Chapter 5

Wendy drove me to the airport the next afternoon. She hugged me, tucked a bag of pretzels into my backpack, and complained that airlines never gave you enough to eat. I promised to text when I landed, then wheeled my suitcase into the departures hall.

I hadn’t expected to run into Tyler. He was looking down at his phone, but the moment he recognized me, he hurried over. “Knew you’d come. Mason should be out in ten minutes. He just texted.”

“I have a flight.” I pulled my suitcase in front of me.

He glanced at it without seeming to understand. “You’re taking him somewhere? He’s going to lose his mind.”

“It’s just me.” But he was already calling Mason. A luggage cart came toward us, and I moved into the check-in line as Tyler announced into his phone, “Hurry up. Nora’s here.”

I heard movement on the other end, then Mason’s voice. “Seriously? Don’t let her leave.”

Tyler covered the microphone and grinned at me, asking whether he should hang on to my stuff. I shook my head, pointed to the luggage tag, and said “checking my bag” again. That finally gave him pause, but the line was moving, and I moved with it.

Once I’d checked in, a text from Mason appeared: [Wait for me. I have something for you.]

I brought up my flight details and headed toward security. Someone called my name behind me. Audrey was coming from the elevators, a new silver bag on her shoulder. She glanced past me, and her smile disappeared.

“I thought you’d at least hold out until tonight.”

I kept walking. She stepped around to block me. “You show up the second it’s his birthday? Who were you trying to fool with the whole ‘I don’t care’ act?”

Travelers rolled suitcases past us. I shifted my backpack higher on my shoulder, freed one hand, and started recording on my phone. “Move, Audrey. I have a plane to catch.”

“To where? Colorado Springs? That little house your grandmother left you?” She glanced at my belt bag. “You’ll be gone two days, then wait for him to ask you back.”

“I don’t owe you my itinerary.”

She leaned closer and lowered her voice. “Mason made me come out ahead of him so you wouldn’t see us together. I know him. The more worried he is that you’ll get the wrong idea, the more he tries to make it up to you.”

“Then why are you standing in my way?”

Her smile held for another second, then slipped. “Because you’re always making things difficult for him.”

I actually laughed. “Did I ask him to bring you to the airport?”

Audrey stared at me, finally dropping the careful, apologetic voice she used around everyone else. “You think being the girl he loves means you get to keep him? All I have to do is say I need him. Tell me one time he hasn’t come.”

I tightened my grip on the phone. “Is that what happened in the lab? You needed him?”

“He gave me access. I didn’t steal it.” Her eyes stayed on mine. “You cry over that stupid book. You cry over your research. The bigger deal you make out of everything, the less he wants to hear it.”

“You touched my sketchbook.”

“Yeah. It was ink, Nora. Paper doesn’t have feelings.”

She reached for my belt bag. I caught her wrist and moved her hand away from the zipper. “Touch my stuff again and I’m going to get airport security.” I held her gaze. “Making my life hell won’t make your life any better, Audrey, and I won’t let you get away with it.”

She looked at the bandage on my palm. Then, without warning, she tipped the drink in her other hand down the front of her own jacket. Orange soda spread across the pale fabric.

“Don’t touch me!” she shouted.

I stood half a step away. I hadn’t even touched her cup. She looked down at the stain, then back at me, a smile slowly lifting the corners of her mouth. “Who do you think he’ll ask about first?”

I stepped back and stopped the recording just as Tyler came around the other side of the hall with Mason.

Mason was carrying a stuffed moose big enough to hide half his face. When I used to get nervous about flying, he’d buy the ugliest animal in the airport gift shop and tell me I wouldn’t miss him if I took it with me.

He spotted me and broke into a run. I almost reached for him out of habit. After ten years, I knew exactly how he looked coming toward me. I knew the left side of his face would crease just before he smiled.

The moose reminded me of my first flight alone to summer camp. He’d stood outside security, holding up another hideous animal and promising ice cream when I got back.

I looked toward the security line behind me. [I’m not coming back in a few weeks.] I wouldn’t return with souvenirs and let us act like every argument had worked itself out while I was away. He hadn’t only hurt me today. Still wanting to reach for him wasn’t a reason to undo everything I’d decided.

“There you are.” He caught his breath and offered me the toy, his ears pink. “Still mad? Here, you get him first. Look at me, giving out presents on my own birthday.”

Audrey sniffed and caught his sleeve. “Mason, I was trying to talk things through with Nora, and she—”

“Hang on.” He glanced at the stain, then turned back and caught my backpack strap. “Nora, just hear me out.”

For the first time in nearly two weeks, he’d cut Audrey off.

He tried to put the moose in my arms and managed a smile. “You’re here. That’s what matters. I never meant for us to actually break up. I made her delete those pictures. You said you didn’t like other girls wearing my clothes, remember?”

I held the toy away from me. “Keep it. I didn’t come to pick you up.”

“Come on.” His voice softened. “I came to you first. What else am I supposed to do to make this okay?”

My phone buzzed with a boarding notification. I glanced down to check it, and Mason followed my gaze to the screen. Denver to Boston, one way. Above it, a new notification from Harvard’s summer research office showed my pickup instructions.

His smile slowly vanished. “When did you book that?”

I slipped the backpack strap out of his fingers. “The night you said the first one to text would lose.”

His hands tightened around the moose. Another boarding announcement came over the speakers, and he suddenly stepped in front of me.

“Nora.” His voice had changed. “If you’re not here to pick me up… you’re leaving me?”

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