Part 1 - The Unfolding of the Fantasy
Rebekkah was a little disgruntled as she sat at the airport gate waiting for the flight's arrival. Once again, it seemed Christian was passing a duty that he should be doing himself off onto her - like she didn't have a busy enough schedule of her own?
And yet admittedly, she was more than a little curious, having caught herself staring at Bryan's picture several times over the past months that she and Christian had been living together. What a contrast they were - Christian - her blonde God (in her eyes), slight of build, ever-changing hazel eyes, gentle of demeanour and Bryan - with his chiseled features and Irish good looks, black hair and piercing bright green eyes, the penultimate "hell raiser" according to Chris. Just thinking of them together (well, not really "together") made her squirm a little in her seat.
But there were times too, over the past months, when she thought that if she heard the words "when Bryan and I were at college together..." one more time, she would scream. She too, had friends from her past, but Chris' intrigue with Bryan seemed almost obsessive.
She was certain that she knew every story about them by heart. From the time Bryan broke Mrs. McNeill's window with a baseball and blamed Chris...to the time they picked up and bedded the twins from the bar they frequented. But Chris, it seemed, never tired of talking about "the good ole days".
And now here she sat, waiting for Bryan's flight from Dublin, her palms damp, her heart racing. But airports had a tendency to do that to her anyway. Always the emotional one, crying at both arrivals AND departures.
She caught herself checking out her own appearance in the waiting room window. She tried to convince herself that she would've taken equal care with herself to pick ANYONE up, but deep in her tummy, she knew it was because Bryan was Christian's oldest and dearest friend (and a might fine looking one at that) and the fact that she wanted to make an especially good impression on him (and hence on Christian - as she was always striving for Chris' approval).
The announcement came over the loudspeaker: "Announcing the arrival of Air Canada Flight 103 from Toronto at Gate B". That was his flight. She knew he would be exhausted after almost a full day of flying. First from Dublin to Toronto where he would've had to clear Customs and then, with only a few moments to spare, boarding the direct flight to Calgary. She didn't really know what to expect. She expected him to be weary-eyed, bedraggled and barely able to function, let alone carry on intelligent conversation.
She stood, smoothed the lines of the straight, ankle-length dark denim skirt she had chosen to wear, turned to make sure the high slit in the back was straight, pressed down a wrinkle in her tight red jersey knit top and fluffed her hair with her fingertips. She walked over to where the passengers would come through and waited for Bryan. She laughed to herself when her eyes misted up watching grandparents greet their grandkids, friends greet friends and lovers greet lovers.
She was still standing there, a silly grin plastered on her face when she saw him walk through the double doors. She did a double-take and swallowed hard. "Bedraggled, my ass", she thought to herself. "How can it be that he has traveled nearly all day and still looks as though he's walked straight out of the pages of GQ?"
