by Nix, Haley
With our bags already packed, we had the concierge call us a cab to take us to the airport. And we left Paris just the way we’d come to it: with her leaning on my shoulder in the backseat of a cab as the driver careened through the darkened streets.
Once we both got through security at the airport, we headed to her gate. Her flight was leaving a little bit before mine, which meant I had time to say goodbye to her and still make my plane.
We held out to the very last minute, her sitting on my lap as we waited alongside the other passengers. Then finally her flight was called to board. We got up and said goodbye, sharing one last passionate kiss. I squeezed her ass playfully. It wasn’t some oversexualized thing, just something that let her know how much I wanted her, how much I hated to be leaving her again.
Then I watched as she disappeared through the tunnel and boarded the plane. I stood there for a while longer and watched it taxi away from the gate, joining a long line of planes on the runway waiting to take off. I checked my watch and realized my plane would be boarding soon. Picking up my bag, I started walking briskly towards my gate on the other side of the airport.
Goodbye, Cat.
Chapter Two
Catherine
As I settled into my trip home, I was grateful when a flight attendant came by with a glass of champagne. After I finished that, I asked if she had anything harder.
“Could I get a vodka soda?” I asked.
“Oui, madame.”
The young flight attendant came back shortly. I took a deep sip of the drink and stared out the glass pane beside me as we jetted through the night air. I could still see the lights of Paris from the window and I knew that somewhere down there Colt was waiting for his plane.
I ordered another drink. I’d probably had too much, but I was hoping that if I drank enough I’d fall asleep early and I’d wake up back in the States. I dreaded the thought of the long flight across the dark Atlantic. It’s not that I was scared or nervous or anything. I just knew that if I didn’t fall asleep, I’d be up all night thinking about Colt.
It’s funny, actually. The time spent together only seemed to make me miss him more. It was as getting a taste of life with him again made it even harder to get by than it normally was. School would be starting up in about a month in a half and I was desperately looking forward to it. At least that would distract me slightly from worrying about Colt.
It certainly didn’t help now that I’d found out he’d been shot in battle. I mean really, shot! It was crazy how nonchalant he was about it, as if it was all part of a day in the life. But I knew that wasn’t true, not even for a soldier. Part of me was in awe at how brave about it he was, but really I just wanted him back home safe with me.
He of course knew how worried I was and whenever I brought it up over the course of our week in Paris, he’d try to brush it off, to convince me it couldn’t happen again.
“Lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice,” he said.
“Yeah, but this isn’t lightning. It’s the Taliban purposely shooting at you.”
“Well, they’ve got even worse aim than lightning,” said Colt with a laugh.
I smiled at the time, hoping he was right. But inside, I was still praying for him.
***
Colton
After boarding my flight, I tried to make myself comfortable so I could get some rest. I closed my eyes and tried to relax as the flight attendant went over the safety instructions. I needed something to get my mind off things.
I wasn’t nervous about flying, but I was concerned about having an eight hour trip ahead of me where I’d be alone with just my own thoughts to keep me occupied. I already missed Cat, and knew I’d be counting down the months until I would see her again.
What’s crazy about that is I’m not the type of guy to tally the days I spend on active duty, desperately hoping for my first leave of absence. I loved being a soldier. I didn’t mind the harsh lifestyle or being out on the battlefield. The truth was I’d always gotten restless living civilian life. Before I’d met Cat, a call up to active duty seemed like a great way to escape the mundane, everydayness of having a regular job. But now I sometimes felt like I was risking too much.
Before heading back to the field, I was on my way to Dubai, where I would stop over at the hospital so the doctors could evaluate my progress. If they were satisfied, I’d be on a direct flight to Kabul in no-time.
I pulled a small blue velvet box out of my pocket and turned it around in my hand, inspecting it from multiple angles before I popped it open. Inside was the diamond ring I’d almost given to Cat. It sparkled under the overhead light, attracting the attention of the passenger next to me, an older French woman.
“Someone is a lucky girl,” she said with a wink, through surprisingly good English.
“I’m the lucky one,” I said, snapping shut the case.
I smiled at the woman to be polite, but by now I was already lost in my own thoughts. Paris would have been the perfect place to propose, so why hadn’t I done it? That was a complicated question, and one I knew would regrettably be occupying my mind for the rest of my long flight.
I turned off my overhead light and closed my eyes again, doing my best to fall asleep.
***
Catherine
I woke up in New York City. It was the middle of the night with the time change and I had a long layover, which meant I had a lot of time to kill in the airport terminal. I grabbed my carry-on bag and shuffled off the plane with the other passengers. My layover was about four hours – far too short to go to a hotel. Now I had a crucial decision to make: nap in the terminal, or grab a cup of coffee and just tough it out?
I decided on the former. My sleep schedule would already be majorly messed up as it was given the length of the flight. I knew jetlag would come back to haunt me in Tulsa. Somehow I’d avoided a bad case of it in Paris; I guess the excitement of being with Colt made it easy to stay awake during the day. And after a powerful orgasm, it was always easy for me to fall asleep at night. Not surprisingly, I slept better in Paris that I had in the last several months.
