It was early rush hour in Detroit. The afternoon glare was just an annoyance to most of the people on the freeway heading west on the way home. As far as I was concerned, I knew I'd have another three hours of sunshine, and I was happy about that.
And I was about to get happier.
I touched his name on the contact list of my phone and hoped he would pick up. He did.
"Hey, babe, how is your day going?" I asked.
"Surviving," he said, sounding mentally exhausted, if not annoyed. "I will be so happy when it's over."
"Awww ..." I said, feigning sympathy. "I guess you'll be too tired to pick me up from the airport at 8 o'clock."
There was a silence on the other end of the line, and then I heard, "You what ... umm ... are going to be where???"
His voice was a mixture of excitement, panic and glee, followed by a bunch of questions about my flight information, if I had a place to stay, if I had a car, and how long I planned on being in town.
"I'll see if I can make this work," he said. "How long do you have until you get on the plane?"
"About an hour and a half," I said. "I'm heading to the airport now, that is unless this isn't going to work for you."
"I'll make it work!" he said, with joy and excitement replaced by the initial panic in his voice. I gave him my flight information and told him I booked a hotel room near the airport. I could get there by shuttle if for some reason he couldn't see me that night.
About ten minutes before the plane started boarding, I got a text: "I'll have someone meet you at in the lobby of the ticketing area."
I was a little disappointed, but not entirely. I knew pulling off a last-minute trip would have some setbacks. Secretly, I was hoping for one of those lingering hugs and long, lingering kisses in the airport lobby that usually set the tone for our previous rendezvous.
"Will I see you tonight?" I typed back.
"You'll see lots of me this weekend. What are you wearing?" was his reply.
I didn't want to ruin the surprise of showing up in a purple low-cut V-neck wrap dress, or the initial plan, greeting him in a buttoned and tied lightweight flowing trench coat, but logistics were logistics.
The plane was a non-stop, but the four-hour flight seemed to take much longer than I anticipated. I tried reading, but couldn't focus on my eReader. Not even on Kenneth Rexroth, John Dunne or Pablo Neruda. The anticipation made my heart race and was setting every nerve ending in my body flashing, making me feel tingly, nervous and excited. I knew I would see him, but when? And what would I expect when I landed? I finally succumbed to a cocktail to calm my nerves. I could have used two, but I didn't want to be tipsy when I got off the plan, or worse, tired.
The last glimpses of light backlit the blueberry, magenta and orange sky of post-sunset painted the sky when I landed at SFX. The gate corridor wasn't very busy, which would make it easy to find whoever it was that was meeting me in the lobby.
As soon as I reached the lobby, there was a tall, stoic, bald and muscular man in a dark suit and white shirt and tie holding up a card with my name on it. He looked like the type who could send a man flying across the room with just one punch if he had to. He walked up to me, took my luggage, and guided me to the taxi stand. He was a man of few words and politely asked me about my flight in a quiet, low tenor. When I asked what his name was, he only said, "Bingo."
He let me in the back door of a black limousine. A tasteful sedan, not one of those tricked-out stretch limo.
Sitting in the back seat was my handsome and distinguished paramour, impeccably dressed in a sport coat, trousers, dress shirt, and a silk tie.