“Shit,” he hisses, then he looks up at me, recognition hitting him. “It’s fine. We can figure this out.”
“I won’t make it to Newark in time for my flight.”
“So, you can reschedule it. It’s not a big deal, Hudson. We can totally figure this out.” He holds up his own phone. “My flight was delayed anyway, so I have time to help you.”
“Trey—”
“It’s fine, Huds. Really. Come on. We’ve got this.”
I follow after him with no idea where he’s going, until he reaches the line for the rental cars.
“Just rent a car and drive over to Newark. It’s no big deal. You don’t have work tomorrow, right?”
“No, but I… I, uh, planned to be home at a certain time, and—”
“You have a cat or something?”
“No, I just… never mind.”
I go through the process of renting a car in a fog. I couldn’t tell you what kind it is or how much it was. After the car is rented, we go to the benches to sit.
“Just breathe, Huds. You got the car. Hard part is over.”
“I need to reschedule my flight,” I say, but make no move to do so.
“Let me help you.”
He holds his hand out for my phone, and I give it to him. I’m panicking silently. I can’t focus. I can’t do this.
“I need an aisle seat,” I say.
He does whatever he needs to do on my phone to get to the flights. He navigates through it like it’s his phone, and he knows where everything is.
“There is a flight leaving at 6:17 tonight. Plenty of time to get there. Want me to book it?”
“Please.” I lean forward, putting my head between my knees to breathe.
This isn’t that serious. I’m going to get home later, but it’s not the end of the world. It’s still the same day, just a few hours difference. Totally fine. No big deal, just like Trey said. It’ll get handled. I’ll figure it out.
“Here, all set.” He offers me my phone, and I shove it into my pocket.
“I can’t believe I did this.”
“Mistakes happen, Huds.”
“But this is a huge mistake. I just don’t understand how I messed this up so badly.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself.”
I sigh, leaning back in the seat.
“When does your flight leave?” I ask.
“They added an hour to it. It’ll likely get delayed again, though. I feel like that’s what happens… if it gets delayed once, it’ll get delayed again.”
“That sucks.”
“Eh… I’m used to it.” He gets to his feet. “Well, you should probably go, yeah? It’s a bit of a drive, and who knows if there will be traffic.”