But I didn’t want to miss my early flight, so I set an alarm on my phone before attempting to nap in the terminal. It was an uneasy rest at best, and after an hour went by I decided to get up and grab a coffee and a bagel.
Afterwards, I wandered over to one of the news stores and started browsing books and magazines. I’d finished the book that I’d bought at the start of a trip while we were still in Paris. I’d need something else to read if I wasn’t going to die of boredom on the long flight from New York to Tulsa.
I saw several books on current events, the war in Afghanistan more specifically. Picking one up, I flipped through the pages. I wanted to know more of what Colt’s life was like over there; he was so secretive sometimes. But I also knew what he’d say, that a book like this would only make me worry unduly and that I would just making things harder on myself.
The curiosity was there, but I fought it back, putting the book down and walking over to the new fiction section where I selected something off the New York Times Best Sellers list. I paid for the book and went back to my gate to wait for the final flight home that would be boarding in about an hour and fifteen minutes.
Chapter Three
Colton
Over seven hours into my flight, I woke up to a voice coming over the speakers announcing that we were about to make our descent into Dubai. All passengers must return to their seats and put on their safety belts. I opened the cover over my window and looked down beneath me: desert and water and the strange city of Dubai somewhere below, though not in eyesight quite yet.
Dubai was a strange place: an oasis of wealth and modern technology amidst the rubble of the troubled societies of the Middle East and Africa. It was a safe place, but there was an underlying tension, a sort of clash of cultures. I didn’t exactly feel at home here, but I was grateful to have received medical attention at its hospitals. Few other cities i
n the area had medical treatment centers so clean, modern, and professional.
After picking up my bags, I walked out to the front of the airport and got into a cab. The midday sun was shockingly bright here, and it took me a little while to adjust. I might have been slightly groggy when I’d first gotten off of the plane, but I was wide awake by now. I gave the driver the address of the hospital and he sped off through the busy streets.
An hour later, doctors were poking and prodding me, asking me many questions about how I felt, whether I’d strained myself at all over the past several days. I told them I hadn’t; I assumed that passionate sex didn’t constitute overworking my muscles. Ha!
The doctors ran a few tests and looked at the healing wound on my leg. They seemed satisfied with my progress. I waited around for the results of the tests and soon enough I was cleared to head back to the field. Five hours later I was on a military plane back to Kabul, Afghanistan.
But before I left Dubai, I tried to see if I could track down Percy to see how he was doing. He’d been in a bit rougher condition than I was when we’d parted ways, so I figured he’d still be receiving treatment at the hospital. But after asking around a bit, I found out he’d already flown out a few days earlier. Damn, I thought, that man is as tough as nails. I looked forward to catching up with him once I was back.
***
Catherine
Finally arriving back in Tulsa was a huge relief. Even though I was still missing Colt, it felt great being home again. As expected, it took me a bit of time to adjust back to a regular sleeping schedule, but fortunately I didn’t have classes just yet. I was only working a few nights each week, so it didn’t matter too much whether I slept in late or if I was up in the middle of the night.
Despite my relaxed schedule, however, the next few weeks went by surprisingly quickly. I had to schedule classes for next semester, pick up text books, pay the bills that had piled up while I’d been gone, restock on groceries, etc. Just typical errands that had been neglected over the past few weeks.
In my spare time, I was reading constantly. Before my trip to Paris, I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed reading for pleasure, bogged down as I usually was with technical science textbooks for my classes. With these last few weeks of free-time, I was determined to get in all the novels I could before my mental energy switched over to my classes.
Colt had sent me home with another huge check to cover tuition this semester. I’d tried to refuse, but he would have none of it. Nevertheless, I still tried to take on a few extra shifts at the bar to earn some spare cash. Maybe if I saved up enough money I could take Colt on a trip when he finally came home for good. He deserved something nice like that.
***
Colton
After arriving in Kabul, I joined a contingent of troops being transported to Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province. We drove in armored vehicles for most of the six hour trip. Air travel might have been faster, but there was a certain risk of being targeted by rocket-fire from insurgents, so a military convoy was the smartest option.
The path between Lashkar Gah and Kabul was well-travelled and relatively safe. Our trip went smoothly and we rolled into Helmand in the early morning when soldiers were just waking to their daily duties. After hoisting my bags out of the armored vehicle, I walked over to my old barracks. The air was cold and I breathed in deeply. While I would rather still be in Paris with Cat, I was sort of glad to be back.
I walked inside to find several of the guys tossing and turning in the dark, hoping for a few extra minutes of sleep before the long day ahead. All the days on this job were long, after all. I threw my bags down on the floor and hopped onto my bunk. I lay back for a few seconds and closed my eyes, dozing slightly since I was unable to sleep on the rough roads to the base in Helmand.
