5

Spencer takes my bag out of the trunk and sets it on the curb. Brenda steps up to me and puts her arms around me before squeezing me so tightly that I can barely breathe. I hug her back and a few tears drop down her cheek.

“I'm really going to miss you,” Brenda says.

“I'll miss you, too,” I say. “Maybe we can talk once I get back?”

“Yeah… call me about the wedding and we'll get everything sorted.”

I smile and nod. She's so good. She breaks the hug and I turn just as Spencer grabs me and lifts me a few inches off the ground. He presses his lips to mine and my eyes close as I lose myself in the moment. I'm going to miss him more than words can possibly express—it's going to be hard being so far away from him, but he promised to visit as much as he can… it's the only thing that'll make this bearable.

“I miss you already,” I say.

He puts me back on the ground and looks into my eyes. I can see the happiness and kindness in them again.

“Call me as soon as you get settled.”

“I will.”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

I turn and walk toward the terminal. I glance over my shoulder as I walk through the doors and they are both waving at me. I quickly wave back before I turn and head for the check-in line. There are a good number of people in line already, but thankfully the studio has paid for me to fly first class… and there's only one person ahead of me.

It's my turn to check in just a minute later and I set my bag on the scale. I put my purse on the counter and take out my ID, which I pass across the counter to the woman. She smiles at me and picks it up. She pulls up my reservation on the computer and hands me back the ID.

“Traveling to Chicago?”

“Yes.”

“Just the one bag?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you pack the bag yourself?”

“I did.”

“Did anyone put anything in your luggage once you finished packing it or did anyone ask you to carry anything onto the flight for them?”

“No.”

A few key strokes later and my ticket is printed. She sets it on the counter and pushes it toward me.

“Have a wonderful flight… your gate is B17.”

“Thanks.”

I put my wallet back in my purse, grab my ticket off the counter and follow the signs for security. I'm early, the flight doesn't leave for another ninety minutes… but I'm glad because it'll give me plenty of time to get through security and grab a drink or something before we board.

I check my pockets to make sure they are empty and put my purse into one of the plastic bins. I slip my shoes off and put them into the same bin and push it along the rollers until the x-ray machine belt takes over. I wait my turn and walk through the metal detector before collecting my belongings.

The flight still hasn't started to board when I reach the gate, so I sit down and take out my phone. I resist the urge to text Spencer, I know he's not home yet and the last thing I want him to do is look at his phone while driving. Instead, I decide to text Dex… I never got around to filling him in on the conversation I had with Spencer the other day. I type out a quick text and hit send.

Hey, just wanted to catch up with you… I'm waiting for my flight to board. I talked to Spencer the other day after we talked about it. He said he already figured out what was bothering him and he seemed pretty much back to his normal self these last couple of days.

I go to put my phone back in my purse, but I see the script and it reminds me that I never looked up the writer, Jim Myers. I do a quick search for him on my phone and see a half-dozen films that he's written… most of which I really enjoyed. It's awesome that I'm getting to work with someone who has such an impressive body of work. I have a faint memory of one of his films, Ocean of Me, being nominated for an Academy Award, but I don't remember if it won.

“Now boarding first class and elite passengers.”

I glance up and see people heading for the gate. I turn off my phone, just so that I don't forget once I'm on the plane and I toss it in my purse. I get my ticket out and walk toward the line that is already forming. It's weird… people are sort of in line, but they are waiting for general boarding to start. I slowly pick my way around several families and finally reach the front and hand my ticket to the woman working the counter. She scans my ticket and hands it back.

“Have a nice flight,” she says.

“Thanks, you, too.”

She just smiles and I shake my head as I walk away. Stupid. I basically just told her to have a nice flight when clearly she isn't flying anywhere.

I head down the walkway and cringe as the afternoon heat permeates the thin metal of the jetway. I think the heat and general dry climate of L.A. is what I'm having the hardest time getting used to. It never rains here… it's so strange. I guess it's not as bad as it could be… there's not enough humidity to make it totally unbearable. The funny thing is most people here seem to claim they love the weather and can't get enough of it… but they are constantly running from an air conditioned building to their air conditioned car and into the next place that's consuming as much electricity to run a small country just so the people here can stay cool.

