A Flight's Desire

Chapter 23: Contact

"Did you know about them?" Paige asked her fiance as soon as both of them stood at the counter to collect their order. The conversation had been quite muffled for the bride as the one question she asked ran inside her head countless number of times. She had to whisper hastily but also have a clear face so that Robin and Ben, who were now catching up with each other, could not notice their surprise.

"Not at all!" Karen exclaimed silently. "I knew that he met someone on the flight when he flew back from Budapest and that they spent two days together, but I had no clue that she was your friend. He was quite silent about it, which didn't really surprise me because he never really talks about that part of his life. Probably because he never thought about it, but this is just....wow!"

"It's a good coincidence, right?"

"Definitely! I just wish that Ben had told me something about it."

"Robin didn't tell me anything! But I get why she did it. I never told her about us and it makes sense why she didn't tell me." Paige felt guilty. She always kept her personal life away from her work life, but Robin was the intersection of the two venn diagrams. The reason she hadn't told her friend about Karen was because she was worried about where the relationship was going, not having a great track record. She didn't want to spoil things by involving people into it because everyone would start having expectations.

Karen had a similar reason. She wasn't the type to date often, but whatever relationships that she had had in the past ended on mutual consents. She didn't want that to happen with Paige, which made her not talk about her personal life with anyone. She didn't trust her own judgement because what if things broke off before she could know exactly how she felt? "I didn't tell Ben anything either. I tried to gather the contact information of the woman from whatever he told me, which wasn't much, but I did my best."

"Of course you did."

"Hey, I can't help it!" Karen shrugged.

"I know you can't, baby." Paige placed a quick kiss on Karen's cheek. "So what happened then?"

"I tried to get him to tell me the name of the book but he wouldn't budge. Smartass." She scoffed. "He knew that I would talk him out of his comfort zone. He knew that I would want him to pursue his feelings, but in his defense, he didn't want to think about it. Maybe it will change, now that I know what the book is."

"Hey, you have read it! I gave you the book myself."

"I didn't realise that until now!" Karen exclaimed.

Paige laughed. "We need to talk to them about each other. Just look at them!" The two of them snuck a peek at their friends talking to each other.

"For sure. I'll try to get something out of him. I know that he would be willing to talk if I talk about Out of the Blue. God, I love that book! It's so....intriguing! I wonder what was running inside the author's mind when she wrote that ending." Even thinking about the two characters in the hospital brought back the weight on her chest that she had felt when she first read the book.

"Did you know that Robin wrote Caleb while keeping Ben in mind?"

Karen gasped. "No way! Really?" She closed her mouth to keep her from shouting. "But....wait. Ben would be the perfect Caleb. Will you tell me if there is a call to play him? The way he sounded when he talked about the book is something that I'll never be able to forget. And now that I know which book it is, I can see why not."

"I need to talk to the producers about that. Thank you for reminding me."

"You'll keep me updated? About both?"