Inferno

epilogue

eight months later

"The flight to London, set to departure at 2:10 is facing a delay and will now fly at 3:00. We request the passengers to comply and wait by their boarding lodges until further announcements." Haven't heard that in a while.

Going for another cup of flavourless latte at the kiosk, I go back to my seat and find my socials bursting. Mom, Boss, Janine, Naina, Harvey and others who're left to bear with my utter laziness and poor texting skills that haven't improved a bit.

The only thing that's remained the same in all these months. Barring that department, it's been a ride; a deal with Keya, marketing tours, endless hours sitting with editors and chief editors, and now another promotion thingie in London where the book is releasing tomorrow. Of course I've got some early samples and the reviews of friends and family have been nonetheless interesting, more than my writing in fact. Harvey almost cried just reading the title and then shamelessly slept through a few pages in the middle. He got a earful over that, but I know he's the only one who's gone through every emotion penned and that he's proud.

We've been good, other than the one time that we hooked up six months ago and got the tension aside once and for all. It was clumsy, weird and had 'this is a one time thing' written all over, for the sake of our friendship and the fact that bad sex very much does exist. I should know, because apparently casual is my thing now. A different date for Dad's retirement party, another for Naina's engagement, and a fan of my book for the preview party at Keya's head office. It's a foreign territory, but something I've been handling well, owing to my virtue of not giving a flying fuck anymore. Okay, so not there as of yet, but I have loosened up quite a bit, thanks to a certain someone who told me 'you never know what might happen.' So why bother worrying.

"Excuse me, can I have this seat?" A lady with a baby in hand and another in stroller requests, and so I transfer to the row ahead, to the single unoccupied seat at the left end, as welcoming as a crowded airport gets on weekends. Settling down, just as I'm pulling my air pods out I hear someone humming the most off key rendition of we don't talk anymore I've ever heard and probably ever will. Compelled to look now, there's no warning before that I'd turn bereft of any air in my lungs, flushed and in utter shock, nearly resembling as though in comatose when I'll turn to my side. It's him. It's him, right?

If I hadn't attracted much attention yet with my incessant staring, I do now with a hiccup erupting out of me, and a squeaky exhale later. "My god. If it isn't Leia Callahan," my doubts are proven true with that signature Chase Cameron smirk.

"Chase? Wow, I... I almost didn't recognise you," I say, having the perfect excuse to marvel at his beard, the rugged hair and yellow tinted aviators on top.

"I assume that's in a good way," he says, adjusting the sleeves of his shirt, the least bit conscious and a hundred and ten percent full of himself. Now that I recognise. "But you look the same. Just as beautiful, breath taking, ravishing."

Wow. "Um... thanks I guess," I find myself blushing after a decade it seems, mouth dry and all the fancy words stuck in throat.

"I read your book, life on the rocks... you should never stop writing, it'll be a crime on humanity the day you're done producing any more books," he's over the top, yes, but the genuineness of his eyes doesn't fail to get me; my weakness then and even now apparently.

"All thanks to you. If you hadn't left that card, I might have never—"

"You would have. I just gave a nudge, the passion was all you," leaning just a bit, he reminds me of why I've been pursuing mindless flings all this while. That's what you do after having lost the real deal. "It's been long, huh."

"It has," I say, receding as reality sets one of it's foot inside. "How've you been?"

"I've been all over the continent. One city to another, it's been mad and... the best time of my life honestly. Never been happier," a grin on his face says it all, my heart swelling merely at the cheer in his voice.

"I guess your dream did come true after all, and looks like corporates aren't all that bad."

"What corporate?" He chuckles. "I quit that hell long time back, the best thing I ever did."

"And then?"

"Then I took the job of a tour guide. It's as if I'm on a life long vacation, so perfection itself and it has been there round the corner all that while, I just took a good amount of time seeing it. Between all the things I'd gone through back then, I didn't realise it was travelling, going to places that was keeping me stable to a degree,"

"But you did," I nod, feeling a sense of euphoria engulf me, an emotion I've acquired over time and am certainly getting addicted to. "I'm glad it all worked out for you."

"Yeah, enough about that, you're heading to London I assume?"

"Well, I've got this book promotion thing over there the coming weekend."

"Amazing," he quips, a look on his face coming alive that's evidence of his mind running unabashed and still capable of making my heart turbulent in turn. "Maybe we'll run into each other."

"A little too optimistic, don't you think?" Chin tipped, I see his sly grin and raise him an askew smirk.

"Maybe, but fate's dicey and I'm stubborn, so this is a losing bet you're playing on," he mumbles, aviators down, flashing a wink.

"I'll happily take my chances then."