I did call Dawson and talked to him the whole forty five minute layover in Chicago, and then again when I was safely in my hotel room in Vegas. I walked down to the dining room around seven with Marsha, Sunny, and Wendy for supper. Star’s sister returned to my room with me. I loved Sunny almost as much as Star. She painted my finger and toenails with a neon green polish with black tips. It wasn’t my style at all, but I laughed and told her that I loved it.
The swap meet was just as epic as I remembered it from the last time, and there were even more vendors. I knew I would be paying for extra weight on the way home.
It was only the first day, and I had seven catalogues of the neatest novelty items ever.
We went out for supper that night and had a blast once again. We had walked to the restaurant, and Sunny and Marsha had gotten a little intoxicated. Wendy and I told them both several times to quiet down as we walked back to our rooms.
The next day was just as much fun. I found a vendor of old-time candies and thought that it would make a perfect fitment for the shop, and I of course grabbed one of his catalogues. There were candy cigarettes, those necklaces that you had to bite the candy off, wax lips, and every flavor of jellybeans imaginable. I crinkled my nose at the thought of sardine flavored jellybeans, but knew they would sell, just because they were different.
The four of us went out for supper again at the same restaurant. I was the one that drank a little too much that time, but I didn’t care. I was having the time of my life, and I don’t think I have ever laughed that much in my entire life.
I said goodbye to Sunny, Marsha and Wendy and headed back to the airport with the rental car the following morning. Sunny and Wendy were staying another night.
They wanted to catch one of the shows before heading home the next day. Marsha was flying out the same evening. I couldn’t wait to get home and see Dawson. It was crazy how much I missed him. If someone would have told me two years prior that I could be in love with someone the way I was with him, I would have deemed them crazy.
I parked the rental car where I was supposed to. I called Dawson just before boarding and told him that I would see him in eight hours. I had another layover in Chicago for an hour, but I was fine with it. I would be going to bed in his arms that night. That was all that I cared about. I told him that I loved him and was getting ready to board when I realized that I had the keys to the rental in my hand.
“How much time do I have?” I asked the lady at the gate.
I told her that I would be right back. I had ten minutes to board. I wished that I would have just taken the keys and sent them in the mail.
I rushed out to the parking lot to deposit the keys in the glove box of the car, where I was supposed to have left them. I was just crossing the crosswalk and like an idiot, turned when I heard someone yell.
“Morgan?”
I knew it was Derik before I ever turned my head.
Fuck…
What the hell was I supposed to do now? I panicked and sprinted to the rental car, started it and backed out of the parking space, trying to get out of there in the ridiculous traffic. I would catch the next flight. I knew they would track down every name on that plane if I would have gotten on it. I wasn’t chancing that. Every thought possible was going through my mind. What if he caught me? What would Drew do to me? I couldn’t go back there, and for the first time since I had met Dawson, I wished I would have given him his name or even mine before I became Riley Murphy. He had no way to find me.
He thought that I was on a plane heading toward Chicago.
I kept a close eye on my rearview mirror. Derik was one car behind me. I could see him on his cellphone and knew exactly who he was talking to. I could hear Drew’s voice on the other end, telling him not to lose me.
I felt like my world was crashing in on me. Everything that I had worked so hard for, for the past two years was hanging by a thread, all because I was stupid. I should have never chanced being there in the first place.
I was finally out of the airport traffic and into even more traffic darting in and out of lanes, trying to lose him.
I had no idea where I was or where I was going. I wanted to call Dawson. I had to call Dawson. He had to be able to find me if I was caught. I reached into my purse to retrieve my phone and looked up just in time to keep from hitting the stopped bus. My purse and all of its contents landed on the passenger floor.
This could not be happening. It was like one of those movies that kept you on the end of your seat, waiting to see what happened. I went around the bus, and Derik was now right behind me. I shot back in front of the bus and took the next street to the right. I kept darting in and out of traffic, up and down different streets with Derik right on my tail.