One of the flight attendants takes my ticket once I'm on the plane and she directs me to the left, where the first class cabin is. There's only five rows and I find my window seat. I push my purse under the seat in front of me and grab the in-flight magazine.

“Anything to drink?”

I glance up from the magazine and see the same flight attendant, but now she has a small notepad and is wearing an apron. The smile on her face seems genuine enough and she seems quite happy to be doing her job.

“Orange juice, please.”

She nods as she writes it down and walks off to take drink orders from the handful of people seated in first class. I'm glad she's so chipper because I don't think I could ever be a flight attendant. I guess you would get to see new places, but I don't like flying enough that I would want to basically be a waitress in the sky. I know it's probably more complicated than that… I'm pretty sure it's one of those things I would be terrible at. I'm sure if I tried I would spill half the drinks I carried and I would fall over every time we hit any turbulence.

“Hello.”

I turn to the man who just spoke as he takes the seat next to me. He's middle aged, wearing an expensive-looking navy suit and not a single hair on his head is out of place.

“Hi,” I say.

He smiles as he puts his seat belt on and takes one last look at his phone before turning it off and putting it in the seat pocket in front of him. The flight attendant comes back with my orange juice and hands it to me before she turns to the man to take his order.

“Whiskey and ginger ale.”

She nods and retreats to wherever they are hiding the drinks.

“Are you flying alone?” he says.

“Yeah.”

It's kind of an odd question, but he hasn't said anything weird that would make me uneasy or reluctant in answering him.

“Sorry,” he says, as he takes his drink and sets it down. “That was kind of… a weird question.”

“It's fine.”

I smile at him as he takes a sip of his whiskey. He sets it back down and turns toward me.

“I was just surprised to see a young woman in first class… usually it's populated with old people like me… business men just going somewhere to do something trivial, even though they think the very balance of the world depends on what they do.”

I smile at him and take a drink of my orange juice. He seems friendly enough… maybe talking to him will make the flight go by faster. Normally I would try to sleep, but I'm so anxious to get to Chicago that I don't think there's any chance of that.

“My name is Jerry, by the way.”

“Amy.”

“Nice to meet you, Amy.”

“Same, Jerry.”

“So, are you visiting family in Chicago or something?”

“No… I'm going there for work.”

“Me too,” he says. “I'll have you know… I'm a very important business man and the future of the world will be determined by the meeting I have tomorrow in Chicago.”

I laugh and shake my head. The playful tone to his voice made it obvious that he was joking. I'm just glad I don't have some really old grumpy person next to me on the flight that just wants to complain about how young people today don't know anything.

“What business are you in?”

“I'm actually a real estate broker.”

“Oh… that's cool.”

“I can tell you're really excited for me,” he says, a sarcastic tone to his voice.

He winks at me as he finishes his drink and waves at the flight attendant to get her attention.

“Yes, Sir?”

“Another whiskey and ginger ale… and another orange juice for the lady.”

“Of course, right away.”

She takes our empty glasses and walks away.

“Thanks,” I say.

“No problem.”

“Sorry. I didn't mean to sound unenthusiastic… I just thought you'd be in like computers or something… I don't know.”

“No worries… I was just joking around. Real estate is a big business, at least that's how I see it.”

“Do you live in Chicago?”

“No, I live in L.A., but I own real estate brokerages in twelve states… one of them being Illinois. I've got some management… problems… so I'm flying in to see if I can fix them.”

“Oh… sorry.”

“It's just business… it happens.”

The flight attendant comes back with our drinks and sets them down.

“Can I get you anything else?”

“I'm fine,” Jerry says.

“Me too.”

She smiles and walks away.

“She's awfully happy,” Jerry says.

“I know right.”

“So… back to business. You're not looking to buy a house are you?”

I laugh and shake my head.

“No… my fiancé… he has a house.”

