"The flight lands in two hours."
"Marie, I know you've been swamped with work lately. Plan your time properly. Don't make me wait at the airport."
"You know how precious my time is."
His messages popped up one after another while I was wrapping up the last of my handover at the office.
Hilary Chavez, who had always looked out for me, shook my hand with red-rimmed eyes.
"Marie, congratulations on the promotion. I know it means transferring to Southport, but every one of us is going to miss you so much."
"Wishing you nothing but the best ahead!"
My coworkers crowded around too, saying their goodbyes or pressing little gifts into my hands.
Then someone asked, out of nowhere.
"Marie, weren't you getting married in the second half of the year?"
"With this sudden transfer to Southport, is your boyfriend going with you?"
I lowered my head and gave a small smile. "He doesn't know. And there's no need for him to know anymore."
My coworkers insisted on dragging me out to a farewell dinner, a proper send-off.
At the table, my phone buzzed again and again. Every call was from Victor.
I glanced at the time. Eight thirty-nine in the evening.
Victor had probably already landed. All those calls were just him hounding me to come pick him up.
I ignored it, switched the phone to silent, and turned it face down on the table.
Over at the airport, rain came down hard outside. Victor stood among a crowd of people craning their necks, his face dark.
Kathleen pouted as she spoke.
"Victor, I remember Marie always used to drive over to pick you up, no matter what. That's strange. Why didn't she come this time?"
"And she's so late that you've gotten all wet."
"She isn't still angry about what happened last time, is she?"
"Marie's being so petty. Does dating her really mean you can't even be around another woman?"
Kathleen pursed her lips and said it like she'd been wronged, but her tone sounded more like someone happy to stir the pot.
"Enough. Stop talking."
Victor's expression was grim. He looked down and opened our chat for the ninth time.
"Marie? What are you doing? Why aren't you answering?"
"Are you busy?"
"Or sleeping at home?"
"Say something. Reply when you see this."
"…"
Just then, someone beside him suddenly cried out: "Marie's here!"
Victor's head snapped up. "Where is she?"
The man scratched his head and waved his phone. "I just saw Marie's update on my feed. Look, Victor."
He held the post out for him to see.
It was a photo I'd posted five minutes earlier, with the airport in the background.
The caption read: "Someone who loves you will never let you down. And the same goes the other way."
Victor studied it for a few seconds, then smiled, satisfied.
"See, I knew it. There's no way Marie wouldn't come for me."
"Every single time my flight lands, she comes to get me herself."
"This time's no different."
But he didn't know.
This time I wasn't at the airport to pick him up.
I was there to leave.
After Victor and his group had waited two hours with no sign of me, Kathleen grew more and more restless.
"Is this for real? Is Marie even coming to get you or not?"
"If not, let's just grab a cab and go. I really can't take it anymore, I'm dead tired."
But Victor kept his eyes locked on the exit.
"No. Marie will come. She has to."
Yet even as he said it, his heart was unsteady, his fingers trembling slightly.
He thought back to the last time they'd seen each other.
The way Marie had looked at him then, so cold, so final. And something inside him began to waver.
Would she… really come?
It was then that one of his companions finally noticed something off.
"Dr. Sanchez, look. That photo of the flight in Marie's post, it doesn't look like ours. It looks more like she's boarding…"
