A Flight's Desire

Chapter 28: The Drive

It was a new week. Robin sat in front of her laptop, her glasses threatening to fall off of her nose but she was too tired to adjust it. They were reading glasses anyway. She was looking at the confirmation of her booking and thought about informing her friends about it, but she didn't know how to. How would they take this news? And she would most probably end up cancelling the ticket if the wedding would clash with it. She would have to choose between the two options, but she couldn't leave Paige behind.

She wasn't surprised when her phone rang. She had to get used to the idea that she knew Caleb Barnes in the flesh, like Mila Anne had put it. "Hey!" She said, answering his call.

"Hey, am I disturbing you?"

"No, no at all!"

"Good, because how do you feel about a drive?"

Her eyebrows furrowed. "A drive?"

"Yeah! I have a place to show you. It is a lovely magical place but unfortunately, I will need the next eight hours of your life." Ben revealed hesitantly. He was waiting for Karen to give him the keys to her other car so that he could take Robin out to the location that he was excited to show her.

Robin looked at the clock. It was only two in the afternoon. She had time to gather energy for an entire day outside. "Yeah, sure!"

He laughed in relief. "Great! So where should I pick you up from?"

The drive was strange at first. The two did not know what to talk about, pressing pause on the wedding plans. To fill up the silence, Robin played the radio after asking Ben's permission first. "Maybe we have a common favourite band."

"Linkin Park and Queen," he revealed.

"No freaking way!"

"You too?"

"You are stealing my lines!"

"I am doing no such thing! You are stealing my lines."

The radio started playing one of their favourite songs at that exact moment and both of them ended up singing the entire journey. It was one of the only times that they allowed themselves to sing without worrying about meeting the pitch.

"You should release an album." Robin complimented his voice.

"I'm honoured, but nobody would listen to it," he replied, being his modest self.

She nodded. "Sure."

"I'm serious!"

"What? I didn't say anything!" She shrugged.

"But that was a sarcastic 'sure'."

"Obviously it was! What do you mean that nobody would listen to it? Believe me. There are people that will listen to it every day. There are people who won't start their day without listening to you first. They are only waiting for it to come out. You should release it on Spotify," she said and received a look from him. "If you decide to release one," she completed. "Which I think you should."

"Well, maybe if you sing with me," shrugged Ben. "Or played the guitar."

"Now Mr. Summers, you want people to actually listen to it." They laughed together. "Where are we going exactly?"

He looked at her and almost considered telling her everything. "You'll see, Miss Hale," he said with a coy smile on his face.

"Oh come on, you cannot take me to an abandoned warehouse to kill me." She teased. "People know where I am, you know? I share my location with Lincoln constantly."

"Well Miss Hale, for your information, people know where I am as well." He went along with it before both of them broke out laughing. "Okay but seriously, I cannot tell you. It is a surprise."

Robin gasped when he said surprise. He had only used that word once before when he took her to the building opposite to the Cathedral. "You found a location!"

He hit the steering wheel gently. "Dang it! How did you even find out?"

"Years and years of studying you act." She revealed and he looked at her confused. "Your ear lobe twitches when you hold back something."

"I don't know whether that is flattering or-"

"Creepy. Definitely creepy. Fangirl, you know?"

The drive seemed to have lasted only for a few minutes but it took just as long as Ben had predicted it to. After two hours of singing and talking, the black Volvo strayed away from the path of the mainroad and started driving down a muddy path. The car was not going through a smooth phase as there were a lot of bumps in the road. The smell of petrichor hit Robin even though the windows were all closed. They were on the outskirts.

"Where exactly are we going?"

He gave her a smug smile that made her want to shake the truth out of him. "You'll see."

After another ten minutes of wondering, the car stopped in front of a farmhouse. "Woah." Robin said, looking at it through the tinted window. "Is this...." She turned to look at him smiling at her confusion. "Was this where you shot My Beloved?" He nodded once and she gasped. "Woah, now I'm definitely dreaming."

"No, you did not dream up the fact that you met your favourite actor, aka me, or the fact that your manager is getting married to mine....or the fact that this farmhouse was open for registration."

Her mouth was still open. "I cannot believe this."

Ben stopped the car and took the keys in his hands. "So," he asked. "Shall we?"

She looked at the farmhouse once more and made sure that she wasn't dreaming by pinching herself. "We shall."

They walked out of the car and he showed her around the farmhouse. He started talking about the potential of using the place and that time, there was nothing that could stop his vision. "We could have an outdoor wedding in the backyard facing the sun at the right moment," he started. "We can have an arch of flowers where we entered that would guide the guests inside."

"We could have a podium for their exclusive," added Robin, seeing how she could spotlight the two brides for the various magazine reporters that would come for the 'Story of the Year' column. Plus, Paige would want the attention after years of neglect.

He snapped his fingers at her. "Perfect! We could have a seated dinner. The kitchen is big enough for anyone to cook for the number of guests in the guest list. We could have a dance floor there," said Ben, pointing to the empty space in the field that they were standing on. "Fairy lights all around!"

Robin could imagine it very clearly. "You should be a writer."

"Nah, that's your forte. Besides, I find a blank paper and pen intimidating. And anyway, I'm the brooding actor with the perfect hair."

"You know about that?" It was a little joke that ran between his fans. They called him Ben "the hair" Summers and she always wished that he wouldn't have to find it out somehow.

"Of course I do," he said. "So." He clapped his hands together. "What do you think?"

She started nodding her head as she looked around, envisioning exactly what they had talked about. "I love it." She revealed with a smile.

"Yes!" He exclaimed and then pulled her into a hug. "Oh, I'm so happy that you like it!"

"We could have the valets be careful because of the rain that could fall."

"Yes." He agreed as both of them let each other go. "I thought that my previous idea needed to be compensated somehow. And there are a lot of beautiful memories here. I'm sure it has space to give someone else theirs as well, you know?" She nodded. It was really great to see him so happy. "Anyway, fancy a drink?"

She smirked at his attempt to change the topic away from himself. "I would love that."

"Along with fries." They said at the same time.