Chapter 2
Logan
When given the chance,I didn't travel much. Work kept me busy enough that I didn't have the opportunity, and even when I did, I usually turned it down. I didn't do conferences that were too far away unless I didn't have a choice, and I didn't visit people who took more than a car ride to get to. Not that I had a lot of people to visit anyway.
Traveling was such a pain in the ass. Airports were a crowded nightmare, packed to the brim with dim witted people who couldn't read signs or understand common sense. They lingered in the middle of walkways, clustered in bathrooms, clogged the lines to get through TSA and customs, and generally made the already fucking awful experience ten times worse than it needed to be.
When Dan and Britt had suggested the trip, I should have just said no. I could have claimed I had to work, and it wouldn't have been a lie. There was never a shortage of work to do.
I could have said I was sick. I could have said anything. Dan would have persisted because he was like that, but his wife would have gotten him off my ass eventually, and I could have been at home, enjoying a nice glass of whiskey on the couch instead of jammed into a line that seemed to have no fucking end.
And that wasn't even the worst of it. It took forever to get through customs, so I ended up having to rush to get to my gate, even though I'd left my house in plenty of time to avoid having to do that.
But people were always an unknown factor, and there was no accounting for what they would do.
So I was running for the gate, having to weave my way between gawking tourists and stupid locals, giving up on using the words 'excuse me' and just pushing my way past, even though a voice in the back of my head insisted that missing my flight might be a blessing in disguise.
But I didn't want to deal with the headache, so I hustled and made it with a few minutes to spare.
I'd hoped the plane ride would at least be something of a balm to my shattered nerves, but that was a dumb thing to think.
It was cramped and crowded and hot, and someone behind me had the whiniest child I'd ever heard. When I turned my head to see what the commotion was, there was a four or five year-old boy standing on the seat yelling, while his father or whoever had on large headphones, clearly ignoring him.
Great. Good. Awesome.
Someone across the aisle had what smelled like tuna salad open in a Tupperware and was eating it with a spoon, and I could already feel a headache coming on. We hadn't even taken off yet.
With any luck, I'd be able to sleep for most of the flight, but I wasn't going to hold my breath. Luck wasn't exactly something I had a lot of these days.
It had been a rough few months, and I was feeling the toll of it. I knew that was why my friends had insisted I drop everything and come to Greece, of all places, with them, to try and get my mind off of things, but at the moment, the trip was more of a hindrance than a help.
The bratty kid got wrestled into a seat and strapped in at a word from the flight attendant, even though his dad looked cranky at having to actually parent and the kid looked like he was on the verge of a tantrum.
I dug my noise canceling headphones out of my bag as quickly as I could to try and block out the noise I knew was going to come.
I wasn't wrong.
I was never wrong.
The kid screamed and kicked and threw a fit for most of the flight, only falling asleep during the last hour. The kid's dad didn't make any friends, and most of the passengers around them spent the whole time glaring and muttering about his lack of parenting skill while he sat there with his headphones on.
I pulled my laptop out at one point to check some emails, only to have the person next to me spill their ginger ale half in my lap, sending some splashing onto the keyboard.
Luckily, it wasn't damaged, and I spent a good hour grinding my teeth about the insincere way the woman had apologized, like she couldn't care less that her idiocy could have ruined an expensive piece of technology.
Sleeping was out of the question, and by the time the pilot announced that we were beginning our descent, I was in a foul mood. Overtired, worn out, and feeling cramped from sitting in the same spot for so long.
I also had to piss like a mother fucker.
The first breath of air off the plane was amazing, and I had to admit, the parts of the country I could see out the windows of the airport were beautiful. The sun was shining, and it looked warm and bright.
Maybe once I'd had a nap and wasn't surrounded by people I would feel better, but there was still a long car ride and then a ferry to go before I could get to the house Dan and Britt had rented.
By the time I got out to the little island where the beach house was, my mood was even worse. The car ride had been hot and cramped, and the ferry was late. All I wanted was to lay down and not have to look at another human being for at least three hours, but of course, that wasn't going to happen.
Dan and Britt and the rest of them were all gathered on the porch when the car finally dropped me off at the house, and they all started cheering as soon as I got out, dragging my bags like they weighed a hundred pounds each.
I just stood there while they got it out of their system.