“Well,” he says, taking a business card out of his wallet and handing it to me, “if you ever need a bigger house… like if you decide to start a family… give me a call.”

“I will, thanks.”

I grab my purse and toss his card into it. I doubt I'll ever need to look for a house of my own, but I guess it's always a possibility. I hear his words echo through my brain 'like if you decide to start a family' and I feel like I can't breathe. Everything with Spencer so far has seemed so easy and perfect, but we never talked about whether either of us wanted kids… or what kind of time frame that would be in. I close my eyes and take a deep breath as I try to collect my thoughts and bring myself back to the present. There's nothing I can do right now… it's a conversation I need to have with him in person.

“You all right, Amy? You're as white as a ghost.”

“Yeah… just fine.”

I open my eyes and force a smile onto my face as I look over at Jerry. I can't stop thinking about what he said. Crap. I have a feeling it's going to be on my mind until I talk to Spencer about it… and we didn't even decide exactly when he was going to come visit in Chicago. I guess I need to call him once we land.

“So, Amy, you never told me what you did… I just kind of assumed you were a student or something.”

“No… not really.”

“Not really?”

“It's a long story.”

“We've got four hours,” he says, “I'm all ears.”

“Well… I'm not even sure where to start.”

“Start at the beginning.”

“The beginning?”

“Yeah… you said you're not really a student… but I don't know what that means.”

I take a drink of my orange juice followed by a deep breath. Hopefully I can keep the story interesting and not bore him to tears.

“I guess it all started last year when I got a rejection letter from the college I thought I was destined to attend….”

---

“And here I am,” I say.

The flight is halfway over by the time I finally finish my story. I tried to skip the boring parts and keep it interesting. Jerry didn't say a word the entire time, but he was listening intently and seemed to enjoy it.

“What a crazy story.”

“I guess… it's just my life.”

“It's crazy, trust me. That's like something you would see on TV or read in a book… which I guess isn't that far-fetched since you're an actress.”

“I doubt my life is as interesting as a book or movie… I'm just a girl from a tiny town who lucked out.”

“That's exactly what books and movies are about!”

I laugh at how emphatic he is. I guess he's right, though… I just never thought of it that way.

“I guess you're right.”

“So,” he says, “when does this movie with you and Spencer Thomas come out?”

“Soon… I think. I'm not really that involved with that side of things, plus I've only seen him once since I got back from Salem.”

I stretch my arms above my head. I'm just about ready to get up and move around a little, but I don't want to seem rude.

“That makes sense… I'm definitely going to go check it out.”

“Thanks… I hope you like it.”

“I'm sure I will. I've seen pretty much everything Dexter Baldwin has done… and although I'm not a huge Spencer Thomas fan, that's more my daughter's area of interest, I'm excited to see it since I got to meet you.”

“Thanks… that's very kind of you.”

“I'm serious. You seem like a good kid… like you have a good head on your shoulders, which is becoming more rare these days. I have a feeling you're going to do just fine as an actress.”

“I appreciate it.”

He shakes his head and smiles.

“What?” I say.

“Oh… I was just thinking that my daughter, she's a little older than you… she's going to lose it when I tell her that I met the fiancé of Spencer Thomas. She's going to be devastated, obviously, but I can tell her with certainly that you certainly deserve a guy like him.”

“I hope she's not too crushed,” I say.

“She will be, I'm certain of that. She was convinced she was going to run into him on the street in L.A. one of these days and he would instantly fall in love with her.”

We both start to laugh. He's a funny guy and I'm sure the five, or so, whiskey drinks he's had since boarding the flight hasn't hurt matters in that department.

“I'm not sure when it's going to be, but do you think it would cushion the blow a little if I got her tickets to the L.A. premiere?”

“Are you serious?”

“Of course.”

“She would be over the moon… that would seriously make her year.”

“Done… I'll call you when I find out the date of the premiere.”

Not only do I have no idea when the premiere is going to be, but I also have no idea if I can just randomly invite people to it without asking Dex first. Whoops… I guess it's too late to worry about that.