have, but the whole communication thing doesn’t help me when the person I need to communicate with isn’t communicating back to me.
I look down at my phone again.
There’s another text from Gail.
Gail the Tyrant Talbert: How much am I paying for that room? You’ve ghosted on social media. START WORKING.
Jane: Simply Sinister cancelled our lunch meeting AND dinner meeting yesterday! Not my fault.