A few minutes later, I felt a punch in the shoulder and I snapped back to consciousness.
“Man, oh, man. He’s gone for almost a month and the first thing he does when he gets back is take a nap.”
I didn’t need to wait for my eyes to adjust to the lack of light to know who’d punched me – I could tell who it was by the sound of his voice.
“Percy, you son of a bitch,” I said, springing out of the bunk and offering my hand. “How are ya?”
“I’m great, man. Have a good trip?”
“Definitely. You know, I looked for you when I stopped in at the hospital in Dubai to get my medical clearance. I was surprised to hear you were back already.”
“Yeah, man. Me too. I could have stayed longer at the hospital, but I just felt so damn restless. I was complaining all the time, cooped up. I don’t know if I’m actually fit to be here, or if the doctors just signed my clearance to get rid of me.”
“Ha, that doesn’t surprise me one bit. So the arm’s good then?”
“Eh, it’s alright. Got some pain, some weakness. I can’t go on patrol or much else right now. Can’t whip a gun around as fast as I used to, arm is still a little shaky. I’m inside pushing papers and shit like that. Going to the gym, just trying to get my strength back.”
“Gotcha.”
“But come on, man. It’s breakfast time, let’s get a meal. I want to hear about this trip of yours.”
Once we were in the mess hall, I took a look at the food on my plate and winced. I’d forgotten how bad this stuff was in my short time away. Even the food at the hospital was better than this. I took a few bites and decided I was more than full.
I told Percy about the trip to Paris, but found I didn’t have much to say about it. Yes, it was an incredible experience, but it was incredible because of who Cat was and what that environment had brought out in her. All the details seemed too personal, too private and internal to my relationship with Cat for me to really share with someone else.
Instead, I pulled out the small velvet box and tossed it over to Percy who caught it in his hands.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“Take a look inside,” I said.
Percy opened it up and his eyes got wide.
“Damn, man. I don’t know much about this kind of stuff, but even I can tell this must have cost a small fortune.”
“Yup.”
“Is she worth it?”
“Oh yeah. That I’m sure of.”
“So you’re real serious about this girl? When are you popping the question?”
“Whenever I’m home I guess. I almost did it in Paris, but for some reason I held back.”
“Second-guessing?” he asked, still studying the ring.
“Nahh, something about it just didn’t seem right. I didn’t want us to have to spend out engagement living half a world apart from each other.”
“I guess that makes sense.”
“But it’s more than that though. I just feel like, and God forbid this should happen, if something unexpected were to occur out here and for some reason I didn’t make it back home, being engaged would somehow make it even harder on her.”
“Don’t say shit like that, man. Nobody’s dying here. Least of all you or me.”
“I know, I know. It’s just this is the type of thing you think about when you care about someone. I never worried so much about my own safety before I met her. When someone becomes a part of you, you want to survive just for them.”
Percy closed the box and tossed it back to me.
“But aren’t you taking another sort of risk though by passing up the opportunity to propose? I mean, suppose you don’t make it back, just supposing, that shit isn’t happening, but say that it did. Wouldn’t you regret not letting her know how you feel?”
The comment took me by surprise. Percy wasn’t normally this insightful. It was a valid question.
“I think she knows,” I said after a brief pause. “She has to know by now.”
Chapter Four
Catherine
A couple weeks before classes I received a letter from Colt. It was the first communication we’d had since parting ways in Paris.
&nb
sp; ***
Dear Cat,
I hope this letter finds you well. After I left Paris, I headed for Dubai to check in with my doctors. You’ll be happy to know that they said I was healing up just fine. The part you won’t be happy to hear is that they cleared me immediately to head to Afghanistan. But we both knew that was inevitable.
The operation here is going well. After the attack in which I was shot, security has really clamped down here. They increased the troop count at the base, so while that means things are a little cramped, it also means the area is much more secure. Attacks have trickled down to practically zero in the past few weeks.
I’m still missing you terribly, but the new memories I have are giving me the strength I need to carry on with life here. I’ve been fortunate to have the most pleasant dreams about you lately, but I look forward to when you aren’t just in my dreams, but in my waking life.
Anyway, I hope you’re doing well. Have you figured out what classes you’ll be taking this fall? I’ll be excited to know when you finally decide. I hope life is otherwise going well for you. I can’t wait to see you again, whenever that might be.
Love,
Colt
***
Dear Colt,
Glad to hear you’re healing well. Though I wasn’t surprised after the way you slept with me in Paris (you seemed to have more than enough energy ;)). And I’m definitely happy knowing that things are a little bit safer over there.
I haven’t signed up for classes just yet. The deadline is coming up next week. There’s still space in a couple of the different required classes, so I kind of have my pick. I’m thinking about taking a chemistry class and also Intermediate Anatomy.
Believe it or not, I’m committed to doing Advanced Biology. I know it’s going to be a lot of work, but I feel like I should take it now while the subject matter is fresh in my mind. If I put it off, it will just be more difficult. So here goes nothing…
