A Flight's Desire

Chapter 21: His Journey

Ben was on the quickest train out of Los Angeles. Once he cut the phone call with Karen, he told his parents that he needed to leave for New York immediately. "She needs me. She sounded a little scared and I'm worried. But she did assure me that she had good news."

"But I thought that you didn't need to leave for another month." His mother, Fiona said. "The shooting dates couldn't have changed that quickly, could they?"

"I'm not going for the shooting, Mom. Well, I am going for the shooting but it is a month early. Karen said that she has something important to tell me. She wouldn't ask me to come over if it wasn't an emergency," he said as he continued to back his bags beside his mother.

"So the shooting continues in New York for five months. What next?" His father, Harry asked as he assisted in packing.

"I can't tell you," Ben shrugged.

"Come on, boy. I'm your father. How do you think you can hide anything from me?"

"He can't hide anything from me," said Fiona, making everyone chuckle.

Sitting on the train, Ben wondered what was going on with his best friend. She sounded urgent on the phone but she was calm. What could have possibly happened with her that she needed him over immediately? Ben was working on a project that was huge to some people while it was dust on the floor to others. He was playing the antagonist of a book series and he was very excited to be playing the role of a villain for a change. Once he read the books, he realised the morally gray situation that his character was really in and being who he was, he couldn't wait to act the character's redemption arc.

His fellow cast members were brilliantly talented and the crew was absolutely wonderful. He felt like he knew them for ages and that was something he rarely went through. He had only felt the same way with one person in a really long time. "Snap out of it, Ben." He didn't know her that well to have these feelings.

The cast and crew were doing everything in their power to keep the information of the working of the show a secret. But they knew that the journey would be worth the wait. The fans were going to lose their minds over the show. The story was getting adapted word-to-word and only a few sequences were getting changed for the plot to make more sense since the books were written from the protagonist's point-of-view.

His phone buzzed when he almost fell asleep against the cold window of the train. He rubbed his eyes and tried to look lively when he picked up the video call from his co-star, Isabella Williams. "Hey!"

"Hey, Bella." Ben said with a smile on his face.

"I can't believe that you finished your scenes and are on your way to NYC. How can someone be so talented and sincere?" She rolled her eyes.

Ben laughed heartily at the teenager who was still in L.A. for shooting. "Well, today was my last scene with Adelaide and they only need a voice recording from me for the confrontation scene. I'll send it soon and that will be the end of shooting in the first place."

"Mendoza and Kenji told me that you had to leave because of an emergency," she stated. "Is everything okay?"

"Everything is great," he assured her. "At least I hope so."

Right then, Mendoza came on the screen and waved at Ben. "What's up, mate?"

"Hey, mate! On my way to New York."

"Get ready with the second half of the first script," he reminded him. "Andrew is going crazy here without your kind self around here." Andrew was the director of the show who had started to miss the control that Ben usually had with the number of pranks on set.

"Uh oh," Ben said. "Who did what now?"

Bella looked accusingly at Mendoza. "I didn't do anything!" He exclaimed. "Why does everyone think that I had anything to do with this?"

The phone call lasted for a few more minutes before the two needed to go shoot their final scene for the end of the first episode. Ben knew that it would take a long time to edit the show considering that it was a fantasy series, but he couldn't wait for everyone to look at it once it got released. It took everything in him to control his excitement. He had become a huge fan of the book series.

Once he reached the train station, Karen picked him up and gave him a key to her apartment that overlooked Central Park. "Are you sure that you want to give me a key?"

"It is an empty house and needs a soft soul like yourself to brighten up the place."

"But a key?"

Karen laughed when she saw his confusion. "You'll find out soon. Meet me at the address that I've sent you in two hours and you'll have your answers."

Ben couldn't believe the secrecy that lingered in the atmosphere but he trusted her enough to believe her judgement. Karen knew all about his shooting details and he assumed that she needed his help with something. He was going to come to New York anyway. How harmful could an earlier train be? At least that's what he thought but after entering the coffee shop in the address that Karen gave him, he forgot everything in the split second that the brunette turned around and a smile spread across her face.

"Ben." Robin breathed out.

"Robin!"

"Wait" Karen started. "You two know each other?"

"They met each other on the flight!" The two brides exclaimed at the same time and then looked at each other in confusion.

"You knew about them?" The blonde asked the dark female that Ben had not been introduced to yet.

Paige scoffed. "So did you!"

"Oh my God!" Ben exclaimed as everything came to him. "You're getting married!" He said, looking at Karen.

"Yes I am, pretty boy."

He walked over and pulled her into a hug. "I'm Paige, by the way." The dark-haired woman introduced herself after Ben hugged her as well.

"Ben." He shook hands with her and then turned around to Robin, who looked just as excited as him. "Hey!" He pulled her into a hug.

"Hey!" She could not begin to believe that he was real and present there at that moment. She was not expecting him to walk into her life once again.

"I guess we have more people in common than we thought."

"That we do." She laughed. "How have you been?" She was once again the same woman that met a celebrity on a flight. Everything was surreal.

"I've been good. H-how have you been?" He wasn't sure why it was so but he felt like he was meeting for the first time. He was still taken aback by her.

"Good." She nodded. She had to stop her voice from shaking. It was Benjamin Summers!

"Okay," Paige clapped her hands together, getting everyone's attention. "Clearly all of us have a lot of catching up to do. So, coffee?"

"Definitely." Karen affirmed. "Why don't all of us take a seat?"