Dawning (Dysmorphia Series #3)

Cliches

This was the most cliche thing she had ever done, in her time she'd done many reckless things but this might just top them all, it reminded her of the old chick flicks she and her Mother used to work, where the heroine let her love interest go and then decided at the last minute that she wasn't going to give up, she was going to chase him to the airport and stop him ruining their lives.

Florence was officially one of those girls, someone who was gone so bad that they would wake up at five am and sneak away in the middle of the night because the fact that Cole was leaving today at seven am was actually killing her, it had been two weeks since her would be wedding and in that time if she was totally honest, she had moped, she had moped around her house and acted like a teenager going through her first heartbreak, she'd baked batches and batches of cookies trying to come up with the perfect recipe, with the perfect balance of crunch and gooey center.

Her parents had watched on wearily, intervening only when she decided that on Thursday night it was a good idea to reorganize her room, go up to the loft and get down black paint and begin to paint her walls, then her Mother had sat her down firmly with a cup of hot chocolate and given her a talking to, told her that she was frankly acting like she was having a mid-life crisis and she needed to snap out of her mood pronto, she was twenty-one years old not thirteen. 

That was when she knew that even though she'd resolved her problems a thousand times, that she was never going to be over her past, she shouldn't have to be over her past because it was a part of her, being with someone who made her forget where she had come from was never going to be a good idea, which is why she was currently well over the speed limit and pressing her foot so hard on her car's pedal that she was surprised she hadn't been pulled over by the police.

This was such a dumb, dumb idea but it was the dumbest of her ideas that almost always seemed to work the best for her, she glanced at her reflection in the side mirror as she tapped her foot impatiently at the traffic lights, usually the heroine of any Hollywood movie would have perfect makeup, perfect hair and the perfect outfit so that she could steal any guy's heart, Florence had a zit on her forehead, her hair was lanky around her shoulders in a ponytail and she was in a Minnie Mouse nightshirt paired with leggings, yep she wasn't going to be winning any awards for this particular performance.

But she had to do this, she desperately had to do this, and none of this was because Cole was Chase's twin, it might seem awfully strange but somehow both Robert's boys had managed to capture her hearts in different ways, the Cole of today looked nothing like the Chase of the past and she okay with that, in fact she welcomed the difference, things were never black and white between them but she wasn't going to lose him.

Not today, not if she could help it.

Florence ran across the airport's tiled floor to the Ryanair desk and was met with a puzzled expression from the put together woman who looked at her with apprehension.

"Can I help you madam?"

She seemed to be struggling to address Florence in such a polite manner when she looked like such a disaster.

"I need to see a passenger, he's on the seven am flight has he checked in yet, his name is Cole Roberts?"

The woman looked slightly annoyed at this inconvenience, Shirley read her name badge but nevertheless she tapped away at her keyboard.

"Yes, Cole Roberts he checked in twenty minutes ago"

She felt like screaming, twenty minutes ago! 

She would have been here had it not been for her hesitation and that stupid traffic jam.

"Could I possibly go in and see him, just for two minutes it's a matter of urgency and I swear I'll be right back"

Shirley looked back at her with an expression that showed she had heard this story many terms before and she wasn't going to budge.

"How much for a ticket on that flight?"

Florence was already taking out her credit card, she wasn't going to let this woman stand in her way.

"Madam..."

"I asked you a question, how much for the flight?"

Ten minutes later Florence emerged from the departures gate with a ticket to Spain in her hand and a mind spinning with the craziness of what she had just done, she'd parked her car without paying for a ticket and would probably not be able to get home but she wasn't planning on going home, even if she had to travel halfway across the world she was going to tell Cole how she felt if it killed her, he needed to know before he left.

She was going to tell him how much she regretted pushing him away time after time, how much she regretted leaving him stranded on the pavement instead of throwing her arms around him, how she wished she could stuff every horrible word she'd ever said to him in her mouth and swallow them whole so they would never escape the safeness of her own mind.

She was going to tell Cole so much.

She spotted him immediately, in a green shirt and would have shouted out because this was how it was going to be, it was going to be amazing she fixed a smile onto her face because this was the moment her whole life had been leading up to.

The smile chilled on her face when she saw Krystal Arthur striding up to him and handing him a coffee with such a warm expression on her face it was clear that they'd done this many times before, until she saw Cole pull her close to him and smile into her face.

She turned around before she could see anymore because seeing anymore would have led her right to her own grave, people stared at the deranged girl in the Minnie Mouse nightshirt as she walked the opposite way they were all going, away from the departures gate because she wouldn't be going anywhere today, preferably her heart would shrivel up right at this moment and she wouldn't have to feel anything, ever because not feeling would be so much better than this.

So much better that knowing that she had obliviously sacrificed her safety net, her hopes and dreams for someone who now she thought about it had clearly been telling her that he was completely over her, had completely moved on, with Krystal.

Krystal with her long legs and her perfect smile, who wouldn't fall for her?

She had stopped walking and she hadn't even realised, what a spectacle she was, the freak for all the early morning passengers to gawp at, an interesting story for them to tell their friends, there was a girl at the airport in the morning, looked half-dead she did with tears running down her face.

She didn't hear his voice until she allowed herself to.

"Florence?"

And then the whole world decided to stop.